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- An American Masterpiece, well worth reading
- One for the Ages
- A Novel Reviewed by an author
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
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 Hurston, Zora Neale
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ASIN: 0061120065
Release Date: 2006-05-30 |
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At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.
Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either:
It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.
One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."
Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published -- perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.
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"E-BOOK EXTRA: Janie's Great Journey: A Reading Group Guide; PLUS: The Comphrehensive Edition: This special e-book is the only edition to include all three essays by Edwidge Danticat, Mary Helen Washington, and Henry Louis Gates.
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a Black woman in the '30s. Zora Neale Hurston's classic 1937 novel follows Janie's quest for identity -- a journey during which she learns what love is, experiences life's joys and sorrows, and comes home to herself in peace. "There is no book more important to me than this one." --Alice Walker "Their Eyes belongs in the same category with [the works of] William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway, that of enduring American literature." --Saturday Review
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots."
Customer Reviews:
An American Masterpiece, well worth reading.......2007-10-17
"Their Eyes were Watching God" has been variously described as feminist literature (though written in 1930), African-American literature (though the story is about people, first and foremost, and race is secondary to the novel) and as a lost masterpiece. It's a lost masterpiece. Thanks to Alice Walker and Oprah Winfrey, the book was brought back to the public's attention.
One of the issues with reading Hurston's novel is that it's written in dialect--in Hurston's rendition of how Southern Florida black dialect could be spelled out to her. So reading the book is a bit slow; you have to sound out the words in your mind. If this is a problem, then I'd suggest you listen to the book on tape (ably performed by Ruby Dee) and then read the book afterwards.
The story has barely a plot; Janey is a young woman who's grandmother was born in slavery. Her aspirations are no further than the front porch; to live in comfort means being simply able to sit, to sit on the porch and not be in constant motion, working every hour of every day for bare subsistence. She finds an older, established husband for Janey and insists she marry. Janey, then, has a life where, with reasonable work, she can fill her belly and sleep in shelter. Her life is not much better than that of a well-cared-for mule.
One day, Janey runs off with Jody Starks, a man of means who charms her with his worldy ways. This is a man going places. And they do go places; to Eatonville, a town that was chartered as an African-American community. Starks sees opportunity in every corner of dusty Eatonville, buys land, builds a store and a house and installs the beautiful Janey as a symbol of his mastery.
As Mayor, Starks has appearances to keep up. He has Janey stay in the house or work in the store, and when in the store, she is to keep her head covered. Janey has a wealth of long abundant hair, which Hurston uses as a symbol of life. Janey's hair is flowing and startling; men covet it. As the hair is covered, so is every enjoyment and thought Janey has. She chafes for 20 years under Stark's restrictive rules.
The scene where the "town mule"--a mule freed by Starks from an abusive owner and that became a sort of mascot, dies and is buried in the swamp is exceptional writing, worthy of Mark Twain. The mule is eulogized (by Stark, standing at one point on the mule as podium) and then abandoned to the waiting buzzards. The following scene where the buzzards arrive to do their undertaking is a flight of fancy that is hardly equalled in American literature. All along the book, Hurston takes smaller flights of language; her descriptions sometimes soar, or are humorous or completely imaginative.
Janey runs off after Stark's death with "Tea Cake"--a younger man. While her first two marriages were for the sustenance of the body (food, shelter, comfort, a home) this marriage is for the sustenance of the soul. Tea Cake plays guitar, plays games, dances, gambles, sings and flirts. Hurston is too clever to make him perfect; he hurts Janey, as only someone who loves another person can hurt them, and he is a bit of a cad, yet he brings out something in Janey that no life of pure material wealth could do--freedom and sensuality and joy. The culmination of the story is rather contrived, but still, the completion of the three marriages tells almost a fable-like story of a quest for personal growth. Janey comes home to Eatonville, and tells her story to Phoeby, her friend. The rest of the tale is up to us to fill in.
Sometimes the writing reminds me of Virginia Woolf--the interior dialog and mood of the character is the action as much or more than the action happening on the story's stage. Sometimes Hurston reminds me of Twain in her delving into the linguistic richness and uniqueness of Floridian life. Her education as a folklorist sharpened her ear, but her deep honesty into the interior life of women is what makes this story so great. It's definitely one of the top American novels and deserves to be read.
One for the Ages.......2007-10-07
Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" has been analyzed, criticized, and lionized over the brief span of its existence. Lately, praise has predominated though with continued carping on issues which she made clear she considered secondary to her purpose.
Hurston's mastery of language places this work in the top tier of Anglophone literature, and the broadness of her comprehension defies spatial, temporal, social, or political confines. Her novel is powerful because it is humane and universal in scope. The story enchants because the voice relating it is unfailingly compassionate.
This lyrical voice was owned by no one but Hurston herself. Throughout her professional life, she remained true to her vision regardless of praise or criticism.
Ultimately, Hurston's literary worth, and that of her detractors, critics, and rivals, will be judged by generations to come. I'm confident that her stature will endure and her insistence on self-definition will be vindicated.
A Novel Reviewed by an author.......2007-09-30
Three stars due to the consensus that it is a classic.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston September 2007 Amazon
Janie Crawford, an attractive, confident, middle-aged black woman, returns to Eatonville, Florida, after a long absence. The black townspeople gossip about her and speculate about where she has been and what has happened to her young husband, Tea Cake. They take her confidence as aloofness, but Janie's friend Pheoby Watson sticks up for her. Pheoby visits her to find out what has happened. Their conversation frames the story that Janie relates. Janie explains that her grandmother raised her after her mother ran off. Nanny loves her granddaughter and is dedicated to her, but her life as a slave and experience with her own daughter, Janie's mother, has warped her worldview. Her primary desire is to marry Janie as soon as possible to a husband who can provide security and social status for her. She finds a much older farmer named Logan Killicks and insists that Janie marry him. After moving in with Logan, Janie is miserable. He is pragmatic and unromantic and treats her like a pack mule. Janie flirts with and marries in secret another man. After two decades of marriage, Janie asserts herself, Jody insults her appearance and after a savage domestic quarrel, it's over for them. Jody dies from illness and Janie is free. She rebuffs various suitors who come to court but when a man twelve years her junior enters her life there is mutual attraction. Only with her third and last lover, a roustabout called Tea Cake, does Janie at last bloom, as does the large pear tree that stands beside her grandmother's tiny log cabin. "She saw a dust bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage!" They move to the everglades for the final tragic conclusion of the book. Rife with dialect, some may find the book time consuming. The title has nothing to do with the story, but it is a beautiful thought. The book has been made into a written-for-television movie starring Halle Berry.
Trish New, author of The Thrill of Hope, South State Street Journal, and Memory Flatlined.
Their Eyes Were Watching God.......2007-09-10
My son needed this book for school and we received in time for school. Great service!
Their Eyes Were Watching God.......2007-09-04
This book has been an extremely enjoyable read for me. It had a certain easy flow to it that made you want to keep reading it. This book didn't hook me right away, but I still gave it a chance. I am glad that I gave it a chance because it turned out to be one of my favorite books. If you enjoy hearing a good story, i recommend this book to you. Actually, I recommend this book to anybody and everybody! When i was asked to rate this book on a scale from 1 to 10, I replied by saying an eleven because i thought that this book was that good.
Book Description
Since the Holocaust, it has been almost impossible to hide large-scale crimes against humanity. In our communicative world, few modern catastrophes are concealed from the public eye. And yet, Ilan Pappe unveils, one such crime has been erased from the global public memory: the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in 1948. But why is it denied, and by whom? The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine offers an investigation of this mystery.
Customer Reviews:
Yet ANOTHER CASE of JEWISH SAVAGERY and HUMILIATION towards the"PALESTINIAN HOLOCAUST.".......2007-10-02
You will have to stop reading at times to wipe the tears coming from your eyes like Niagara Falls. Get a huge box of tissues for this gut-wrenching story of the daily brutal, humiliating and savage treatment against the women and children of Palestine. I started reading about the fate of the Palestinians with Carters book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Carter's book is a great and objective overview of the Palestinians Holocaust. Bush, Rice and Cheney will be rightfully humiliated in History books and in posterity for turning their backs and 'allowing' these atrocities to go on and on and on.... Right now as you read this review, The Palestinian Holocaust is in full terror. I'm 'not' giving up on the idea, that America will soon be "Good 'ole America again." Read this book.
What the U.S. Press Refuses to Show.......2007-09-30
A clear and concise view of the Palestinian holocaust, a view that the American media refuses to show.
Unspeakable evil finally expressed in words.......2007-09-26
The unspeakable evil that has been committed against the Palestinian people in 1948, and the unspeakable evil that is still being committed against the Palestinian people, has at last been expressed in words.
Amidst the vast zionist propaganda machine created to cover up horrendous atrocities, at last we have a book that gives us the truth. This book, with all its shocking details, is the best book I have read on the Palestine/Israel conflict, though it made very grim and painful reading. Ilan Pappe has given the world a wonderful gift in the writing of this book, one that could play a major role in bringing world peace, once all the facts that Pappe presents are known. His sources include the Israeli Archives and Ben Gurion's diaries, as well as eye witness accounts of what happened in 1948, and is continuing today.
If anyone wants to know what the conflict in the Middle East is all about, just read this book; every member of Congress, and every member of the general public should know how our billions of tax dollars that we send to Israel each year are being spent.
History you Must Know.......2007-09-15
If you have not read ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE you do not know the history of Palestine, nor can you understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As part of a new group of Israeli historians, Ilan Pappe reveals previously secret Israeli documents. The cleansing of Palestine of its Arab inhabitants began long before 1948, and continues today. Step by step the plans to cleanse the land, and the entire infrastructure with the cleansing details -- 1927 land surveys, The Red House, the Consultancy, Plan Dalet, Plan D -- is spelled out by Pappe. This is a painful read, but a necessary one to understand the Middle East.
Honest & Excellent.......2007-09-14
Very excellent book that shows part of the sufferings of Palestinians written by a very honest person
Book Description
The Algerian War lasted from 1954 to 1962. It brought down six French governments, led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic, returned de Gaulle to power, and came close to provoking a civil war on French soil. More than a million Muslim Algerians died in the conflict and as many European settlers were driven into exile. Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and repressive torture.
Nearly a half century has passed since this savagely fought war ended in Algeria’s independence, and yet—as Alistair Horne argues in his new preface to his now-classic work of history—its repercussions continue to be felt not only in Algeria and France, but throughout the world. Indeed from today’s vantage point the Algerian War looks like a full-dress rehearsal for the sort of amorphous struggle that convulsed the Balkans in the 1990s and that now ravages the Middle East, from Beirut to Baghdad—struggles in which questions of religion, nationalism, imperialism, and terrorism take on a new and increasingly lethal intensity.
A Savage War of Peace is the definitive history of the Algerian War, a book that brings that terrible and complicated struggle to life with intelligence, assurance, and unflagging momentum. It is essential reading for our own violent times as well as a lasting monument to the historian’s art.
Customer Reviews:
Chilling Masterpiece.......2007-09-26
I selected this book wishing to know more about the French war in Algeria. Mr. Horne more than satisfied my curiousity. He provides an in-depth, virtually blow-by-blow account of the eight year conflict, pulling no PC punches, and taking great care to remain as impartial as possible. This is no easy feat, given the intensity of the situation. He is very careful to present this as not a typical colonial war as much as a battle between 2 diametrically opposed visions for Algeria. On one side were the Pieds Noirs, whose families had lived in Algeria for generations, understandably saw Algeria as their home, and wanted to preserve "Algerie Francaise." On the other hand, you have the FLN (not the spokesman for most Algerians), with its demands for Algerian independence, sans the Pieds Noirs. What made this conflict a battle between extremes was the FLN's reign of terror against relative moderates among the Algerians (many of whom had advocated finding a "middle ground" in the conflict). This has the effect of presenting the FLN as France's only "negotiating" partner within Algeria. Moreover, it pushed many of the Pieds Noirs to support such hard-line groups as the OAS. Essentially, the FLN set up the conflict to end in its favor, as the war nearly tore France apart on several occasions (and nearly claimed the life of Charles De Gaulle on an equal number of occasions). Mr. Horne captures this story very nicely, weaving back and forth between Algeria and France. He demonstrates beyond all reasonable doubt that the conflict had very high stakes for the French. Also, he describes how the outcome of the conflict proved to not be France's finest hour, to put it very charitably.
Read it before you start a Mid-East War.......2007-09-21
What every President should know before getting seriously involved anywhere in the Mid-East or Muslim world. It would seem that we are damned if we do, and equally damned if we don't. It's not so much the book's details (although the book is magnificently detailed), as it is the portrayal of the depth of hatreds and the commitment to violence as the sole means to the proponents ends.
Shines a light on insurgencies in the 20th century.......2007-08-19
Horne's classic book on Algeria is one of those rare works of history that breaks open the subject at hand to peer deep into the heart of an era. It details the entire Franco-Algerian war from its historical antecedents through the military and political struggles of the war itself and into the late 20th century, tracking the Algerian fight for independence and the wrestling of the French nation with redefinition after colonialism. The parallels to numerous other insurgencies in the 20th and early 21st centuries are obvious.
What is most tragic about Alistair Horne's tale from my perspective as a theologian, however, is the seeming inevitability of the whole Algerian tragedy. Though Horne highlights several points at which the confrontation might have taken a faster and more complete track toward reconciliation, it's difficult to see how the actors in the moment could have grasped these opportunities. The stage seems to have been set for years of violence sometime deep in the past, as pieds noirs became firmly Algerian and native Algerians became jaded at the empty rhetoric of their French occupiers. Plenty of blame can be spread around to perpetrators of horrible and inhuman acts during the seven and a half years of conflict, but it is difficult to see how any one actor or group could have decisively brought about a clearer peace.
The lessons of the Algerian conflict are ripe to be picked by anyone willing to study it. Many of Horne's insights about these types of confrontations carry over to the war in Iraq, civil war in numerous spots around the globe, and the struggle to combat terrorism around the world. Indeed, the book is being studied at the highest levels in Washington, according to news reports. One can only hope that the venerable chronicler of France's last years as a colonial power is being heeded.
Peering Into the Cesspit.......2007-08-10
One of the things that perplexed and, frankly, disgusted me, throughout this book was the posturing of many key figures on the French side about "honour" and "grandeur". In pursuit of their honour, many of these people behaved in the most disgraceful and dishonourable manner.
They preened themselves on their honour and spoke volubly about "restoring the glory of France", but when the going got difficult, they mostly resigned their positions or simply abandoned their responsibilities - often to return later to repeat the whole disreputable process - or intrigue among themselves.
Perhaps a psychologist could shed more light on this cesspit of misplaced values than an historian.
But what of the other side - the Algerian independence movement? The alphabet soup of factions (FLN, CRUA, MTLD, UDMA etc etc) was liberally peopled by thugs, assassins, torturers and thieves. They squabbled among themselves, intrigued for office, occasionally betrayed each other, and terrorised their own people - all in the cause of Algerian independence.
Even after independence, members of the ruling clique continued to wage war upon each other and upon the Algerian people. The struggle continues to this day.
Ordinary Algerians on both sides were the victims of the war - as is ever the case. At its end, within months, almost all the "pied noir" population had fled the country in one of the great mass migrations of the post war era. Muslims who had worked and fought for the French and who were unable (or chose not) to flee were mercilessly hunted down.
I finished the book with a sense of disgust, of having been soiled by the mostly contemptible people shaping events on both sides. When one peers into a cesspit of struggling fanatics, one inevitably gets splashed.
However, readers should not be deterred from reading this book. "A Savage War of Peace" deserves to be read. Its lessons are equally valid today in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The book gives an excellent account of the war from both French and Muslim sides, but while the latter was adequately covered in a factual sense, that side of the story was somewhat dry and impersonal.
To a large extent this simply reflects the availability of sources - and those willing to talk freely and honestly. The author claims to have been hampered by the "traditional secretiveness and suspicion of the Algerian Arabs" - especially when the possibility of assassination was ever present for those critical of the Algerian leadership.
Within these limitations, Horne gives an objective account of the 8-year war, during which up to 600,000 French military personnel were stationed in Algeria. As the struggle went on, both sides resorted increasingly to torture and terror to achieve their aims.
At one point military victory seemed in sight, although one must suspect that, had the French "won" in a military sense, the price would have been some sort of partition of Algeria into French and Muslim zones, and the permanent military suppression of the latter. Sound familiar?
Another conclusion one can draw from the book is that the relentless pursuit of an ideology rarely, if ever, results in a better life for ordinary people who are to be "improved". This was true for Communism and will probably be proven true eventually for the various forms of Islamic fundamentalism currently destroying lives in many parts of the world - and true also for ideologues on the other side who fight them in the name of freedom and democracy - and who are equally convinced of their righteousness.
Mirror For Our Times.......2007-08-09
Alistair Horne's seminal book on the Algerian War, A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, is a thorough look at a war that closely resembles the current conflict in Iraq. I read a couple of really interesting articles on this book earlier and felt compelled to read it. Terrorism, civil war, torture: these things also took place in Algeria and it would seem that there are some lessons to learned, but it seems they have not been heeded. It was a very long and complicated book, but not without its rewards. Apparently it has been read by Bush and several of his advisors. I think it would have been more meaningful to me if had a better grasp of the conflict and French history since 1945 in general, but that being said there was a lot of interesting information about this conflict. Terrorism, de Gaulle, France, and other conflicts like those in South Africa, Ireland, and Indo China. I think this paragraph sums up the situation pretty astutely:
One is left with the controversial role of de Gaulle, criticized both for going too slow and too fast. As far as the latter reproach goes, in the last stages of negotiations he suffered from the lesson not learned by Kissinger in Vietnam, or perhaps by Israel vis-à-vis the Arab world, or by the South Africans; namely, that peoples who have been waiting for their independence for a centenary, fighting for it for a generation, can afford to sit out a presidential term, or a year or two in the life of an old man in a hurry; that he who last s the longest wins; that sadly, with the impatience of democracies and their volatile voters committed to electoral contortions every five or four years, the extremists generally triumphs over the moderate. Just keep on being obdurate, don't leave deviate from maximum terms, was the lesson handed down by the F.L.N. (Front de Liberation Nationale) and remains as grimly valid today-Northern Ireland or the Middle East or southern Africa. One after another de Gaulle saw his principles for peace eroded in the face of the F.L.N.'s refusal to compromise. As his disillusion grew, so did his resolve to liquidate the war with all the speed. In his final haste injustices were perpetrated, such as the exclusion from the peace talks of any representative Algerian faction (e.g. the M.N.A.-Mouvement Nationaliste Algerienne)) other than the F.L.N. Yet de Gaulle did liquidate that savage war.
Book Description
In the spirit of Rick PitinoÂ's New York Times phenomenal bestseller Success Is a Choice, living legend Cal Ripken, Jr., presents an inspiring guide to overcoming any challenge and building a life you love.
BaseballÂ's all-time Iron Man, Cal Ripken, Jr., retired from baseball in 2001 after breaking countless records, including Lou GehrigÂ's record for consecutive games played (Ripken played 2,632). Ripken is admired by thousands of fans not only for his relentless perseverance, but also for his unparalleled integrity. Now, in a stirring book that draws on his exhilarating career as well as the wisdom of his legendary father, Ripken shares rousing advice centered around his proven 8 Elements of Perseverance:
•
The Right Values: hard work, excellence, honesty, and integrity
•
A Strong Will to Succeed: advice for those who inadvertently “bench” themselves in life
•
Love What You Do: tips for discovering where your true passion lies •
Preparation: ways to continually envision your next position and prepare for it as if it were already yours
•
Anticipation: strategies for creating your own opportunities
•
Trusting Relationships: how to build them in even the most turbulent environments
•
Life Management: making time to enjoy the journey
•
The Courage of Your Convictions: insight into how Ripken not only broke but far exceeded numerous records Cal Ripken is a sought-after advisor to fans from all walks of life.
From his numerous public-speaking engagements each year to his weekly “Ask Cal” column for the Baltimore Sun, he always brings a winning combination of compassion and motivation to each topic. A book for moms and dads, recent graduates, entrepreneurs, and anyone who is simply facing an important turning point, Get in the Game gives all of us access to legendary advice from a legendary achiever.
Customer Reviews:
Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perserverance that Make the Difference.......2007-09-28
This book provides extremely useful guidelines in dealing with situations we all eventually run into in our lives. While alluding to baseball related examples, it does not simply dwell solely on recounting Mr. Ripken's impressive baseball accomplishments or relate amusing/interesting anecdotes. Instead it gives thought-provoking insights into two all too fast-disappearing basic axioms in our country's psyche: "practice makes perfect," and "do unto others." I highly recommend this book for everyone, especially young people still in their formative years. In fact, it presents an excellent opportunity for parents to reconnect with their child(ren) by reading it aloud and together, with discussion centering on each of the eight elements as they are completed.
Baseball analogy of the game of life.......2007-08-29
Get in the Game is not only a book about Cal Ripken Jr., his consecutive games streak and his fine career. It's a recap of some simple but overlooked values.
Using his core strength in baseball to describe his thinking, the reader will not only appreciate some particular plays in his career, but also down-to-earth ways of approaching things in life.
If at first you don't succeed................2007-08-17
Life's little lessons taken from one who knows. Good title. Inspirational! Thanks Cal.
Mr. Ripken Knocks it Out of the Park.......2007-07-11
This is an excellent book by one of our modern-day greats: Cal Ripken, Jr. A native of Aberdeen, Maryland, he spent his entire career with the Baltimore Orioles. He broke a record that many said would stand forever, and this book parallels the former holder of that feat, Lou Gehrig, with a treasure trove of quotes about the latter's life. In a sense, we learn as much about the character and perseverance of Mr. Gehrig as we do about Mr. Ripken.
One early quote set the tone for the entire book:
"I just played because I loved the game, and because I had been taught certain principles that prevented me from backing away from anything."
Mr. Ripken chronicled his youth, the special relationship with his father, Cal, Sr., and then explained in concise fashion his eight principles for perseverance. Some themes related directly to baseball, while others are about life itself.
Here are the eight elements:
Right Values
Strong Will to Succeed
Love What You Do
Preparation
Anticipation
Trusting Relationships
Life Management
The Courage of Your Convictions
This is a very entertaining and informative book. Thank you for the opportunity to review it.
An education in more ways than one........2007-06-12
I am not now nor have I ever been a baseball fan. It just never appealed to me. But Cal Ripken has been heralded as the nicest guy in baseball and the sub-title ("8 elements of perseverance that make a difference" was definitely attractive, so I read the book.
I'm glad I did.
Ripken interweaves a literal history of baseball into his core message of how persevverance plays out in a ball game and life. It's an interesting, informative approach. I can see why Ripken has succeeded in his motivational speaking career as he did is his baseball career: life literally starts anew each day for this guy. Yesterday's msitakes and regrets are left behind. One of the most fascinating parts of the book for me are Ripken's descriptions of team work in baseball and how it works. Frankly, because I've never been a fan, I didn't realize just how much cooperation and coordination is required on the field.
Overall, a very worthwhile read and uplifting.
Jerry
Book Description
Invariably, armies are accused of preparing to fight the previous war. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl—a veteran of both Operation Desert Storm and the current conflict in Iraq—considers the now-crucial question of how armies adapt to changing circumstances during the course of conflicts for which they are initially unprepared. Through the use of archival sources and interviews with participants in both engagements, Nagl compares the development of counterinsurgency doctrine and practice in the Malayan Emergency from 1948 to 1960 with what developed in the Vietnam War from 1950 to 1975.
In examining these two events, Nagl—the subject of a recent New York Times Magazine cover story by Peter Maass—argues that organizational culture is key to the ability to learn from unanticipated conditions, a variable which explains why the British army successfully conducted counterinsurgency in Malaya but why the American army failed to do so in Vietnam, treating the war instead as a conventional conflict. Nagl concludes that the British army, because of its role as a colonial police force and the organizational characteristics created by its history and national culture, was better able to quickly learn and apply the lessons of counterinsurgency during the course of the Malayan Emergency.
With a new preface reflecting on the author's combat experience in Iraq, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is a timely examination of the lessons of previous counterinsurgency campaigns that will be hailed by both military leaders and interested civilians.
Customer Reviews:
COIN.......2007-09-27
Haven't read the book quite yet. I plan to get it done by the time I am to attend CCC though.
Terrific Research and Analysis!.......2007-09-05
For this reader, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife's value centers on two main premises: 1) those who fail to learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them; and, 2) a large, monolithic organization such as the U.S. Army will struggle to adapt unless it adopts a learning culture. Both relate to the U.S. Army's experience in Viet Nam. It is clear that the U.S. Army has only recently begun to learn from its earlier failures fighting a stubborn insurgency in 2004-06 and to implement strategy and tactics appropriate to the situation.
Eminently readable for an Oxford PhD thesis, what sets Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife apart from many other books attempting to explain the failures in Viet Nam is the degree to which the author supports his arguments. He combines exceedingly thorough research befitting a PhD thesis with fully developed and clearly articulated arguments. By examining the British Army of the Malay Campaign and the U.S. Army fighting in Viet Nam in terms of their organizational cultures - that is, the degree to which they promoted learning, flexibility, and adaptability - the author does a superb job of explaining why the British were successful in defeating the communist insurgency on the Malay Peninsula and why the Americans failed in South Viet Nam.
Of course, Nagl has his detractors. There are those who would suggest that the conflict in Malaya in the 1950s differed markedly from the conflict in Viet Nam in the 1960s and early 1970s. For instance, the Viet Cong were able to leverage a well-funded, well-organized, and well-trained North Vietnamese army against the U.S. Army in South Viet Nam. By contrast, the British really only had to confront a communist insurgency in Malaya. However, those readers who point to the dissimilarities in the two conflicts are really missing Nagl's point.
The author's contention that the British Army eventually succeeded in defeating a thinking, adaptive enemy is instructive. In Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, we are told that for any institution to be successful when faced with new and decidedly different operational challenges, it must be capable of learning and adapting. This includes everything from changing strategy and tactics to completely reorganizing. In fact, it may even need to develop a whole new set of core competencies. In the context of armed warfare, this may mean viewing victory through a different lens. As members of the Bush Administration have readily pointed out, the war in Iraq will not end with a formal surrender aboard a U.S. battleship. More to the point perhaps, Nagl's work compels us to think differently about how we define success in a counterinsurgency.
For the U.S. Army currently operating in Iraq, adapting really means moving away from war fighting strategy and tactics appropriate to a linear battlefield and more toward an approach that better recognizes the nature of the threat. The current threat in Iraq is more socio-political than military. In fact, it is now an article of faith that for our counterinsurgency efforts to be successful, U.S. war fighters must win the hearts and minds of the local populace. If the local Iraqi citizens believe they are more secure and hence can live productive lives, they will be more willing to cooperate with the "occupying" Army. That cooperation will take the form of alerting nearby ground troops to the presence of Al Qaeda fighters and Sunni insurgents.
For any large military organization, adapting to an entirely different threat characterized by a highly complex and dynamic situation involving ethnosectarian conflict, religious persecution, and violent criminal activity such as we see in Iraq today requires tremendous innovation and agility. As Nagl points out, the British were able to eventually embrace change and pursue an effective counterinsurgency strategy while facing a similar set of conditions. He argues persuasively that British and Malay counterinsurgency forces eventually were structured to respond quickly to the communist insurgent threat precisely because they were quite flexible. In large part, the Brits' success can be traced to their approach to counterinsurgency warfare in that era - centralized command with decentralized control. This approach recognizes that the fight is really very different in each province and therefore strategy and tactics will need to be different to attain success.
As Nagl points out, to enjoy the kind of success the Brits had in Malaya, the U.S. Army "will have to make the ability to learn to deal with messy, uncomfortable situations an integral part" of its organizational culture. It must, per T.E. Lawrence, be comfortable "eating soup with a knife." Additionally, as a previous reviewer states quite clearly, "it must be ready to work with outside resources as well, such as the United Nations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and various religious institutions."
Overall, Nagl offers terrific analysis. This work should be required reading for all officers of all branches of the U.S. military.
Counterinsurgency Mandatory Reading.......2007-07-21
Since the Iraq War effort collapsed into something other than a simple liberation of oppressed people, I have tried to gain insight into our problems there by studying books on Iraq's current situation, on US foreign relationships, ancient and recent Mesopotamian history, Israeli and Palestinian Middle East history, and historic counterinsurgency successes and failures in various parts of the World.
Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife is the most illuminating that I have encountered. Col. John A. Nagl very meticulously converts knowledge obtained in writing his Masters and Doctorate theses into a readable analysis of military success in Malaya and non-success in Vietnam.
You must read his preface to the paperback edition both before and after reading the book; this in fairness to our gallant folks serving in the Middle East. You must also abandon any hopes you may have for a blood-and-guts exposé of battleground behavior.
This is science, not sensationalism.
I wish that our military AND our civilian leaders had been able to study this book and to do serious, long-term advanced planning for Iraq based upon it. I am convinced that such luxury would have placed us in a vastly different position than our current one.
Counterinsurgency.......2007-07-03
This book is an excellent review of the successful British counterinsurgency war in Malaysia and the unsuccessful US counterinsurgency in Vietnam. The author draws the correct conclusion that it is necessary to win the support of the people. The author misses the important lesson that the British war cost Britain probably 100 dead vs. the Vietnam cost to the US of 50,000. The second lesson that the author should have learned is that it is critical to keep our casualties low. It is better to take a long time (like the British did - 12 years) that to suffer higher casualties.
Insightful Book for military buff.......2007-06-18
I bought a copy of this book for my boyfriend, serving in the US Army. He enjoys it, recommended it to his fellow officers.
Average customer rating:
- Fun Home: A Family Biography
- An Epic Journey Toward Honesty
- a new genre
- Achingly True and Elegant
- Just amazing.
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Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic
Alison Bechdel
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0618477942 |
Book Description
This breakout book by Alison Bechdel takes its place alongside the unnerving, memorable, darkly funny family memoirs of Augusten Burroughs and Mary Karr. It's a father-daughter tale pitch-perfectly illustrated with Bechdel's sweetly gothic drawings andlike Marjane Satrapi's Persepolisa story exhilaratingly suited to the graphic memoir form. Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian house, a third-generation funeral home director, a high school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with male students and a family babysitter. Through narrative that is alternately heartbreaking and fiercely funny, we are drawn into a daughter's complex yearning for her father. And yet, apart from assigned stints dusting caskets at the family-owned "fun home," as Alison and her brothers call it, the relationship achieves its most intimate expression through the shared code of books. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift . . . graphic . . . and redemptive.
Customer Reviews:
Fun Home: A Family Biography.......2007-10-09
I read through Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel in one sitting, steamrolling through it like it was my job.
This book is categorized as a graphic novel, and I see it completely that way. It's very wordy, and Bechdel's style is spare, though there are thoughtful details that stick out: wrinkles on her parents' faces; exact passages from books and plays; the awnings of her childhood home. She kept a journal when young, and this book seems almost more like a review of that journal, fleshing the words out with remembered images and feelings.
Her use of text as an image is interesting, and though it's a true reflection of her past, I felt it a little overused. Her journal entries, illustrated, are an example, her childish scrawls being overcome by OCD symbols and slashes being important but not so much so that every little bit had to be illustrated. Her father and she had their best correspondences through letters, and she illustrates both his profuse knowledge about the books she was reading and also some of his old love letters to her mother when he was in the army. So much illutrated text--I tended to simply skim over them and not read their handwritten messages.
I liked the photographs that she drew in, however. The style of drawing changes in these photographs, looking more realistic, as if trying to say something about the difference between truth and illusion when these pictures were taken, and are interestingly juxtaposed with her comical hand holding them.
All right, enough essay-writing. I thought that the characterizations of her mother and father were brilliant, though at the expense of the rest of her family and ultimately of the author/narrator herself. You get the sense that she's somewhat of an aloof personality, but how much of that carries over after the funeral and into the rest of her life is unknown.
The book is less of a catharsis and more of a realization of how she was a mirror image of her father, a theme that resonates with me quite strongly.
Whether or not you are a comic lover, you can enjoy this novel. There aren't any of those comical tropes of 'bam!' or 'single bound!', or even much digression from standard, square panels, but the subject matter is so compelling that you won't even care. This is not an action or comedy; the nearest comparison that a non-geek might know is Maus by Art Spiegelman, though the subject matter of course is not so apocalyptic.
On the other hand, if you love action-packed stuff, then this might not be for you. Though there are a few pages that would push a movie into R-rated territory, there isn't any violence or much foul language--systemic of a world where Bechdel grew up, not knowing the 'seedy' things that her father did yet knowing that there was some sort of undercurrent.
I gave this book 5 stars, despite my nitpicking, because this is a seriously good piece of work that everyone should read. It's a great way to transition from the written word to the graphic novel, as it doesn't rely too heavily on comic tropes. If you like Maus, you'll love this one.
An Epic Journey Toward Honesty.......2007-10-01
When your father is an exacting home renovator, meticulous interior decorator, local mortician, high shcool English teacher, and closeted homosexual, who you suspect likely had sexual relations with adolescent boys - if you're like most autobiopic authors these days, then you'd probably write your own private hyperbolic "Running With Scissors," throwing everything up against the wall, and crudely splattering your immediate family's history across the pages of your tunnel-visioned, self-promoting, and sensational memoir. But Alison Bechdel is neither an ordinary author nor a poorly educated one. She has both an independently crafted intellect and a capable library of classic literary sources and themes. She does not choose to focus on minutia or overly far-reaching causalities. Her first autobiography is a corncopia of expertly-coordinated art forms, carved into a concise, gravitational, and enlightening narrative.
I highly recommend not only buying and reading this book, but I also encourage studying Bechdel's perspectives, reasoning connections, and causal theories.
This book is a modern heroic quest to find meanings, understandings, and truths in intimate behaviors, wants, and relationships.
Many authors focus on picturesquely and emotionally describing the abnormalities of their past. Bechdel is fully capable of parroting those common abilities. But her aims are further reaching and more well-intended than simply trying for accurate multi-sensory recollection. She goes happily beyond and effectively reveals the origins of some of her creative forces. She sympathetically and honestly portrays the cultural, familial, and private paradoxes that likely disabled so many of her (and our) loved ones who are not ordinary in their desires.
Anyone who incorrectly thinks women can't be visually-centric need only read this book. Bechdel's visual memory is both astounding and rewarding for the rest of us. And her other areas of memory, from smells to feelings to current events to literary quotes in her educational development are indicative of an artist who tries to consider, evaluate, and remember more than most people do. She does not filter her memories through rose colored glasses, but she does effectively step outside status quo lenses to make her own evaluations and portrayals.
Reading some of the recent popular homosexual memoirs, a person might think homosexuals are NOT predominantly driven by love or desire, but rather driven by poor experiences, revenge, whistleblowing, or hatred. Where most authors blame their family and past relationships for their own problems, Bechdel does not. She sees more perspectives and she is better educated than most. Bechdel chooses to not simply blame others for her past OCD, inabilities, and abnormalities, even while she illustrates capably the environment in which those conditions arose.
The title "Fun Home" probably has many intended meanings, like Jeannette Wells memoir entitled "The Glass Castle" has many transparent meanings. Both memoirs speak of fun times, but I think Bechdel sees even more of the good intentions in her father's "mad" pursuits than Wells perceived. Both fathers showed flashes of brilliance mixed with Achilles Heels so notorious, it's a wonder they could walk at all sometimes. And in Wells' defense, at least Bechdel's father was better read and less often intoxicated.
The title "Fun Home" is not singularly intended with negative or sarcastic connotations. Alison Bechdel shows us how she had fun growing up, as much fun as a person could have dealing with the ever present spoken and unspoken, addressed and unaddressed familial conflicts constantly battling in her home.
I think it would be insufficent to call this a young woman's "coming of age" book. It may be more accurate to say this book is about a family coming of age. And I think the publication of this beautiful story is an assertive exercise in encouraging societal sensibilities to come of age.
Bechdel does not seek to excuse all of her father's behaviors, but rather to help others understand them. She wants more people to understand what can happen to very intelligent and talented people when they are incorrectly trained to believe that some of their primary drives and loves are sinful, shameful, or should be killed or hidden. She writes:
"I suppose a lifetime spent hiding one's erotic truth could have a cummulative renunciatory effect. Sexual shame is in itself a kind of death. Ulysses, of course, was banned for many years by people who found its honesty obscene."
I felt pretty good that I was able to not cry while reading the book. But after I read the last page, the tears just flowed.
a new genre.......2007-09-26
I didn't know that graphic novels could be so smart. I felt smarter after reading this one, and also very moved by a sad story. This book doesn't have good guys and bad guys, which is how you know it's not a typical comic.
In addition to a great tale, the art is so beautiful. What a tremendous book.
Achingly True and Elegant.......2007-08-25
This memoir could have been called "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" but that title is taken. Nevertheless, that is the most apt description for Fun Home that I can think of. Alison Bechdel's spare prose and simple, black-and-white line drawings convey an emotional complexity that will push buttons for many, if not all, readers because in one way or another most of us suffered childhoods that tested our abilities to make sense of the senseless.
My own childhood was nothing like Bechdel's, yet at the same time it was exactly like hers. All of the details are different, while all of the feelings are the same. I would say that at the heart of Fun Home lies Bechdel's need to justify to herself the love she felt (and continues to feel) for a father who was too wrapped up in his own identity conflicts to even acknowledge, much less help address, his child's. And who was too weak even to live out his full two score and seven, taking his life sometime in his 40s when Bechdel was just out of college.
Bechdel's contempt for her father is apparent, as is her love. She is at once angry and admiring, cynical about his motives and proud of his accomplishments. Her ambivalence is nearly overwhelming, and something that I suspect many of us share in relation to our parents. In the end, I believe, the lucky ones among us come to some inner accommodation wherein we are able to forgive our parents for their lapses, even those that are quite literally sinful, and honor the things they were able to do that live on in our hearts and minds after they are gone.
Fun Home is a beautiful book whose drawings aid the reader's imagination in fleshing out details of an early life that was deeply felt and well lived. I highly recommend it.
Just amazing........2007-08-22
I just want to say, I had never read Alison Bechdel before I read a review of this book in Bitch Magazine. I picked it up and am now a huge fan of hers. This book is incredibly well thought-out and I think that many people will see their own story reflected in hers in that, as a child (as a human for that matter), you see your parents as end-all, be-all, endlessly fascinating human beings...almost as if they were Adam and Eve...It's such a strange paradox in that they existed for a long time before you did, they they do or don't take care of you, that no matter what the status, everyone has parents...you pore over seeminly innocuous details of their lives searching for some "truth", you compare them favorably and unfavorably to other people's parents...you put together pieces of the puzzle for yourself where there is no information...but at the end of the day, they are just people who make mistakes, no more, no less. This story is mainly about a daughter's fascination with her father and his life/secrets, an attempt to get to the root of a completely tragic experience and a reconciliation with herself and her own grief and (misplaced) guilt.
I met Alison at the NYC Comic Con and she was pretty fascinating herself. This book has been a obvious victory for her as well as a labor of love and a harrowing journey. Once I finished this book, I bought the DTWOF books and was bowled over. It's a twenty year long soap opera with aging characters, intricate story lines, whip-smart commentary on social, governmental and civil rights issues, and funny too boot.
Amazon.com
From the author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents comes this tale of courage and sisterhood set in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. A skillful blend of fact and fiction, In the Time of the Butterflies is inspired by the true story of the three Mirabal sisters who, in 1960, were murdered for their part in an underground plot to overthrow the government. Alvarez breathes life into these historical figures--known as "las mariposas," or "the butterflies," in the underground--as she imagines their teenage years, their gradual involvement with the revolution, and their terror as their dissentience is uncovered.
Alvarez's controlled writing perfectly captures the mounting tension as "the butterflies" near their horrific end. The novel begins with the recollections of Dede, the fourth and surviving sister, who fears abandoning her routines and her husband to join the movement. Alvarez also offers the perspectives of the other sisters: brave and outspoken Minerva, the family's political ringleader; pious Patria, who forsakes her faith to join her sisters after witnessing the atrocities of the tyranny; and the baby sister, sensitive Maria Teresa, who, in a series of diaries, chronicles her allegiance to Minerva and the physical and spiritual anguish of prison life.
In the Time of the Butterflies is an American Library Association Notable Book and a 1995 National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.
Customer Reviews:
Very Moving.......2007-10-09
A well written fictionalized account of the revolutionary struggles against Trujillo by three of four sisters in the Dominican Replublic. Memorable. The trouble with fictionalized history for me is that after awhile the lines between fact and fiction blur and I don't remember fact from fiction. I tend to stay away from books like this because of my eventual confusion. But, this book is worth it.
After the book and the film.......2007-04-05
The story of the Mirabal sisters is alive and well today in the Dominican Republic. Still the generation that survived the Dicatorship of General Trujillo seats on elite ground in the Island of the Hispaniola.
Comparing the book , the film and the history we can see gaps, hits and misses. The true story of the island is still covered under a veil of mystery, still to this date most of the characters of the book; maybe even their killers walk freely and with no remorse.
The island in itself is a beautiful set, the human casualties of the Trujillo era has been uncovered ever so gently . Until just recently the horrors of the era were exposed and freely written by authors like Balaguer, in "La isla al revez", by Mario Vargas Llosa" La muerte del Chivo", and Julia Alvarez is brilliant in her descriptions.
She teaches in Middlebury College,VT; I personally love her writing style and descriptive style of colors,enviornments and characters.
Fantastic!.......2007-03-28
This books is absolutely fantastic. I personally really enjoy books that cover the same story from several points-of-view so I didn't find it confusing at all. The story is so moving, especially because it is based on real events. Even though I knew what was coming, by the end I broke down into sobs. Beautiful.
confusing.......2007-03-11
I found this book to be very confusing because of all the spanish names and words. It is really hard to keep track of all the characters also. Each chapter is a different sister. All the sisters are married or going out w/someone and then there are their children and on top of that are all the government officials. I was just lost throughout the whole book.
Las Mariposas.......2006-07-08
This book is really good because it is realistic and it shows the struggle of four young girls growing up in the Dominican Republic during the rise of the Trujillo dictatorship. The way it is written is a little bit odd since it shifts narrators between the four girls and they each talk about a different time period, but it is still very informative and hard to put down. And not only do I recommend this book, but the movie is also terrific and possibly a little easier to follow since it runs straight through without switching points of view.
Average customer rating:
- Half of a Yellow Sun - Great read!
- A Literary Classic!!
- Powerful characters captured by outstanding writing
- Still thinking about this book
- compelling read with complex characters
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Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Manufacturer: Knopf
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1400044162
Release Date: 2006-09-12 |
Book Description
A masterly, haunting new novel from a writer heralded by The Washington Post Book World as “the 21st-century daughter of Chinua Achebe,” Half of a Yellow Sun re-creates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in Nigeria in the 1960s, and the chilling violence that followed.
With astonishing empathy and the effortless grace of a natural storyteller, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie weaves together the lives of three characters swept up in the turbulence of the decade. Thirteen-year-old Ugwu is employed as a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal. Olanna is the professor’s beautiful mistress, who has abandoned her life of privilege in Lagos for a dusty university town and the charisma of her new lover. And Richard is a shy young Englishman in thrall to Olanna’s twin sister, an enigmatic figure who refuses to belong to anyone. As Nigerian troops advance and the three must run for their lives, their ideals are severely tested, as are their loyalties to one another.
Epic, ambitious, and triumphantly realized, Half of a Yellow Sun is a remarkable novel about moral responsibility, about the end of colonialism, about ethnic allegiances, about class and race—and the ways in which love can complicate them all. Adichie brilliantly evokes the promise and the devastating disappointments that marked this time and place, bringing us one of the most powerful, dramatic, and intensely emotional pictures of modern Africa that we have ever had.
Customer Reviews:
Half of a Yellow Sun - Great read!.......2007-10-18
Well written and interesting story. Could not put it down, would recommend it for book clubs because many parts of it are great for discussions.
A Literary Classic!!.......2007-10-16
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the newest Nigerian writer in the mould of Chinua Achebe or Nobel Laureate Wole Shoyinka, and much like tham, her writing style is simply outstanding!
"Half of a yellow sun" is her second book, following the critically acclaimed "Purple Hibiscus", and has won the Orange prize for fiction. The book takes its name from the half yellow sun on the Biafran flag.
Filled with vivid prose and wit, and very real, colourful characters: Odenigbo, his girlfriend Olanna, her twin Kainene, her English boyfriend Richard (who becomes Igbo by association), and houseboy Ugwu, it is set in sixties Nigeria, fresh from Independence and still wobbling as she tries to find her feet.
More importantly, it gives one an insight into the suffering, pain, heartache, endured by the Biafrans (the short lived secessionist nation), the scheming of the west, as well as the blissful ignorance of most other Nigerians of the carnage going on in the eastern part of the nation, all this done without pointing any fingers or judging.
This book, though fiction, is an important chronicle of a part of Nigerian history that should never be forgotten, and left me deeply moved. A literary classic!!
Powerful characters captured by outstanding writing.......2007-09-25
It is the late 1960s. In Africa, the small nation of Biafra struggles to establish a republic independent from Nigeria. The world is not paying attention as people are slaughtered, as heroes are born, as classes and ethnic groups clash and fight and flee.
Amidst this backdrop of turmoil, you meet Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old boy just hired as a houseboy by Odenigbo, a university professor and revolutionary. You follow Odenigbo and his girlfriend Olanna as they abandon one house after another, fleeing with Ugwu, trying to stay one step ahead of the front line of the war. You travel with Richard, a young Englishman who considers himself a citizen of this new nation of Biafra, as he navigates the war and pursues Olanna's proud and beautiful twin sister Kainene. You get a glimpse, through these characters, into the chaos and instability that is the daily lives of those affected by war.
Adichie's new novel is ambitious - it manages simultaneously to be both broad in scope and intimate in its details. Her writing is beautiful, and her characters so well fleshed out that you keep thinking about them, wondering what will happen to them, long after the book is done. There is death here, yes, but there is also birth and friendship and lust. There is hunger, but there is also generosity and truth. Adichie does an excellent job portraying the surreal coexistence of the fear and devastation of war with the more mundane, but perhaps even more painful, struggles to maintain some semblance of "normal" life - meals prepared and eaten, school attended, marriages planned and babies conceived.
Adichie's novel is a window into the past, into a place that most of us have never been. The clash and coincidence of the love story and the war epic render Half a Yellow Sun into the kind of fiction that is often more telling, more evocative of a particular point in history, than any strictly historic account could ever be.
Armchair Interviews says: The book makes you feel the characters struggle in a way that only the best fiction can.
Still thinking about this book.......2007-09-17
I won't say much since the other reviewers have nicely listed a synopsis of the book, but what I will say is that I loved this book. It is not often one finds a book where you care very much for the characters and want to know what happens next and can't put it down. The author writes in a way that makes you feel you are there. Those who have lived in Africa will also feel closer to the book and its characters. When I finished this book I cried... and am still thinking about the story. Buy this book, you will not be disappointed.
compelling read with complex characters .......2007-09-16
Africa is undeniably hip right now. Just ask Oprah, Bono, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, among other luminaries, make their annual pilgrimages between the "third" world and the "first" world to remind us of our moral obligation to our long-suffering brothers and sisters in Africa. From the continent has come one of the finest writers I have read in a long time. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the author of Purple Hibiscus, and her latest masterpiece, Half of a Yellow Sun. In this novel, which won the prestigious Orange prize for literature in the UK, Adichie brings Nigeria in the early '60s to life.
Through the lives of her central characters, we see the political and cultural tensions that were brewing in the years leading up to the Biafran war, a brutal conflict initially started by tribal differences. Thirteen-year old Ugwu is employed as a house boy to a radical University professor, Olanna is the professor's beautiful and privileged girlfriend who has eschewed her bourgeois life for the brilliant professor. Richard is a shy, insecure Englishman who seeks to rediscover himself in his relationship with Olanna's sister, Kainene, a fierce, mysterious woman who is beholden to no one. Adichie wasn't even born when these events were unfolding, but she heard stories about the war and its aftermath from her parents and other relatives who were swept up in these apocalyptic events that ultimately led to much suffering for Nigeria's people.
Why read this book? Aside from the political and moral questions it raises, it's a compelling read with complex characters who will leave you reflecting on their stories long after you have finished the novel.
Book Description
In his own book, Wartime, Paul Fussell called With the Old Breed "one of the finest memoirs to emerge from any war." John Keegan referred to it in The Second World War as "one of the most arresting documents in war literature." And Studs Terkel was so fascinated with the story he interviewed its author for his book, "The Good War." What has made E.B. Sledge's memoir of his experience fighting in the South Pacific during World War II so devastatingly powerful is its sheer honest simplicity and compassion. Now including a new introduction by Paul Fussell, With the Old Breed presents a stirring, personal account of the vitality and bravery of the Marines in the battles at Peleliu and Okinawa. Born in Mobile, Alabama in 1923 and raised on riding, hunting, fishing, and a respect for history and legendary heroes such as George Washington and Daniel Boone, Eugene Bondurant Sledge (later called "Sledgehammer" by his Marine Corps buddies) joined the Marines the year after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and from 1943 to 1946 endured the events recorded in this book. In those years, he passed, often painfully, from innocence to experience. Sledge enlisted out of patriotism, idealism, and youthful courage, but once he landed on the beach at Peleliu, it was purely a struggle for survival. Based on the notes he kept on slips of paper tucked secretly away in his New Testament, he simply and directly recalls those long months, mincing no words and sparing no pain. The reality of battle meant unbearable heat, deafening gunfire, unimaginable brutality and cruelty, the stench of death, and, above all, constant fear. Sledge still has nightmares about "the bloody, muddy month of May on Okinawa." But, as he also tellingly reveals, the bonds of friendship formed then will never be severed. Sledge's honesty and compassion for the other marines, even complete strangers, sets him apart as a memoirist of war. Read as sobering history or as high adventure, With the Old Breed is a moving chronicle of action and courage.
Customer Reviews:
Gutted.......2007-10-08
I watched much of The War this weekend on PBS. Ken Burns leans heavily on Eugene Sledge's account of war, and that tells me that Burns at least knows genius writing when he reads it.
Sledge may be the best writer from the 20th century that most people have never heard of. His language is harrowing and detailed and does not spare any details about the chaos and misery and ineffable singular experience that is war. I truly believe that he lived through Peleliu and Okinawa, so he could compile his writings and share them with the world. How else can you explain the same person living through two of the nastiest battles of the 20th century?
Buy this book. Share it with everyone you know.
BEST WW2 BOOK EVER!!! ....so far............2007-10-04
This book was a pleasure to read. Not that I find pleasure in the horrors of war, I do not, but this book is so well written. I gets into the real nitty-gritties of every day life at war fighting a fearsome enemy. This book was the first book to ever give me a real glimpse of the totality of war on the foot soldier. There are many great books on WW2 out there, this definetly has to be one of the best! GET THIS BOOK RIGHT NOW!!! you wont regret it.
This is the best book ever written by an American Combat Veteran.......2007-10-04
This book is about combat. Nothing more. It is horrifying. It is well written. It is too well written. If you read this book, you will understand combat. Not "war", but combat. That's Mr. Sledge's goal. He wants the rest of us to understand the horror of combat. This is the best book on combat by an American combat veteran. The only combat book that is better is "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer, a German soldier on the Russian front during WWII. Both of these books will make you cry like a baby. Read them back to back & I promise that you will have nightmares.
My father on cover of later editions aiming weapon.......2007-10-03
I read the old copy of this twice. Imagine my surprise when my son sent me a blown up photo of the cover and I am staring at my father aiming his weapon as I remember him when he was young! He fought at Okinawa and out of his entire battalion only he and five others came back (& wounded at that). When I was little after the War, and Daddy was drinking, he used to describe some of war's horrors to my mother and his friends when he thought I wasn't listening. He would talk about a man named Sledge who was nicknamed, "Sledgehammer." Although my father kept his sense of humor about some of war's crazy happenings, he never recovered fully and drank when it became too much. He lost all of his buddies in battle. When Daddy died in 1981, I thought, "Well, he is with them, now." Sledge's accounts exactly match my father's from the late 1940s.
With The Old Breed.......2007-08-17
Wow!!! Sledge eloquently exposes the misery and ultimate madness of war. We owe much to our brave soldiers. All politicians should read this book to gain a sense of the sacrifice that our soldiers,past and present, have endured.
Average customer rating:
- Long Wait for an Excellent Book
- A beautiful exhibition
- Glitter and Doom
- Beautiful catalog for
- You can't go wrong with German Expressionism
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Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)
Sabine Rewald ,
Ian Buruma , and
Matthias Eberle
Manufacturer: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0300117884 |
Book Description
In the 1920s Germany was in the grip of social and political turmoil: its citizens were disillusioned by defeat in World War I, the failure of revolution, the disintegration of their social system, and inflation of rampant proportions. Curiously, as this important book shows, these years of upheaval were also a time of creative ferment and innovative accomplishment in literature, theater, film, and art.
Glitter and Doom
is the first publication to focus exclusively on portraits dating from the short-lived Weimar Republic. It features forty paintings and sixty drawings by key artists, including Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and George Grosz. Their works epitomize Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), in particular the branch of that new form of realism called Verism, which took as its subject contemporary phenomena such as war, social problems, and moral decay. Subjects of their incisive portraits are the artists’ own contemporaries: actors, poets, prostitutes, and profiteers, as well as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and other respectable citizens. The accompanying texts reveal how these portraits hold up a mirror to the glittering, vital, doomed society that was obliterated when Hitler came to power.
Customer Reviews:
Long Wait for an Excellent Book.......2007-05-12
Finally an excellent review of what the first World War did to German culture and psyche. This book lays it all out. Hitler was a logical consequence. Unfortunately the Western world did not pay enough attention to these portentious signs. The book has beautiful color reproductions, great detailed commentary on each artist featured and enaough historical commentary to make it all plausible.
A beautiful exhibition.......2007-04-08
This is the catalogue for a beautiful exhibition held at the Met last year. The paintings reproduced here are among the best examples of the New Objectivity, a movement that was able to depict the atmosphere, the soul, the world of the Weimar Republic, that brief time span when pre-war Germany enjoyed freedom in the arts and in the minds. These gripping paintings show how ultimately doomed that world was and how the artists were the first to sense the tragic developments that were to succeed it. The front cover, a detail of one of Christian Schad's best known paintings, is a perfect illustration of a society that seems to have enjoyed life knowing that death would come too soon, with the end of that joyful and poetic decadence that was the Berlin of the 1920's.
Glitter and Doom.......2007-03-22
Twice viewed the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum here in New York. German art in the 20s is raw, obscene and decadent. A raucus reflection on hard times there. They had just suffered WW1, in the midst of fascism, insane inflation, etc.
Highlight: Otto Dix is a wild artist, forever a favorite now. Also a DaDa artist.
I am a frequent art museum visitor. Therefore, in my opinion, this catalogue did the show great justice which is not aways the case.
Beautiful catalog for.......2007-03-08
The BEST museum show I have seen in a long time. Sabine Rewald is a truly great curator, the book is smart and well designed, great color reproductions.
You can't go wrong with German Expressionism.......2007-01-29
How can you say "no" to Otto Dix?? Well...you can't! The actual exhibit at the Met was good (although I thought it'd be bigger) and relatively informative, but the book gets into depths the exhibit couldn't. Ideally you should see the exhibit and thoroughly read the book. You can't quite get the experience of seeing the works within the book, and you can't exactly get the knowledge of just reading the little blurbs that are glued beside each piece in the exhibit.
The book explores the themes of German life before the world turned on itself and the second world war exploded. For the money it's worth the dive into the celebrated, vastly entertaining, stunningly morbid and little studied area of German Expressionism. It's not too late...go out and there and see the exhibit. And then buy the book, since that's what the Met would like you to do.
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