Product Description
The suicide of the local mailman has left the residents of this tiny Arizona town shell-shocked. Nothing this bad had ever happened here. But now it has, and more is on the way...because there's a new mailman in town, and he's not just delivering the typical bills and junk mail.
Book Description
The native Huchiun people once traversed the lush greenery of the Oakland hills, glimpsing breathtaking vistas as they followed the creeks down to the bay. In 1829, their territory became part of the huge land grant awarded to Mexican soldier Luis Maria Peralta, who in turn lost control of the hills as settlers arrived to harvest the virgin redwood. Although at one time a rustic haven for poet Joaquin Miller, who set up camp where a park now bears his name, the hills proved irresistible to developers. After transit lines reached the hills, promoters held picnics at the end of the line to entice people to buy land. Meadows and windswept hills turned to orchards and, soon after, to lovely neighborhoods.
Customer Reviews:
Oakland Hills, Images of America.......2006-07-20
I loved this book. The photos were wonderful, and brought back so many memories for me. "Oakland Hills" was nothing but wonderful photos with captions, and that was exactly what I wanted. I will buy more of the Images of America series for my own personal library. Erika Mailman has done an excellent job of putting historical photos and comments from residents of the area "back in the day". Well worth the price.
Great book on the history of the Oakland hills.......2006-05-15
Erika Mailman is a young lady who really knows her Oakland history. She has a regular column in the local newspaper (the Montclarion) where she shares insight of the area's rich history. In this book, she compiles old photographs from the Oakland Library History Room and creates a nice historic album of the Oakland Hills area (Montclair, Trestle Glen, Rockridge, and other areas of Oakland). Although most of the pictures are from the libraty, she adds valuable and insightful narrative that makes this an informative and interesting book. It is truly amazing how much things have changes in these areas of Oakland in just the past 100 years. This book is a must-own if you live in the Oakland area.
Average customer rating:
- Disappointing
- great historical fiction and postmodern perspectives on sex, gender, and the wild west
- Naughty and Nice
- Best read in a long, long, long time!
- San Francisco Bay Guardian Review
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Woman of Ill Fame
Erika Mailman
Manufacturer: Heyday Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
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And Only to Deceive : A Novel of Suspense
ASIN: 1597140511 |
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2007-04-28
Vivid description of San Francisco during the Gold Rush, but the story was disappointing - the character, her love interest - too predictable and fairy tale. Too much sex - not of the good kind. Somehow, it just seemed unbelievable that the main character, Nora, was having such a rockin' good time as a prostitute. The author seems promising - I'll give her another chance and look forward to her next book, but I hope that her fiction can develop a little more. She's obviously a great researcher, and can craft a basic story, but it needs a little more work.
great historical fiction and postmodern perspectives on sex, gender, and the wild west.......2007-03-28
Here in the Bay Area, Erika Mailman is a very popular local author for her fabulous history column and many historical publications based on Oakland, CA. A departure from her nonfiction books, "Woman of Ill Fame" is a her first published novel and this book was such a delight to read that I am compelled to post my first review on Amazon. I simply couldn't put this book down and stayed up to the wee hours reading twist after turn in this enjoyable and gratifying story! Mailman's novel has a little bit of everything: sex and romance, murder and mystery, as well as, a historical sense of place and a unique cast of intriguing and endearing characters.
As a historical researcher, Mailman's knack for rich detail makes Gold Rush era San Francisco just spring to life from the pages of this book! Mailman deftly captures the Wild West atmosphere with gritty realism (e.g. in one scene, the protagonist Nora describes, with historic accuracy, the tragic fate of young Chinese sex slaves caged in Opium dens). At the same time, Mailman conveys a realistic sense of opportunity that "uncivilized" California afforded so many early settlers. It's no surprise that California granted women the vote long before the rest of the Union. Mailman's tact for era-appropriate dialogue is also worth noting - it's the perfect balance and never feels contrived. If you enjoyed similar elements of realism in HBO's series "Deadwood," you will enjoy this book - pick up your copy today!
One more thing: Like many of the novels characters, the story's protagonist Nora Simms is refreshing and quirky. At times while reading this book, Nora's internal dialogue on gender relations literally made me laugh out loud! Mailman doesn't rely on overdone hooker cliches and presents young feminist female readers with a character that we can identify with. With a deconstructionist lens, this exploited Gold Rush era sex worker becomes a strong, sexually empowered, and financially independent multi-dimensional character, who is reluctant to relinquish her feedoms for marriage despite the social stigmas of her day. Nora feels very human - complete with flaws and rationalizations, moral flexibilities and insightful wit. I hope we'll see Nora Simms again in a sequel by Mailman!
Naughty and Nice.......2007-03-13
For as many books are written on the subject, you expect that every prostitute on the market has a heart of gold. Since such homogeneity is unfeasible, if not downright reductive--the population of soiled doves is surely as diverse as any other of society's phyla. Nora Simms, the protagonist of Erika Mailman's new novel, Woman of Ill Fame, is one of the kindest--and strongest--ladies of the evening in recent memory.
Nora's most memorable trait isn't her kindness, however. It's her frank acceptance of her situation, and her desire to make the most of it. She isn't squeamish about sex, takes pride in her physical gifts, works hard, and tells white lies to protect those she cares for. Arriving in San Francisco just after the Gold Rush has turned the city into a boomtown, Simms is shocked to discover a connection between her and a rash of murders. With considerable acuity she manages to protect her fellow prostitutes, duck the moral judgement of her landlord, elevate her status, find a suitor, all while trying to track down the vicious murderer.
Mailman seeds her historical research carefully, letting it bloom in just the right moments and measures. Woman of Ill Fame is a compulsively good portrait of vice, virtue, and early California.
Best read in a long, long, long time!.......2007-03-07
I read a book a week on average and this is by far my favorite in a long, long time. The author is a master of history and story telling. Nora is the most lively, complex and funny heroine. The story moves fast and is full of surprises and humor. Nora is refreshingly real and it is so much fun to watch her struggle with various moral issues while doing her best to be true to herself. I have recommended "Woman of Ill Fame" to two of my clients and they have both told me they tremendously enjoyed the read. I can't recommend buying this book enough. I am eagerly awaiting Erica Mailman's next book. Wish she'd write a follow up to "Woman of Ill Fame. " I'd love to see the next chapter of Nora's life.
San Francisco Bay Guardian Review .......2007-02-21
These days, if you were to hear the expression "ill fame," you might conjure up the Us Weekly mug shot of some wannabe celebrity. But in the San Francisco of 150 years ago, terms like "ill fame" and "frail" were slurs branding a woman as a prostitute -- and, as such, crop up with colorful frequency in Oakland author Erika Mailman's seductive debut novel, Woman of Ill Fame.
Mailman deftly transports us back to a crazy boomtown San Francisco flooded with fortune seekers who indulge in the city's notorious sex scene and wince at the outrageous cost of housing. That might call to mind the dot-com silliness of the late '90s, but it's also a fair depiction of the city during the gold rush of 1849.
Woman of Ill Fame's narrator is 18-year-old Nora Simms, who sails into town from Boston to mine the miners of their paychecks by selling them a few minutes with her body. Don't expect any angst or apologies for this, though. Nora is no hooker with a heart of gold, and Mailman doesn't try to apply the mainstream, modern-day view of prostitution to a time and place whose inhabitants lacked our compassion -- or squeamishness. Instead, we're rooting for Nora as she starts at the bottom of the local sex trade in the disease-infested row of working-girl stalls nicknamed "the cowyard," daydreaming of the time when she'll ascend to an upscale parlor house where the women wear ornate gowns and adopt bogus French accents.
Nora's ambitions hit a snag, however, after the trunk containing all her worldly possessions is stolen. Worse still, the bodies of butchered prostitutes begin turning up around town, and each of the victims is found wearing an item of clothing from Nora's vanished trunk.
The whodunit aspect makes Woman of Ill Fame a page-turner, and Mailman manages to keep the reader guessing. Yet it's the depiction of early San Francisco that propels this thriller above its genre, in the manner of historical fiction such as Caleb Carr's The Alienist. While the serial killer plot fuels the ride, the rich historical details take command of our senses, transporting us backward in time to step in the muddy streets and smell the stench of a city newly born.
As the author of two local-history books, Mailman has done the homework necessary to paint this vivid portrait. And as a fixture of the local writing scene, she has quietly and doggedly been honing her craft for more than a decade in places such as the San Francisco Writers Workshop. Now all that hard work is beginning to pay off, with Mailman emerging as a San Francisco author to watch. A second historical novel, The Witch's Trinity, is scheduled to come out in time for Halloween on Random House. Going from obscurity to two published novels in nine months is quite a feat -- and virtually unheard of. Clearly, Mailman's publishers are betting they've discovered new gold in San Francisco. *
[...].
Average customer rating:
- JUNK MAIL...
- A Very Odd Concept But Magnificent Read
- Agony
- Excellent Book! A MUST READ!
- So good, I was sorry to turn the last page!
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Mailman
Bentley Little
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Little, Bentley
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University
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The Store
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Death Instinct
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The Summoning
ASIN: 0451402375 |
Amazon.com
It's the first day of summer in a small American town. We meet a school teacher, his wife, and their young son, Billy. One thing, one seemingly minor thing, goes wrong. And all that was safe and ordinary slowly unravels into nightmare. This familiar premise for the contemporary horror novel has rarely, if ever, been developed so brilliantly as in Bentley Little's The Mailman. A tall, pale postal carrier with carrot-red hair may seem an unlikely candidate for the embodiment of evil, but Little reveals the personality behind the mailman's ever-present smile with such finesse, you'll be more than happy to fall under his spell. By the time the frightened town folk are chanting, "No mail! No mail! No mail! No mail!"--and Billy ends up half-naked in a dark room, next to a soiled wedding dress--you'll be jumping right out of your skin.
Customer Reviews:
JUNK MAIL..........2007-08-14
Bentley Little is one of the most ingenious authors in the horror genre. His ability to take the ordinary and make it into a fearsome thing is his signature hook. In this early work, we see him take one of the mundane chores in life, getting the mail, and turn it into something to be feared. There is a new mailman in town, and with his carrot red hair and his pale, pasty looks, he is just enough to give one the heebie-jeebies.
Doug Albin, a school teacher getting set to enjoy his summer vacation with his family, notices that the mail delivery is starting to get a bit weird in his small Arizona town. Moreover, the new mailman is getting progressively creepier, and there is something about the mail and its delivery that just isn't right. As everyday people and everyday activities seem to go haywire with the arrival of the new mailman and his delivery of the mail, Doug starts putting two and two together. The only question is whether what he discovers will be too little and too late.
This early work by the author gives a promise of what is to come. It has the idea but not yet the finesse or execution of his later works. The author just sets in place the concept of making the ordinary and commonplace a vehicle for the horrific without pulling out all the stops, as he does in his later works. Still, it is a worthy and original effort that fans of the author should read, if only to see the progress that the author has made over the years.
A Very Odd Concept But Magnificent Read.......2006-02-20
What The Mailman is really about is how easy it is for people to be held hostage by the powers that be. The things the mailman does in this book would be even easier to do these days with everything on computers.
The story begins when the Willis, Arizona's local mailman commits suicide. The town is in mourning and ripe for the picking. The new mailman starts delivering only good mail, no bills or junk mail. This is good except then the power goes out and other strange things happen leading English teacher, Doug Albin to suspect the new mailman. But when he goes to the police they think he is crazy. Then, stranger things start happening, more murders. Now, Doug is convinced that the mailman is involved since everything leads back to him.
The book picks up pace culminating with a farfetched and a kind of stretching it ending. All and all The Mailman pulls no punches and is full of the blood, gore and scares that should be in all horror.
Agony.......2005-12-22
This thing was so tedious that I began reading just the first line of each paragraph until I FINALLY got to the end. Doing so didn't detract a bit from the story, as Mr. Little takes several paragraphs, sometimes several pages, for each tiny step forward he makes. THE MAILMAN was a borrowed book, luckily for me and my wallet.
Previous one-star reviews tell it all, but permit me to repeat: Messing with the mail is a federal offense, so why didn't the citizens or the police go up the ladder about their new mailman? Why didn't anyone leave town when things got so ugly that utilities went out of service for weeks on end and body parts from old graves were delivered to helpless old ladies? What was the point of ANY of it? Why were so many characters only half-presented, like the original mailman's widow, raped to death by a foreign object wielded by a young woman just returned to town after a year or two in California following high school graduation, with the main character having been one of her teachers, although he barely remembers her and was surprised she remembered him...AAGGGHHH.
Why DIDN'T half the town take a ball bat to the mailman's knees? This is Arizona, remember. What sort of creature was the mailman? Why did he do it? Why did everyone in town start spitting on things? What was all that with the shop teacher's dead (Vietnam) brother, and why did the shop teacher fall for it, if his brother was such a great kid? Was it real, I mean was the brother evil and this was the revelation of that, or was it a (eeewww, gross!) trick of the mailman? Who was the tortured-to-death girl in the shop teacher's bedroom? Didn't anyone care who she was?
This was insane, meaningless, over-the-top sadistic (which makes me wonder!), and horribly attenuated, a story that could have been told in about 30 pages. No character acted the way a real person would. The main character kept circling back to the beginning, experiencing no changes or growth, just reaching the same decision over and over, winding back again, and doing the same NOTHING about the mailman, confronting the guy then running away like a total loser/coward before he got 3 words out. It felt as if the story just kept starting over. I wondered after a while if perhaps the author was drunk.
Sorry, Bentley! Sorry also to the kind acquaintance who loaned me the book as proof of Bentley's ability to entertain.
HATED IT!
Excellent Book! A MUST READ!.......2005-12-20
This is a very good book. I read the biography of Bentley Little and he first few books were about him turning his bad experiences with certain things into horror.
The Mailman will have you on the edge of your seat. Buy it now and get a good fright out of it!
So good, I was sorry to turn the last page!.......2005-12-11
This is just one of those super novels that just draws you into the author's mad universe -- ready, willing and able to suspend disbelief! Bentley Little's outrageous skill as a writer keeps you hooked from the first paragraph. Once you begin, there's no turning back. A must-read for the horror fan.
Average customer rating:
- A haunting tale of paranoia and fanaticism
- Spellbinding!
- strong historical fiction
- "Someone is making mischief and bringing misery to this village."
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The Witch's Trinity: A Novel
Erika Mailman
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
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Historical
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ASIN: 0307351521
Release Date: 2007-09-25 |
Book Description
The year is 1507, and a friar has arrived in Tierkinddorf, a remote German village nestled deeply in the woods. The village has been suffering a famine, and the villagers are desperately hungry. The friar’s arrival is a miracle, and when he claims he can restore the town to prosperity, the men and women gathered to hear him rejoice. The friar has a book called the Malleus Maleficarum—“The Witch’s Hammer”—a guide to gaining confessions of witchcraft. The friar promises he will identify the guilty woman who has brought God’s anger upon the town; she will be burned, and bounty will be restored. Tierkinddorf is filled with hope. Neighbors wonder aloud who has cursed them and how quickly can she be found? They begin sharing secrets with the friar.
Güde Müller, an elderly woman, has stark and frightening visions—recently she has seen things that defy explanation. None in the village know this, and Güde herself worries that perhaps her mind has begun to wander—certainly she has outlived all but one of her peers in Tierkinddorf. Yet of one thing she is absolutely certain: She has become an object of scorn and a burden to her son’s wife. In these desperate times her daughter-in-law would prefer one less hungry mouth at the family table. As the friar turns his eye on each member of the tiny community, Güde dreads what her daughter-in-law might say to win his favor.
Then one terrible night Güde follows an unearthly voice and the scent of charred meat into the snow-filled woods. Come morning, she no longer knows if the horror she witnessed was real or imagined. She only knows that if the friar hears of it, she may be damned in this life as well as the next.
The Witch’s Trinity beautifully illuminates a dark period of history; it is vividly imagined, elegantly written, haunting, and unforgettable.
Customer Reviews:
A haunting tale of paranoia and fanaticism.......2007-10-09
Human nature can be strange. The mentality of a mob for example, shows how brutal people can become when surrounded by others who are filled with passionate anger.
Erika Mailman shows us through the eyes of an elderly woman what it would have been like to live in the Middle Ages when witchcraft was thought to be the cause of any misfortune.
The famine described in this small village of Tierkinddorf, Germany is haunting. It made me feel strange reading the novel while having my lunch. I began to feel guilty knowing that the characters were willing to accuse others of witchcraft just to get a bite to eat.
A scapegoat was needed to place all the blame of the village's misfortune. It was thought that then, all things would revert back to days of plenty. That the famine would end.
The paranoia, the suspicion, the opportunity to point the finger of blame at someone whom you bear a grudge.
An accusation of milk spoiling was enough to damn someone to being burned to death, and you didn't even have to bring forth the spoiled milk as evidence. Your word was enough, if coupled with other such scurrilous complaints, to condemn someone to death.
Given today's sensibilities the thought of public execution is abhorrent. However, it is a gruesome part of our history that drawing and quarterings, beheadings, hangings, and burning at the stake were all done in the village square to serve as a lesson to all.
Beware or it may happen to you.
The Witch's Trinity is a potent tale whose ending surprised me.
I highly recommend it.
Spellbinding!.......2007-10-06
Erika Mailman's novel about witch burnings in 1507 Germany is so compelling you'll feel like you can smell the smoke from the pyre. It's also a vivid reminder of what happens when religious leaders twist the tenets of their faiths for their own evil agendas. This is historical fiction that turns out to be remarkably timely. ---Kemble Scott, Editor, SoMa Literary Review
strong historical fiction .......2007-09-29
By 1507, the Germanic villagers of remote Tierkinddorf fear a witch has cast an evil spell on them as they experience famine that has left many in dire straits of starving to death. A friar arrives claiming he can perform a miracle that will return opulence to the townsfolk as he affirms the whispers that a witch has in deed cursed the town. His tome the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch's Hammer) will enable him to obtain a confession from the guilty woman, who upon her burning at the stake will lift God's ire.
Elderly resident Gude Muller fears she is losing her mind as she begins seeing evil beings including her late husband as the devil; these visions frighten her. She also believes her daughter-in-law Irmeltrud wants her dead as she is useless to the family of four (not counting her) while eating their meager food supply. Meanwhile her best friend the town healer is burned at the stake after the condemnation by the Friar. When that fails to turn things around, he looks towards Güde with Irmeltrud encouraging the Friar and the townsfolk to claim her mother-in-law is a witch.
Readers will wonder throughout most of this strong historical fiction whether Gude is mentally incompetent, a coven is practicing nearby, or some supernatural essence is causing the crop failures. Because of her questionable sanity; Gude is a well drawn difficult character to understand; the friar is also complex as his motive might be a pious need to destroy the devil's followers but could also be an avaricious selfish use of the "terrorists" of that age; whereas Irmeltrud is simpler as her belief is that a person is a worthless consumer if they are not producing. Although the townsfolk never come across as fully developed and are easily interchangeable, readers will appreciate this interesting look at the superstitions of early sixteenth century Germany.
Harriet Klausner
"Someone is making mischief and bringing misery to this village.".......2007-09-25
With a stroke of her pen and a quote from the Malleus Maleficarum -the witch hunter's bible- Mailman plunges into a terrifying period of history, where superstition combines with ignorance and mass hysteria to accuse helpless women of witchcraft. Set in 1507 in the German village of Tierkenddorf, famine-starved neighbors cast covetous eyes on one another, their bellies empty and their minds fevered. In the home of Jost Muller, his wife, Irmeltrude resents each morsel shared with her elderly mother-in-law, Gude. Jost's son and daughter, silent, watch with widened eyes as Irmeltrude harries old Gude, one starless night pushing her from the hut, barring the door against the grandmother's return: "It was a winter to make bitter all souls."
Arriving in the village in response to a letter from the local lord, the stern-visaged Friar Johannes Fuchs, his voluminous black robes unfurling like wings against the snow, announces that he has come to purge this place of evil, the curse of witchcraft that has blighted the fields. The friar believes that just as "God punished the world with a flood... he is now punishing you with famine." Clearly witchcraft is at work. To discover and excise the source is to regain God's pleasure. All eyes fall on a solitary figure, Gude's girlhood friend, Kunne, now as bowed by age and hunger as the rest. An herbal healer, Kunne stands accused, neighbors stepping forward to complain of soured mild, hens that won't lay and barren wombs. Anguished, Gude watches as her dearest friend is stripped and burned on a pyre of wood, the village's lust for revenge temporarily sated.
But the famine does not abate. Most of the burg's able-bodied men take to the woods in search of game, knowing their quest may take them far; indeed, such are the odds that they may not return. Meanwhile, left to their empty larders and active imaginations, the women wait. Irmeltrude's rancor increases and Gude fears the malice in her daughter-in -law's eyes. Scheming to please the soul-hungry priest, Irmeltrude fastens upon the fact that the new friar gave meat to each family after Kunne's sacrifice. As hysteria mounts, the village turns one upon another, the innocent made guilty, the devil's malevolence at every hand. Without the men to temper their rampant emotions, new victims must be found to feed the beast of fear, even hunger forgotten in the heat of passion.
The clarity of Mailman's prose, the recreation of a simple village haunted by hunger, prey to the cajoling of the priest who claims authority to determine God's will and the helpless innocents who stand accused portray humanity at its most craven. Hearts turn to stone in self-preservation. Exposing the atavistic nature of survival, famine drives friends and neighbors to obscene behavior, blessed by a wild-eyed friar with a lust for sacrifice. Pulled back from the edge of despair, civilization is restored, but the ugly events of the recent past leave a mark upon the collective soul of this village, the same irrational fear that will erupt again and again over the years, innocent victims burned on the pyres of those seeking to placate God and point an accusatory finger at the devil. Mailman captures the madness in this place, at this time, a poignant reminder of our basest instincts left unchecked. Luan Gaines/2007.
Book Description
"'Masterpiece' would be an exaggeration, but only a small one."—Andrew Ervin, Washington Post Book World
"A phantasmagoria of American paranoia and self-loathing in the person of a deranged but somehow good-hearted middle-aged mail carrier in steep decline, the book hums with a kind of chipper angst," writes Jonathan Lethem in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. Mailman tells the blackly comic story of Albert Lippincott. Albert is Nestor, New York's mailman extraordinaire—aggressively cheerful, obsessively efficient. But he also has a few things to hide: his habit of reading other people's mail, a nervous breakdown, and a sexually ambiguous entanglement with his sister. Now his supervisors are on to his letter-hoarding compulsion, and there's a throbbing pain under his right arm. Things are closing in on Albert, who will soon be forced to confront, once and for all, his life's failures. Funny and moving, driven by a wild, compulsive interior voice, Mailman is a unique creation, a deeply original American novel. Already optioned to the movies, this astonishing and kinetically charged tale was one of the most exuberantly praised novels of 2003.
Customer Reviews:
Great, great novel.......2007-02-13
I read this book because Lennon had a story in THE BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES 2005 which I thought was fantastic. This novel, too, is great. It follows a short period in the life of one Albert Lippencott, or Mailman as the narrator refers to him, who is--you guessed it--a mailman. As such, he has a lot of time to think, and his wandering mind takes us to some very interesting places. He is at a crossroads of his life, where he finds himself in hot water thanks to his curious hobby of reading some of the mail he delivers. A paranoid person by nature, we never know how much of what Mailman believes is happening is true and what's in his head. And although Mailman is a flawed character, often acting selfishly and immorally, you get the feeling that he has decent intentions, most of the time. And regardless, he is thoroughly likable, like a character from Seinfeld or Ignatius O'Reilly, from A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES.
The writing of this book, the vivid description, the subtle humor, and the fun with which Lennon portrays all his characters made this one of the most enjoyable books I've read in awhile. I plan on reading more of his stuff.
'Mailman' -a novel, an excellent one.........2007-01-20
Mailman will enthrall you. It will leave you craving more even when the book sadly comes to an end. J. Robert Lennon makes you feel as though you are right there with Mailman on his crazy adventures. Perhaps there's a little bit of Mailman in all of us. Excellent novel. Excellent author.
It's only a book . . . It's only a book . . ........2006-08-14
I read this book after getting hooked on Lennon's serial story currently running in Harper's magazine. I found Mailman disturbing, but like other reviewers, I found myself relating intimately to some of the thoughts going through Albert's head. This made it all the more disturbing as I began to see the world with Albert's neurotic vision. 'It's only a book,' I'd remind myself as if I were a kid watching Frankenstein for the first time. The novels comedy is well done. I couldn't help but compare it to the comedy of silent films in general and Buster Keaton in particular. The protagonist's neurosis, or whatever it is, is unrelenting to the point where some will wish that Lennon would just get on with it. I found some of the descriptive passages unnecessary. They neither contributed to the setting, the mood or the plot of the piece. Perhaps I felt this way because reading it was a bit like wading against a current. I kept thinking there will be an epiphany for this guy. It ended like a modern symphonic work: disonant with the resolving note left to us.
This may not be a bad book for a book club selection as I think it would be interesting to discuss and listen to what others thought of it. But it is not a book for those who like their reading with at least some sacharin.
In conclusion, Lennon is a writer of great strength and I look forward to his future efforts.
A Great American Novel.......2006-04-24
This novel is a very contemporary American story, and to be pretty irreverent, is an uneasy hybrid of Kafka's "Metamorphosis" and Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers." Albert's life is one unending chain of uncomfortable moments and irritating distractions, sort of a neurotic nightmare, and yet a caricature of my own life. And by being a caricature of it, it allows me to laugh at myself a little more. And since I do see myself in Mailman, not something every reader will as much (fortunately for you) I am glad to be able to laugh. Albert Lippincot, our supremely frustrated protagonist, is a little bit of each of us; and Lennon seeks to allow me to make peace with that part. God bless you, Mr. Lennon.
Lennon's prose is remarkable. His characterization skills are great, and he gives a feel for the world through one man's eyes that is both perceptive and which transmits pages in a few choice words.
And a side note: Lennon's portrait of Albert's hometown of Nestor, New York, (loosely based on Ithaca, home of Lennon and of Cornell University) as Liberal Collegetown U.S.A. is so very dead on. I think that may be a block to some readers; if you haven't seen that phenomenon of the American college town, you may not believe how humorous a place it can be. Lennon looks at that self-absorbed, perpetually adolescent world with a wry humor. Me, I have been through it, and I share the same anguished chuckle along with the vegan pagans, or those who are self-possesssed enough to laugh at themselves.
If you enjoyed this, my first recommendation would be "Adios Scheherezade," an early work of Donald Westlake which had aspirations toward serious literature, but mostly wound up with hilarity. Kind of like my life. I'd also recommend "Girlfriend in a Coma" by Douglas Coupland.
Holden Caulfield of the US Postal Service.......2005-02-08
I've finished the book but can't seem to get it out of my head. As a mail carrier myself, Lipton really gets inside the mentality of what carrying mail does to your brain. Very, very few of us ever commit the dastardley deed that Alfred does....but many of have thought about it.
If you enjoyed Charles Bukowski's Post Office, this is a must read.
If you don't work for the USPS but love a well detailed fantasy ride inside someone's head read it also. The chapter on the ill-fated Peace Corp incursion is well worth the trip.
Average customer rating:
- May Swifter Editorial Minds Prevail. Soon.
- A Delightful trip back in time, Southern - Style
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The Gullah Mailman
Pierre McGowan
Manufacturer: Pentland Press (NC)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Reference & Collections
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
South
| Regional U.S.
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1571971998 |
Book Description
Life in Today's world is set at a frenzied pace. Everything has to be done faster and better than before and there is little time to sit back and enjoy the frivolous things in life. However, there are some places that still put value on simple pleasures such as enjoying a sunset or having a pleasant conversation with a neighbor. In a remote area of South Carolina known as St. Helena Island there is a community that had lasted for over one humdred and fifty years and is just as popular today as it was when it first began.
Pierre McGowan describes the friendly confines of St. Helena in The Gullah Mailman. Beginning with a detailed description of the island's history and physical topography, McGowan then launches into the biographical account of his father Sam McGowan's life. Sam left a promising social life in Charleston to become a mail carrier at this isolated community predominately inhabited by five thousand Gullah-speaking African-Americans. Over the years, Sam would become a trusted and respected friend to all the island's residents and their stories become his story in the impressive memoir.
Like his father pierre has also spent most of his life in St.Helena. His love for the community is evident in the special care he takes when describing the landscapes and the individual stories of the people that held such an invaluable place in his father's heart. The Gullah Mailman is a refreshing look at a life almost forgotten in today's hectic society and a reminder of the importance of community and family.
Customer Reviews:
May Swifter Editorial Minds Prevail. Soon........2000-11-09
Having grown up in the Bahamas, and then later visiting the Sea Islands off the coasts of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, I marvelled at the similarity of the spoken dialect. The intact African culture on Daufuskie and St. Helena was amazing to witness, given its proximity to the U.S. mainland via Beaufort, S.C. I have since made many friends in the area, and have watched as the local Gullah coalition has worked hard to maintain the purity and non-commercialism of their legacy.
Having said that, though, I don't honestly think that we'll have to worry about 'Gullah Mailman' being worked into the annals of classic Gullah literature. The book is so amateurishly bad that it begs gut-wrenching laughter. Non-linguist white people should not be encouraged to bastardize dialects under the guise of being quaint. [Disclaimer: I am a white person.] I could not stop laughing at his abysmal breakdown of the dialect, and had a hard time believing that the locals to whom he directed this farcical take on their language could keep a straight face either.
All in all, I'd stick with 'Legacy of Ibo Landing.'
A Delightful trip back in time, Southern - Style.......2000-09-04
Once you start reading this delightful book, you won't be able to put it down. Few have had the opportunity to experience life on the sea islands the way that Pierre McGowan and his father, Sam McGowan did during the period of the 30's through the 60's. Although there were certainly difficult times in many ways, both socially and economically, this book is a pleasant escape and will leave you smiling and chuckling. Great for those wishing to learn more about the sea islands and the people of the islands.
Average customer rating:
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What the Mailman Brought
Carolyn Craven
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0399212906 |
Average customer rating:
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The Barefoot Mailman
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000I545QC |
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