Book Description
Twice-Upon-A-Time is a unique adoption resource for young children, 3-8 years, and their families. Conception, birth and curiosity about birth parents are discussed as part of adopted children's stories. The book encompasses diverse adoption experiences using a text and line drawings that are simple, direct and affirming.
Customer Reviews:
Home is the arms holding you.......2003-06-15
Sex education for 3-6yr olds should be simple but should also reassure that they started life like everyone else in the world. It goes on to say why birthparents could not be parents is about them and not about the child. Using simple almost coloring-book style outline drawings (which my son does love to color in) it tells how life began, how birth happens, that every child is born to a woman. It also avoids the "a man is in love with a woman" problem that I wanted to avoid and instead talks of biology of a man's sperm and womans egg joining. From there to the "that child is you" part are many places to talk about your child's own adoption. This book is suitable for young child as well as infant adoption and for children that have been in foster care too. The womb that floats on a page unconnected to a woman is harder to explain but over-all this is a good book, much less complicated than many.
Book Description
Ty Calder was a stranger to the mighty empire that was his legacy -- the ranchlands that rose to meet the Montana skies. He learned the ways of ranch life from young Jessy, who knew the land her own heart.
But Ty worshiped dark, glamorous Tara, scion of the new "corporate West," of vast power and big money. Tara lured Ty on, greedy to be mistress of the Calder kingdom. Yet when her world rushed in to plunder the fortune beneath the prairies, it was Jessy who fought for Ty, defying death to save a birthright that was Calder Born, Calder Bred.
Customer Reviews:
At Least I Know About Tara's Life Now With Ty.......2006-03-16
I love Jessy and had read the books out of sequence as I found them to buy.
This was not my favorite in the series but each person has their own choice in that respect.
It was a good book to read and I enjoyed it, especially learning more about Jessy's life and her interactions with Ty on the ranch teaching him the "ropes" of working on a ranch with animals.
A beautiful young girl.......2005-06-15
This 1983 title was one installment in Dailey's multivolume saga of the Calder family. Sixteen-year-old Ty Calder's head is turned by a beautiful young girl, who tries to lure him into plundering the land for the coal that lies beneath it. Can the local girl who secretly loves Ty.
---------- Reviewed by Janet Sue Terry, author of the contemporary romance, "Set Me Free" series. Book 1 - Possibilities and Book 2 - Resolutions. Newest release is Just Our Best Short Stories 2005. www.janetsueterry.com.
my favorite.......2002-07-31
Out of all the calder series, I love this one the best. Jessy is the woman all of us would love to be....feminine, tough, ladylike, loyal, beautiful in the way the land needed, not just "prissy". Ty needs someone to stand with him, not to be a "trophy". The loss of Maggie is so difficult; Chase just isn't the same without her; I love seeing Cat grow up and the changes in all the characters. I have even learned to like Culley. The love he has for Maggie and Cat is wonderful and touching. I have been through 2 copies already and will choose this one when i want a real look at the calder's. What a wonderful way to escape.....
Interesting.......2001-08-13
I love Janet Dailey's books and have read just about all she has written. But on this book I was disappointed to see all the women,Maggie, Jessy and Sally letting the men in their live get away with murder. They take the men's disloyality and don't show any backbone especially Jessy who time and again allow Ty to come back to her after going back to his spoiled wife Tara. I don't care if Tara is beautiful or not he really should have looked deeper at her character. Other than this I enjoyed this book but not as much as soon of Janet Dailey other book. I would look to buy more of her books in the future.
Janet Dailey Fan.......2001-07-22
I really enjoyed Calder Born, Calder Bred as a single book and as a generational series. Ty pretty much turned outlike to his father, Cal.
For a series, Janet Dailey did a fantastic job. I have enjoyed all of her books in this series, as a series and as individual books.
The research and knowledge she puts in her books about ranching is fantastic. I come from a farming community, as a young girl, and their were lots of ranches around us. She hit the nail on the head with the way the family career in ranching is done, or at least to the way it was done back then.
Book Description
Albert Einstein and Max Born were great friends. Their letters span 40 years and two world wars. In them they argue about quantum theory, agree about Beethoven's heavenly violin and piano duets (that they played together when they met) and chat about their families. Equally important, the men commiserate over the tragic plight of European Jewry and discuss what part they should play in the tumultuous politics of the time.Fascinating historically, The Born-Einstein Letters is also highly topical: scientists continue to struggle with quantum physics, their role in wartime and the public's misunderstanding. First published by Macmillan in 1971, this book is re-issued, with a substantial new preface by leading US physicists Kip Thorne and Diana Buchwald, as part of 2005's Relativity Centenary celebrations.
Customer Reviews:
A peculiar glimpse into the relationship of two physicists.......2007-08-06
Take a great mathematician, add to it the talent of a philosopher, the mindfulness of a Buddhist monk and the intuition of a gifted doctor and you get a world's greatest physicist. This book is a peculiar glimpse into the relationship of two accomplished physicists. The letters touch up on a number of scientific, humanitarian, and political issues. Enlightening account of two intelligent people dealing with the inevitable intellectual and personal differences within the context of their freindship. A fascinating account of Einstein's state of mind during his last days and his general attitude towards dying at the end of the book. The translations are done in questionable English but it only adds to the charms. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Revealing the Human Side of Two Brilliant Scientists!!.......2005-07-15
+++++
The highlight of this book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Max Born (1882 to 1970) is the letters he and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein (1879 to 1955) exchanged between the years 1916 and 1955. These letters (that were never meant to be published) show the human side of these brilliant physicists.
This book has an overall introduction broken up into seven sections:
(1) Note on this new edition by Gustav Born (one of Max Born's sons).
(2) Acknowledgements for this new edition again by Gustav.
(3) A Modern Preface to this new edition by historian Diana Buchwald and physicist Kip Thorne.
(4) Forward to the original edition by Nobel Prize-winning philosopher Lord Bertrand Russell.
(5) Introduction to the original edition by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Werner Heisenberg.
(6) Acknowledgements to the original edition by Max Born.
(7) A kind of Preamble to the letters again by Max.
Then we come to:
(8) "The Born-Einstein Letters"
(9) "Index"
I recommend reading the seven sections of the overall introduction first before reading the actual letters themselves.
Special mention should be given to the Modern Preface (written in Sept. 2004) to this new edition. This section is very thorough (it has more than 60 footnotes) explaining everything you need to know about the letters themselves.
The "Born-Einstein Letters" themselves are numbered for easy reference. The first letter is dated (Feb. 27, 1916) while the last is dated (Jan. 29, 1955). There are commentaries, explanations, and autobiographical remarks by Born accompanying almost every letter. As the modern preface says:
"These commentaries are striking in their candor, in their admiration for Einstein and the apparent need for Born to comprehend and explain some of the major disagreements with Einstein over the years."
This collection of 120 translated letters itself can be broken down as follows:
(i) 39 letters from Einstein to Born
(ii) 7 from Einstein to (Born and his wife Hedwig nicknamed "Hedi")
(iii) 17 letters between Einstein and Hedi
(iv) 48 from Born to Einstein
(v) 3 from (Born and Hedi) to Einstein
(vi) 1 from Born to Einstein's second wife
(vii) 1 in each direction between Einstein and Born and Max's friend, the physicist James Franck
(viii) 3 from Wolfgang Pauli, a theoretical physicist, to Born
As the modern preface says:
"The letters themselves constitute one of the most vivid and valuable testimonies in the development of modern science. They also tell us much about the personal hardships that Einstein and Born overcame during two world wars, the vagaries of academic life, the daily grind of administrative work, and the steadfastness and frailty of human relationships. Throughout runs a scientific dialogue that was central to their lives...
[Most of these letters] attest to the close, lively, and at times turbulent relationship among [Born, Hedi, and Einstein]. Esteem, affection, and occasional criticism from the Borns is countered by warmth from Einstein with occasional flirtatiousness toward Hedi and at times defensive, even wounded humor...
Born included [the 3 letters from Pauli (as indicated in viii above)] as they illuminate a misunderstanding between himself and Einstein about quantum mechanics...
The frequency, topics, and tone of the letters...reflect the initial closeness, and cooling and final rapprochement between Einstein and Born. Between 1916 and 1920 both wrote to each other eagerly. After Einstein's rise to national and international fame, they exchanged less than four letters per year on average, until the final year and a half of Einstein's life, when the early warmth returned and their correspondence regained its original intensity."
The themes in these letters and Born's commentaries impart an "impressive tapestry." Some include those of a personal nature such as Einstein's philosophy of life; his relaxed attitude towards mistakes in his scientific work; and Born's disappointment over the poor early recognition of his contributions to quantum theory. Larger social and political themes include Communism; Zionism; Born's and Einstein's extensive efforts to help Jewish scientists in the wake of Hitler's rise to power; the Holocaust; the atomic bomb; Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the evolution of Germany after World War Two.
In these letters we meet a large number of distinguished scientists of the era. We also see the extensive range of scientific issues that occupied Born and Einstein during their careers.
A highlight of this book (for me, at least) is the historical 1927 black and white photo of almost 30 distinguished scientists (all men except one woman) of that time. Born and Einstein are highlighted in this photo.
Don't worry! You don't have to know any science to read this book. You can simply skip those science parts you don't understand. However, knowing some science or having access to a good science dictionary would be beneficial.
Finally, there were two problems I found with this book:
First, there is no table of contents. I thought this odd since the book is so well organized. Instead there is only a title page that only lists (without giving page numbers) 5 of the 9 sections indicated above. For a book of such important historical and scientific historical magnitude, I thought this was a major oversight.
Secondly, the index is only a name index. There is no subject index. Why? There is an impressive array of topics covered in these historical letters (some of which I touched on above). Thus, I think a subject index should have been mandatory.
In conclusion, this is a unique book that includes the actual letters between Albert Einstein and Max Born. Be sure to read this book and see why Born said, "With [Einstein's] death, we, my wife and I, lost our dearest friend."
(first published in English 1971; this edition published 2005; overall introduction of 7 sections; 120 letters with commentaries; overall introduction and letters comprise 270 pages; name index)
+++++
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2000-04-13
I have read up to book number five in the series and i have loved them all. I get wrapped up in all the family. The history is great and the plots are real.
Family Love.......1999-12-15
I like this book because it is historical fiction. In this book it tells how the three oldest childern of the Stewart family gets jobs and some find love. There is love, romance, family struggle, death, and even a little violence.
Book Description
Meet the Stuart family: eight children raised in the hills of Arkansas by their godly and determined mother, Marian, who does her best to lead her children to Christ. But as her three oldest, Lylah, Amos, and Owen, each decide to go their own ways, none seem to follow the path Marian has laid out for them. Set at the turn of the twentieth century, this first of the American Century series tells the story of a time of growth and opportunity. Filled with historical figures such as Theodore Roosevelt and James Randolph Hearst, this fascinating book will draw readers into the exciting events of the time and the lives of the family it follows. As the Stuarts mature, so does a young nation racked with uncertainty and growing pains of its own.
Average customer rating:
- A pretty good start to a series worth reading.
- Not Good
- A Good Start
- I've had better.
- A great Book on Captin Picard
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A Time to Be Born (Star Trek The Next Generation)
John Vornholt
Manufacturer: Star Trek
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 Vornholt, John
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A Time to Die (Star Trek The Next Generation)
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A Time to Love (Star Trek The Next Generation)
ASIN: 0743467655 |
Book Description
On the cusp of their epic battle with Shinzon, many of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's long-time crew were heading for new assignments and new challenges. Among the changes were William Riker's promotion to captain and his new command, Riker's marriage to Counselor Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher's new career at Starfleet Medical. But the story of what set them on a path away from the Starship Enterprise™ has never been told.
UNTIL NOW.
The site of one of the Dominion War's fiercest battles, the Rashanar Sector now contains a vast interstellar graveyard littered with the lifeless hulks of hundreds of devastated starships. The explosive destruction of so many varied warp drives has severely distorted the space-time continuum in this region, resulting in dangerous unleashed energies and bizarre gravitational anomalies.
The Enterprise has been assigned to patrol the perimeter of the danger zone, while other vessels carry out the difficult and highly hazardous task of retrieving the bodies of the dead from the wrecked warships.
To some alien races, the former battleground is hallowed space. To others, including the rapacious Androssi, it is a scavenger's paradise, ripe for salvage. None expect this ship's graveyard to hold a deadly secret that will force the android Data to make a heart-wrenching decision about the path his life will take -- and that will endanger not only the Enterprise, but Picard's future in Starfleet.
Customer Reviews:
A pretty good start to a series worth reading........2007-09-01
This book is a pretty good start to a great series of ST TNG books. The plot is interesting enough to make you want to read the entire series, and made a great Summer read for me. Personally, I would have lead the series off with either David Mack or Christopher Bennett, but John Vornholt does a pretty good job of taking you into the Star Trek Realm and keeping the reader entertained and wanting more.
In 2007, I would suggest ordering the entire series, or at least the next three books at a time if you like this series. It seems the books are getting somewhat rare, and it takes a month to get the middle of this series. If you want to read one after the other, I would suggest biting the bullet here and ordering at least the first seven (Be Born, Die, Sew, Harvest, Love, Hate, Kill)books so that you can read one right after the other. I had to wait for the middle books (that I could only find on Amazon) for about a month, and I was really watching my mailbox after reading the first three. Great series of books for the ST TNG fan.
Not Good.......2006-06-07
I'm sorry, but this book is, simply put, not good. The writing level is extremely elementary and the dialogue is robotic and completely unrealistic. The plot line contained potential that was never explored and the entire time the story spends in Rashanar is a garbled mess of ridiculous occurrences. I rarely give books less than three stars but I was very disappointed with A Time to be Born. The only reason why I spent time finishing it was because I had paid for it and continued to hope that it would get better. It didn't. I have been a Star Trek fanatic since I was 5 and this ranks as my least favorite Star Trek book I have read.
A Good Start.......2005-12-18
Let me start by saying John Vornholt is one of my favorite authors. I've read several of the Trek books he's written, and he's definitely one of the better Trek authors.
A few people said there were boring parts in the book, and that's true, but you have to remember the "A Time to..." series spans 9 books, so you can't have everything happen all in the first book. I don't think I've ever read a book that didn't have at least some boring parts to it (save maybe the Babylon 5 Technomage trilogy, and some of the Harry Potter books).
In all, I'd say this was a good beginning to this series and sets up what could be a great storyline.
I've had better........2005-08-03
The first in the "A Time To..." series, "Be Born" recounts events that took place between the TNG movies "Insurrection" and "Nemesis." It starts out pretty good; the Enterprise has been dispatched to one of the battle sites from the Dominion War to help keep looters away and recover bodies, only to find something dangerous lurking inside. So, we start off with a good premise, but John Vornholt's writing just doesn't stand up to other Trek authors such as David Mack or Keith R.A. DeCandido. And that was my major problem with the book: the writing. After seven seasons and four movies, you get a certain feel for how the TNG crew acts and talks, and I thought that Vornholt could have done a much better job nailing that. That aside, it is enjoyable to be back with the Next Generation crew, and it's nice to have the blanks between the ninth and tenth films filled in. If you plan on reading other books in the "A Time To..." series, I would read this one as well. That way you're not lost when references are made in later books.
A great Book on Captin Picard.......2005-03-27
Let me start by saying i'm a big fan of TNG. I Have all the seasons on DVD excpect for season 2. Now that's out of the way let me say that this is a great book to start the series off. It had me relly going after the frist chapter i cound't put it down. I like how we see Capt Picard kept makeing mistakes and i love how we see that those mistakes cost are dear capt his job. I was also able to picture the actors playing the parts witch is a thrill for me. The only thing i didn't like about this book was torwds the end Picard doesn't relly fight the fact that he is about to lose his job and he sort of acts like a little child. He even has a line in the book when Counselor Colleen Cabot tells Picard that he has to go to his room he says oh do i have to. I'm sorry but that doesn't sound like the Picard i kown that's why i gave this book a 4 unstad of a 5. Anyway i good book to read i highly recommand this book to anybody that's a die hard fan of TNG.
Average customer rating:
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Born Three Times
Thomas, L. Johnson
Manufacturer: Anza Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1932490299 |
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- best little known author i've come across.
- A Clarifying Lens of Satire
- A Time for Dawn Powell to be RE-Born -- Check This Out!
- A New Life
- A Hurricane In The Halls Of Power
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A Time to Be Born
Dawn Powell
Manufacturer: Zoland Books
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ASIN: 1883642418
Release Date: 1998-06-01 |
Book Description
Set against an atmospheric backdrop of New York City in the months just before America’s entry into World War II, A Time To Be Born is a scathing and hilarious study of cynical New Yorkers stalking each other for various selfish ends. At the center of the story are a wealthy, self-involved newspaper publisher and his scheming, novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she’d written to herself in 1939 that said, “Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?” Which prompted Powell to write in her diary “Who can I believe? Me or myself?”
Customer Reviews:
best little known author i've come across........2007-02-06
i am neither smart enough, nor do i have the time to write some long impressive essay on this book (like the other amazon reviewers have done here), but i absolutely want to give this fantastic book another 5 star vote to its total. after reading this I purchased every book that i could with the name Dawn Powell on it. she is simply a wonder to her craft. great writing combined with winning storytelling made this entire book a joy to read. fans of P.G. Wodehouse should love Dawn Powell, though she is much tougher minded, with a strong satiric bite to her tone that is mild, by comparison, in Wodehouse. I highly, highly recommend this book to lovers of literature.
A Clarifying Lens of Satire.......2006-05-27
Gore Vidal, admired and respected Dawn Powell and wrote a long article called,"Dawn Powell, The American Writer". Here he explains her writing "The novels of Dawn Powell have no truck with hypocrisies. She does not judge, excuse or sentimentalize, viewing her characters with a fine indifference to their manifold failings. Her almost Flaubertian aesthetic morality was often misread as sour detachment, but it was anything but. As she noted in her diary, "The satirist who really loves people loves them so well the way they are that he sees no need to disguise their characteristics -- he loves the whole, without retouching. Yet the word used for this unqualifying affection is 'cynicism. To feel, really feel, the heartbreak of an objectively contemptible character is an exquisitely mixed literary experience." For his part, Gore Vidal offered a simple reason for Powell's sudden popularity: "We are catching up to her."
Dawn Powell came to New York City from Ohio. Many of her characters also were transplanted Midwesterners in the big city. The characters she writes about with her perfect economy, the writers and gallery owners, the publishers and businessmen juggling their mistresses, the gold diggers and sexual misfits and those that just slum, she offers no judgment about but is amused by their actions. We are all wise about these people, we see that virtue goes unrewarded and that luck smiles and frowns. However, her characters are rarely wise about themselves. We see through these people but at the same time understand their actions, they are not unworthy. Lisa Zeidner, writing in The New York Times Book Review, tells us Powell "is wittier than Dorothy Parker, dissects the rich better than F. Scott Fitzgerald, is more plaintive than Willa Cather in her evocation of the heartland, and has a more supple control of satirical voice than Evelyn Waugh." Ernest Hemingway called her his "favorite living writer." She was one of America's great novelists, and yet when she died in 1965 she was buried in an unmarked grave in New York's Potter's Field. It has only been recently that Dawn Powell's legacy has come to fruition. Her satire is perfect and biting and humorous.
"A Time To Be Born" is a study of cynical new Yorkers stalking each other. The story centers around a wealthy, self involved publisher, Julian Evans and his novelist wife, Amanda Keeler. Amanda Keeler has always been thought to be based on real life Clare Boothe Luce, who married Henry R Luce, cofounder of "Time" magazine. Her character is a monster of sexual deception, and a liar and user, yet we seem to agree that her actions are understandable. Dawn Powell always denied that Amanda Keeler was based upon the real-life Clare Boothe Luce, until years later when she discovered a memo she'd written to herself in 1939 that said, "Why not do a novel on Clare Luce?" Which prompted Powell to write in her diary "Who can I believe? Me or myself?" When Vicky Haven shows up in NYC from Ohio, Amanda assists her with a flat that Amanda uses as her love hideaway. Vicky falls in love with Amanda's lover, and thus all these characters in pre-war America 1942, are in "for a bumpy ride". We feel the heartbreak of all of these characters and that keeps us off-stride. A fast paced and literary novel, the like of which I have not read in a long time. Dawn Powell has written twelve novels, and I am set to read them all . She is an extraordinary satirical novelist and one to be admired. As she aptly states:
"Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." --Dawn Powell
Highly Recommended. prisrob 5-27-06
A Time for Dawn Powell to be RE-Born -- Check This Out! .......2004-09-19
**********
Dawn Powell, Ohioan by birth, sophisticated Manhattanite by choice, is one of America's biggest cultural hang-fires. This unfortunately still-too-little known writer who died in 1962 deserves a far wider audience; pity that the publishing of most of her novels in a two-volume set by the Library of America in 2001 didn't put her in the cultural Panetheon where she belongs.
"A Time to be Born" is a good starter piece. Powell's novels tend to break into two camps--sentimental and sharp--and this 1941 novel, set among Manhattan's cultural elite just before World War II broke out in 1939--is a great introduction to the latter, more satirical work.
The core of the plot deals with the curious relationship between two women who grew up in the same fictional Ohio small town. Amanda Keeler Evans is a thinly disguised version of Clare Booth Luce (she who married TIME magazine's publisher and quickly became a nationally known journalist, not to be confused with Claire Luce, author of the bee-witchy movie classic THE WOMEN). Amanda is more than happy to let her provincial Midwestern past lie in the past but, though a mutual hometown acquaintance, plays Lady Bountiful to her naive high-school acquaintance Vicky Haven, who is about to move to the Big Apple.
Amanda secures Vicky an entry-level job at a publishing house with her big-time bullying and clout. Although she and Vicky are definitely not of the same social set, she wants to keep Vicky close--we suspect that in her cynicism Amanda is so nice to Vicky as a matter of spin control; she doesn't want Vicky blabbing too intimately about their hick background.
Well, it couldn't happen to a nicer bully: Amanda's every good deed never goes unpunished. Amanda, on the sly, rents a studio apartment for a trysting place with her twentysomething lover, but tries to justify this pied-a-terre to her vapid husband by saying she rented it for Vicky so that her pseudo-protegee could have a ready-made place to hang her hat upon arrival in the Big City--while Amanda cunningly retains daytime-hours occupancy privilege for her "work."
During a routine dinner party, to which Vicky has been invited as a matter of protocol, Vicky meets Amanda's lover (not knowing he is anything other than a professional contact); and eventually, to save her hide, Amanda is forced to offer Vicky the flat for real while keeping her right to its daytime use.
When boyfriend drops by the flat Amanda rented for Vicky, Vicky wonders why he's so familiar with the place and assumes all Manhattan studio apartments follow a common scheme . . .
Dawn Powell is truly an American original but a few comparative metaphors won't hurt. Think of her as a midcentury Jane Austen with a sharp, Dorothy Parkerish writing style and an appalling, almost Evelyn Waugh-type perspective on human greed and folly.
All this makes A TIME TO BE BORN first-rate social comedy (not just routine satire), a great view into the protocol of that era's Manhattan networking professional life; and a darn good farce where almost everyone except clueless Vicky is living a lie and struggling to maintain it all despite the inevitable cognitive dissonance.
I strongly recommend this book--and if it isn't available by itself, the first volume of Powell's novels as collected by the Library of America contains it and four other gems.
For further background on Powell, look up a feature piece in the September 2001 Atlantic concurrent with the Library of America's publication of the two-work set.
.
A New Life.......2003-02-09
This magical novel was published in 1942. Unlike most of Dawn Powell's earlier novels, it sold well and went through several printings. Although Powell denied it, one of the major characters of the book, Amanda Keeler Evans, is based in part on and satirizes Claie Boothe Luce.
These external details say little about the appeal of this novel.
As with most of Dawn Powell's books, "A Time to be Born" talks about New York City and its effect on young men and women who meet their chances there from small towns in the Midwest. The book's two main characters, Amanda Keeler Evans and Vickie Haven, come to New York City under different circumstances and with different results after being girlhood friends in the town of Lakeville, Ohio.
On the verge of WW II, Amanda has become a success by publishing a schmaltzy romantic novel and hobnobbing with the powerful under the guidance of her husband, Julian, a newspaper magnate. Amanda has married her way to success with Julian but with success will not touch much less sleep with him.
Vicky Haven comes to New York at the peak of Amanda's success to escape the memory of a failed affair in which she has lost
her love to her business partner. She is put up, begrudgingly, by Amanda who uses her pad to entertain the lover, Ken Sanders, that she jilted to marry Julian. Amanda takes the fancy pad for Vicky to have an excuse to have an affair with Ken on the side.
The climax of the book occurs when Vicky decides to leave Amanda's fancy pad and lease an apartment of her own. No luxury this. It is a cold-water flat on the fourth floor of a dilapated building surrounded by warehouses and with a pet shop on the lower floor. But it is Vicky's and it is where her life begins. Powell writes: "She only wanted to be alone with her new house so definitely hers, because nobody, Amanda, Ethel, brother Ted, Eudora Brown, Ethel Carey, nobody would ever have selected it for her, and so it was the beginning of her own life." There is magic here, in life beginning anew, with self-affirmation and choice, even if, and especially if in Powell, the outcome is uncertain and the scene itself is partially ironic.
In addition to the theme of having one's own start at life, the book paints a memorable picture of New York on the eve of WW II. The book juxtaposes the lives of the rich, famous and powerful -- their self-importance, their officiousness, their concern for the weighty matters of peace and war -- with the lives of the "little people" who, as Powell describes them, "can only think that they are hungry, they haven't eaten, they have no money, the have lost their babies, their loves, their homes, and their sons mock them from prisons and insane asylums, so that rain or sun or snow or battles cannot stir their selfish personal absorption.". The little people have little to do with the fate of nations. Specifically in the book, Vicky is concerned not with affairs of state or with the rich and famous. She is concerned with love -- with the love she lost in Lakeville -- and with finding herself and a new love in New York City.
The characters in the book are masterfully drawn from Amanda and Vicky to many of the secondary characters such as Amanda's assistant Bemel and vicky's elderly would-be lover Rockman. New York City is depicted memorably, as elsewhere in Dawn Powell's writings. In this book, the best depictions are those of the cold water flats of Grenwich Village -- of the place that Vicky finally finds to try to find a life.
As with most of Powell's novels, this book is a satire. But in this book it is more delicate, more tinged with understanding and compassion, than is the case in some of her novels. The feelings that the book brings for its characters is the source of its magic. There is a sense of foreboding and irony in the book, but little cynicism and anger. The book occupies that fragile point at which a person is able to act on her ideals and attempt to find a life for herself -- without moving into the line that determines whether or not the effort will end in success or failure.
This is a wonderful, little-known American novel.
A Hurricane In The Halls Of Power.......2002-08-07
Despite its awkward title, Dawn Powell's A Time To Be Born is, after Washington Irving's A Knickerbocker's History of New York, the funniest book in American literature.
The story of the rise and fall of ruthless self-promoter, arch manipulator, and glamour girl Amanda Evans Keeler, the novel seamlessly propels the reader through its deliciously involving plot, dropping brisk, barbed, and piercing bombs of cutting humor all the way. Every other line in this New York City-based minefield is cause for bursts of healthy, uproarious laughter, as one character after another finds their egos and intentions rebuked and thwarted by fate in sardonically appropriate fashion.
While mildly cynical about human nature, the novel's humor thankfully never collapses into cattiness or camp; though sometimes approaching the brittle artifice of Saki or Firbank, Powell continually steers herself back in humanity's direction whenever she veers too far towards improbability or outright farce. And humanity, in Powell's vision as expressed here, exists only among those in the lower ranks--the novel's 'Little Men'--who are naive, gullible, and ignorant, but hopeful.
Powell's understanding of what happens to human beings and human relationships as people rise or force their way through the hierarchies of the power elite is wonderfully astute. Though the story takes place just before World War II, the book is timelessly relevant in its illustration of power structures, protocol, and propriety among the powerful and power-mad. Powell also excels here in illustrating how shrewd, calculating and talented individuals go about creating shining, influential, publically-adored and much-venerated if entirely artificial media personalities for themselves.
Though Powell's work is often compared to that of Muriel Spark, there's literally a world of difference between their novels, though each filled their books with large casts of odd-ball characters and believable eccentrics. Spark's novels always take place in a world where God and the possibility of grace are always present, though sometimes only remotely so. Powell's comic novels take place in a universe in which the question of God has never even been raised; certainly none of Powell's characters ever give the idea of god or grace a first or second thought. In Powell's work, there is little more to the world than what meets the eye, and it is around these glittering prizes that her often phlegmatic characters circle relentlessly.
However, both Powell and Spark write brilliantly about servants and masters, and Powell does a hilarious job here of portraying Hurricane Amanda's servant, frustrated power monger Miss Bemel, who tries to seize control over events even as Amanda insist she buy herself a girdle.
Insightful, perceptive, and almost perfectly structured, A Time To Be Born is also entertainment of the highest form.
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