Book Description
The gripping international bestseller about motherhood gone awry
Eva never really wanted to be a mother—and certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much-adored teacher who tried to befriend him, all two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time for her to come to terms with marriage, career, family, parenthood, and Kevin's horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklyn. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Customer Reviews:
Disturbingly Good Book.......2007-09-18
Although I found this book to be written about very disturbing subject matter, I also found it to be very well written and compellingly readable. The mother of Kevin chronicles the ongoing crisis situation of an upwardly mobile New York couple and their decision to start a family. Dire consequences follow when their first child is nearly 16. The "narrator," in a series of letters to her huband reveals what happened with tantalizing glimpses of her life at present and the life of her family in the past.
Shriver also makes sly yet poignant commentary on American culture throughout the book, and it really works in this context, not ever coming across as condemning or preachy. She writes what is real, and gives life to her characters in the suburban, upper-class environment they live in.
I don't want to give too much of this book away, but Shriver does an excellent job with this storyline. This is sophisticated writing with incredible character development and a great story that actually has meaning, something that seems to be lacking in so much popular literature of the day.
A Chilling, Riveting, Brilliant Page Turner.......2007-09-16
This is one of the best books I've read in a while and I read everything! It is riveting, creepy, intelligent, and profound. I just devoured it. It's one of those stories that stays with you long after you finish the last page. This was my first book of Lionel Shriver's and I can't wait to read more of her stuff. Great book!
Excellent, Disturbing Read.......2007-09-14
A Novel, a story - that's what I had to keep telling myself. One that stays with you. The Negative to "My Sister's Keeper" - just as haunting.
Brilliant and compelling.......2007-09-04
This book held my interest all the way through even though parts of it could have been a bit more condensed. Kevin sent chills up my spine.
I found it very difficult to sympathize with his mother, but I also found it difficult not to examine my own style of parenting as compared to her style and her husband's.
I think the book was far superior to Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.
Mesmerizing, hauntingly so...........2007-08-27
The novel is based upon a series of letters that the protagonist, Eva, writes to her husband, wanting to understand what went wrong with Kevin, what made Kevin do what he did. The letters are truly mesmerizing in a horrible/haunting sort of way. I was reminded of Lovely Bones, where the horror of the act that Kevin committed is not as terrible as you think it might be, that you can stomach it if only because you want to understand how it came about.
Eva is by her own admission, not the best of mothers. Still her letters are so well written, at times the word choice so exquisite, the stories she tells so commanding, that you pull back and think 'this is an intelligent woman' and you admire her and wish you could know her. Other times you despise her and want to shake her and say 'how could you pit yourself against him all the time, be reasonable' . In the end I felt only pity for her, she obviously didn't realize what she had when she had it and she failed to recognize the warning signs. So she confines herself to her own little hell, and in the end comes to understand more about her son and herself - perhaps more than she ever really planned too.
Shriver is a dark writer - by her own admission (at the end of the book we get a conversation with Shriver about Kevin, about books she recommends...). She is very convincing at portraying Eva as a successful woman who occasionally suffers from insistent whining...ah, but such is the dilemma of first person novels... and Eva is perhaps sometimes too much the villain, but then hind sight is always better than foresight...Still this is brilliantly written and well worth reading, a letter at a time. I could even forgive Shriver's use of "mobile" instead of cell phone (apparently, Shriver has been residing in London for a very long time). Shriver's character, Eva, most likely would have used the word 'mobile' rather than 'cell', if just to distance herself from the general rabble so I let it slide, figuring it to be more in keeping with Eva's character, although at first I felt it a grating mistake for one who is so bent on being right and supposedly American.
A haunting tale that captures your attention and holds it through 400 pages wanting to know how it ends...
Book Description
One of America's most powerful and thought-provoking novelists, New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult brilliantly examines belief, miracles, and the complex core of family.
When the marriage of Mariah White and her cheating husband, Colin, turns ugly and disintegrates, their seven-year-old daughter, Faith, is there to witness it all. In the aftermath of a rapid divorce, Mariah falls into a deep depression -- and suddenly Faith, a child with no religious background whatsoever, hears divine voices, starts reciting biblical passages, and develops stigmata. And when the miraculous healings begin, mother and daughter are thrust into the volatile center of controversy and into the heat of a custody battle -- trapped in a mad media circus that threatens what little stability the family has left.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful & Haunting.......2007-10-10
My very first Jodi Picoult story, and will not be my last -- amazing and beautiful, it definitely will carry you through any business trip... I travel frequently for business and airport time is never any fun. Thanks to this novel, I enjoyed my week of travel -- guaranteed to keep your interest while on the beach as well.
Keeping Faith and faith.......2007-10-02
Since Faith has been having difficulties accepting her parents' divorce, everyone thought that her new imaginary friend, "her guard", was merely a coping mechanism. "Her guard" teaches Faith things about religion that she had no way of knowing otherwise. When her grandmother dies, Faith brings her back to life. That's when things become difficult. A religious following gathers outside of Faith's house. This crowd includes Ian Fletcher, a man who makes a living by investigating religious phenomenon and usually proving them to be hoaxes. The situation intensifies, leading Faith's father to begin fighting for custody. Faith's mother, Mariah, fights to keep her daughter, Faith, as well as to keep faith in her daughter and herself. Therefore the title is actually a very clever double-entendre.
The characters are very well-developed, making this unlikely story seem to be very plausible. The vivid settings also add realism to the story. This absolutely enthralling story of Faith is almost impossible to put down. Congratulations to Jodi Picoult on her masterpiece, my favorite of all her books that I have read so far!
Great potential in the plot, but a horrible delivery.......2007-09-26
The plot of this book immediately caught my attention. It's intriguing, controversial, supernatural; something to make people think. With a better writer, this could have been an extraordinary book! Unfortuately, it was painful to read.
Rather than consistently following one character's perspective, the author switched points-of-view frequently and with little warning. For the most part, it was written in first person, present tense, but even that was inconsistent. Sometimes it was first person for Faith (the young girl) and sometimes first person for her mother or her psychologist. Sprinkled throughout were flashbacks that added very little to the plot. I rolled my eyes more than once at the trite dialog. Worst of all, I suffered through the book only to reach an inconclusive end. The final pages sparked more confusion than resolve.
I didn't expect accurate or even consistent theology. I did, however, expect the author to be consistent with her story. I didn't want her characters to match my personal doctrine, but I think did expect the author to understand her characters' beliefs and explain them thoroughly. The end of the book simply highlighted how little the author knew about the world she had created.
Final Thoughts: Painful and disappointing. The plot was fascinating, but the delivery was awful. Not recommended.
It's ok - raises questions.......2007-09-24
I have to agree with a lot of reviewers - this book was predictable and relationships weren't built properly. As I finished the book I felt the author barely had written anything original. So why did I like this book? Even though much of the plot has been done before - I think it's a good book club book. The author puts scenarios together that are great for discussion and reflection. The question of who is God and where is God in our own life is something this book doesn't answer - but seems to point out the need to have thought out answers for ourselves....
Great Read.......2007-09-12
Once again she's done it. I was very sorry when it ended!!! She dealt with a very difficult subject and made it very understandable. Awesome!
Amazon.com
Oprah Book Club® Selection, June 2000: As any reader of The Mosquito Coast knows, men who drag their families to far-off climes in pursuit of an Idea seldom come to any good, while those familiar with At Play in the Fields of the Lord or Kalimantaan understand that the minute a missionary sets foot on the fictional stage, all hell is about to break loose. So when Barbara Kingsolver sends missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters off to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible, you can be sure that salvation is the one thing they're not likely to find. The year is 1959 and the place is the Belgian Congo. Nathan, a Baptist preacher, has come to spread the Word in a remote village reachable only by airplane. To say that he and his family are woefully unprepared would be an understatement: "We came from Bethlehem, Georgia, bearing Betty Crocker cake mixes into the jungle," says Leah, one of Nathan's daughters. But of course it isn't long before they discover that the tremendous humidity has rendered the mixes unusable, their clothes are unsuitable, and they've arrived in the middle of political upheaval as the Congolese seek to wrest independence from Belgium. In addition to poisonous snakes, dangerous animals, and the hostility of the villagers to Nathan's fiery take-no-prisoners brand of Christianity, there are also rebels in the jungle and the threat of war in the air. Could things get any worse?
In fact they can and they do. The first part of The Poisonwood Bible revolves around Nathan's intransigent, bullying personality and his effect on both his family and the village they have come to. As political instability grows in the Congo, so does the local witch doctor's animus toward the Prices, and both seem to converge with tragic consequences about halfway through the novel. From that point on, the family is dispersed and the novel follows each member's fortune across a span of more than 30 years.
The Poisonwood Bible is arguably Barbara Kingsolver's most ambitious work, and it reveals both her great strengths and her weaknesses. As Nathan Price's wife and daughters tell their stories in alternating chapters, Kingsolver does a good job of differentiating the voices. But at times they can grate--teenage Rachel's tendency towards precious malapropisms is particularly annoying (students practice their "French congregations"; Nathan's refusal to take his family home is a "tapestry of justice"). More problematic is Kingsolver's tendency to wear her politics on her sleeve; this is particularly evident in the second half of the novel, in which she uses her characters as mouthpieces to explicate the complicated and tragic history of the Belgian Congo.
Despite these weaknesses, Kingsolver's fully realized, three-dimensional characters make The Poisonwood Bible compelling, especially in the first half, when Nathan Price is still at the center of the action. And in her treatment of Africa and the Africans she is at her best, exhibiting the acute perception, moral engagement, and lyrical prose that have made her previous novels so successful. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
Blew me away!.......2007-10-09
This is one of the handful of contempory fiction books that makes it to my top 10 list. I avoided this book for a while because the premise -- a missionary family from Georgia in the Belgian Congo -- just didn't appeal to me. I don't know what compelled me to pick the book up and give it a try, but I am so happy that I did. Once I picked this novel up I could barely put it down. This family's story is fascinating, tragic, and beautiful. If you are at all on the fence about this book I highly recommend you give it a chance!
Poisonwood Bible.......2007-10-07
An excellent book that grips you from the start.As I am not religious I had a few reservations about reading it when I saw it was about missionaries, but the story is essentially about their family life in the Congo and the dangers they faced. It is written from the point of first the mother then each of her four daughters and is very skilfully done. I love this author and this is one of her best. It is entirely different from anything else she has written.
One of my favorites..........2007-10-03
The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel (P.S.)
I've read this at least half a dozen times in the last several years & ALWAYS find nuances and plot points that are new. Kingsolver provides seamless transitions between the voices of the characters while managing to hold each one accountable for her own actions and the way their impact magnifies as it ripples outward through the family and into the community. I especially enjoyed Adah's biting wit & sarcasm from the perspective of her "diagnosis" and is a character I'd really like to meet in real life.
Thank you Barbara........2007-09-27
What can I say, Barbara Kingsolver is one of my favorite writers. She's witty, inventive, and lyrical, to say the least. Just blew my mind with this one. It's amazing how every sentence is so poetic and so fascinating from start to finish. Great story. Beautifully written. A masterpiece.
Quite an Experience.......2007-09-26
After reading this book, I feel like I myself have lived in the Congo. Some parts were annoying/slow (especially the chapters narrated by Adah in the beginning), but it's worth reading the entire thing just to get the experience of raw Africa. It's been over 6 months since I've read the book, but I still think about it from time to time and look at the comforts & conveniences around me in appreciation.
This is NOT a pro-religion, evangelistical novel, so don't get turned off by that aspect of the plot. Read it for the extremely trying experience of living, nay, surviving in Africa.
Book Description
Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. An elderly Russian woman now living in America, she cannot hold on to fresh memories—the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild—yet her distant past is miraculously preserved in her mind's eye.
Vivid images of her youth in war-torn Leningrad arise unbidden, carrying her back to the terrible fall of 1941, when she was a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum and the German army's approach signaled the beginning of what would be a long, torturous siege on the city. As the people braved starvation, bitter cold, and a relentless German onslaught, Marina joined other staff members in removing the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, leaving the frames hanging empty on the walls to symbolize the artworks' eventual return. As the Luftwaffe's bombs pounded the proud, stricken city, Marina built a personal Hermitage in her mind—a refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more. . . .
Download Description
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One of the most talked about books of the year . . . Bit by bit, the ravages of age are eroding Marina's grip on the everyday. And while the elderly Russian woman cannot hold on to fresh memories -- the details of her grown children's lives, the approaching wedding of her grandchild -- her distant past is preserved: vivid images that rise unbidden of her youth in war-torn Leningrad.
In the fall of 1941, the German army approached the outskirts of Leningrad, signaling the beginning of what would become a long and torturous siege. During the ensuing months, the city's inhabitants would brave starvation and the bitter cold, all while fending off the constant German onslaught. Marina, then a tour guide at the Hermitage Museum, along with other staff members, was instructed to take down the museum's priceless masterpieces for safekeeping, yet leave the frames hanging empty on the walls -- a symbol of the artworks' eventual return. To hold on to sanity when the Luftwaffe's bombs began to fall, she burned to memory, brushstroke by brushstroke, these exquisite artworks: the nude figures of women, the angels, the serene Madonnas that had so shortly before gazed down upon her. She used them to furnish a ""memory palace,"" a personal Hermitage in her mind to which she retreated to escape terror, hunger, and encroaching death. A refuge that would stay buried deep within her, until she needed it once more. . . .
Seamlessly moving back and forth in time between the Soviet Union and contemporary America, The Madonnas of Leningrad is a searing portrait of war and remembrance, of the power of love, memory, and art to offer beauty, grace, and hope in the face of overwhelming despair. Gripping, touching, and heartbreaking, it marks the debut of Debra Dean, a bold new voice in American fiction.
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Customer Reviews:
A Docent's Take.......2007-10-09
I work as a docent at two museums, so this book had a particularly strong impact on me. As a devoted lover of fine art and literature, and never having realized my lifelong dream of visiting the Hermitage, I found this book satisfying and moving on so many levels. A beautifully written tale of human courage and sacrifice, of beauty and horror intertwined, The Madonnas of Leningrad is a touching, aching testament to the human spirit. I'm now looking forward even more eagerly to my own next opportunities to bring the beauty of art and the human drama it represents to the visitors on my own tours!
Loved it! And the madonnas were not only in the paintings........2007-09-09
Someone may already have pointed this out, but isn't part of the point of the shifting timescape the fact that this is what happens in Alzheimer's? One minute you're there, and the next, you're not? Or you're somewhere else? I found the author's use of time-shifting extremely effective. In addition, I thought her blending of Marina's lives (for lack of a better word) was handled with delicacy and skill. The way she came back, at the end, to Marina's sweet attempt to "show her rescuer the world" was, in my mind, exquisitely done and very poignant. Marina had several worlds--some real, some imagined--all along. I am fortunate to have some knowledge of Russian history and the siege of Leningrad, but that certainly is not a requirement for enjoying the narrative. I thought this book was terrific--my favorite summer read. Highly recommended.
disappointment.......2007-09-09
I totally agree with Electra Wilson's review. The book was definitely not what I had expected. I know St. Petersburg quite well and bought the book because I was intrigued by its title. What I had hoped for was a typically Russian story but unfortunately I could not find the Russian soul in it anywhere. It should have been entitled "the war-time experience of an Alzheimer's patient." War is horrific in any setting, and Debra Dean made it Leningrad by mentioning a few monuments and streets and by choosing Russian names for her characters. But which authentically Russian "babushka" would worship a foreign painting, even in times of extreme hardship? She would perhaps have a time-worn picture of an ikon folded up in her pocket that she would take out and look at once in a while when times got hard. Marina's reunion with Dmitri after the war is also extremely far-fetched. What are the odds she would accidentally run into him on the street in another country? And what ultimately happened to the children Mikhail and Tatiana? There is no tying up loose ends and the story becomes totally unsatisfactory. If you love Russia, and especially St. Petersburg, like I do, skip the book.
Beautiful and thought-provoking.......2007-09-05
It is rare to find a book so carefully crafted and so hauntingly beautiful.
If you're looking for a book that you will think about as you go about your daily life, this is it. [And I must confess that I spent my share of time googling the paintings Marina describes.]
"joy or grief, eventually they are inseparable".......2007-09-01
_The Madonnas of Leningrad_ shows us the world through the eyes of a survivor of the seige of Leningrad, both as it was happening to Marina in 1941, and as it was remembered by an 82 year-old Marina suffering from Alzheimer's. It is a heart-breakingly beautiful story, as Dean vividly describes not only the magnificence of the Hermitage (and its artwork), but also the struggles Marina faces as both a young woman and a crone.
I was particularly struck by the way Dean allowed me to see through the eyes of a woman with Alzheimer's - what Marina's husband, daughter, or construction workers saw as nonsensical, was, in fact, logical to what was going on in Marina's mind. The ebb and flow between time and place, the gradual loss of ones self, and the child-like wonder of someone suffering from dementia were humanely portrayed. Recommended.
Amazon.com
The Space Between Us, Thrity Umrigar's poignant novel about a wealthy woman and her downtrodden servant, offers a revealing look at class and gender roles in modern day Bombay. Alternatively told through the eyes of Sera, a Parsi widow whose pregnant daughter and son-in-law share her elegant home, and Bhima, the elderly housekeeper who must support her orphaned granddaughter, Umrigar does an admirable job of creating two sympathetic characters whose bond goes far deeper than that of employer and employee.
When we first meet Bhima, she is sharing a thin mattress with Maya, the granddaughter upon whom high hopes and dreams were placed, only to be shattered by an unexpected pregnancy and its disastrous consequences. As time goes on, we learn that Sera and her family have used their power and money time and time again to influence the lives of Bhima and Maya, from caring for Bhima's estranged husband after a workplace accident, to providing the funds for Maya's college education. We also learn that Sera's seemingly privileged life is not as it appears; after enduring years of cruelty under her mother-in-law's roof, she faced physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her husband, pain that only Bhima could see and alleviate. Yet through the triumphs and tragedies, Sera and Bhima always shared a bond that transcended class and race; a bond shared by two women whose fate always seemed to rest in the hands of others, just outside their control.
Told in a series of flashbacks and present day encounters, The Space Between Us gains strength from both plot and prose. A beautiful tale of tragedy and hope, Umrigar's second novel is sure to linger in readers' minds. --Gisele Toueg
Book Description
Poignant, evocative, and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. A powerful and perceptive literary masterwork, author Thrity Umrigar's extraordinary novel demonstrates how the lives of the rich and poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and how the strong bonds of womanhood are eternally opposed by the divisions of class and culture.
Download Description
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Each morning, Bhima, a domestic servant in contemporary Bombay, leaves her own small shanty in the slums to tend to another woman's house. In Sera Dubash's home, Bhima scrubs the floors of a house in which she remains an outsider. She cleans furniture she is not permitted to sit on. She washes glasses from which she is not allowed to drink. Yet despite being separated from each other by blood and class, she and Sera find themselves bound by gender and shared life experiences.
Sera is an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage. A widow, she devotes herself to her family, spending much of her time caring for her pregnant daughter, Dinaz, a kindhearted, educated professional, and her charming and successful son-in-law, Viraf.
Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years. Cursed by fate, she sacrifices all for her beautiful, headstrong granddaughter, Maya, a university student whose education -- paid for by Sera -- will enable them to escape the slums. But when an unwed Maya becomes pregnant by a man whose identity she refuses to reveal, Bhima's dreams of a better life for her granddaughter, as well as for herself, may be shattered forever.
Poignant and compelling, evocative and unforgettable, The Space Between Us is an intimate portrait of a distant yet familiar world. Set in modern-day India and witnessed through two compelling and achingly real women, the novel shows how the lives of the rich and the poor are intrinsically connected yet vastly removed from each other, and vividly captures how the bonds of womanhood are pitted against the divisions of class and culture.
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Customer Reviews:
Don't bother.......2007-10-04
It is amazing to me what a publisher will publish in this day and age. This book is worthless. There is no plot. The characters are not developed and nothing they do or say makes any sense. It appears to me, after wasting my time reading this book, that the author's sole purpose is to pass her own depression and melancholy on to others. You know, misery loves company. Well, you will be absolutely miserable if you try to read this book.
A Heavy Read........2007-10-03
I found this book to be a heavy read. It is, as the author says, a book about what brings us together and what divides us as human beings. The storytelling is very well done as is the character development. Sera and Bhima form an intimate relationship without every overcoming the separation of social class that prevents a friendship between them. I have to admit that I didn't really like the ending.
The Predictable Space Between Us.......2007-09-18
This book came highly recommended, and unfortunately it disappointed me. The plot was highly predictable, after the first 35 pages or so. In the end it turned out to be more of a soap opera than an intelligent insight into the characters that I was looking forward to. The book does not even come close to Rohinton Mistri's depiction of the Parsi community in Bombay and is more melodramatic than thought provoking.
The Space Between All of Us.......2007-08-31
This is a beautifully written book which can transcend so many different cultures, lifestyles and places. The bond that grew between the different groups of women was magical to me. And, to once again, read a book in which the women are strong and withstand incredibly painful situations continues to make me realize how powerful women are. Highly recommend this book to everyone.
Sublime, Masterful and Poignant.......2007-08-08
I highly recommend this incredible book. This moving tale of two women co-existing side by side in an overtly divided world is masterfully written. One of the best works of contemporary fiction I have ever read.
Book Description
Eleven Minutes is the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer. . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness -- sexual pleasure for its own sake -- or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
A Tale In The Dark .......2007-08-28
What pleases me in Paulo Coelho's work, and in this book in particular, is his ability to penetrate the psyche of characters and make a story evolve from that,and not from detailed descriptions of actions or places. If you compare him to, let's say, Emile Zola, where the characters from the gutters of society are usually vicious by nature (genes) or by the action of a decadent society, we will see in Maria, a prostitute, a being that suffers and dreams like anybody else, without this necessarily meaning that the author is condoning or condeming prostitution. The painter she falls in love with, a successful artist who is "tired of sex", is as unhappy yet full of longing as she is. And Paulo Coelho builds a beautiful and complex plot of how their chemistry evolves - even if it may wind up a little naive sometimes, since, personally, I haven't seen two people change into enlightened lovers so fast. But their innocence thriving in a cruel, loveless world, even despite their defenses, and their struggle to keep "real", is refreshing, and even edifying, even if not a fact of everyday reality. I don't think this book will please those who are looking for a realistic portrait of the dirty and dark side of life at Copacabana (a bar in Switzerland) or in Rio de Janeiro. But it will please those who believe literature isn't journalism, but rather an expression of an author's own subjective interpretation of love. Paulo Coelho is, before anything else, a poet. If you brake his text into verses, a poem comes out of it. He is giving you a sad reality just to have it tested against the power of the mystic poetry of his discourse. You will be able to let his personal poetry sink into you, if you manage to accept the author using prostitutes and "special clients" as ordinary people as his models - who, to him, are human beings capable of love and cynicism just like any one of us - not creatures of "low life".
couldn't believe it..trash!.......2007-08-18
It's hard to believe this is the same writer who wrote the Alchemist.
This book is trash. I have never dropped a book straight into the trash can before. Usually, I drop it in the mail to a friend (as I did with the alchemist) or keep it in my permanent library. I stopped reading this book 3/4 of the way through it. Then the next day I picked it up off the floor where I tossed it, flipped to the last two pages, read them, laughed, and dropped it right in the trash can.
This storyline is unrealistic. It's completely goofy garbage.. Comparing sacred sex to sex without love doesn't require such drastic measures, measures that are completely unrealistic at that. All this book is, is a steamy romance novel about sex, pornography in my opinion. There was nothing intellectual about the novel. Not even in the sense of being able to learn random facts. All it will do is leave an imprint on your mind of detailed sex scenes and then a ridiculously flimsy love story to go along with it that is highly unlikely. It seems like this book was written by a teenager. I am shocked it was written by Paulo Coelho.
HE HAS DONE IT AGAIN.......2007-08-09
As a writer myself, I am amazed by the talent and brilliance of Coelho. I do not believe you can learn to write like this. It is pure inspiration writing from a higer source that Coelho is in touch with. This book was certainly a masterpiece and enjoyable every second of my reading. Couldnt wait to come back to it after putting it down. 11 minutes discussed and explores the biggest area in all our lives sex and love. The story is enlightening and exquisitely crafted by the best writer that I have ever come in contact with. Thanks again Paulo, wish I had what you have. Perhaps it will come along in my search for excellence in writing. Highly recommended. Im now reading Coelos latest book. Ive read them all and will keep reading as long as he keeps writing.
The best of Coelho's books by far (surpasses The Alchemist).......2007-07-30
I am an avid reader of Paulo Coelho; his books are enlightening and inspirational to say the least. Eleven Minutes is by FAR the best one he has written thus far. This passionate book can be explicit at times, only because it has to be if it intends to effectively examine love, sex and relationships. Mainly, it explores the nature of love and lust, and the important difference between the two. While reading Eleven Minutes, I found myself laughing and crying with each passing moment. At the very last page, I felt completely fufilled and wise- as though everything I needed to know about love was expressed or at the very least touched upon in this book. READ THIS BOOK if you are interested in knowing what true love really is.
Eleven Minutes.......2007-07-12
This was the first book I've read by Paulo Coelho and I was amazed at how much this book changed my views on love and happiness. I greatly enjoyed every minute I spent with this book and I can't wait to read more of his titles. His characters are so witty and intelligent I feel like I'm listening to a conversation in my own house. I'd suggest this book to anyone.
Amazon.com
Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive. Betty Smith's poignant, honest novel created a big stir when it was first published over 50 years ago. Her frank writing about life's squalor was alarming to some of the more genteel society, but the book's humor and pathos ensured its place in the realm of classics--and in the hearts of readers, young and old. (Ages 10 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Book Description
The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchanted and inspired millions of readers for more than sixty years. By turns overwhelming, sublime, heartbreaking, and uplifting, the daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are raw with honesty and tenderly threaded with family connectedness -- in a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.
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E-Book Extra: Self-Reliance: A Reading Group Guide
Named by the New York Public Library as "one of the books of the century," A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan -- and her erratic, eccentric family -- in the turn-of-the-century Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn. Originally published in 1943, this true American classic has sold millions of copies worldwide, and includes a foreword by Anna Quindlen.
Customer Reviews:
Lessons in Life.......2007-09-27
This is the kind of book where there is no interwoven complex plot - just life, death, marriage, sacrifice and lessons learned. It's these simple writings that sometimes touch us the most and are the most thought-provoking. A girls life from childhood into womanhood, and all the dreams and devastations in between... Excellent.
Great book.......2007-09-24
This is one of the best books I have ever read...it has a great plot and a great setting too. Once I started reading it, i couldn't stop. The characters and problems they face seem so real! I recommend this book for people 13 and up because It does have minor "things" in it. BEST BOOK EVER!
Inspiring & Touching book.......2007-09-20
I'm so glad that I decided to read this book. I'd initially purchased it because it was on sale (and I really needed something new to read). Nonetheless, this book has become one of my, if not all time, favorite novels. The characters and situations are so real, and I'm a firm believer that ANYONE (male or female, young or old) can somehow relate to Francie Nolan. In this day and age where the youth seldomly read and are exposed to terrible mediums of entertainment (reality tv--Paris Hilton??) we need books such as "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." It's so genuine and full of spirit and heart, despite the characters' dismal situations. This book has the ability to inspire readers to live their lives with integrity and to persevere--especially in seemingly hopeless situations.
A Tree Grows..........2007-09-20
Like before...I am pleased to say your product was sent in a timely fashion and in very good condition. Good job...keep it up!
The Best Book Ever.......2007-08-30
This book was required reading by a Jewish teacher in my 8th grade English class, in Brooklyn. Being a know-it-all Black girl from Brooklyn, I never wanted to read it because I thought I knew it all. Fast forward 10+ years and I finally read the book as a semi-adult. Fast forward 10+ more years and I read it AT LEAST twice a year. This is, in my opinion, the best book for any young woman to read, EVER. It made me read everything else that Betty Smith wrote. It makes me check my local library's supply to make sure they have adequate copies for other young (or older, wiser) girls to read. I have searched and found a 1st printing of the book and I hold it more dearly that my most profound treasure. I would suggest this book to anyone that can read. It will surely teach you something about love, sacrifice and the complexity of the human heart. It is full of romantic love, child-parent love, hopes, dreams, fears, innocence, everything! I recently purchased the movie and I've watched it at least 15 times already. This is a really good book. Oprah thinks so too; she lists it as one of the few books that changed her life. I wholeheartedly agree.
Book Description
The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.
Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.
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"
Set in Paris and in the enchanting landscape of central Asia, this new novel by the author of the international bestsellers
The Alchemist and
Eleven Minutes follows the journey of a man obsessed with finding the wife who left him without an explanation.
The narrator of
The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges that money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who, despite her professional success and freedom from the conventional constraints of marriage, is facing an existential crisis. When she disappears along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover, the authorities question the narrator. Was Esther kidnapped, killed, or did she simply abandon a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers but he has plenty of questions of his own.
Then one day Mikhail, the man with whom Esther was last seen, finds the narrator and promises to take him to his wife. In his attempt to recapture a love lost, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself.
A haunting and redemptive story about the dark side of obsession,
The Zahir explores its potential to both fulfill our dreams and to destroy them. It is also a thoughtful meditation on faith, celebrity, marriage -- and their relationships to freedom and creativity.
"
Customer Reviews:
Better books in the world than this one.......2007-08-21
If a zero rating were possible here, this book would warrant it. The author biographical notes indicate that Coelho has sold 56 million copies of his books. On the evidence provided between the covers of this one I can't imagine why: it's hardly artfully written and doesn't have a plausible plot. I guess millions of people around the world eat french fries; they're hardly a complex, tasty gourmet food worthy of rave reviews either. Mass consumption doesn't automatically equal 'must-have' or 'of value'.
The novel features a best-selling writer as a narrator (who incidentally whines about critics trashing his work; Mr Coelho must be feeling insecure) whose wife disappears. The narrator claims that his missing wife is his obsession, his Zahir, yet replaces her with another woman that he also claims to love, and has affairs on the side. I think the only obsession he has is with himself and his own self-importance.
Throw in an epileptic that sees visions, some hokeyness about letting love into your life in a pure energy form, a journey across the steppes, and the narrator explicitly explaining all his life revelations along the way so you don't miss the 'profound messages'; viola, you have one unconvincing story.
I hope the book reads better in the original Portuguese than it does in English. The English translation is dry reading; there's certainly no poetry in the writing, just the verses quoted before the title page.
My first one star review.......2007-08-01
God, how I hated this book! It starts out OK: a best selling but critically disliked author (the narrator of the book) and his wife become too complacent in their marriage and start taking each other for granted. The wife splits, and, after some serious soul searching, she becomes the author's "Zahir" (which means "obsession" or "great desire." The word is repeated in the book about a thousand times just to clue us in on the profundity of the concept). He then commences on a spiritual quest to get her back (which, at one of the novel's low points, includes frolicking with insightful street beggars). Less than 100 pages in, the book devolves into a silly philosophical surrealistic dissertation on the "energy of love." I swear, it almost reminded me of that dreadful early 70's musical "Godspell," except without the soundtrack. OK, I get it! We should try to love each other! Why not write a three page essay instead of this la-la land book?
To me, "The Zahir," is an author out-of-control with his self-indulgent egoism. I'm wondering if Paul Coelho believed he would start a movement based on the "energy of love," kind of how Ayn Rand started "Objectivism." Fortunately, the type was large and the chapters short -- otherwise I would never have finished the book.
Not as good as other work by Coelho........2007-07-25
Did you know that the distance between one rail track to another is exactly 4 feet and eight and a half inches? Is the distance between our relationships always such a constant?
The book is about the narrator's search for his missing wife, Esther. He seeks out Mikhail, the man who may be Esther's most recent lover and with whom she was last seen. Mikhail introduces the narrator to spiritual seekers and he embarks on a life changing journey.
The book is about love, marriage, and separation. Like other Coelho books, there is a lesson to learn. However, I did not find this book to be as good as The Alchemist or The Devil and Miss Prym, and certainly not as fast a read. However, people in relationships and those going through separation will probably relate more to the book and thus enjoy it more while picking up some useful lessons! There is no denying that Coelho is a great teacher.
An interesting fact of life he mentions is that many of us have died while living! This statement moved me, and each of us will find a different meaning in it according to how we have lived our life.
A Novel of Egotism.......2007-06-14
This is not the best I have read from Paulo Coelho, but as always I know I'm going to remember some of the profound messages it portrays. I'm still thinking about `Eleven Minutes' some two years on, and `The Alchemist' was apparently life-changing for many of the 27 million who have read it (so far). Of course the writer has his critics but I wonder if some of those are on his wavelength, or even have the capacity or desire to be. In The Zahir, a man with no name wonders why his wife of ten years has left him, and as is the case with most of Coelho's novels, a pilgrimage begins which leads the central character to question his or her purpose in life and the things that truly matter. In this novel the unnamed man is a very successful writer, which I personally found uncomfortable because I was constantly wondering if this tale was partly or even wholly autobiographical; Coelho acknowledges that at least one of the characters is based on a person with the same name and nationality, and the book itself is dedicated to the author's wife Christina - could she be, in fact, the Zahir who becomes something of an obsession in the unnamed writer's life? Personally I found this lingering doubt to be a distraction, particularly because the writer speaks somewhat arrogantly if not egotistically about his career and achievements, and I would hope that this differs from Coelho in real life.
Despite the theme of love and its eternal energy that we are indirectly urged to embrace, the central unnamed character gives the impression of a man with somewhat shallow feelings; he has been married three times or more and even in his latest marriage he concedes to occasional acts of infidelity which in my view serve to undermine his credibility as a man worthy of the woman he is married to. He finds new `love' not long after his wife's unexplained disappearance and continues to flirt, or invite sexual encounters, so I for one felt unattached to his emotional dilemma.
In spite of that, there was plenty to make me think about some of those intellectual, philosophical and spiritual issues that seem to occur in most of Coelho's work. Some of his observations border on the cynical, for example his compartmentalisations of relationships in high society or simply between a husband and a wife, the observations made have a touch of condescension about them yet maybe they are more accurate than some of us would like to think. Central to this line of thinking is that age-old question : `What is love?' and to an extent the author tries to offer his ideas of what love is and more often his opinions of the hypocrisies and denials many of us live within during our married lives. As in Eleven Minutes he dehumanises love (or at least our popular conception of it) and presents us with a picture of the love that we can find at the end of a spiritual tunnel, a painful one that we seem to have to traverse in order to find it. It's a difficult subject to approach and is bound to attract criticism but the open-minded reader will find it interesting and perhaps worth pursuing. I don't think I read anything categorically new in The Zahir but it was elegantly written and is a worthwhile read for anyone looking not so much for the meaning of life, but the purpose of it, and the things that really matter.
Not Coelho's at his best.......2007-06-11
At the beginning it seems you are up to another great Coelho's novel, but then cohesion is lost, and so are we. The story begins to hop from one theme to another,..... the structure is lost. Still, you will find the usual capsules of inspiration, but isolated.
This makes me wonder why so many people around the world loves his novels. As Coelho acknowlegdes within the novel, he manages to write some little provocative ideas, that somehow have a different meaning for each reader, but inspirational, based on our own life experiences and troubles, and voilà...!, the recipe for success lies on the readers interpratation and inspiration they get from these little capsules of philosophy you find scattered in Coelho's novels. The Zahir at least let me understood why poor novels such as The Alchemist achieved such a success among adults (even though I think is great for pre-teens).
You will be better off reading Eleven Minutes, definitively a real novel.
Amazon.com
It has been said that one can see farther only by standing on the shoulders of giants. Ahab's Wife, Sena Naslund's epic work of historical fiction, honors that aphorism, using Herman Melville's Moby-Dick as looking glass into early-19th-century America. Through the eye of an outsider, a woman, she suggests that New England life was broader and richer than Melville's manly world of men, ships, and whales. This ambitious novel pays tribute to Melville, creating heroines from his lesser characters, and to America's literary heritage in general.
Una, named for the heroine of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, flees to the New England coast from Kentucky to escape her father's puritanism and to pursue a more exalted life. She gets whaling out of her system early: going to sea at 16 disguised as a boy, Una has her ship sunk by her own monstrous whale, and survives a harrowing shipwreck:
I was so horrified by the whale's deliberate charge that I could not move. Then my own name flew up from below like a spear: "Una!" Giles' voice broke my trance, and I scrambled down the rigging. No sooner did my foot touch the deck than there was such a lurch that I fell to my face. I heard and felt the boards break below the waterline, the copper sheathing nothing but decorative foil. The whole ship shuddered. A death throe.
The ship dies, but Una returns to land to pursue the life of the mind. The novel's opening line--"Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last"--also diminishes Melville's hero in the broader scheme of things. Naslund exposes the reader to the unsung, real-life heroes of Melville's world, including Margaret Fuller and her Boston salon, and Nantucket astronomer Maria Mitchell. There is a chance meeting with a veiled Nathaniel Hawthorne in the woods, and throughout the novel the story brims with references to the giants of literature: Shakespeare, Goethe, Coleridge, Keats, and Wordsworth. Although her novel runs long at nearly 700 pages, Naslund has created an imaginative, entertaining, and very impressive work. --Ted Leventhal
Book Description
From the opening line -- "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last" -- you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in
Moby-Dick,
Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly readable saga, spanning a rich, eventful, and dramatic life. At once a family drama, a romantic adventure, and a portrait of a real and loving marriage,
Ahab's Wife gives new perspective on the American experience.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
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E-Book extras: ONE: An Interview with Sena Jeter Naslund: "The Ship of My Book"; TWO: Author's Note: "The Surprise and Pleasure of It"; THREE: Reading Group Guide: Discussion Points. The famous international bestseller is now a special-features-packed e-book. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an entirely new universe - an epic-scale, enthralling, and deliciously readable saga, spanning the full, rich, eventful, and dramatic life of one Una Spenser, for whom "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last." Illustrated throughout by world-renowned artist Christopher Wormell.
Customer Reviews:
A True Reading Pleasure!!.......2007-10-02
Terrific writing, stunningly embellished with vivid descriptions and details, but easy to read. Subject matter is fascinating!
Ahab's fictional wife's philosphical musings and deep inner life.......2007-09-20
Ahab's Fictional Wife's Philosphical Musings and Deep Inner Life is a title that aptly describes this endless novel. The segments that were plot-driven, such as Una's adventures as a sailor and the mental illness of her first husband, were wonderful. Ahab, until now merely an icon, was infused with genuine humanity, and the story of their marriage was so well done. Life on Nantucket and the experience of sea captains' wives are vividly drawn. Naslund is a very good writer. It was all the stuff in between (Una's odes to her sewing needle, her effusive love affair with the seas, her genius despite her poor education, to offer just a few out of dozens of examples) that brings my rating down to 3 stars. Maybe this new writer was given a new editor. Someone should have blue pencilled about 200 pages of filler. Certainly Abundance is a much tauter production. This book might have been equally good.
Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund.......2007-09-19
Ahab's Wife serves admirably as a companion book to Melville's Moby-Dick and having read both, I think I can safely say that if Herman Melville were to read Ahab's Wife, he would be more than happy with the duty and accuracy Naslund devotes to the period, the prose, and its homage to Melville's opus.
This is the life story of Una, the wife of Ahab - the peg-legged determined-bordering-on-insane captain of the Pequod in search of his white whale. The cover of the book depicts a Puritan-clothed woman on a harsh beach looking out into a rough sea, while further down the beach lies the broken hulk of an old ship. It creates images and ideas of a worrying woman left at home for years at a time to tend to house and children, while her husband is out braving the sea, fighting giants monsters in his man's world. One would think this a book about her everyday actions, her chores, her repetitive characteristics, and while this is part of the book, there is so much more going on in Una's life with her triumphs and tribulations, her loves and deaths, her dangerous adventures, and her happy times at home. This is what makes Ahab's Wife a welcome companion to Moby-Dick, for while Ahab's is a story of adventure and danger, Una's is just as much so.
The book begins, as all life stories should, with a birth, only Una's mother is all alone in a cabin and naturally it is a birth that almost kills her. Una's life is a harsh one in Kentucky and before she is ten, her mother sends her away to her aunt's. Una's father is a devout Christian, while Una is an atheist from a young age, choosing not to blindly believe in what her father tells her to believe. Her mother fearing for her life, sends her to the distant coast of New England to live with her aunt and uncle in a lighthouse. And so begins the next chapter in her life, with a different family, in a different place. With the arrival of two men who come to upgrade the lighthouse, she falls in love with both of them - even though she is still young - knowing that one will be her husband one day. At the age of eighteen, she leaves the island and the lighthouse for the mainland of Boston and then Nantucket getting by on simple work until she finds the same two men whom she loves on a whaling ship. Disguising herself as a young boy she joins the crew and experiences the whaling life of her future husband. It is here that she first sees The Pequod and meets Ahab, who by then is an old man but still respectable and honorable. Ahab is the one to marry Una to Kit when her existence on the ship, love for that man, and her femininity are all revealed.
A whale stoves in the ship and Una spends many days on a small boat with the remaining crew reduced to cannibalism - harking to the story of Moby-Dick as well as the story of the whale ship Essex, which was the impetus for Melville's story. It is on the return journey to Nantucket that the other love of her life dies tragically and her husband Kit essentially goes insane. Upon returning to land and leaving her husband due to his condition, Una's life slows down and her relationship with Ahab begins until their marriage and happiness together. It is here that the story of Moby-Dick truly begins and the reader gets to meet the familiar characters of the classic book. But while Ahab spends years away from home, Una's life goes on with the birth of a child and the struggles of her life. It is upon the return and meeting of Ishmael that Una learns of the doomed story of Ahab, his white whale, and his death.
The book could be considered technically over at this point, but this is the story of Una, who is still very much alive. The rest of her life is spent interacting with Ishmael and even meeting and interacting with the slave who fought for his freedom, Frederick Douglass. And while she never forgets her life with Ahab, she eventually finds another husband and in the waning years of her life is happy once more.
What makes Ahab's Wife a truly impressive book is not just its intended mimicry with Moby-Dick with the crossing over characters, similar layout of the book with many chapters and illustrations, and actual scenes involving the same location in both books such as the church with the pulpit carved to imitate the bow of a ship which the same preacher from Moby-Dick climbs the ladder to the top and scream of hellfire and damnation; it is the prose and how Naslund writes that truly emulates the style of Melville, making this a truly important work of literature deserving a place in the shelves with Melville, James and Hawthorne.
For more book reviews, and other writings, go to www.alexctelander.com
Comments about "Ahab's Wife".......2007-07-26
What awesome descriptions and captivating storyline! I couldn't put this book down! It makes me want to read "Moby Dick" again! I look forward to reading Sena Jeter Naslund's other novels. If they are half as good as the story of Una, I am hooked! I found that Una is so much like my daughter, and the author never met my daughter. Of course, this made the story even more interesting to me. The personalities are so diverse and very believable. I would recommend this book to everyone.
AHAB'S WIFE--WHAT A FABULOUS BOOK.......2007-07-10
Yes, dear ladies and gentlemen, I truly loved this book, despite what some of our colleagues wrote. I usually read true crime novels and biographies, so this story was truly quite a different one to read.
Once again, just fabulous.
Amazon.com
"Disgusting as he usually was," Hunter Thompson writes in this, his 1959 novel, "on rare occasions he showed flashes of a stagnant intelligence. But his brain was so rotted with drink and dissolute living that whenever he put it to work it behaved like an old engine that had gone haywire from being dipped in lard." Surprise! Thompson isn't writing about himself, but one of the other, older, aimlessly carousing newspapermen in Puerto Rico, a guy called Moberg whose chief achievement is the ability to find his car after a night's drinking because it stinks so much. (I can smell it for blocks, he boasts.) The autobiographical hero, Paul Kemp, is 30, trapped in a dead-end job (Thompson wound up writing for a bowling magazine), and feeling as if his big-time writer dreams, soaked in Fitzgerald and Hemingway, are evaporating as rapidly as the rum in his fist.
In fact, Thompson was only 22 when he wrote The Rum Diary, but his fear of winding up like Moberg was well founded. What saved him was the fantastic conflagration of the 1960s, a fiery wind on which the reptilian wings of his prose style could catch and soar to the cackling heights of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Puerto Rico in 1959 doesn't have bad craziness enough to offer Thompson--just a routine drunken-reporter stomping by local cops and a riot over Kemp's friend's temptress girlfriend, a scantily imagined Smith College alumna who likes to strip nude on beaches and in nightclubs to taunt men.
Thompson's prose style only intermittently takes tentative flight--compare the stomping scenes in this book with his breakthrough, Hell's Angels--but it's interesting to see him so nakedly reveal his sensitive innards, before the celebrated clownish carapace grew in. It's also interesting to see how he improved this full version of the novel from the more raw (and racist) excerpts found in the 1990 collection Songs of the Doomed (available on audiocassette, partly narrated by Thompson). --Tim Appelo
Book Description
The Rum Diary was begun in 1959 by then-twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson. It was his first novel, and he told his friend, the author William Kennedy, that The Rum Diary would "in a twisted way...do for San Juan what Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises did for Paris." In Paul Kemp, the novel's hero, there are echoes of the young Thompson, who was himself honing his wildly musical writing style as one of the "ill-tempered wandering rabble" on staff at the San Juan Daily News at the time. "I shared a dark suspicion," Kemp says, "that the life we were leading was a lost cause, we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between these two poles -- a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other -- that kept me going."
The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery & violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. "It was a gold rush," says the author. "There were naked people everywhere and we all had credit."
Puerto Rico was an unspoiled tropical paradise in those years -- before Castro, before JFK, before civil rights & moonwalks & flower power & Vietnam & protests & even before drugs -- but the San Juan Daily News was a vortex & a snakepit of all the corrupt new schemes & plots & greedmongers who swarmed in. Paul Kemp, The Rum Diary's narrator, speaks for the unfocused angst of those times: "In a sense I was one of them -- more competent than some and more stable than others -- and in the years that carried that ragged banner I was seldom unemployed. Sometimes I worked for three newspapers at once. I wrote ad copy for new casinos and bowling alleys, I was a consultant for the cockfighting syndicate, an utterly corrupt high-end restaurant critic, a yachting photographer and a routine victim of police brutality. It was a greedy life and I was good at it. I made some interesting friends, had enough money to get around, and learned a lot about the world that I could never have learned in any other way."
Customer Reviews:
The Rum Diary.......2007-09-24
Thompson's best work for beginners as well as a favorite for seasoned fans. Written more like a screenplay than any of his other works, The Rum Diary takes you on the journey of a degenerate journalist's time as a sports writer for an English rag in San Juan. From the interesting characters to the usual Thompson antics this book will not disappoint. The length lends itself to consumption of an afternoon, so if you are easily engulfed with storylines make sure you have the time. This is one of the most heavily used books in my Thompson collection as it is a great story that never seems to grow old. I can't wait to see what happens when the movie starts filming.
Best book ever.......2007-08-14
This is honestly the most enjoyable book I've ever read. Hunter S. Thompson is absolutely brilliant. You would have no idea that this was his first novel. I kept having to limit what I read in a day so that I could read it longer. I would recommend this book to anyone (and have!)
Great book.......2007-08-03
This little book was such a find. It is one that once you stop you cant put down. A good read and interesting topic.
hunter s. doesn't disappoint.......2007-07-26
this is a really good book. the pace is really quick, yet there is enough dialogue to connect you with the characters and settings. it is a real fun book to read.
Quality ish..........2007-06-06
I just finished this and it is a real hoot. I have never read any of his other works and intend to. I recommend this book for anyone who wants a laugh and enjoys reading about people who live at the bottom of the bottle. Enjoy!
Books:
- We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (Everyman's Library)
- When Friendship Hurts: How to Deal With Friends Who Betray, Abandon, or Wound You
- When I Fall in Love
- When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race
- When the Light Goes: A Novel
- Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes And How To Correct Them: Lessons From The New Science Of Behavioral Economics
- Women without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity
- Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis
- X-Men: The End Book One: Dreamers And Demons
- Yoda - Dark Rendezvous (Star Wars: Clone Wars Novel)
Books Index
Books Home
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Contemporary
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| Literature & Fiction
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The Post-Birthday World
Suite Francaise
Nineteen Minutes: A Novel
Water for Elephants: A Novel
The Glass Castle: A Memoir
