Amazon.com
Ex-military cop Jack Reacher is the perfect antihero--tough as nails, but with a brain and a conscience to match. He's able to see what most miss and is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Each book in Lee Child's smart, addictive series (The New York Times has referred to it as "pure escapist gold") follows the wandering warrior on a new adventure, making it easy to start with any book, including his latest gem, Bad Luck and Trouble. However, be forewarned...once you meet Jack Reacher, you'll be hooked, so be prepared to stock up on the series. --Daphne Durham
Who Is Jack Reacher? A Video from Lee Child
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A Note from Lee Child
Two years ago I was on a book tour, promoting that year's new Jack Reacher novel, One Shot. One particular night, the event was held in a small town outside of Chicago. The date was June 21st. As I was giving my talk and answering questions and signing books, that date was nagging away at the back of my mind. I knew it had some significance. I started panicking--had I forgotten my anniversary? No, that's in August. My wife's birthday? No, that's in January. My own birthday? No, that's in October.
Then suddenly I remembered--it was ten years to the day since I had been fired from my previous job. That was why and how I had become a writer. That night in Illinois was a ten-year anniversary of a different sort, somewhat bittersweet.
And ten is a nice round number. So I started thinking about my old colleagues. My workmates, my buddies. We had been through a lot together. I started to wonder where they all were now. What were they doing? Were they doing well, or struggling? Were they happy? What did they look like now? Pretty soon I was into full-on nostalgia mode. Ten-year anniversaries can do that to a person. I think we all share those kind of feelings, about high school, or college, or old jobs we've quit, or old towns we've moved away from.
So I decided to make this year's Jack Reacher book about a reunion. I decided to throw him back among a bunch of old colleagues that he hadn't seen for ten years, people that he loved fiercely and respected deeply. Regular Reacher readers will know that he's a pretty self-confident guy, but I wanted him to wobble just a little this time, to compare his choices with theirs, to measure himself against them.
The renewed get-together isn't Reacher's own choice, though. And it's not a standard-issue reunion, either. Something very bad has happened, and one of his old team-members from the army contacts him, by an ingenious method (it's hard to track Reacher down). She gives him the bad news, and asks him to do something about it. He says, "Of course I'll do something about it."
"No," his friend says. "I mean, I want you to put the old unit back together."
It's an irresistible invitation. Wouldn't we all like to do that, sometimes? --Lee Child
Secrets of the Series: A Q&A with Lee Child
Q: Why do you think readers keep coming back to your novels?
A: Two words: Jack Reacher. Reacher is a drifter and a loner with a strong sense of justice. He shows up, he acts, he moves on. He's the type of hero who has a long literary history. Robin Hood, the Lone Ranger, Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings, Jack Reacher--they're all part of the same heroic family. Reacher just ratchets it up a notch. Maybe more than a notch. Why is he so appealing? Most often people say to me it's his sense of justice; he will do the right thing. Even though there is no reward in it for him, even though there is often a high cost to be paid by him, he will always try to do the right thing and people find that reassuring in today's world when not too many people are doing the right thing.
Q: Jack Reacher gets compared to James Bond, Jack Bauer and Jason Bourne, each of whom now has a "face." In a movie, which actor do you think could fill Reacher's shoes?
A: That's the toughest question. The thing about Reacher is he's huge; he's 6'5" tall and about 250 pounds. There aren't any actors that size--actors tend to be small. So we aren't going to find a physical facsimile for Reacher because there aren't any. We have to find someone who is capable of looking big on the screen. Many people have said to me a young Clint Eastwood would have been perfect--we need someone like that who has the vibe of a big intimidating man. Hopefully there will be somebody available like that. It's also a question of finding somebody ready to sign up for more than one movie. They want to make a franchise, minimum of three, and that makes it a little bit harder.
Q: What research is involved in writing one of your stories?
A: My research is all kind of backwards. I don't go to the public library for three months and take notes in advance; instead my best research is by remembering and adapting. I read, travel, and talk to people just for the fun of it, filing away these interesting little snippets to the back of my mind and eventually they float to the surface and get used. The problem is, I approach writing the book with the same excitement and impatience that I hope the reader is going to feel about reading it. But even so, I need a certain measure of technical intrigue in the story. There is specific research I have to do as I go along, anything that's a small detail; a car, a gun, a type of bullet. I will check that out at the time. But, that's what I call the detail--the broad stuff is the stuff I already know.
Meet Jack Reacher
The Killing Floor |
Die Trying |
Tripwire |
Running Blind |
Echo Burning |
Without Fail |
Persuader |
The Enemy |
One Shot |
The Hard Way |
Book Description
From a helicopter high above the empty California desert, a man is sent free-falling into the night…. In Chicago, a woman learns that an elite team of ex–army investigators is being hunted down one by one.... And on the streets of Portland, Jack Reacher—soldier, cop, hero—is pulled out of his wandering life by a code that few other people could understand. From the first shocking scenes in Lee Child’s explosive new novel, Jack Reacher is plunged like a knife into the heart of a conspiracy that is killing old friends…and is on its way to something even worse.
A decade postmilitary, Reacher has an ATM card and the clothes on his back—no phone, no ties, and no address. But now a woman from his old unit has done the impossible. From Chicago, Frances Neagley finds Reacher, using a signal only the eight members of their elite team of army investigators would know. She tells him a terrifying story—about the brutal death of a man they both served with. Soon Reacher is reuniting with the survivors of his old team, scrambling to raise the living, bury the dead, and connect the dots in a mystery that is growing darker by the day. The deeper they dig, the more they don’t know: about two other comrades who have suddenly gone missing—and a trail that leads into the neon of Vegas and the darkness of international terrorism.
For now, Reacher can only react. To every sound. Every suspicion. Every scent and every moment. Then Reacher will trust the people he once trusted with his life—and take this thing all the way to the end. Because in a world of bad luck and trouble, when someone targets Jack Reacher and his team, they’d better be ready for what comes right back at them…
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
My First Reacher Novel, Probably My Last.......2007-10-06
I picked up Bad Luck and Trouble because it sounded like an interesting book. I must say, though, that it was not my cup of tea. I, on the whole, enjoy crime novels and spy thrillers in the vein of Vince Flynn and David Baldacci. Lee Child most likely fits here nicely.
The story is about Jack Reacher, a former military policeman. He receives a call for help from one of his former teammates. It seems that several members of the unit have disappeared and Reacher needs to find out why. Interesting premise, but it quickly devolves into a revenge novel with a little bit of "let's stop the terrorist" thrown in to make the story timely.
I have no problem with the writing of the book. Mr. Child is a very talented writer. I just did not enjoy the story. Revenge for the sake of revenge is not my idea of a good time.
disappointing.......2007-09-27
Unfortunately, in my opinion, this book cannot be compared the The Hard Way. That one was taut, thrilling and extremely gripping. This one was drowning in minutiae, far too many 'filler' details. It took 250 pages to even know what the characters were trying to stop. From then on, you just knew Reacher would get the bad guys and the climax was pretty standard 'shoot 'em up', no surprises or twists at all. I expected so much more. Pass this one by.
Best Yet.......2007-09-25
I have enjoyed the seris, and liked this one the best, because of the former team members, they give some real balance to Jack...
The Latest Installment From A Favorite Author.......2007-09-18
If you somehow got your hands on a copy of Bad Luck & Trouble and have NOT read the previous Jack Reacher tales, stop and begin with The Killing Floor. Lucky you!
Having said that, Bad Luck & Trouble is yet another very satisfying installment in the series. I sincerely hope that Lee Child continues to be inspired by his character and the interesting settings that Jack Reacher finds himself in.
This story is fresh, edge of the seat entertainment that we fans have come to expect. Mr Child does not disappoint!.
Jack's Back.......2007-09-16
My enjoyment of the Jack Reacher novels is such that I actually purchased this hardcover. Anyone familiar with this type of novel recognizes that plot details are secondary to what has been called, "solidification of sequence". This novel is a shade less enjoyable than the rest. Is Mr.Child losing interest? Am I losing interest? Hard to say but this one comes up short. Of course Jack is still there. And I would still like to have him as a friend, although I come probably never find him if I needed him. By the way, isn't only owning the "clothes on his back" gimmick wearing a little thin. Jack,buy yourself a knapsack, a duffel bag, at least a brief case, and carry a change of socks. To those of us accustomed to changing clothing at least every day the idea of wearing them until they reek is not only unappealing but unrealistic. And, I have wondered, what the hell does Jack do when he takes the next bus to anywhere and gets there. What does he do, walk the streets? With no real money and clothes that stink his choices are somewhat limited. Seedy hotel rooms lose their charm after a while and there are only so many undeserving victims of cruel, powerful people out there to assist. Sure, it's great to read of him breaking the neck of some ruffian but walking back into the great outback of novel land, chucking it all so he can return next year to crack some more skulls does require the willing suspension of disbelief. Life must be awful boring between bouts with bad men. Jack, settle down, get a job, star in a tv series, marry that beautiful babe, put some roots down before old age catches up with you....and Mr. Child runs out of marginably credible adventures for you to participate. And, for cryin' out loud, change your clothes.
Book Description
A successful Web designer, forty-year-old India has a fabulously hip life in Denver and a sexy Irish lover in New York who jets out to see her on bi-weekly visits. The long-distance romance suits India just fine: Though Jack is the only man who has ever made India feel truly alive, she doesn’t want things to get too serious. But then her father passes away, and India must honor the promise she made to him: to look after her mother when he’s gone.
Suddenly India finds herself back in Colorado Springs with the woman who both intrigues and infuriates her. Eldora is sixty something and exquisitely gorgeous, but her larger-than-life personality can suck the air out of a room. True to form, Eldora throws India a curveball, insisting that they hit the road to look for India’s twin, Gypsy, a brilliant artist who lives a vagabond’s existence in the remote mountain towns of New Mexico. It looks like India can’t avoid her mother’s intensity any longer, especially after she discovers stunning secrets from Eldora’s past.
Thirty years ago, Eldora regaled her twin girls with glamorous stories about her days as a Las Vegas showgirl– stories of martinis and music at the Sahara, back when Frank and Sammy ruled the town. But the story of how she really ended up in Sin City, and the unsavory life she’d run from with her daughters in tow, is full of details she’s never seen fit to share–until now.
As mother and daughter sail down Route 66, the very road Eldora drove those many years ago, looking for Gypsy, while passing motels, diners, and souvenir shops, Eldora must relive a lifetime of memories that have tormented her before she can put them to rest once and for all. . . .
Award-winning author Barbara Samuel brings us a heartfelt story of second chances and unexpected detours. As two women come to terms with themselves and each other, the past unravels and the future spreads out before them like the open road.
Customer Reviews:
Lady Luck's Map of Vegas.......2007-03-12
This is a very fun read. I enjoyed the information in the book as well as just a chuckle from time to time.
Never judge a book by its cover.......2007-02-19
Never judge a book by its cover is so true of titles and the characters in this book untill you get to know them. Barbara Samuels writes a wonderful story about people you really care about and want to know better.
Loved it........2006-09-21
This fast-paced novel takes mother and daughter, Eldora and India, down Route 66 in search of India's schizophrenic twin sister, Gypsy. India is not pleased to leave her work and long distance lover, Jack, to take her mother on a road trip down memory lane in her mother's cherished 1957 Thunderbird. But she promised her father before his death that she would take care of her mother, and so she agrees to the trip hoping that the time on the road will help her to reconcile issues in her own life and also to help her make the most important decision of her life. Eldora, who has been living with the regrets and mistakes she made many, many years ago, wants to make peace with one daughter as she searches for the other one. Eldora is faced with revealing her true self to India and in the process risks losing her daughter forever. Both India and Eldora each tell their own story as they travel the same fateful route they took several years ago and try to reconcile their past to their present and dare to hope for a future but ultimately discover that in life and love there are no guarantees.
***** I thoroughly enjoyed Barbara Samuel's heartwarming story of a mother and daughter who both dare to risk their current tolerable relationship for a chance to really understand one another. The realness of these two characters makes the reader feel deeply connected with what both India and Eldora are facing. This novel needs to be a movie because India and Eldora's stories would be wonderful played out on the big screen. I highly recommend taking this real and endearing and ultimately hopeful journey with India and Eldora along Route 66. *****
Reviewed by Barbara Stabler.
WOW!.......2006-06-01
One of Samuel's best. This book made me laugh out loud and cry, the need a box of Kleenex, don't try reading on the elliptical kind of cry. I read it on one day and immediately wanted to read it again. The realness of the characters amazed me. I felt like I knew these people. I loved this book!
Wanted: Strong Women.......2005-03-26
I'm always so impressed with Barbara Samuel's novels, and Lady Luck's Map of Vegas is no exception. Samuel, who lives in Colorado, writes about women in the western United States who may have had family problems, but resolve them, or find a way to live with them, by the end of the books. I checked out her website at www.barbarasamuel.com, and she has also written a number of romances, some under the name Ruth Wind. But her women's novels are the ones that impress me - No Place Like Home, A Piece of Heaven, The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue, and, now Lady Luck's Map of Vegas.
Forty-year-old India is a successful web designer with a large circle of friends. She also has an Irish lover that she sees monthly, Eldora, her widowed mother who can be demanding, and a schizophrenic twin sister who disappers into the unknown periodically. And, she's pregnant.
When India's mother wants to take Route 66 from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas, she reluctantly agrees to accompany her, fleeing the truth and her own doubts about her pregnancy. As they hunt for Gypsy, India's sister, along the route, Eldora reaches into her own past to reveal secrets she has covered up about her life.
Once again, Barbara Samuel has written of two women coming to terms with the results of their own actions. It's a strong, beautiful novel.
Customer Reviews:
Mossy-Car-Classic Sunk In Sea-Treasure-Bliss.......2006-01-21
What I like most about Archy is his warm nonchalance contrasted with his old money manners and deference to his father. I very much enjoy being around for the daily routine luxuries of a casually (yet hugely) wealthy family, whose members have their professional lives and leisure activities precisely balanced for appropriate rhythms in living the good and useful life. It's also interesting to ride along in the mind of a semi-playboy, privy to his ways of looking at and reacting to females who step into his presence.
I have fun wondering how Sanders will jump start my reading rhythm through Archie in each book. In PUZZLE, Sanders gets Archie a shocking slap across the chops; in LUCK Sanders steps Archie out onto the page lamenting cat vomit having spoiled a favorite lavender suede shoe. Actually, Archie's lamenting not as much the vomit as the cat who did it. Of course the cat, Peaches, wasn't the who DONE it. Generally, cat's don't murder people, they kill rats.
Speaking of which, was the victim an angelic lady or a rat. Sander's hint of that question had my mind clicking tumblers to open locks.
One of my favorite scenes was Archy's endearingly gleeful response to an unexpected phone call at midnight from a newly intimate female friend who was giving Consuela a run for her money, with the two women complicating Archy's love life with just the right amount of fun & juggle to avoid him appearing the cad.
And speaking of a character's foibles warming the reader to him instead of etching away from a tentative bond, I find myself continuing to compare Archy's warmth in LUCK to his cooler, crisper presence in PUZZLE. I'm not sure why/how I felt this contrast, but the earlier Archy seemed more youthfully vulnerable than the later character. Both presentations are good, but having received a good dose of the younger personality spice, and genuine love of people, coupled with a full-run of joie de vivre, I'll be able to slip that cozy appeal into the later story's slight and subtle, chilled sophistication.
Speaking of a Florida-type, artistic savoir faire, I like the fact that parrots play a scene in both these stories, though LUCK has them in-plot, highlighting an item of classy clothing, while PUZZLE has the parrot not only on the cover, but he's played up as a suspect, and he's certainly a key figure in the game afoot, sort of like peaches is romping invisibly through the plot here, as a victim of napping (in the "kid" sense).
Mostly what sticks in my mind as the capture in this one, similarly to PUZZLE is the dramatization of a type of simple daily routines of a life which I'd never be able to experience except between the covers of a healthy escape novel. I enjoy being Archy's sidekick and daily guest for dinner and cocktails, along with feeling sympathy for his vulnerability of wanting to impress his "cool as a cucumber" pater. Which reminds me that Archie seems to be evolving toward that chilly description, when I contrast the vulnerability quotient and personality evolution between LUCK and PUZZLE.
After only a few pages into LUCK, I noticed the character temperature difference, and immediately crossed my fingers, hoping that Arch would eventually catch himself by the nut (acorn/oak?) ...
OR, would that be by the core (apple tree)?
Prior to his fall from the proverbial (prodigal?) tree. My fingers were crossed in hopes that he'd get a turbo charge before doing the gravity drift descent from the branch.
Is birth, or sometime after, the time of each of our falls from trees? In which case Archie's paternal stones (or runes) would have been cast long ago, to pop out at a later time, as either pimples or personality pluses.
And, of course THAT reminds me that we have an interesting paranormal element in this plot, which, okay, fits with the word LUCK. The medium/channel lady is indeed a characterization of foibles flickering through the ethereal essence-of-angelic.
Speaking of titles and book cover art reminds me that I've been comparing Archie to Parker's Spenser (see my reviews on POTSHOT, BACK STORY, and BAD BUSINESS). How different could two guys get? Yet. Each has P.I. has a solid, strong style imbued by a male author with personality plus, dialogue-coup, and lifestyle-ambiance in abundance.
So, I wondered as I was getting into the story, "Will LUCK play a significant part in this plot?" And, how would the cover fit in. In Parker's books the title and cover art are richly and intriguingly metaphoric of the stories they "portell" (portray/foretell). Yep. I've been reading Archie, making up words you won't be able to find in the dictionary. But, Archie makes up fitting terms, AND he precisely uses the heck out of the most real and obscure parts of Webster's realms.
Archie's worth reading for no other reason than to have a grin on my face while I'm expanding my vocab, with my waist widening only vicariously from the descriptions of daily breads. No calories in words, whether they're chewed or slurped, just lots of pictures, feelings, and intriguing spaces between.
Since alcohol hasn't agreed with me since I was nine and permanently lost 3/4 of my liver from a long and deadly serious bout of hepatitis, and since I've known and cared deeply about a few too many alcoholics, I've never been able to enjoy the spirit of alcohol, as I sometimes wish I could. In Archie's world, I can sip vintage wine with dinner, without fear or cost. Such a deal. You have no idea. Burp. Hic.
I just WISH these culinary mysteries would tell me more about TASTE and bites. I mean, while they're catching clues, can't they "take a bite of bread, a sip of wine, or a nibble of cheese"?
I realize that a reader complained to Sanders about Archie mentioning every meal, and thankfully Sanders didn't let that whine stop those tasteful sensual inclusions for the successful appeal to his hoards of other hungry readers like me. But, would it truly be a use of too many words, a going too far out on a starving, shaky limb to have characters contemplate clues not only over a luxurious meal with the menu listed, but also to have the characters...
Sink drool-covered teeth into a warm, steamy, yeasty sponge of sourdough bread, chew and swallow; then wallow tongue around a mouth full of a rich red wine, catching every variety of nuance of a dry, violet-skiffed-velvet, toasty-fruity tang of Pinot noir, taking time to sense and remember the slight bitter edge of dark purple, concord-grape skin rolling around the insides of cheeks imitating chipmunks gathering acorns.
And, here, again, we fall. Into a great story with the panache of good taste hitting buds on tongues and in craniums where readers don't fear to dwell. We're in the springtime of the culinary mystery sub-genre, and we've only begun to nibble on the potential for flavor.
Take a bite, Archie, and give me the nuances of flavor. Feed lamb to my taste buds while I'm racking my brain. And do it with DETAIL!
Well, heck. Sanders is gone (so to speak, but maybe the "other side's" not as far as it feels when grief is nigh). So is Virginia Rich (see my Listmania and reviews on Eugenia Potter, some with spotlights). Yet, the craving for flavor is so strong, their eating/cooking characters live on. When will we get a clue about chewing while clue-ing? It's not just the recipes that do it! Might we have senses for a reason?
Maybe they're (senses) the raison d'etre (which is the point I ponder in THE ROSE & THE PYRAMID, see my review of my novel).
At least Davidson goes into detail luxury in cooking processes. Thank you, DMD. See my Listmania blurb on the Goldilocks pilot to see, feel, and sense how a succinct description of herb-enhanced, raw dough sticking to fingers can instantly glue a reader into a plot. Get it.
And, thank you Lawrence for sticking to your guns (and out your tongue), and being faithful to the successful plot ploy of at least MENTIONING Archie's daily meals and cocktails. Oh to have a gourmet chef in residence in a manse in Florida and eat like that! Man. What a life.
I know a paranormal mystery pilot which does what I'm begging for here. When it does the selling like hot cakes thing, I'll be playing among the parrots and flamingos with the spirit of Sanders. Salute! G. P. Putnam & Son's would be a match. Should I strike it?
Megaphone aiming to the zenith, taking a huge breath in prep for a primal,
Linda G. Shelnutt
kept me reading.......2003-10-22
I hemmed over the purchase of the book. When I started to read it [My first Sanders book] I was delighted by the characters. No one is what they seem. The first impression is stereotypes but I found that everyone had depths that you would never have attributed to them [Peaches too]. Archie who seems as feather headed as they come and is up there with the best.
The plot twists are tied together neatly leaving a satisfied feeling at the end. While looking for other McNally's books I discovered that Lawrence Sanders had died. I felt the disappointment I feel when I find that one of my favorite authors has died. It says a lot on the first book to get that feeling.
I almost turned it down when I read the reviews if you love Block you'll love this. I hate Block. I love Sanders. I plan on reading the rest of Sander's McNally books and plan on the others too. It was a pleasing suprise. Try it you might be also pleased and suprised.
best 2nd book in a series I ever read.......2003-05-31
How could you possibly top McNally's Secret? Well, somehow Lawrence Sanders managed to do just that, with this superb second entry in the McNally series. Archy is first hired to find a kidnapped cat (held for $50K ransom!?), but the case soon involves murder as well. The investigation leads to a mysterious fortune teller, who leads Archy through a most entertaining seance. Archy finds and loses love as well. Combining heads with the Palm Beach police detective Sgt Rogoff, Archy untangles this twisted tale through a series of adulterous affairs. I must admit that I was successful in unveiling the first killer, whose alibi fell apart in just the way I suspected. Nevertheless, this book was satisfying, and most of all, FUN!
If you love Lawrence Block's Bernie the Burglar series, you will love McNally.
An absolute delight to read!.......2000-12-28
Lawrence Sanders is one of my favorite authors, and when I first read the McNally detective series, I was instantly hooked. Archie McNally is one of the best characters in mystery fiction that I have ever read (in my "expert" opinion). Archie is a rogue that loves life and all the guilty pleasures that come with it. Yet, Archie has a good conscience, (when he dosen't trip over into the bedroom of latest beautiful woman he encounters). Lawrence Sanders always describes the meals his detective consume in delicious detail. I wish their was a Pelican Inn near where I live, like the one that Archy goes to for lunch and dinner.
In every McNally novel, there is the relationship between Prescott McNally (Archy's father) who probably looked like Lawrence Sanders, Prescott, is the epitome of an "old fashioned Gentleman" who lives in Florida. Yet I believe Sanders was more like Archy in real life.
The first person narrative of Archy is clever. His wit is truely hillarious and the way he describes his detective work, his daily encounter with life and the people he deals with is captivating. I can't speak highly enough of this series. My sincere wish is that a network would make these into a movie of the week, and I would love to see who they can pick to portray Archy. However, until then and long afterwards I will anxiously await the next adventure of Archy, no matter if it is written by another author, since the truely sad passing of the late great Lawrence Sanders.
South Florida sleuth looks for catnapppers and murderers.......2000-11-19
Archy McNally is a charming rogue. He's the son of a wealthy attorney, but is self-deprecating and doesn't take himself too seriously. He is asked to find a cat who belongs to one of Archy's father's wealthy clients and who has been catnapped, complete with ransom note and a demand for money. Later, another client is murdered and Archy suspects that the two cases are connected. He does some discreet inquiry and becomes entangled with a friendly female and an eccentric psychic. These elements cause no end of complications to Archy, both personally and professionally, and he finds himself in big trouble before the case is solved. This is a light and enjoyable read and will provide the reader with a lot of chuckles.
Amazon.com
"A week after midsummer, when the festival fires were cold, and decent people were in bed an hour after sunset, not lying dry-mouthed in dark rooms at midday, a young man named Sobran Jodeau stole two of the freshly bottled wines to baptize the first real sorrow of his life."
The year is 1808, the place Burgundy, France. Among the lush vines of his family's vineyard, Jodeau, 18 years old and frustrated in love, is about to come face to face with a celestial being. But this is no sentimental "Touched by an Angel" seraph; as imagined by Elizabeth Knox in her wildly evocative and original novel, Xas is equipped with a glorious pair of wings ("pure sinew and bone under a cushion of feathers") and an appetite for earthly pleasures--wine, books, gardening, conversation, and, eventually, carnal love.
The fateful meeting between man and angel occurs on June 27. After an evening during which Sobran spills all his troubles and Xas gently advises him, the angel promises to return on the same night next year to toast Sobran's marriage. Thus begins a friendship that will last for 55 years, spanning marriages, wars, births, deaths, and even the vast distances between heaven, earth, and hell. In addition to the wonderfully flawed Sobran and his mysterious angel, Knox brilliantly limns secondary characters who are deeply sympathetic--from Sobran's unstable wife, Celeste, and his troubled brother, Leon, to his dear friend and confidante, the Baroness Aurora. Love, murder, madness, and a singular theology that would make a believer out of the most hardened atheist all add up, in The Vintner's Luck, to a novel that will break your heart yet leave you wishing for more. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
A novel of angels, wine, and love without boundaries set in nineteenth-century Burgundy.
One summer night in 1808, Sobran Jodeau sets out to drown his love sorrows in his family's vineyard. Drunk, he stumbles on an angel: "Someone had set a statue down on the ridge. Sobran blinked and swayed. For a second he saw what he knew--gilt, paint and varnish, the sculpted labial eye of a church statue. Then he swooned while still walking forward, and the angel stood quickly to catch him."
Once he gets over his shock, Sobran decides that Xas, the male angel, is his guardian sent to counsel him on everything from marriage to wine production. But Xas turns out to be a far more mysterious character. A favorite of both God and Satan, he is, unlike other angels, allowed to go freely about the world, collecting earthly roses for his garden. Sobran and Xas agree to meet on this night every year of Sobran's life, and eventually man and angel fall in passionate love, complicating both their lives.
Compelling and erotic, The Vintner's Luck explores a decidedly unorthodox love story as Sobran eventually comes to love and be loved by both Xas and the young Countess de Valday, his friend and employer at the neighboring château.
Customer Reviews:
angles aren't always as they seem.......2007-05-29
Wonderful story of a man's life long friendship with an angel. Author was very creative with how a relationship with an angel might be. I was thourghly entertained with this read.
Vitner's Luck.......2007-04-05
An interesting book to read for a book club. Most of my book club disliked the book.
Many parts of the book competed for most disturbing - the hanging of Josie the dog, the mastectomy with no sedatives, sex with a woman about to give birth, etc. Those who read only a portion wondered whether the author was trying to be offensive in her choice of words and the explicitness of description. Could the sexual been inspired by French novels, where discussion of sex ismore acceptable?
There were many questions: why did Xas cut out the tattoos
linking God/Satan signatures? Was it to stop being a test subject for them?
Or self-punishment for sex with Sobran? Or to become more human? What was
meant by having more written material stored in Hell than in Heaven? Was
Satan right in saying God didn't want to learn more about humans? How did
having his wings cut off help Xas recover? Was being an angel that
physically draining? When Celeste mentioned her own angel near the end of
the book, was it real? sarcasm? fantasy? Or did having her own angel
explain the perception of Celeste as mad, a fate that Sobran ultimately
suffered as well? In the final section, was Sobran physically with Xas when
touring the vineyard in contemporary times, or just in his mind? We hear
Satan saying that there is no free will, but never hear God's side. Does
this mean that humans who end up in Hell had no control over their own
fate, but are predestined by God? And what was the vintner's luck? Was it
really Xas, either directly or indirectly, making Sobran's vineyards and
personal life better? Since Xas seemed to simply reflect Sobran's own
opinions, was Sobran capable of making a good life without an angel?
Lots of loose ends that could have been tied up weren't. The author could have been provided moredepth on religious and philosophical questions; it seemed limited, despite the potential. But the author provided much too depth in description, with lots of repetition and more detail than some readers wanted. While the short chapters made for easy stop/start reading, readers also had problems with storylines that seemed disconnected - Leon, the murders, etc. And what was the relationship between the French wine terms in the chapter headings and most of the chapters' content. Was it a bit pretentious, like the book?
For our bookclub the major question, framed in different ways, was what was
the point of this book?
It pulls you in...........2007-02-04
I read this while in New Zealand, and it is one of my favorite contemporary works of fiction. The fact that I am a Christian and I wasn't offended by the relationship between the angel Xas and Sobran shows how skillfully and tactfully Knox writes. This book is fool of aesthetic beauty-- the way knox descripes the angels, the land, the people, etc.-- but it is the subtleties that slowly pull you in and the give the story that real complexity and profound meaning that all great novels have. The ideas presented of heaven, hell, sensation and experience are thought-provoking and tied in to the story in a way that doesn't seem preachy or overly-critical of Christianity.
That being said, this book is not for everyone. If you are especially squeamish, or are looking for a novel with the themes that reiterate traditional Judeo-Christian values, I'd stay away.
Loved it!.......2006-05-06
I was not sure when a friend recommended this book to me that I would like it.
I fell in love with it!
No, it is not a happy go lucky angel swoops down to save the day type of story, it is actually quite tragic. The immages, emotions and love that is portrayed is beautiful. It is one of the few books that I kept after I read it (usually give my books away).
completely different - without comparison.......2005-09-09
I just re-read this book after first reading it about 6 years ago. At the time it was responsible for getting me away from 'airport literature' and into 'real' reading. Its not for the faint hearted - devout chistians may feel offended at times although I found the whole heaven/hell theory thought provoking and I respect the authors right to her opinion - imagined or otherwise. The characters were rich and palatable. So was the wine ! Some scenes are quite brutal but the emotions are very real and can be tough at times. I have never found another book remotely similar to this and am gob-smacked that someone can sit down and write something so profound.
Book Description
Renato Tizzoni, a waterworks man in the beautiful Tuscan village of Sant'Angelo D'Asso, has an infectious zest for life. But recently his rich and vibrant world has lost its piquancy. His best friend has died; his lovestruck teenaged daughter has become a sullen stranger; and even his passionate marriage is showing signs of cooling. To make matters worse, his beloved town is about to change dramatically. Prompted by a dream, Renato resolves to rediscover the flavor of life through a trip to Rome. But his fellow townspeople want in on the journey, and before long, Renato finds himself at the Vatican on behalf of all of them. There, as luck would have it, he finds a way to save his marriage, his family, and even his village.
Customer Reviews:
Lovely book lovely time.......2004-06-23
****
Renato's Luck is a pleasant read and a very postive (as opposed to dark and negative) book. I would recommend it for those who would like to be uplifted while they are entertained. It is a peaceful and satisfying book too.
The perspective of small town life from Renato is enjoyable. I have often wondered how and why someone would live their entire life in one place, avoid the change and almost designed "personal growth" that our culture encourages, and still manage to carve a happy and fulfilling life for her/himself. This book shows how this is possible. To be a little clearer, the book answers the question "How can you be a very ordinary man and live a boring life in a boring town and have no education or ambition or much spiritual life to speak of---and yet participate to the max in all life and the universe has to offer?"
When I finished reading Renato's Luck, I felt uplifted and inspired about the little things in my own life, and the value of each life, no matter how mundane or ordinary it looks to the outsider.
The descriptions of Italian life are beautiful too; they are not long windy descriptions though but more a "showing" than a "telling" which allowed you to absorb Tuscany culture feeling almost like you were there.
I rated it four stars instead of five because I think it is a very good book but not a great book (not one that I will read and reread over and over again, highlight and treasure forever). That said, it's well worth the money.
****
What a storia!.......2002-11-04
Having returned from a few months in Italy, I have wanted to stay in touch with all the "life" that Italia offers ... this book is a wonderful way to recapture the experience. The way Shapiro builds his characters and their dilemma, he really wraps the reader into Sant'Angelo. Che bello ... bravo Shapiro!
A perrfect read for a gloomy day!.......2002-09-06
I highly reccommend Renato's Luck to anyone who enjoys a chraacter driven novel full of interesting yet familiar characters. I found Renato and his fellow Tuscan villagers to have sharp insight into the absurdities and joys present in everyday life. Renato confronts the fears and challenges we all face as we get older and begin to question the choices we have made in life. The answers that Renato finds to these questions point to important truths that are present in our own lives.
A Renewed Taste for Life.......2001-11-07
Renato's Luck, from the first word to the last visual, is the perfect read for anyone seeking a renewed taste for life. Jeff Shapiro has taken the Italian culture and woven a tale of hope, faith, and new-found happiness throughout his characters. Renato, in particular, becomes the small town hero of a delightful Tuscan town. Every character that Renato encounters shares a unique tale, simple yet so very Italian. Amazing for an American expat living in Tuscany. The visuals in this book are so precise that anyone who has visited Siena, Montalcino, or anywhere in Tuscany for that matter will no doubt be transported back to the tranquility of the Italian countryside. I loved the Italian phrases throughout the book, including their incredible translations! Bravo, Jeff Shapiro. Bravo, indeed. A must read for all!
Bella, bella Signore Shapiro.......2001-10-18
Beautiful, beautiful Mr. Shapiro. Having spent two weeks in the Tuscany region this summer Renato's Luck quickly brought me back to the quiet, easy pace of the small towns in the region. Many of the towns/cities mentioned in the book we had actually been to. I think anybody wanting to go, or have been, to Tuscany would enjoy this story. In many, many ways his life is truly lucky.
Average customer rating:
- Bananamania continues
- Of Stone and Fruit
- When death comes along
- I Was Hoping For More
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Hardboiled and Hard Luck
Banana Yoshimoto
Manufacturer: Grove Press
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Binding: Paperback
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NP
ASIN: 0802142621 |
Book Description
In cherished novels such as Kitchen and Goodbye Tsugumi, Banana Yoshimoto’s warm, witty, and heartfelt depictions of the lives of young Japanese have earned her international acclaim and best-seller status. Her insightful, spare vision returns in two novellas possessed by the ghosts of love found and lost. In Hardboiled, the unnamed narrator is hiking in the mountains on an anniversary she has forgotten about, the anniversary of her ex-lover’s death. As she nears her hotel—stopping on the way at a hillside shrine and a strange soba shop—a sense of haunting falls over her. Perhaps these eerie events will help her make peace with her loss. Hard Luck is about another young woman, whose sister is dying and lies in a coma. Kuni’s fiancé left her after the accident, but his brother Sakai continues to visit, and the two of them gradually grow closer as they make peace with the impending loss of their loved one. Yoshimoto’s voice is clear, assured, and deeply moving, displaying again why she is one of Japan’s, and the world’s, most beloved writers.
Customer Reviews:
Bananamania continues.......2005-09-09
I can only say that these two stories are up to par with Banana's older books like Kitchen. Just read it.
Of Stone and Fruit.......2005-08-29
I have been a fan of Yoshimoto's body of work since 2001. After reading her debut novella Kitchen, I read her other translated works: N.P., Lizard, Amrita, Asleep, and Goodbye Tsugumi. While by far not my favorite Yoshimoto work, Hardboiled and Hard Luck is a decent work that includes a number of themes that are present in almost every Yoshimoto novel: memory, death, and the precious moments of life which deeply root themselves into our hearts.
The narrator of Hardboiled is a young woman traveling on her own through Japan's countryside. One day while walking upon a little used road the young woman comes across an old, dilapidated shrine where ten black stones are placed in a circle. Feeling an ominous air emanating from the stones, the young woman hurries back to town. However, inside an Udon noodle shop the woman finds one of the stones in one of her pockets. Later, she discovers that another one of the stones was used to build the bath within the inn in which she is staying for the night. At first she is unsure of why such odd things are happening to her, but soon it dawns on her that on the same date a year ago her friend and ex-lover Chizuru had died. Similar to the works of Murakami Haruki, it is not impossible to make amends with the dead in Yoshimoto's literary world.
Hard Luck details the final days that the nameless narrator spends with both her brain dead sister and her fiancé's older brother. In my opinion the more powerful of the two short novellas, Yoshimoto creates a gentle, delicate work that details not only the emotions of losing someone close, but the healing process one goes through when a family member who has suffered long is about to die.
Yoshimoto has often been criticized as a writer of fluff fiction, however, while she may not be in the same realm as Oe Kenzaburo or Takahashi Takako it does not mean that she does not bring something important to the world of Japanese Literature. Through her simple words, Yoshimoto can touch the hearts of readers. Something that a number of more literary writers are unable to do.
When death comes along.......2005-08-21
Yoshitmoto's new book (actually composed of two short stories) is about the human reaction when death comes along. It reveals our weakness to reject it and the urge for bravery and perspective to deal with it, as a living human being.
In the first short story, 'Hardboiled', the narrator went to stay in a country hotel on the anniversary of her ex-girlfriend's death. The narrative is interesting as the living and the dead are all woven together in the plot. Perhaps, it is really hard to distinguish who is living, or non-living (dead and non-living are different, in a metaphorical sense). There's a particularly interesting, which is about that it is not the dead that we should be afraid of, but the living. The story talks about the pain of losing a partner and the nostalgia of their romance.
In the second story, 'Hard Luck', another narrator has a sister who is going to die of a brain damage. This story is not as gothic as the first one and the suspense created by the notion of death is absent. Instead, it gives you a sweet account of the sisterhood between the living and the dead-to-be. There is also a romantic subplot in the story, between the narrator and the brother of her sister's fiance. The last chapter on the relationship between musical enlightenment and death sounds familiar in Haruki Murakami's fiction, especially in Kafka on the Shore and Dance Dance Dance.
The stories are written in plain English. There's no fancy description on the setting and the psychology of the characters. But the plainness works effectively in order to bring out the theme, death. There are a few regrets upon reading the book. First, I was expecting Yoshimoto to explore the theme of lesbianism or sexuality a bit more in the first story, as she did in Kitchen. I was trying to compare it with Murakami's Spunik Sweetheart. Second, I was looking for a more substantial work since her last publication. The stories are just too short to satisfy her readers. Perhaps, she might have published more in Japanese. I always don't know why the English version needs to take so long. Or are they not translating all her works?
I Was Hoping For More.......2005-07-19
I am a big fan of Ms. Yoshimoto's work. Her ability to evoke a spiritualism in a modern Asian context is fascinating to me. And her prose has a gentleness even in the face of stories of tragedy that I find soothing.
So it is with the two stories in this volume. In "Hardboiled" we have a young woman hiking and spending the night in a hotel on the anniversary of a friend/former lover's death. In the hotel she dreams of her friend and encounters the ghost of another woman who has committed suicide in the hotel. In "Hard Luck" we have a young woman whose sister is dying in a hospital because of an embolism and she is about to be taken off life support. In the course of the vigil and through the funeral she encounters the brother of her dead sister's fiancé and feels the first stirrings of love--the realization that life must go on.
Of course, my summaries do not do these stories justice. As always, Ms. Yoshimoto has produced simple, yet beautiful and truthful stories. My complaint is the dearth of text here. Almost all of Ms. Yoshimoto's books are brief but it amazes me the publishers had the nerve to put these two stories between hardcovers and price them what they did. Another couple stories of this caliber would have made it much more worthwhile. It's difficult not to feel you're getting a bit cheated.
Book Description
Award-winning author Miriam Toews's first novel tells the heartwarming story of two young mothers who set off on an adventure all their own, relying on luck, pluck, and friendship
Eighteen-year-old Lucy and her flamboyant friend Lish are two of the single moms who live in Have-a-Life, a housing project for single mothers better known as Half-a-Life. Lucy has no idea who the father of her son is, while Lish still pines for the father of her twins. Fathers aren't around much at the project. They're mostly the kind of people whose heads get cut out of pictures.
Life is tough for Lucy and Lish: Little Red Wagons and cheap strollers are the only way to get to and from the grocery store, and it's hard to make ends meet. So when Lish suggests a harebrained road trip in search of the fire-eater, Lucy can't help but be excited. They borrow a van held together with coat hangers and electrical tape, load it up with kids and clothes, and hit the road. Lucy tells her story in a wry, bittersweet voice that marks her as a literary sister to Nomi Nickel, the beloved narrator of Toews's A Complicated Kindness.
"A comic take on what initially appears to be a most improbable topic for humor--and it works." (Globe and Mail)
Customer Reviews:
Great book!.......2007-03-04
I loved, loved this book. Took me awhile to get through but only because I wanted to savour it. The first half of the book introduces each wacky character in Half-a-Life. The second half deals with Lish and Lucy's advenure to find Gotcha. This is a different, entertaining, and really cute book that I would read again and again.
Single mothers' Canadian club.......2006-12-22
Lucy, the first person narrator, and Lish are unwed mothers living in public housing in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a place where Fargo is considered the warm south. Lucy does not know the father of her child because "if you eat a whole can of beans how can you tell which one gave you gas." There are so many unfathered children in the building that their version of the alphabet song is "ABCDEFGHIJKalimony please". Both Lucy and Lish have difficult relationships with conventional respectable unsupportive (in the emotional sense) fathers of their own. These relationships form a faint thread of a plot, although the novel is largely made up of the intersecting stories of the other mothers in the building.
I was reminded of Adrian Leblanc's serious non-fiction "Random Family." That's a great book but Toew's is better, and actually contains more information about the singles mother's predicament, and offers more insight into her motivation, as well as being hilariously funny..
Once again we have a great Canadian female writer. Why is Canada the only country where a list of the top five writers cannot be made up that is not predominantly female?
Miriam Toew's First Novel is an unlikely vehicle for humour.......2000-05-11
Summer of My Amazing Luck, Miriam Toew's first novel, tells the story of single mothers who inhabit the fictional "Have-A-Life"- (A.K.A."Half-A-Life") welfare project in downtown Winnipeg. Single mom's on welfare seems an unlikey basis for humour, but Summer of My Amazing Luck, shortlisted for the Stephen Leacock Humour Prize in 1997, is gut-busting, laugh-out-loud hilarity. Told through the eyes of eighteen-year-old Lucy, who lives at "Half-a-Life" with her baby boy "Dillinger", we meet the Lucy's older, more worldly confident, the eccentric Lish, who's raising three young daughters, and is in deparate search for her one true love, a fire-eater from Colorado, the father of her twins.On the backdrop of Winnipeg's mosquito infested rainy season, Lucy and Lish try to make homes for their children, and find love and contentment in their own lives; we pity, admire and love them for it. Summer of My Amazing Luck is a wonderful book, and a tribute to mothers everywhere.
Interesting. Everything but the kitchen sink included........1999-01-15
Two single mothers living hand-to-mouth grapple with their desires to be loved and accepted and the relentless search for meaning in life. Ranges from humorous to pathetic. Leaves the reader with understanding, pity, and possibly even admiration for the unlikely heroines.
Book Description
Today is no ordinary day for thirty-eight-year-old Lanita Lightfoot. Today represents the culmination of years of struggle and sacrifice. Today she graduates from college. But first, Lanita’s husband treats her to a day of beauty at an upscale black salon in Los Angeles, during which she shares her story with the staff and the other customers–and what a story it is. . .
Talk about an entrance. Lanita was born in a little corner store in the thick of the Watts riots. Her untimely entry into the world saved the joint from being sacked by looters–and the shop owner showed his gratitude by giving Lanita’s mother, Aretha, a decade of rent-free residence. But when the reward dries up and Aretha takes to the bottle and a no-good loser boyfriend, Lanita’s life takes a sharp turn for the worse. Forced to live in a cramped, dingy apartment, Lanita longs for her real daddy to ride to the rescue. But when he finally shows up, she finds he isn’t quite the knight she’s dreamed of.
Still, Lanita is determined to make something of herself. A straight-A student throughout high school, she is accepted to Howard University in Washington, D.C., and marvels that she’s finally escaped the ghetto. As Lanita embarks on the journey of becoming a woman, she encounters icons including Michael Jackson and Todd Bridges, who help transform her perception of her own life. But one year short of graduation, she must return to Los Angeles to care for the ailing Aretha–an unpleasant reality that leads her to join in a sordid West Hollywood strip club and farther away from her dreams–until the fateful night her high school heart throb shows up at the club and shows her that the easy money she makes comes with a high price.
The bestselling author of The Night Before Thirty, Tajuana “TJ” Butler delivers one of her most richly imagined, complex, and beloved characters yet–and delves into the void that many young women spend their lifetime trying to fill: the one left by a father’s absence.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable .......2007-04-14
I enjoyed seeing Lanita's life come full circle. In my opinion, Ms Butler did a nice job of illustrating the strength and intrinsic motivation of the African American woman. Lanita was faced with several obstacles and disappointments that led her life in so many different directions, but she didn't let that stop her. Lanita was a good person who made good and bad choices, but she seemed to make choices out of love. This novel was a great trip down memory lane as well. I'm several years younger than Lanita and this novel gave me details about several events in our history that I hadn't known previously. Even though I got a slow start, I ended up really enjoying the book. I'd recommend it to others.
Stroke of luck...Stroke of genius.......2007-02-25
I was drawn into this story from the first page. And I could identify with some of the struggles Lanita faced amongst her peers growing up. This story was simply dynamic. I enjoyed how Ms. Butler took us back through moments in history, such as the Len Bias tragedy and the L.A. Riots, etc. The only inconsistency I found within the story were the characters using the terms "Da bomb" and "diss" during the late 70's and 80's. To my knowledge that slang hadn't yet emerged during those times. :) But in a nutshell it was a superb and engaging story!
Good Ol' Days.......2006-04-15
This is the first book I've read by Mrs. Butler, wanted to read "The Night Before Thirty", but never got around to it; I picked up this book, having no clue what it was about(the cover was missing). I just started reading and found myself totally caught-up in Lanita's story. This book was so well written and so interesting from the 1st page, it just draws you in. I loved the main character and loved reading her story, the ups and downs, highs and lows; Being around the same age as Lanita, I could totally relate to some of her experiences and it was fun reminicing on the good old days, the fun I had as a child, the people I've met; Very Good Read, Loved It....... Definately will be picking up other titles by this author.
Please get inspired TJ!.......2006-01-02
I read Just My Luck and did not think it was very good but wanted to give TJ another chance so I also read Hand-Me-Down Heartache and my opinion has not changed. TJ is not a very good writer in my opinion. Why write a novel that has no inspiration behind it? The characters are so flat that they all seem to be speaking from the same point of view. There is no depth or emotion coming off the pages at all. She describes the scenes waaaay too much. The reader can't even set up a visual that is based on the character's emotions and feelings. After every piece of dialogue TJ will tell is what, why, when, where. Where is the imagination...the creativity? While the main character tells her story in the beauty shop, the reader does not get the chance to feel the story because TJ will stop and tell us the phone rang in the shop and somebody had to answer it or another beautician was coming in the room. Why? It rarely had anything to do with the story at all. I found it to be very annoying and totally break up any interest I had in the main character's flashback. I only finished the book because I always finish books. It was very hard to finish due to TJ's very poor storytelling. Also, for a story that goes back in time TJ had a hard time keeping her slang terms straight. She would make references to slang terms the characters used in the 70s and 80s when the terms didn't really show up until the 90s. I feel like after reading this book I am certainly ready to self-publish my own. Reading books like this one boosts your personal opinion of your own writing skills!! Based on this bad read, I am ready to get my stuff out there. If TJ can do it I know that I am ready!!!
Walk Down Memory Lane.......2005-09-02
I read Just My Luck during a weekend at the beach. It was a perfect choice for relaxing by the ocean with few worries on my mind. One reason I enjoyed JML so much is because the main character is just a couple of years older than me and I vividly remembered so many of the events and people Lanita encountered during her journey into womanhood. It was exciting for me to recall those wonderful times during my own formative years. I suspect this novel will have a similar effect on any reader born during the mid sixties to early seventies.
If I'm being honest, the only 2 drawbacks to Ms. Butler's latest, is:
(1) The dialogue is a kind of stiff. I've never met people from Watts who speak so perfectly, even Lanita's alcoholic mother and poor friends. I would have liked to have at least a few characters split a verb or two. Too many of the characters spoke with the same "voice". It kept any of them from being totally developed and realistic.
(2) The chance encounters fell upon Lanita a little too easily.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Just My Luck is a lite, yet empowering story that will be a welcome treat for readers 30 and up. I will be looking up some of Ms. Butler's other books. I think I'll start with the night before 30.
Book Description
Banned in Vietnam until 1986, Dumb Luck--by the controversial and influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung--is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late colonial era. First published in Hanoi during 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuan. As it charts Xuan's fantastic social ascent, the novel provides a panoramic view of late colonial urban social order, from the filthy sidewalks of Hanoi's old commercial quarter to the gaudy mansions of the emergent Francophile northern upper classes. The transformation of traditional Vietnamese class and gender relations triggered by the growth of colonial capitalism represents a major theme of the novel.
Dumb Luck is the first translation of a major work by Vu Trong Phung, arguably the greatest Vietnamese writer of the twentieth century. The novel's clever plot, richly drawn characters and humorous tone and its preoccupation with sex, fashion and capitalism will appeal to a wide audience. It will appeal to students and scholars of Vietnam, comparative literature, colonial and postcolonial studies, and Southeast Asian civilization.
Vu Trong Phung died in Hanoi, in 1939 at the age of twenty-seven. He is the author of at least eight novels, seven plays, and several other works of fiction in addition to Dumb Luck.
Peter Zinoman is Associate Professor of Southeast Asian History, University of California, Berkeley. Nguyen Nguyet Cam is Vietnamese Language Instructor, University of California, Berkeley.
Customer Reviews:
excellent, hilarious book.......2005-11-11
i haven't read a lot of vietnamese literature but among those i've read, i would rank dumb luck and tale of kieu at the very top. dumb luck is hilarious and absurdly modern for its time and place. i could definitely see this book translated into a quirky comedic film (i think the preface says the author may have been influenced by such french films and i can see that, if that's true). the main character, red-haired xuan, is delightful but not annoying. not a word is wasted here -- every character and line of dialogue is essential to the story. the book is a quick, refreshing read. however, in trying to give an objective comparison, i can tell you that my israeli boyfriend also loved it but my vietnamese high school brother merely thought it was funny but not hilarious. pick up this book if you want to read an excellent piece of vietnamese literature or want to spend a few hours rollicking with laughter (or more likely smirking and uttering a couple of "hah!"s every few minutes). this is a rare, obscure find. read it if you have the opportunity to do so.
Best novel I have read for class.......2005-05-26
I was assigned this novel for a Vietnamese history class; I would not have even heard of it otherwise.
This novel is excellent. The writing style, translated from 1930's Vietnamese, is humourous, witty, and fast-paced. The luck, charisma, and quick thinking of Red-Haired Xuan is hilarious, and the plot is worthy of the best modern comedy movies (particularly British ones).
I have no clue how you would find out about this novel, but if you do, you should read it. It had me laughing out loud, and I am not a fan of historical or foreign novels. Considering that this novel is 70 years old and from a totally different language, it must be a masterpiece if to still be so good.
Amazon.com
Four mothers, four daughters, four families whose histories shift with the four winds depending on who's "saying" the stories. In 1949 four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, begin meeting to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk. United in shared unspeakable loss and hope, they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Rather than sink into tragedy, they choose to gather to raise their spirits and money. "To despair was to wish back for something already lost. Or to prolong what was already unbearable." Forty years later the stories and history continue.
With wit and sensitivity, Amy Tan examines the sometimes painful, often tender, and always deep connection between mothers and daughters. As each woman reveals her secrets, trying to unravel the truth about her life, the strings become more tangled, more entwined. Mothers boast or despair over daughters, and daughters roll their eyes even as they feel the inextricable tightening of their matriarchal ties. Tan is an astute storyteller, enticing readers to immerse themselves into these lives of complexity and mystery.
Book Description
This widely acclaimed bestseller spans two countries and two generations, following a group of Chinese women who meet to play mah jong, invest money and tell the secret stories of their lives. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club.
Customer Reviews:
Amy Tan has a gift with words........2007-06-23
I read this book a little over a year ago for my ap english 2 class. I really
liked how it displayed the Chinese culture and values. It is basically a book of mother-daughter relationships. There are four mothers and four daughters. The mothers are Chinese women who immigrated in the United States. The daughters are Chinese-American. It shows how people (like those in the United
States) tend to take their heritage for granted and just label themselves as Americans. When in reality your heritage will always be there and when you finally except wonderful relationships and things can come out of it.
thank you for your time,
Loran
Good novels bring inspirations to readers.......2007-05-28
I am a high school freshman in the United States. I was assigned to choose one of five novels and read it throughout this semester. This novel, The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan was my first choice because the story is about Chinese culture plus Mandarin is my native language. I believed that I would enjoy reading something that relates to my culture and actually I did. It is different from other novels since the whole story is separated into different little stories and put in different orders. Each little story represents a mother and daughter's marriage or family conflict.
In my opinion, the conflicts are caused because of mothers' and daughters' generation gaps and growing backgrounds. The mothers grow up in China where has many traditions and rules to follow. However, the daughters who grow up in San Francisco can choose their lives and want to be what they want to be. This makes the mothers think their daughters have lacks of consideration about their own lives. Therefore, the mothers want to control their daughters' lives since they used to follow those rules which tell them to do all the things considerable.
This novel has magic because every time I read this novel I would compare the way mothers treat their daughter in the book and the way my mother treats me. I would also ask questions to my self by saying "Does this mother use the same way to treat her daughter as the way my mom treats me?" The answer can be varied. Some of them are yes and some of them are absolutely no. For example, the way Suyuan's mother tells her that it's too late to change the reality that she is her mother makes me think it can be the way my mother tells me. For the reasons that, this statement makes sense that it's impossible to change the reality of a blood relationship so I would also accept this very logical sense. However, Lindo's mother left her in a rich family in order to gain some respects back makes me think it is not the way my mother would ever done to me. Since my mother sacrifices a lot in order to raise me up and lets me receive the best education, she wouldn't want to destroy the bitter that she has eaten and pave that she has built for me. Therefore, I recommend this book for teenagers to read because it is an inspired book that can make adolescences to think about their lives and observe their surroundings
A Book Remembered After 13 Years.......2007-04-06
The Joy Luck Club had stayed with me all these years even when I examine my own personal life in the current time. I had read the book when I was in the seventh grade and had a remarkable teacher. She was Mrs. Lattimer (and yes, she was white), a Harvard graduate teaching at an impoverished neighborhood from where I used to grow up. Sometimes, I wondered why she never taught at one of the more prestige middle schools even right now. Still, it was a book that we middle school students had to read and analyze. The class was actually an advance seminar class. Even to this day, I am surprised that we middle school students got a chance to watch a rated "R" movie. It was a "never" to watch a rated "R" movie. The only movies that I can remember watching that were rated "R" were movies in my former AP english literature class-Othello (which actually contained nudity). It's funny because from what I recall, I had couple of friends from the regular classes and they have never seen a rated "R" movie shown in an educational setting. Perhaps being in a gifted class really did come with all the special privileges(even though I was never identified as "gifted"; I was recommended). It just seemed that every book my classmates and I read in AP english could never resist incorporating some kind of sexual element. Indeed, the literary works were very great. And of course, sex is also shown in this movie.
Besides the entertainment value of the movie and the book, as well as the complex relationships between the mothers and the daughters, it was certainly a movie about survival. Presently, as I sit in my comfortable room, I could only relate to the need to survive and live a fulfilling life, a life that is so wonderful and full of bliss. Life is about survival. The word "survival" will always vibrate and echoe inside my ears and in my mind. It is a word that summarizes the very essence of life. When you're child or an adolescent, it is about surviving through school. Once you graduate from high school, a new level of survival comes into play; and that is to make a living. Let's face it. Life really does center around making a living. We all need and want to live a life free from having to live a low standard of living like poverty and shortages of healthy food and crapy material possessions. Virtually everyone desires to have a career and be financially stable. In times where the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer, insecure feelings arise and stays in tact somewhere in our minds. The desire to be married to wonderful wife or husband, the desire to feel safe living in a dream home, the desire to not feel frieghtened when you are heavily sick, the desire to give your children and your grandchildren the best possible life, and the list can go on forever...-Indeed, let's face it, MONEY MAY NOT BE EVERYTHING, BUT IT IS CERTAINLY SOMETHING WE ALL STRIVE TO OBTAIN IN ITS VARIOUS FORMS. Money does have its value contrary to the popular belief that you hear about how money isn't everything or how money can't buy love. Like the feather of the swan-This feather may look like any other feather and seem worthless, but "it comes from a far away distance and contains all of my good intentions."
Mothers and Daughters.......2007-04-05
Any mother or daughter will love reading this collection of interwoven stories of family relationships. Some parts are graphic, but it makes for an important novel.
Please enter a title for your review.......2007-04-03
the one brief section that felt forced (dwelling on the significance of the ink used to sign a check) helped emphasize what is so effectively authentic about the writing of this novel generally. the origins and implications of an event are both presented as having equal substance, it never seems like something is just a bridge to get to a meaningful predecided outcome. aside from an occasional flaunted apathy to animal rights it's a good book.
Books:
- Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 5
- Blood And Ivory: A Tapestry
- Blood Brothers, exp. ed.
- BrandSimple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple and Succeed
- Brazen Virtue
- Chocolate Covered Forbidden Fruit
- Cien años de soledad: Edición conmemorativa (The 40th Anniversary Edition)
- Clinical Guidelines in Cross-Cultural Mental Health (Wiley Series in General and Clinical Psychiatry)
- Closing Argument: Defending (and Befriending) John Gotti, and Other Legal Battles I Have Waged
- Dangerous Journey: The Story of Pilgrim's Progress
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Power System Analysis and Design
- History: Fiction or Science
- Asymmetric Information in Financial Markets: Introduction and Applications
- Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood
- Financial Accounting: An Introduction to Concepts, Methods, and Uses
- Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
- History: Fiction or Science
- MP College Accounting 1-32 w/Home Depot AR
- Ethics of the International Monetary Systems
- The King in the Tree: Three Novellas
The Overlook (Harry Bosch)
Invisible Prey
The Watchman: A Joe Pike Novel (Joe Pike Novels)
Simple Genius
The Hard Way (Jack Reacher Novels)
