Underworld: A Novel

Average customer rating:

Flashes of excellence

How to Review a Masterpiece?

The Great Big Book of Don DeLillo

Awful

I might have to read it again to say anything intelligent about this book.

Underworld: A Novel
Don DeLillo
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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DeLillo, Don | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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While Eisenstein documented the forces of totalitarianism and Stalinism upon the faces of the Russian peoples, DeLillo offers a stunning, at times overwhelming, document of the twin forces of the cold war and American culture, compelling that "swerve from evenness" in which he finds events and people both wondrous and horrifying. Underworld opens with a breathlessly graceful prologue set during the final game of the Giants-Dodgers pennant race in 1951. Written in what DeLillo calls "super-omniscience" the sentences sweep from young Cotter Martin as he jumps the gate to the press box, soars over the radio waves, runs out to the diamond, slides in on a fast ball, pops into the stands where J. Edgar Hoover is sitting with a drunken Jackie Gleason and a splenetic Frank Sinatra, and learns of the Soviet Union's second detonation of a nuclear bomb. It's an absolutely thrilling literary moment. When Bobby Thomson hits Branca's pitch into the outstretched hand of Cotter--the "shot heard around the world"--and Jackie Gleason pukes on Sinatra's shoes, the events of the next few decades are set in motion, all threaded together by the baseball as it passes from hand to hand.

"It's all falling indelibly into the past," writes DeLillo, a past that he carefully recalls and reconstructs with acute grace. Jump from Giants Stadium to the Nevada desert in 1992, where Nick Shay, who now owns the baseball, reunites with the artist Kara Sax. They had been brief and unlikely lovers 40 years before, and it is largely through the events, spinoffs, and coincidental encounters of their pasts that DeLillo filters the Cold War experience. He believes that "global events may alter how we live in the smallest ways," and as the book steps back in time to 1951, over the following 800-odd pages, we see just how those events alter lives. This reverse narrative allows the author to strip away the detritus of history and pop culture until we get to the story's pure elements: the bomb, the baseball, and the Bronx. In an epilogue as breathless and stunning as the prologue, DeLillo fast-forwards to a near future in which ruthless capitalism, the Internet, and a new, hushed faith have replaced the Cold War's blend of dread and euphoria.

Through fragments and interlaced stories--including those of highway killers, artists, celebrities, conspiracists, gangsters, nuns, and sundry others--DeLillo creates a fragile web of connected experience, a communal Zeitgeist that encompasses the messy whole of five decades of American life, wonderfully distilled.

Book Description

Nick Shay and Klara Sax knew each other once, intimately, and they meet again in the American desert. He is trying to outdistance the crucial events of his early life; she is an artist who has made a blood struggle for independence.

Underworld is a story of men and women together and apart, seen in deep, clear detail and in stadium-sized panoramas, shadowed throughout by the overarching conflict of the Cold War. It is a novel that accepts every challenge of these extraordinary times -- Don DeLillo's greatest and most powerful work of fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Flashes of excellence.......2007-09-20

"Underworld" begins with a stunning, mesmerizing prologue detailing the famous 1951 pennant game between the Dodgers and the Giants, swerving in and out of characters, both real and fictitious, with a grace and ease that, unfortunately, DeLillo doesn't quite live up to in the rest of the very-long novel.

The theme of waste and the interplay of personal history versus History (as an extension of the military-industrial machine highlighted by the Cold War) is heavy through the book, which moves from the prologue to 1992, and then steadily backward through the Cold War. There are numerous plots and infinite details worked into the non-linear narrative, and at some point I began to wonder how much was actually connected to the overarching themes and how much was just thrown in because it seemed so. Granted, there are many moments in the book where things suddenly make sense, things that DeLillo may not have even intended or planned for, but these few moments of epiphany do not make for compelling reading.

Instead, they only underscore the better parts of the book and leave bereft the slower, more mundane sections. DeLillo doesn't appear to have had a capable editor, or didn't listen to one, because the 830 pages could have been trimmed considerable, and then we would have had a much better novel.

All of that said, this novel is important because it captures the things just beyond articulation, the many-layered and myriad ideas and concepts that we tend to think about very often but are unable to fully grasp. That is the "Underworld" DeLillo suggests. I recommend this novel only for someone ready and willing to closely read a complex and intriguing and at times sleepy narrative.

How to Review a Masterpiece?.......2007-03-14

How to review such a massive masterpiece as Don deLillo's "Underground"? It's a portrait of a city and a culture done
in oils spread and then mushed around on the canvas. Weeder is challenged. I'll start by pointing out the coincidence
of the year the story begins, 1951. In that year, Nick Shay, the protagonist in the princial tale, is 17 and in New York.
It so happens that in 1951 I too was 17 and spent some time in New York. To my mind, DeLillo has recreated the sights
and sounds of that era in that city in a way I find exciting. The U.N. building was under construction. In July, the air
was clear and the skies were blue. Later, there was a nickel World Series between the Giants and the Yankees.
Tourists did not seem to outnumber natives, and under the gruffness of the waiters at Lindy's or Childs, there often
lurked a soft side, a wry humor that must have come originally from the shtetl. Single parent families were rarer then.
Musicals were big on Broadway: "Guys and Dolls," "The King and I." People met in cafes and bars and actually talked.
They weren't required to shout over the crashing musical background or the obnoxious people at the next table. It was
a "rooftop summer, . . .the laughter of a dozen people sounding small and precious in the night, floating over the cold
soup toward skylights and domes and watertanks, or a hurry-up lunch, an old friend, beach chairs and takeout
Chinese and how the snapdragons smell buttery in the sun." There were policemen directing traffic, and women
who operated elevators. There were choices for shoppers: Macy's, Gimbel's, Saks. From the Bowery to the Mayor's
home at Gracet Mansion, whether you were looking at sheets hanging from clotheslines in Harlem or taking the
Circle Cruise around Manhattan, there was a special feel, an excitement barely suppressed. Cars driving in town
had to use only their parking lights, to prevent glare. Cab drivers all seemed to be raconteurs. The famous moveable
orchestra platform at the Roxy, a marvel of engineering, came from backstage and then dipped down
into the pit. But after a symphony concert, you felt "a curious loss, that thing you used to feel as a child
when you walked out of a movie house in the middle of the day and the streets were all agitation and nasty
glare, every surface intense and jarring, people in loud clothing that did not fit.

Downtown, "atop the older banks, on the parapets and setbacks--robed oracles jutting over the
streets or helmeted men of unrevealing aspect, lawgivers or warriors, it was hard to tell...were called the Titans
of Finance."

This novel extends over decades, from the early 1950s to the early 1990s. There are dozens of characters, some
of whom reappear regularly. The central theme is about the home run hit by Bobby Thompson that won the National
League pennant for the Giants. At the game we meet J. Edgar Hoover in all his power and closet gaynness.
The baseball is recovered and then passes through the hands of collectors, money-grubbers, and frauds.
The author tantalizes us by going back and forth in time as the chapters run on, so that, for instance, Nick
in his late fifties visits an elderly artist named Klara Sachs, but we discover near the end of the book that they
had an intensely passionate but brief affair when he was in his teens and she was a struggling young artist
with a chess-teaching husband and a baby.

It's the human story that captures the reader and it's the atomic bomb that dominates the thinking of the characters.
Klara's husband, Albert, discusses it with the Jesuit priest, Father Paulus. We sit next to Chucky Wainwright, one of
the baseball's owners, as he navigates a B-52 dropping bombs on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Nick works in
waste management now; he worries about radioactive garbage. His brother Matt is at a secret location in the desert,
designing guided missile systems, working with bombheads. Klara is supervising a team of volunteers repainting
retired B-52s in Arizona. Sister Alma Edgar instructs her young students in the method to avoid atomic radiation
in case of an attck: Duck and Cover. As one character puts it, "A-bombs raining from the sky, what are you
supposed to do? Take a bus downtown?" There are guys who "wear boxer shorts with geometric designs that contain the
escape routes they've been assigned when the missiles start flying."

This is a rich, rich story of interconnected episodes and people. The author revisits the great Blackout of 1965,
the garbage strike of 1974, and gives the reader some remarkable side commentsI even found passages I could skip, such as the
impromptu sermons of Lenny Bruce, apparently reprinted verbatim. We also learn about the dark side of the city,
kids "raised on the felony alphabet," a black man sneaking into his home in the middle of the night, "a silence with
a set of eyes." Sidewalks are occupied by "fresh air inspectors" standing on the corner, elderly men mostly."

So much to praise and so little to criticize! A genuine 5-star read.

The Great Big Book of Don DeLillo.......2007-03-09

By all accounts his "magnum opus," *Underworld* is indeed a great ((and a great big)) novel--a sweeping panoramic epic of life as Don DeLillo has known it from an Italian-American Bronx neighborhood in the 50s to the end of the 20th century and our post-Cold War global society. Believe it or not, the two main themes of this massive text are the nuclear arms race and the crisis of waste management. And weaving these two seemingly--but not in reality--disparate themes together is a third: Bobby Thompson's famous homerun that clinched a miraculous pennant for the New York Giants on the last day of the season. As it happens, on the same day, the Soviets detonated an atomic bomb thereby announcing what seemed for the next thirty years to be the countdown towards the end of the world.

DeLillo brings these elements together in a dazzlingly orchestrated work that credibly characterizes an entire era in a story rich in character and incident, both real and imagined. There are walk-on cameos by Jackie Gleason, J. Edgar Hoover, Frank Sinatra, and Lenny Bruce, among others, that seem too authentic to be entirely made up. There are cultural references to products, advertisements, and TV shows of the period, particularly the 50s and 60s, that lend the proceedings the echoing realism of nostalgia. There is drama, violence, infidelity, love, greed, faith, faithlessness, philosophy, and humor--in short, *Underworld* is a kind of huge shambling Americanized version of a Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy novel, a work that seeks, as far as its possible, to capture the experience of life whole and still breathing.
*Underworld* is like a symphony--outsized, loud, ambitious, packed with thematic repetition, variation, and improvisation. It's unwieldy in places, verbose, grandiose--there's more of it than strictly necessary, but this is often the case with `masterpieces.' By their very nature, they are often imperfect. It fails, but it fails magnificently.

*Underworld* reads like DeLillo's swan song, even though he'd go on writing for the next decade, and is writing still. You get the feeling, though, that he wanted to get everything down once and for all before it was too late. He is opening up the memory banks in *Underworld,* giving it all away, the rich ore of his personal past. Of the last two hundred pages or so of this 800+ page novel, he could have lost 40% and done no harm to the plot. Incident is multiplied upon incident, many of these from the boyhood of the main character Nick Shay and you suspect many of these episodes were memories more factual than fictional from DeLillo's own boyhood, things he wished to immortalize. But for the most part, you don't mind the excess length and anecdotal bric-a-brac because DeLillo is the kind of writer who can describe someone chewing gum and make it fascinating reading. More tellingly, this elegiac and `confessional' spirit lends a mellowness to *Underworld,* a sweetness that doesn't exist in his work before or since. The acerbic cynicism, the edgy paranoia, the dark outrage, the insidious conspiracy theories are all tempered by a gentleness for those things which are still good about life, or bittersweet, as the case may be. DeLillo is making a summation, it seems, of life as he's known it, and he's trying to be as fair to it all as possible. He's saying, "And it was good."

Masterpiece it might be, his biggest and most inclusive book it no doubt is, but *Underworld* is not my favorite Don DeLillo novel ((*White Noise is*)). Its not even in my top three. Still, I don't have the heart to give such a monumental effort anything less than five stars. DeLillo gave it all up in *Underworld* and for that he earns my unreserved appreciation and admiration.

Awful.......2007-03-01

Did not make it through the first chapter. I could not understand what DeLillo was writing and, finally, I did not care.

I might have to read it again to say anything intelligent about this book........2007-01-24

I made it all the way through, which was an accomplishment. It is beautifully written, but about all I can tell you about it is that it is about a baseball. And a lot of other stuff. I really liked White Noise and Libra, but this book is a lot more obscure.

Don DeLillo's Underworld: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)

Average customer rating:

waste of money
Just about Perfect
a difficult task, well done

Don DeLillo's Underworld: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)
John N. Duvall
Manufacturer: Continuum International Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826452418

Book Description

This is part of a new series of guides to contemporary novels. The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from `The Remains of the Day' to `White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

Customer Reviews:

waste of money.......2007-03-28

1) This book is very short. It's even shorter since some of it is stuff like telling you were to look on the internet for more information (so if you don't know how to use google maybe its helpful).
2) I didn't find much insight here, it's mostly showing how literary terms like "politicizing the aesthetic" and "aestheticizing the political" relate to the book. I don't find it added to my understanding of Underworld.
3) There are tons of typos in this book.
It basically reads like some college student's senior thesis that they turned in without even proofreading. Don't buy it. It exists for one purpose only - to get your money. Just my opinion, the other reviewers seemed to think it was good, but that wasn't my experience.

Just about Perfect.......2003-07-31

An excellent explication of DeLillo's most massive, sprawling fustercluck of brilliance. Along with DeLillo's White Noise, Underworld will still be read when we're all dead, and Duvall concisely crystallizes many of the reasons why. Underworld burrows beneath the sometimes shiny, sometimes scary surfaces of an enormous range of seemingly disparate Cold War territory, and Duvall goes a very long way (in a remarkably short space) toward putting together its pieces, and illuminating its insights. I read this reader's guide after reading Underworld, and it made me want to read the novel again. Bravo!!

a difficult task, well done.......2002-03-02

How do you even begin to analyze the magnitude of DeLillo's achievement in 'Underworld'? This little book is a good place to start. Professor Duvall gives a brief and informative sketch of DeLillo's life and career to date and then dives into the meat of his book, wrestling with some of the themes - it would be impossible to do them all - of the novel. He comes over as well-informed, sharp and widely read, without ever being pretentious about it. And the book is even up-to-date enough to discuss the post 9/11 resonance of the novel's cover image.

Product Description

BOOTLEG LOVE. The Jazz Age. Mack Daly is a charming wheeler-dealer. Joe Imperio is a street-smart hustler. They meet against the glamorous backdrop of Manhattan in the era of Prohibition, where there are speakeasies on every corner and danger lurking at every turn. When Mack s marriage of convenience to the beautiful Ynez starts to crumble, and with the government hot on the trail of his illegal bootlegging activities, Mack s world explodes in an orgy of decadence, unparalleled greed...and murder. He turns to his friends for help Eliot Armstrong, a shell-shocked World War I veteran, and his lesbian sister, Nolie. Soon Mack and Joe are ensnared in a diabolical scheme that threatens to expose their illicit love and bring ruin to them all. Based on a true story, Heyday takes us inside the little-known gay subculture of the Lost Generation, where a forbidden passion grows into undying love.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely enjoyable.......2007-07-26

I approached this book as a curiosity, but once I began to read it, I couldn't put it down. It is fascinating and fun, with interesting characters and a lively story whose twists and turns take you on a wild ride of adventure. This is not some cliche 1920s tome with obligatory flappers and bootleggers, but rather a well researched, well executed multidimensional work that makes the era really come to life. Although I know Heyday is being marketed to a gay audience, I really think this book will find a much larger following.

Fascinating!.......2007-07-22

Having been born after prohibition was repealed, I have no first-hand knowledge of this period of history. Michael Butler has provided me with wonderful information on this subject, as well as on the subject of the gay culture of the time. The story is at the same time raw, poignant, historical, and kept me on the edge of my chair.

A great read!.......2007-04-04

Intricate, captivating and fun. I assume (from the back cover notes) that this is Butler's first novel, but it's hard to believe. He develops characters quickly, draws the reader in and leads them through a complex, at times almost zany, plot. The New York Times review originally caught my attention -- pretty lavish for an unknown -- but now I understand why. I hope Butler's working on his next novel right now.

Average customer rating:

what a disappointment!!
Reviewed by Karen Morse
Life's Learning Lessons
Sizzling Miami
About 1950-60's Cuba

Queen of the Underworld: A Novel
Gail Godwin
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0345483197
Release Date: 2007-01-30

Book Description

Here at last is the eagerly awaited new novel from New York Times bestselling author Gail Godwin. Queen of the Underworld is sweeping and sultry literary fiction, featuring a memorable young heroine and engaging characters whose intimate dramas interconnect with hers.
In the summer of 1959, as Castro clamps down on Cuba and its first wave of exiles flees to the States to wait out what they hope to be his short-lived reign, Emma Gant, fresh out of college, begins her career as a reporter. Her fierce ambition and belief in herself are set against the stories swirling around her, both at the newspaper office and in her downtown Miami hotel, which is filling up with refugees.
Emma’s avid curiosity about life thrives amid the tropical charms and intrigues of Miami. While toiling at the news desk, she plans the fictional stories she will write in her spare time. She spends her nights getting to know the Cuban families in her hotel–and rendezvousing with her married lover, Paul Nightingale, owner of a private Miami Beach club.
As Emma experiences the historical events enveloping the city, she trains her perceptive eye on the people surrounding her: a newfound Cuban friend who joins the covert anti-Castro training brigade, a gambling racketeer who poses a grave threat to Paul, and a former madam, still in her twenties, who becomes both Emma’s obsession and her alter ego. Emma’s life, like a complicated dance that keeps sweeping her off her balance, is suddenly filled with divided loyalties, shady dealings, romantic and professional setbacks, and, throughout, her adamant determination to avoid “usurpation” by others and remain the protagonist of her own quest.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

1.

Now I had graduated on this bright June Saturday in 1959 and few were the obstacles left between me and my getaway train to Miami—obstacles that nevertheless must be cunningly surmounted.

“Emma, you ride in front with Earl,” said Mother, as expected. “I’ll sit in back and reminisce a little more about my time here in Paradise.”

“Oh?” challenged Earl. “What does that make the rest of your life, then, a comedown?”

“The rest of my life is still in progress,” Mother lightly countered, making room for herself among my college leftovers that were going back to the mountains with them. “Ask me again in thirty or forty years.”

We began the winding descent out of Chapel Hill as, seven years earlier, the three of us, with my mother’s new husband at the wheel, had begun another descent into a new life. Only this time, they would be dropping me off within the hour at the Seaboard Station in Raleigh. My journey as part of this family unit would soon be at an end. Happily, my train to Miami left at one fifteen, so a farewell lunch had been out of the question, a circumstance diminishing that much further the chance of a last-minute blowup with Earl.

But still I was on my guard, for already he was making those engorged throat noises that preceded a sermon. I did not dare glance back at Mother for fear of catching her eye. An exchanged look of sympathy or, God forbid, a mutual smirk might still explode everything sky-high, as it had done plenty of times before. My job was to look respectfully attentive without rising to his bait. I folded my hands in my lap and faced front, focusing on the road ahead. Windows on both sides were open to let in the breeze, and the capricious little whomp-whomps of hot air provided a divertimento against Earl’s opening sally and helped me keep my own counsel.

Sacrifices had been made. If I would ever stop to think about other people. Empathy and gratitude not my strong suits. Had never known what it was to apply myself on a daily basis. Hadn’t been required of me. Had been raised to think that the world revolved around me and that I could coast along without making much of an effort. Not completely my fault. Had been indulged too much for my own good by teachers as well as family. But now I was going into the real world where I would have to knuckle under and deliver the goods like everybody else.

“Though why you should choose to go off half-cocked to a place like Miami remains a mystery to your mother and me. Your dean told us the Charlotte Observer wanted you, but he said you’d had your heart set on Miami ever since you went down for that interview at Christmas. I said, well, we were the last to know she went to Miami for Christmas. She told us she was staying in the dorm to catch up on her work. We didn’t learn the truth till February.”

Damn and blast you, I thought. You have a single conversation with my dean, who adores me, and you make me out a liar.

“I didn’t want to say anything to anyone until I knew I had the job,” I cautiously replied.

“I told the dean, she doesn’t even know anybody in Miami—”

I don’t know anybody in Charlotte, either, I refrained from saying.

“She knows Tess,” put in Mother from the backseat. Tess was her old college roommate from Converse. “Tess will be meeting her train tomorrow morning.”

“So why didn’t she stay with Tess at Christmas, when she went down for that interview?” His voice had edged up a decibel.

“Well, I guess she wanted to stay with someone else at Christmas,” Mother neutrally suggested.

Of course I had told them, after the fa

Customer Reviews:

what a disappointment!!.......2007-08-12

Many other reviews summarize the book so I won't repeat everything here. Suffice it to say - it was very disappointing! I kept waiting for something to happen and when the book finally seemed to get really interesting, it ended - just ended - with no resolution, finality, anything!! A waste of time - could have been so much more. Don't buy it - borrow it or pass altogether. If I like a book, I keep it - this one I will sell to a used book store or donate to Goodwill.

Reviewed by Karen Morse.......2007-05-08

Bright-eyed, independent Emma Gant arrives in Miami in the summer of 1959 with the world at her feet. She has a married lover who'll show her the ropes, and a reasonably-priced residence orchestrated by a family friend, and an upwardly-mobile job at the Miami Star, the most important accessory for a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill journalism school.

Emma joins the Star's reporting staff at a tumultuous time, shortly after Fidel Castro enacted his First Agrarian Reform. Living in a hotel run by Cuban émigrés for Cuban émigrés makes the upheavals of Castro's revolución more than just news to Emma. Placing her in this context, the author seems to be drawing a comparison between Emma's situation and that of the Cubans. As Emma is struggling to figure out her place in the world and gauge her future success, so are her newly exiled neighbors.

The more one reads into the life history of the author, the more Queen of the Underworld begins to seem like a semi-autobiographical novel. Godwin herself graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1959 and spent a year on the staff of the Miami Herald before embarking on the world travels that sparked her literary career.

What is most curious about the novel is that it takes place over such a short period of time. The story of Emma's coming into her own, Queen of the Underworld is a window into what seems to be a key moment in Emma's development, one that may affect her entire career. Godwin, however, manages to squeeze an unbelievable amount of action into less than two weeks. Emma's life during the span of the novel is so full, it is almost surreal; as she herself recounts, "in one week and three days, I met a gangster walking a dog, sat behind a notorious boss at a funeral, became friends with [an] ex-madame [...], and helped two Cubans smuggle arms out of Florida" (331), and that's not even the half of it.

By contrast, the novel's ending is unsatisfying and somewhat abrupt. While Emma fantasizes about writing a novel, there is nothing (besides Godwin's own history) that gives any indication that Emma will become a novelist. The narrative ends with both Emma and the reader waiting on her future, filled with unanswered questions.

Godwin's characterization, however, is the novel's saving grace. Emma is amazingly sympathetic despite her naïveté and the fact that she seems to have no compunction about sleeping with another woman's husband (although her sexual relationships do seem to be at odds with her history of sexual abuse). More significantly, Queen of the Underworld is full of finely drawn secondary characters. One such character is Don Waldo Navarro, a prominent academic who fled Cuba with his memoirs sewn into his wife's skirt. A minor character, who could have easily been shunted aside after his grand entrance, Don Waldo is made real in Godwin's attention to detail: he swims breaststroke in the hotel pool "in billowing maroon trunks" (260) with "his leonine head erect" (259) and has the ability of seamlessly incorporating a nine-year-old Spanish-speaking girl into a English-language conversation: "the great educator's consecutive translations into Spanish on Luisa's behalf bore no trace of pedagogy. Don Waldo made it seem merely as though he suddenly chose to complete the rest of his discourse in another tongue" (272).

Godwin has written a number of other novels including The Odd Woman, Violet Clay, and A Mother and Two Daughters, each of which was nominated for the National Book Award. A career author, she published her first novel in 1970. Her papers are archived in the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Life's Learning Lessons.......2007-04-23

In this novel by author Gail Godwin, we meet young Emma Gant as she is about to embark on her first job with the Miami Star after graduating college. We see her leaving behind a brow-beaten mother and a sexual and physical abusive step-father. She doesn't however travel to Miami as a fresh flower, for there to meet her is a married lover who has a strong hand in introducing her to a totally different life than she emerged from.
At her new home, Emma learns to co-exist with Cubans who have escaped Castro's clutches and meet some very colorful characters who have a great impact on her life, including the Queen of the Underworld, an ex-Madam, her boyfriends wife; a Jewish Mafioso and some Cuban exiles who are exporting dental equipment, or are they? Our young lady seems to have mingled with some not so favorable people.I feel the entire concept of the story was showing how different cultures and people influence lives and the choices we make, for better or worse.
It is the story of a young girl who I feel felt the excitement and drawing of the different people she met, the city and the job she was now part of, like someone tasting life for the first time and a freedom she didn't know existed. However, you do wonder if she is naive or just very smart as she lives among these very oddball characters, winding herself in and out of their lives. Are they part of her determent or does she use them to her advantage?
I felt this was a different story, at times a little hard to follow, but nevertheless still full of characters that were both mysterious, charming, repulsive, and interesting enough to keep you reading. It's the story of a young girl experiencing life with different cultures, moral standings and customes other than her own, as she makes her way in a time when perhaps the world wasn't ready to make room for her.

Sizzling Miami.......2007-03-19

Emma Gant has a huge appetite for life! She's just graduated from college and landed a coveted job as a reporter at the Miami Star newspaper. Anxious to escape having to return to her stepfather's physical and sexual abuse, she's put plenty of energy into getting as far away from him as she can, albeit regretting the whole situation for her mother whom she dearly loves.

But enthusiasm hardly prepares Emma for what she will meet in steaming, multicultural Miami. Yes, she's got an older lover there already but she's still unprepared for the cutthroat competition she will meet in the journalistic world. Starting out writing miniscule obit and hospital reports, she manages in the two weeks in which this novel takes place to discover the secrets behind the Miami Mafia, Cuban exiles shipping illegal arms as dental equipment back to Cuba during the time of Fidel Castro's rise to power, and the sad story behind an ex-Madam of a whorehouse.

Although much that happens in the space of these two weeks, it's all pretty much covered on the surface without much development. But one must place one's self within the context of a woman working a new job in the man's world of the 1960s. Keeping that in mind, Emma's propulsion into all of this worldly activity certainly makes sense and makes for interesting reading. She's a gutsy character who rises from her losses prepared to tackle whatever challenges come her way. The only thing that doesn't make much sense is her falling for an older guy, given her negative background with her stepfather.

Given the rapidly changing world of the 60's generation, though, Emma Gant (catch the literary parallels with Jane Austin and Thomas Wolfe's characters) certainly gets an education about rich Cuban exiles now floating in memories and little else, the "Lucifer-like" world of journalism, but most of all dreaming big no matter what the world tosses one's way

Interesting story that has plenty of zip in spots!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on March 18, 2007

About 1950-60's Cuba.......2007-03-02

Young Emma Gant, a new graduate from J (journalism) school, has recently received her first assignment, working as the Miami Star's newest reporter. This is her chance to break free from a small town existence, a controlling stepfather and to live her dream.

Following an interesting train ride she arrives at her hotel, escorted by her aunt Tess. The surroundings are not what she expected, not even a view of the beach. Disappointed yet pleased with its potential, the Julia Tuttle Hotel becomes her sanctuary, her comfort, her shield from the harshness of the real world.

Emma is anticipating a phone call; it will be the voice of her married lover, Paul, coming to whisk her away. The owner of a resort where Emma worked last summer, he was her every heartbeat. The reunion will be sweet. Will they have a future or will fate change Emma's perfect plans? With a myriad of multi-faceted characters crossing her path, Emma finds her first days on the job to be a rollercoaster of events. Writing obits, avoiding the "glass cage" of the women's section, visiting the papers "morgue," interviews with tornado survivors, and even an encounter with "The Queen of the Underworld" give her many challenges.

It is the time of Cuban unrest and Fidel Castro's usurping of land. Miamay has an influx of immigrants from varied walks of life who mingled with local color, from aristocratic know-it-alls, to young madams to mafia warnings. Each seems a potential threat to her developing "Emma-ness."

Feeling diminished by other reporters' the experiences, Emma goes the extra mile to make her mark. Can she carve a niche out for herself? Will she live up to "Lucifer's" expectations or will she be cast off, banished, to a small-town office?

The entire book takes place over a period of about two weeks and it is filled with Emma's constant thoughts and imaginings. To truly understand and appreciate the story to the fullest, one should have lived in that era or studied about it. By the way, don't forget your Spanish-English dictionary.

Armchair Interviews says: Story placed in 1950-60s--with some Spanish words.

Star Wars: Underworld - The Yavin Vassilika

Average customer rating:

don't waste your time
Exaggerated artwork, good story.
One Of The Best

Star Wars: Underworld - The Yavin Vassilika
Mike Kennedy , and Carlos Meglia
Manufacturer: Dark Horse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1569716188

Book Description

When three Hutts place a wager on who can raise the most successful squad of henchmen to procure a highly valuable, mythical treasure, the most conniving rogues of the Star Wars Universe are recruited. Following a lead provided by Jozzel Moffet, a Hutt's slave girl, three teams set out to be the first to find the mysterious Yavin Vassilika. Boba Fett, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Lando, Dengar, IG-88, and others square off to decide who is the best scoundrel in the galaxy! They're hot on each other's trails, trying to stay alive and get a step ahead of the pack. The competitors dodge lasers and search for clues on the planet Kalkovak, attempt to stay afloat on the high seas of Mon Calamari, and become victims of a primitive culture's ritualistic `Cleansing of the Foul` on a backwater planet beyond the Outer Rim. The seductive Jozzel Moffet, wanting to free herself from a life of dancing and Hutt-washing, is moonlighting for a secret fourth investor and is hoping to get the Vassilika from whichever team is left standing. There are grudges galore in this hectic and humorous mad-dash, brought to you by fan-favorite Carlos Meglia (SpyBoy, Crimson, W.I.L.D.Cats) and writer Mike Kennedy (Ghost/Batgirl).

Customer Reviews:

don't waste your time.......2005-12-13

This graphic novel was without a doubt the worst I've ever read. The storyline was just plain stupid. The art would be more fitting for a cartoon. And the dialogue was horrible.

Exaggerated artwork, good story........2004-04-27

The artwork is so annoying that I had trouble getting past that to a fairly interesting story. To bad the cover art is absolutely not like what is on the inside. The story includes Han and Chewy, along with their old buddy Lando. They met up with Boba Fett, Ig-88 and Dengar. This story takes place before new hope, so I give it a -1 on the timeline. Pencil get 2 stars, story 3 and inking get a 4 for a 3 star rating.. you'll want to read this one.

One Of The Best.......2002-01-21

I passed by this Dark Horse offering several times as I generally get little enjoyment when characters that are so familiar are drawn almost to caricature. This visual treatment is very pronounced in, "The Yavin Vassilika", however together with a great story, the result is excellent. The visuals are not the only aspect that is changed. Virtually all of the players have been with fans since day one, and their personalities have become ingrained with readers. The usual lines that divide or consolidate groups get blurred and erased, for some very unusual outcomes.

Three Hutts make a wager and then hire a variety of familiar players to win the bet on their behalf. Jabba is in the middle of the action as are Fett, Solo, Chewie, Lando, and a host of others. Forget what you have seen in the past, this time the relationships differ. Lando is still hugging the Falcon he recently lost and still nursing a bruised ego. When he meets up with the man who took it at the Sabacc table, things get interesting.

The Vassilika is largely believed to be a myth. When the myth suddenly becomes as valuable as it is real, everyone involved forms alliances, breaks original groups, and generally the level of trust resides at zero. Add to this that Fett is present and is drawn as a hulking version of himself, which is in opposition to the others, and things get amusing as well as entertaining. His legs don't quite fit, but for that you will have to read the book.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderfully deviant.......2003-05-18

My Standard Operating Procedure for reading Kaz's "Underworld" is to flip through until I read a page that makes me say out loud "Oh, my God! That's horrible!"
Then I put it away for a couple of days until the mood strikes me to flip through it once again.
Give copies to all your friends and family and watch with glee as they slowly realize you are not who they thought you were...

A Comic Masterpiece.......2003-04-28

Kaz, the master of the underground comic buisness, has made an incredible depiction of the underground life in cities. He satires drinking, drugs, sex and abuse with ease and makes you laugh at those things that you know you shouldn't. His characters are flawless symbols of evil and imperfection and the artistic look of the general book is amazing. A buy worth every penny.

kaz is one of the greats.......2001-10-27

Underworld is a hilariously nightmarish cartoon city where the denizens are a twisted mockery and amalgam of all the cartoons from gag strips of Yore. You will see somewhat familiar faces, skewed and distorted. Its everything that cartoons have ever been, without the limitations of staying within the safe confines of Cartoonyland...

The gags are just as corny as any Family Circus you've ever read, with a disturbing twist that makes the old jokes absolutely hilarious. Kaz knows comics. Kaz is comics. There is something truely upsetting yet oddly hysterical about reading a simple punchline like "heroin" that causes a bizarro Snuffy Smith to faint off camera.

Once you read Kaz's work, you will crave more...for any fan of reality and any enemy of King Features Syndicate.

Smoking Cat Rules.......1998-01-12

Funny! Surreal! If you let people tell you how you should live your life at least don't let them tell you what to read. Life is too short and Kaz's vignettes make note of that. His cartoons are one of a kind and in need of experiencing. Well, I have.

Underworld Vol. 3: Ink Punk (Underworld 3)

Average customer rating:

whoa
Look closely here. Kaz is showing us something.

Underworld Vol. 3: Ink Punk (Underworld 3)
Kaz
Manufacturer: Fantagraphics Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1560973250

Customer Reviews:

whoa.......2000-11-06

kaz is like, really cool, man. so cool, man, that hes cool, man. get my drift? dig? cool, man. whoa

Look closely here. Kaz is showing us something........1999-07-22

All the great "cartoonists" see behind appearances. Whether they see something funny or wicked hidden there, or just a great empty void, the measure of their talent - their ability to show us - has something to do with poetry. Never doubt for a moment that when Kaz strolls down the streets of his City for a taco & a beer, he's also storing away a poet's catalogue, which he releases into his terrific art.

Customer Reviews:

Very good comic book!.......2007-01-05

Really enjoyed reading Underworld Unleashed. I'm kinda new to the whole comic book world but i'm loving it so far. Underworld Unleashed is one of the type of comic books that i enjoy reading best. Independent (from the main story line) storys that use the characters i'm used to seeing on the main story lines.

Underworld Unleashed has a fine plot and the drawings are very good. Excellent buy, im fully satisfied.

Best New Villian.......2000-02-06

Underworld Unleashed was a good crossover. A powerful being named Neron invites a number of villians to do business with him. Neron offers these folks -- ranging from Mongul to Punch and Judee, with everyone in between -- their "heart's desire" in exchange for their souls. Mongul learn the hard way that Neron can be refused or ignored, but not challenged.

Why would Neron want souls he probably owns anyway, assuming he is some sort of demon? What is his true agenda? The Trickster, from whose point of view the story is told in large part, doesn't figure that out until the very end. All he knows going in is what the Fiddler told him: that the word "Neron" was used in ancient times to create the numerologic symbol "666."

Book Description

The first Underworld film introduced the world to the sexy, dangerous vampire Selene and Michael, a Lycan/Vampire hybrid. Then the sequel Underworld Evolution continued their adventures. Now, both movie adaptations are available in one collection, complete with the series prequel Red in Tooth and Claw, a story set hundreds of years before the epic movies. Based on the exciting screenplays by Danny McBride, and adapted for print by Kris Oprisko (Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty).

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