Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Book Description

This beautifully written, heartfelt memoir touched a nerve among both readers and reviewers. Elizabeth Gilbert tells how she made the difficult choice to leave behind all the trappings of modern American success (marriage, house in the country, career) and find, instead, what she truly wanted from life. Setting out for a year to study three different aspects of her nature amid three different cultures, Gilbert explored the art of pleasure in Italy and the art of devotion in India, and then a balance between the two on the Indonesian island of Bali. By turns rapturous and rueful, this wise and funny author (whom Booklist calls Â“Anne LamottÂ's hip, yoga- practicing, footloose younger sisterÂ”) is poised to garner yet more adoring fans.

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Worth It.......2007-10-18

I really enjoyed this book and while envied the authors' ability to travel at length, agree that the search for self-love and acceptance is, in actuality, the opposite of selfish. I am thrilled that this author found limitless compassion and understanding for herself through her spiritual practice as she then was able to extend that same compassion and understanding to those around her. In her courageous honesty about her own feelings of superiority, judgment, lonliness, anger and despair she allows her reader to relate without shame. And if we let ourselves, we can all relate. We are all human beings.

Read - Travel - Grow.......2007-10-18

Who among us hasn't come to know on a somewhat intimate basis our bathroom floor, or whatever other surface has served to collect our tears. That's where we join Elizabeth Gilbert. Where we separate from her is in what we do about the circumstances that bring us to tears. Gilbert's solution was to look for herself through food and friendship in Italy, fellowship and spirituality in India, and growth and love in Indonesia. While most of us don't have the means to take a year off to find ourselves, the path Gilbert travels in her mind, heart and body can serve as a road map for many even if you travel no further than the bounds of your own home town.

The book is an easy read, written in a combination journal/travel log format. A bit more complex are the stages and changes through which Gilbert transcends. Her sense of humor is glorious and significantly adds to the enjoyment of her adventure - for both herself and her readers.

If nothing else, Gilbert's book serves as a reminder to women everywhere (perhaps men as well, although I see this as a she-book) that you can move beyond staying trapped in an unhappy situation, even if it does come with all the right trappings. This is a book that you read and then pass along to that friend we all have who needs a little help packing her suitcase and filling out those change of address cards. Personally, I've already wrapped two copies as Christmas presents for my daughters because I can't think of a better gift for any mother to give than encouragement to eat, pray and love!

More like a magazine article than a novel.......2007-10-18

After forcing myself to finish the book, I can't really call myself a fan. Eat, Pray, Love starts out great in Italy, but by the time Liz hit India I was struggling to get through the chapters. I think I was so uninterested because I couldn't relate to her. I've never experienced Yoga or meditations or any Indian beliefs, so I couldn't understand what she was doing. I was also getting annoyed by her descriptions of herself--blonde, thin, perky, easily able to make friends...even her problems and "faults" turn out to be okay and accepted by her in the end. I can't relate to a Homecoming Queen. I was also rolling my eyes at her heartbreak over David. You would think she would be upset and broken hearted about her ex-husband, not a fling she had afterward. But, she doesn't give us enough background on either of them to understand why she is so heartbroken, so you can't sympathize with her.

That being said, I admire her for putting so much of herself out there in a book, and her feelings and struggles ring true. She is very brave for describing such a personal journey to find a relationship with God. But the whole book probably could have been condensed into a long magazine article, and I can't believe her published paid for her trip and her book IN ADVANCE. Where do I sign up???

After all of her travels, it seems the only thing Liz learns is to love herself, and that's great. All in all, it's an okay book, but don't waste your money on it. Check it out of the library and keep your $15.

A book that touches my heart!.......2007-10-18

I came across this book through the New York Times book review section in 2006. Being an avid traveler, I was immediately captured by its title. When the book arrived, I could not put it down until I finished reading in two days. I found myself laughing and crying all the way through Elizabeth Gilbert's world journey. I am a yogi who goes through the same struggles that Gilbert experienced in the ashram. I could see myself in her shoes. Gilbert is hilarious, emotional and sensitive. Her self-discovery is courageous and inspiring. My take home message with book is that, get out of your comfort zone, there are many unexpected surprises await you!

Loved it!!.......2007-10-18

I simply could not put this book down. She writes beautifully, and this story is so wonderful. Kudos to Ms Gilbert.

Erica Black
Author of "The Call Girl Actress, Confessions of a Lesbian Escort"

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

Average customer rating:

A Traumatic Childhood?
Horrible, Horrible.
Fascinating setting, frustrating storytelling
Remembering Zambia
A favorite

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Alexandra Fuller
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375758992
Release Date: 2003-03-11

Book Description

In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.

Download Description

In Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with visceral authenticity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller's endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller's debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.

From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller -- known to friends and family as Bobo -- grew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. Though she loved her children, she was no hand-holder and had little tolerance for neediness. She nurtured her daughters in other ways: She taught them, by example, to be resilient and self-sufficient, to have strong wills and strong opinions, and to embrace life wholeheartedly, despite and because of difficult circumstances. And she instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation.

A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller writes poignantly about a girl becoming a woman and a writer against a backdrop of unrest, not just in her country but in her home. But Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is more than a survivor's story. It is the story of one woman's unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt.

"This searing memoir of a white family clinging to lives in Africa as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe lays out, without moralizing or sentimentality, the way in which turmoil and injustice in society distort the lives of families and individuals."
   MARY CATHERINE BATESON, AUTHOR OF COMPOSING A LIFE AND FULL CIRCLES, OVERLAPPING LIVES

"Nobody has ever written a book about growing up white in rural Africa the way Alexandra Fuller has. Her voice is mordant, her ear uncanny. Her unsentimentality is a pleasant shock. Her sense of humor is extremely sly. Without a trace of pretension, she quietly performs what is really a major literary feat-nailing both the poetry and the myopia of a child's experience in a brawling, bad-luck family on the losing side of an anti-colonial war."
   WILLIAM FINNEGAN, AUTHOR OF CROSSING THE LINE: A YEAR IN THE LAND OF APARTHEID AND COLD NEW WORLD: GROWING UP IN HARDER COUNTRY

Customer Reviews:

A Traumatic Childhood?.......2007-10-02

I read this book before Ms Fuller's "Scribbling the Cat". I am the same age as Ms Fuller, and also grew up in small Rhodesian towns. I found the racism and generalisation that all white Rhodesian are racist very offensive. Some of my best friends when I was growing up were black children, and if I or my siblings had behaved towards black people the way Ms Fuller and her family did we would have been severely disciplined. This book made me ashamed to be a white African, and I actually have no reason to feel that way.

Horrible, Horrible........2007-09-29

This is one of only two books I've ever bought that was so boring and weird that I could not finish it...and I've been stuck in a hotel room in Mexico for 2 weeks with nothing else to do! It is fully of details of bodily functions; it's crude; and it's just plain dull. This is one of the worst books I've ever bought.

Fascinating setting, frustrating storytelling.......2007-09-10

This memoir really brings its setting to life. It pulses with the sights, smells and sounds of Africa, and does a great job describing civil war, droughts, dysentery, fleas, floods, poachers, scorpions, terrorists and very bad roads. I actually cringed when I read how the putzi flies lay eggs on clothes, which then burrow under the skin, "becoming maggots, bursting into living, squirming boils, emerging as full-blown, winged flies."

Unfortunately, the narrative is weak. The author has a staccato writing style that really gets in the way. In fact, that, and the book's casual racism, made it hard for me to keep reading. It didn't help that so many of the characters are impossible to respect. The alcoholic parents seem to revel in putting their children in harm's way. The mom in particular is hard to take. I kept wanting to slap her, and tell her to stop crying in her beer.

-- By Julie Neal, author of The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World.

Remembering Zambia.......2007-08-23

We can recommentd this book to anyone who has lived in Zambia during and post UDI. We have sent copies to our friends in UK who were with us during our stay there. We all know people who we can relate to with the characters in this book. The story took us all back to places like the "Elephant's Head" in Kabwe - a stop on our treks to Lusaka from Ndola.

A favorite.......2007-07-28

I'm and avid reader, and i must say this book is one of my favorite reads, if not my favorite. I lived with a family in Malawi Afrifca for awhile, so the book, for sure, draws my sentiments. But Alexandra Fuller spills guts and soul into the sharing of her African childhood experience. As a child, she writes with a child's voice, a child's soul, and as she matures, so does her expression. What a gifted writer! Her writing rings true, and I am hungry for more!

In the Pink: Dorothy Draper--America's Most Fabulous Decorator

Average customer rating:

Dorothy Draper: an inspiration to her field!
The Height of Glamour
The gorgeous terror of excess, or "How I was blinded with ornament"
Absolutely gorgeous book
As History & Biography: Bravo! As Design Inspiration: Blah!

In the Pink: Dorothy Draper--America's Most Fabulous Decorator
Carleton Varney
Manufacturer: Pointed Leaf Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0972766189

Book Description

From the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia and Quitandinha in Brazil to her important fabrics for F. Schumacher & Co. and her automobile and airplane interiors of the 1950s, Draper continues to influence designers today.

Customer Reviews:

Dorothy Draper: an inspiration to her field! .......2007-10-12

As one of the previous commentators stated, this book is a wonderful book in terms of historical significance to the Decorating/Interior Design field, but this book is certainly not a "how to" book on decorating. Therefore, if you are looking for a basic "how to decorate" book, then this book may not be a way to go.

HOWEVER......

If a person is buying this book as an historical reference book to their home decorating (or interior design) library, then this book would be a wonderful addition.

For example, if I were a person majoring in a form of home decorating field, then this book would be of tremendous value. WHY?...because so many ideas that Dorothy Draper implemented are still being used today or still inspiring home decorators today!! (eg: if you were to look at Jonathan Adler's current design concepts, you will see alot of Dorothy Draper's influence in Jonathan's work). Thus, Dorothy Draper's influence to the home decorating field is truly immesurable.

This hardback book is large in size.The photos are amazing. Most are in black-and-white since that is how the photos were orignally taken. But still,....the author describes the colors that would have been used in the book's B&W photos, and THAT helps the reader so much! I could certainly visualize what the B&W photos would be like in color, thanks to Carlton's wonderful descriptions.

The Height of Glamour.......2007-07-12

When High STYLE was "in-style" Dorothy Draper was the queen of design... Every page reflects her understanding of space, light and perfection!!! This isa great read for the design professional as well as the casual reader. Her life story and her work are inseperable - she loved beautiful things and had an un-erring eye for the dramatic. "In the Pink: Dorothy Draper --America's Most Fabulous Decorator" is a visual treat as much as it is a fun read! As an iterior designer I see her design principles are as easily applied today as it was in the age of glamour. I would give it a 5!!! all across the board.

The gorgeous terror of excess, or "How I was blinded with ornament".......2007-06-01

While Kelly Wearstler was still in the womb, Dorothy Draper was jetsetting the style world in a solid gold Deusenburg that was fueled exclusively on Chanel no. 5. Her contribution to the interiors and custom fabricated furnitures and fixtures has forever seared a scar into the homes of hollywood and beyond. Liberace himself would be sent into a seizure over Dorothy's hallucinagenic oppulence and fearless approach to her indulgent, decorative torture chambers. Get this book and blow your mind.

Absolutely gorgeous book.......2007-04-06

It took a while for me to finally decide to drop that kind of coin on a book, but its absolutely gorgeous and worth the price. Very cool to page through and see her imprint on decorating and design through the 30's up to now. You page through a Domino magazine and see a cool black and white modern print on a white french chair and think 'wow' and then you page through the book and see that she was doing it in the 40's. Just makes me wish I had my own chandelier fabricator and my own master plasterer as those seem to be her tricks of the trade. Beautifully put together and one of the few decorating books I actually wanted to READ every word and not just page through for the pretty pics.

As History & Biography: Bravo! As Design Inspiration: Blah!.......2007-04-02

I bought this book for my wife, who is an artist and color consultant, because I thought she'd enjoy seeing an iconic designer known for her bold use of color and thematic environments -- especially done on a grand scale. And, yes, you will find page after page after page of grand ballrooms, hotel lobbies, mansion-size dining rooms, and so on here.

80% of them, unfortunately, are photographed in black & white. So much for the bold use of color.

There are two great color photos -- pages 161 and 207 -- that show off Draper's lush, vibrant style. But the rest of the book is either slightly out of focus color photos, color illustrations and old ads, or black & white photos. It's just sad in how it under-represents Dorothy Draper.

"But be fair," you say. "Dorothy Draper's peak took place before the advent of color photography." That's fine. But this book is a perfect example of the rare publishing project that truly is BEGGING for Photoshop colorization. On page 53, for example, the text refers to a House & Garden magazine article which declared one of Draper's most visible design projects, Hampshire House, to be "a gold mine of decorating ideas, particularly in color." And yet all four photos on that spread are in black & white, as are the spreads before and after it. A very good Photoshop artist -- and several do perfect, true-to-life work -- could give those old black & white shots the vivid, vibrant colors that would represent Dorothy Draper properly and accurately without changing Draper's style one iota.

As I say in my title, as a history (of the advent of superstar designers) and a biography (of Draper), this is a very good book that should not be overlooked. But how can you do a history of bold interior design, or a biography of a top interior designer, without SHOWING the vivacious use of color which was central to both? That's like doing a bio of Abe Lincoln without including the Gettysburg Address.

So is this worth seeing? Definitely. Worth buying used? Probably. Worth buying new? Only if you're rich.

Average customer rating:

Entertaining and educational
Amazing insight into 20th century China and Mao inparticular
Wild China
Wild Swans
Learned, laughed and cried.

Wild Swans : Three Daughters of China
Jung Chang
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mao: The Unknown Story
River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.)
Life and Death in Shanghai
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns

ASIN: 0743246985

Amazon.com

In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her husband, to a prominent position in the Communist Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself marched, worked, and breathed for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, violent struggles between the Kuomintang and the Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious cycle of purges orchestrated by Chairman Mao that discredited and crushed millions of people, including her parents.

Book Description

Blending the intimacy of memoir and the panoramic sweep of eyewitness history, Wild Swans has become a bestselling classic in thirty languages, with more than ten million copies sold. The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love.

Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor," a steelworker, and an electrician. As the story of each generation unfolds, Chang captures in gripping, moving -- and ultimately uplifting -- detail the cycles of violent drama visited on her own family and millions of others caught in the whirlwind of history.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining and educational.......2007-10-08

I read this book in preparation for a trip to China. The book follows the lives of 3 women (daughter, mother, grandmother) in China. Chang does an outstanding job teaching the reader about China's history and politics while at the same time giving us the women's stories. You will learn a lot about China during WWII, Japanese occupation, Communist revolution, Mao's great leap forward and the cultural revolution.

On the downside, the author does not do a particularly nice job in helping the reader understand the characters. You don't get into their brains. This is a minor criticism and I still highly recommend this book if you are at all interested in learning about China in the last 100 years. You will learn a lot without having to read a boring textbook.

Amazing insight into 20th century China and Mao inparticular.......2007-09-19

It is incredible to read this true story about 20th century China. So little is really known about China to those of us in the West. It is hard to believe that so many "intellectuals" here in the West used to, and even still, have so much admiration for Mao when there is truly only evil behind this man. There is a lot of history in this book but really it is the personal story of the author and her family. A must read for us all!

Wild China.......2007-09-15

"Mrs Shau slapped my father hard. The crowd barked at him indignantly, although a few tried to hide their giggles. Then they pulled out his books and threw them into huge jute sacks they had brought with them.

"When all the bags were full, they carried them downstairs, telling my father they were going to burn them... the next day after a denunciation meetings against him. They ordered him to watch the bonfire 'to be taught a lesson.' In the meantime, they said, he must burn the rest of his collection.

"When I came home that afternoon, I found my father in the kitchen. He had lit a fire in the big cement sink, and was hurling his books into the flames.

"This was the first time in my life I had seen him weeping. It was agonized, broken, and wild, the weeping of a man who was not used to shedding tears. Every now and then, in fits of violent sobs, he stamped his feet on the floor and banged his head against the wall.

"My father had spent every spare penny on his books. They were his life. After the bonfire, I could tell that something had happened to his mind."

(Wild Swans, Jung Chang, p.439)

Me, I might've lost mine completely.

After being near-perfectly obedient to a Party whose values you put above your family, to be accused of anti-Party-ism, judged for the very tasks you were instructed to unquestioningly and unconditionally, publicly humiliated and beaten (even made to kneel on glass) and forced to burn the very items you've spent a lifetime collecting and loving...why, I would've been long-gone crazy.

But then these Chinese Communists are dedicated to their work and politics (independently of the cash factor, which wasn't much in Mao's China in the 1950s' to 60s') in a manner quite unheard of today.

I mean, how many of us believe our local politicians are in it primarily because of their "commitment to the unity, harmony and welfare of the country" (to ask is to scoff). Not for Jung Chang's dad, one of the many victims of the Cultural Revolution.

Chang is kinda like Josephus, who escaped a burning Jerusalem (whilst she a 'burning' China) to become a historical-political writer.

Josephus' authorial intentions were of course far more motivated by their allegiance to his benefactor, Vesapian. His was a history of the Jews, but also a thinly veiled exaltation of Rome. Chang's agenda, on the other hand, is an outright expose of the delusions, the cruelty, the very insanity of life and government in China from the start of the 20th century.

From foot-binding to scheming mistresses to escaping third-wives(!); from miscarriages due to long treks (because wives are discouraged to ride in their husbands' vehicles lest 'bourgeosie privilege' is suspected) to the terror of city sieges; from communal self-delusion about a glut (which was really a famine!) to hungry peasants kidnapping babies for food; from profiting from the black-market in banned books (supposedly to be burnt but conveniently set aside for secret trade, especially the erotic ones like Stendhal's Le Rouge et Le Noir) to the Little Red Book 'loyalty dance' (how? Gyrate, wave the book, sing Mao's quotes) - Chang spills everything one would want (and maybe not want) to know about life before and under Mao, structured and timelined by the lives of her grandmother, mother and her own.

The language is simple and clear and not at all 'profound', twisty or avant-garde-ish. Not unlike something you might read in an exercise book from a good Asian secondary school.

Therefore, you sorta know it's the content alone that won Wild Swans the 1992 NCR Book Award and the 1993 British Book of the Year Award. The book is proof you don't need kewl-sounding language to make a serious impact on the literary stage.

Read 'em and (you will) weep.

Wild Swans.......2007-09-01

Well written memoir that reviews the history of China immediately before, during and after the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, and also the early days of the Communist government. The good and the bad of Mao's rule is vividly portrayed.

Learned, laughed and cried........2007-08-31

It took me over a year to finish reading for it is a large, amazing book and I wanted to make sure that I was very alert when reading. Ms. Chang has a terrific writing style that makes you feel you are right there. Each chapter contributed to my knowledge of China as viewed through three women's eyes. It is the type of book you can finish a chapter and then go back to later for she has organized chapters to complete a period in time. Kathy Condon

Average customer rating:

Don't waste your money
No nutritional information!
different style
Not worth the money
Inspiring book with good taste

Healthy Cooking for One
Mari Hills
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cooking for One (Quick & Easy (Silverback))

ASIN: 1412015928
Release Date: 2006-06-30

Product Description

Quick, Simple, Single-Portions Recipes, prepared with common ingredients and fresh products available in most grocery stores. Mari Hills dedicates this cookbook to singles who love tasty homemade food.

Customer Reviews:

Don't waste your money.......2006-09-25

This cookbook was a TOTAL waste of money. The recipes were so simple that a young child could do better without a cookbook.

No nutritional information!.......2006-08-29

How can a book that proclaims itself as a healthy cookbook not have any nutritional information on any of the recipes? There were very few (black and white!) pictures and all the recipes seemed boring and uninspired. I would not recommend this book to anyone that likes food.

different style.......2005-12-28

This book offers a different style and taste; I like the simple and quick recipes, good for those who like small portions instead of a heavy meal.

Not worth the money.......2005-11-18

I was excited to get this book, hoping for some great ideas for meals for one. Instead what I got was a book with plenty of "dip" recipes and salad dressing recipes. Also a section on the cooking of plantains. There is one recipe with beef (ground beef with frozen veggies... yum! not!) and one with chicken. Save your money and forget this book. I may just return it and get my money back.

Inspiring book with good taste.......2004-09-22

Very nice addition to my cookbook collection. I have a tendency to think bigger and complicated is better. This book is a very nice reminder that the right combination of foods can go very well together quickly and without too much fuss. Simple living is alive and well and sometimes it tastes good too. Photos make the cookbook for me and this one has photos that say it all.

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.)

Average customer rating:

Fantastic
Up A Buzy River
Well Done
Good Travel Writing
A view of modern China

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (P.S.)
Peter Hessler
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Chinese Lessons: Five Classmates and the Story of the New China

ASIN: 0060855029
Release Date: 2006-04-25

Amazon.com

In 1996, 26-year-old Peter Hessler arrived in Fuling, a town on China's Yangtze River, to begin a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher at the local college. Along with fellow teacher Adam Meier, the two are the first foreigners to be in this part of the Sichuan province for 50 years. Expecting a calm couple of years, Hessler at first does not realize the social, cultural, and personal implications of being thrust into a such radically different society. In River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Hessler tells of his experience with the citizens of Fuling, the political and historical climate, and the feel of the city itself.

"Few passengers disembark at Fuling ... and so Fuling appears like a break in a dream--the quiet river, the cabins full of travelers drifting off to sleep, the lights of the city rising from the blackness of the Yangtze," says Hessler. A poor city by Chinese standards, the students at the college are mainly from small villages and are considered very lucky to be continuing their education. As an English teacher, Hessler is delighted with his students' fresh reactions to classic literature. One student says of Hamlet, "I don't admire him and I dislike him. I think he is too sensitive and conservative and selfish." Hessler marvels,

You couldn't have said something like that at Oxford. You couldn't simply say: I don't like Hamlet because I think he's a lousy person. Everything had to be more clever than that ... you had to dismantle it ... not just the play itself but everything that had ever been written about it.

Over the course of two years, Hessler and Meier learn more they ever guessed about the lives, dreams, and expectations of the Fuling people.

Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading River Town, you'll have one, too. --Dana Van Nest

Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book

Winner of the Kiriyama Book Prize

In the heart of China's Sichuan province, amid the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, lies the remote town of Fuling. Like many other small cities in this ever-evolving country, Fuling is heading down a new path of change and growth, which came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. Hessler taught English and American literature at the local college, but it was his students who taught him about the complex processes of understanding that take place when one is immersed in a radically different society.

Poignant, thoughtful, funny, and enormously compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2007-09-25

"River Town" is not only an entertaining read but an educational one as well. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in China, travel, Peace Corps, or biographies. I was very impressed with Hessler's writing and I can't wait to read his new book "Oracle Bones"

Up A Buzy River.......2007-09-16

I have been to China twice, the first being in 1989 -- right at the beginning of the era when Americans could visit most parts of China without being part of an organized tour. My wife made arrangements for us to fly to Guangzhou for two days, thence to Wuhan for two days, and from there a 1000-mile Yangtze river trip to Chongqing for two days (where there were already student demonstrations), ending up in Beijing for a week, our hotel being only a couple of blocks from the Tien An Men Square demonstrations, during which we were confined to our hotel. On that Yangtze trip, our river boat stopped at the little village of Fuling, allowing the passengers to roam there for a short while. Thus, when I happened across this book about that village, written by a Peace Corps volunteer, I could hardly wait to read it.

Author Peter Kessler, son of professors, is from my home State of Missouri. Being a writer was his High School dream, and he joined the Peace Corps in 1996 probably for the usual humanitarian and idealistic motives, having behind him a degree in English from Princeton followed by a Rhodes scholarship. So he was certainly well prepared to teach English literature in a small, out-of-the-way rural Teachers College for two years. The book relates his varied and extremely interesting experiences over the course of a year.

The Peace Corps gave Peter the basics of conversational Chinese, and he assiduously studies that language while teaching, assisted of course by his social intercourse with his students and with his Chinese colleagues. And his students were evidently equipped with about that same level of expertise with English. The stories that arise from the resulting linguistic "near-blind leading the near-blind" are very humorous, as you can imagine. The vignettes of life in China are insightful, humorous, credulous, and filled with his clear sense that he was doing what he wanted and thought useful. Accounts of his relationships with students and faculty are delicious.

I give this a rating of 5 despite the inability of the author to practice what he surely must have warned his students against in his assigned writing assignments: grammatical improprieties such as, "he can run faster than me" and "(they) speak better Chinese than me." There are English professors who label this comment picky and an impediment to creativity, and to them I plead guilty, though I think they are just plain wrong. Never mind, for otherwise the writing is fine.

The author has published a sequel to this book, Oracle Bones, and I will read it as soon as I can, partly because I want to learn what the title really means, but also because I want to read more by Peter Kessler, especially material about China.

Well Done.......2007-09-09

Very well written. Enjoyable reading. Interesting look inside the small town feelings of the Chinese people. Looking forward to reading Peter Heller's next book Oracle Bones.

Good Travel Writing.......2007-07-21

I originally purchased this book because of my interest in the Peace Corps. It is more than just an account of life as a Peace Corps volunteer, it is an account of life in modern rural China. I did find it a little slow moving but such is the life of a Peace Corps volunteer and it is a good read nonetheless. This is a great book for anyone interested in China or in travel writing.

A view of modern China.......2007-05-08

This unique book is funny, meditative, and an easy read. Hessler loves China, and shares his frustration, concerns, and rewards as he teaches and lives among the everyday Chinese.

I find China very interesting, and am compelled to read about how the country is faring now that they have opened up and are becoming part of the international community. This book should be read by anyone interested in modern China.

China has not allowed companies such as Amazon, Yahoo, Google, Intel, and others, to do business inside China without conforming to certain guidelines. People inside China have been arrested as a result of info divulged over the Internet, and people outside China are censored for similar reasons.

I am trying to alert people to this phenomena, this started on Jung Chang's biography of Mao. I have been partially censored. I am no longer able to comment, and have had my rating taken away. Amazon, when I questioned them why, had nothing but a form letter reply. For some reason, though, I can still write reviews. Thus I am now saving all my reviews and keeping them on a Word Document, as I imagine it's only a matter of time before my reviews are eliminated.

Anyway, China lives under censorship, it's just too bad the global community does not make a stand.

Average customer rating:

WOW, can't wait to pick up all of Roth's other novels
Roth takes on the American Dream
American Patoral
A Tiresome Read
an essential novelist

American Pastoral
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Human Stain: A Novel
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West
The Plot Against America
Rabbit Angstrom : The Four Novels : Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest (Everyman's Library)
Everyman

ASIN: 0375701427
Release Date: 1998-02-03

Amazon.com

Philip Roth's 22nd book takes a life-long view of the American experience in this thoughtful investigation of the century's most divisive and explosive of decades, the '60s. Returning again to the voice of his literary alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, Roth is at the top of his form. His prose is carefully controlled yet always fresh and intellectually subtle as he reconstructs the halcyon days, circa World War II, of Seymour "the Swede" Levov, a high school sports hero and all-around Great Guy who wants nothing more than to live in tranquillity. But as the Swede grows older and America crazier, history sweeps his family inexorably into its grip: His own daughter, Merry, commits an unpardonable act of "protest" against the Vietnam war that ultimately severs the Swede from any hope of happiness, family, or spiritual coherence.

Book Description

As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.

For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longer-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

WOW, can't wait to pick up all of Roth's other novels.......2007-10-11

Until recently I have stayed away from Philip Roth and his well known alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman due to my perception of his writing as being the typical east-coast intellectually superior ramblings of a middle aged baby boomer liberal. Well, once again I have been proven an idiot.

First of all, after reading this absolutely wonderful novel (I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if that was possible) I have concluded that Mr Roth is intellectually superior, so he can write from that perspective if he wishes; but of course he never does.

The story here is complex, and Roth's dense writing style is magnetic. I usually blow through books, but this novel merited a slower more contemplative reading. So much is going on, the inner workings of the charecters and the 2nd and 3rd order effects of the actions taken by them is perfect in it's execution. It's really a joy to read, brilliantly written.

I am now planning to purchase some of Roth's other works, this book has made me a fan.

BTW - in a previous unflaterring review of The Corrections by Nathan Frazan, I mentioned that I liked a well written tragedy, and to my point this is it. A superior book, in all ways.

Roth takes on the American Dream.......2007-09-21

I read Philip Roth's, "The Plot Against America" and "Goodbye, Columbus." With these books in mind, I started "American Pastoral" expecting Roth's prolixity, as well as such themes as American Jewish identity, factious race and class relations, sex, and Newark, NJ. American Pastoral, in many beautiful sentences and passages, has this and much more.

Roth skillfully guides the reader through Seymour "the Swede" Levov's life. The Swede has everything: a beautiful wife and endearing daughter, an idyllic home in the country and a prosperous company, not to mention good looks. He is the epitome of the American dream. Then his gentle daughter, Merry, turns into a revolutionary fanatic and blows his pastoral life up with a bomb.

Such a tragedy is needed to reveal that the American dream is just a dream. Many Americans live under the conception that anything is possible, dreams do come true, and hard work pays off. The founding fathers encouraged such thinking and it has helped our country greatly. Such thinking is ideal but isn't always realistic.

Things go wrong. People go crazy. Some, like Merry, bomb a local post office to protest the Vietnam War. Viewing America only in the pastoral light is willfully ignoring the bad stuff. Many people wish to see their country as an Eden-like place, a pasture (I admit, I do at times). But by doing this they are closing their eyes, covering their ears, and keeping out any negative, perverse reality that actually exists. Life isn't carefree nor has it ever been. In American Pastoral, Roth forces his reader to take in all the craziness of the world and deal with it.

Read American Pastoral.

American Patoral.......2007-09-08

Roth is one of America's greatest writers. This book is one of my favorites. A fascinating read.

A Tiresome Read.......2007-09-08

This book was quite impossible for me to finish. I found the writing unbelievably self-indulgent, muddy and abstruse. In a vain effort to be poetic, Philip Roth's style becomes overblown and ego-centric. Many times he expresses a thought in 3 or 4 pages that could have been articulated in a couple of paragraphs. It's like scratching an itch on your right ear with your left hand. I grew up in a neighborhood similar to his setting so I appreciated this but there wasn't enough clarity or dramatic reality to make me continue reading. His characters are cardboard and uninteresting. They didn't mak me care about them.

an essential novelist.......2007-08-18

Few US writers nowadays take on the subject of America in their writing and make it work. Roth is clearly at the tail end of the generation of the Great American Novelist, a writer who writes as much about the character of the United States of America as he writes about the characters in his books. Don DeLillo (Falling Man: A Novel, Underworld: A Novel and White Noise) is something of this, but DeLillo's concerns are more of the intellectual background of the US rather than its character.

But this book takes on the evolution of America full force--Swede seemed to be an idyllic American. The son of a glovemaker, he was a Varsity letterman and an idol in high school who married Miss New Jersey and seemed destined to be the center of idolatry.

But of course, Swede has to fall, and his fall is as much about the evolution of America as it is the exploitation of his fall. His daughter goes from daddy's little girl to a terrorist/activist responsible for four murders. And from there, Swede's life starts to fall apart, and I mean in every way imaginable. This seems almost expected, but Roth takes this crumbling to some of its deepest psychological and emotional levels. Unlike Yates' Revolutionary Road, Roth makes you care about Swede not only through the explosion of the storybook Middle America into the Turbulent with Knowledge of Inequality 60's and onward, but because his fall is so hard. Emotionally, he is to be left with nothing, and Roth takes us there with immediate prose that grounds like broken glass into the pores of every moment. He is challenging and disturbing and spares no detail, but Roth's work is worth the wait for the depth of pathos and character he conveys. The book seems to end a little lopsidedly, and I found the main drive of The Human Stain a little more compelling than this one, but Roth is certainly a writer we cannot live without. If we want to know what America has become, don't listen to the idiotic pundits on the air (on either side of the fence) think (if you can call it that)--instead, read Roth, and you will see what we have become and who we need to be. While we have entered the era of Controversial Nonfiction, Roth reminds us that the REAL news is in fiction.

Average customer rating:

ABOUT THE BOOK
Non-Fiction
Awesome
Beautifully written - Azadi Bareya Iran
Disheartening, but with hope for a better future

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Marjane Satrapi
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
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Palestine
Embroideries

ASIN: 037571457X
Release Date: 2004-06-01

Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book
A Time Magazine “Best Comix of the Year”
A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times Best-seller

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

Persepolis paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life. Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.

Customer Reviews:

ABOUT THE BOOK.......2007-10-02

This is a truley wonderful graphic novel.
Even though I'm only ten I must say this is an amazing book. I would love to meet Mrs. Satrapi. When my mom just bought the book I was very curious what it was about. Believe it or not I read it before her. Even though it's really an adults book which I think they will love (like my mom) I think kids might like it too.
This is a book about a little girl who lives with her parents and has god on her side, facing all the wars and deaths in Iran. It's hard, but she keeps believing that one day Iran will be in peace once again.
It truley tells the story of what happend, She tells the story with emotion, with her words and illustrations, what her words can't tell the illustrations will tell. Mrs. Satrapi will make you read it atleast twice. We now know what a little girl experienced during the revolution in Iran, not just like that, but with feelings!

This is an AMAZING story for Everyone!

Remember to catch Persepolis 2 & Embroideries!

Non-Fiction.......2007-09-25

An autobiographical account of a girl growing up in Iran. Through her own story she highlights how deeply screwed up the country is, and has become, and how ludicrous some of the religious laws and commands are, when you see them through the eyes of a child. Wear something on your head? It is too hot, stupid! That sort of thing.

She is not holding back, talking about how people feel when their 18 year old next door neighbour is executed as being a communist, after a leftist lead revolution allows them to take power, or when your uncle's sister is strangled to death because he was not home to kill, and things like that.

She points out other crazy things that we probably are not aware of, you can't have chess sets, in Persia? That is very freaky.

The art style is quite cartoony, which is somewhat jarring when she is talking about firing squads.

Definitely good.

Awesome.......2007-09-23

Amazing graphic novel about the author's childhood in revolutionary-era Iran. I learned a lot about this time and place. I also enjoyed her artwork with its heavy black lines and highly graphic style. The sequel is also very good.

Beautifully written - Azadi Bareya Iran.......2007-08-17

Like "Maus" and the story of the Holocaust, Persepolis brings the sad story of the Iranian Revolution to light in a way only a well-done graphic novel can do. It is an absolutely brilliant book that gives you the raw pain and emotion of the Revolution, with all the necessary facts and events, without the dry and verbose nature of many historical novels. Rarely can it be done, in pictures, like it is done here.

If you truly want to know the sad story of the Iranian Revolution from the perspective of an average Iranian family, this is the book for you. Please read it.

Disheartening, but with hope for a better future.......2007-08-06

'Persepolis' was my first graphic novel (or, in this case, graphic autobiography) experience. It is the childhood story of Marjane Satrapi, who was a young girl of liberal parents during the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the 1980s.

Satrapi's drawings are simple yet poignant, and reading about her experiences and culture so foreign to me was at the same time both fascinating and dismaying. I hope to read more of her works.

Dereliction of Duty : Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

Average customer rating:

A Timeless Classic!
Interesting subject matter, bad book
Recent history ignored - again
Made me realize that we might be heading in same direction!
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"

Dereliction of Duty : Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam
H. R. McMaster
Manufacturer: Harper Collins Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060187956

Amazon.com

For years the popular myth surrounding the Vietnam War was that the Joint Chiefs of Staff knew what it would take to win but were consistently thwarted or ignored by the politicians in power. Now H. R. McMaster shatters this and other misconceptions about the military and Vietnam in Dereliction of Duty. Himself a West Point graduate, McMaster painstakingly waded through every memo and report concerning Vietnam from every meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to build a comprehensive picture of a house divided against itself: a president and his coterie of advisors obsessed with keeping Vietnam from becoming a political issue versus the Joint Chiefs themselves, mired in interservice rivalries and unable to reach any unified goals or conclusions about the country's conduct in the war.

McMaster stresses two elements in his discussion of America's failure in Vietnam: the hubris of Johnson and his advisors and the weakness of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dereliction of Duty provides both a thorough exploration of the military's role in determining Vietnam policy and a telling portrait of the men most responsible.

Book Description

"The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C." -- H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion)

Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning new analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on recently released transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. It also pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants.

Dereliction Of Duty covers the story in strong narrative fashion, focusing on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately deceived the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Congress and the American public.

Sure to generate controversy, Dereliction Of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam.

Customer Reviews:

A Timeless Classic!.......2007-08-28

The Vietnam War took the lives of 58,000 Americans and over one million Vietnamese, while consuming billions of U.S. dollars and leaving Vietnam in ruins. It also led Americans to question the integrity of their government as never before.

McMaster provides a detailed history of the top-level decision-making in Washington regarding the war. Readers clearly realize that while General Taylor (then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) and Secretary Mcnamara consistently withheld, watered-down, and misrepresented JCS views to LBJ, McNamara also bent Vietnamese leadership positions to his own and kept the JCS out of the decision-making loop to create a greatly "overstated" sense of unanimity.

The JCS, however, were far from blameless. Some allowed themselves to be bought off in return for service enlargement (Marines), reappointing General LeMay despite his bombastic attitude (Air Force), or maintenance within the existing power structure (Navy). Meanwhile, the group never seemed to get beyond inter-service rivalry - eg. the Air Force proposing "solutions" that featured bombing, the Marines proposing multiple point invasion and enclave-holding, etc. About the only thing they agreed on was that Mcnamara's strategy of limited response was doomed to failure - the French had already failed with 500,000 troops in North Vietnam, and an early Pentagon war game had eerily predicted the eventual direction of the war.

Why LBJ's direction? On the one hand, he feared being blamed for losing Vietnam to the Communists (aka Truman vs. China), while on the other did not want to detract from his re-election efforts and subsequent passage of the Great Society initiative through Congress.

Other reasons for the JCS' silence include the "lesson" of Truman vs. MacArthur, early training on allegiance to civilian control (however, this also include Congress, which also ended up woefully misinformed).

Mcmaster concludes that the Vietnam War was not lost in the field, nor on college campuses, nor the pages of the New York Times - rather it was lost in Washington, almost from the beginning.

What have we learned from "Dereliction of Duty?" At one point, it was "recommended" reading at the Pentagon's top level. On the other hand, General Sinseki clearly was pushed out prior to the Iraq War for telling the truth, as was Bush's chief economic advisor (Lindsay) for giving an unvarnished economic estimate of projected costs. Other lower-level generals have resigned to speak out rather than continue to support the Iraq War. At the same time, General Powell, in his new role as Secretary of State also failed to model forthright and assertive behavior to rebut Cheney, Rumsfeld et al, while Secretary Rumsfeld clearly failed to learn anything from McNamara's failures. Meanwhile, the book's author (Mcmaster) has been passed over twice so far for further promotion to Brigadier General.

Bottom Line: I do not question the loyalty or integrity of those in current military leadership positions. However, we have still managed to repeat the Vietnam leadership failures in Iraq.

Interesting subject matter, bad book.......2007-04-03

The subject of the is book is very interesting, so I struggled through to the end (with plenty of skimming), but this guy can't tell a story. Too dry, too long, no sense of style.

Tayloe Nickey

Recent history ignored - again.......2007-03-24

This book presents a lacerating indictment of Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other ancillary characters in the run-up to the Vietnam War. Short sighted political thinking on the part of Johnson, equally short-sighted inter-service rivalries amongst the Joint Chiefs (as well as a failure to speak out in the face of idiotic strategic military decision making), and a hubristic sense of infallibility on the part of McNamara are described - with compelling historical evidence - as the key sources of the fiasco. The parallels with the war in Iraq are obvious. A disturbing work that once again demonstrates that far too many political and military leaders are seemingly incapable of (a) learning from history, and (b) acting on anything but the most narrow, short-term agendas - mostly centered around the advancement of their careers.

Made me realize that we might be heading in same direction!.......2007-02-18

I was blown away by DERILECTION OF DUTY, written and read by
H.R. McMaster . . . though written some 10 years ago, it is perhaps
even more relevant now than it was then because of the Iraq conflict.

McMaster, a West Point graduate, thoroughly researched the
decisions that led to the conflict in Vietnam . . . he points out that
we were repeatedly lied to as a nation, not only by President
Johnson, but by Robert McNamara, Maxwell Taylor, and a whole
host of other individuals.

In retrospect, I'm glad that "only" 58,000 Americans died
from that conflict . . . but what scared me the most in listening to
this book was that we seem to be heading in the same direction!

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it".......2007-01-22

The above quotation from George Santayana perfectly explains why Major McMaster's 1997 book is so richly relevant today. The debacle that was the Viet Nam War is a story of hubris, intransigence, misplaced ideology and unbridled ego that led to the needless deaths of 58,209 American soldiers and over a million Vietnamese.

The war was predicated on a lie, maintained by lies and even today, thirty years later, most of what we think we know about the war turns out to be lies.

The war led to the downfall of at least two presidents, and even more importantly, world opinion toward the United States. Our national policy since the defeat in Hanoi has been one of "trying to recover our national dignity" at home and trying to rekindle trembling respect in the world community.

It is supremely ironic therefore that the policymakers who could benefit most from the lessons of Viet Nam seem not to have studied the facts behind the lies, and instead rely on some of the same failed advisors whose faulty military strategy got us into this mess. It is not only ironic but appalling.

Average customer rating:

A wonderful read
Fantastic book. One of my favorites
Amazing
Even better than first Persepolis
Decent Followup

Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return
Marjane Satrapi
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375714669
Release Date: 2005-08-02

Amazon.com

Picking up the thread where her debut memoir-in-comics concluded, Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return details Marjane Satrapi's experiences as a young Iranian woman cast abroad by political turmoil in her native country. Older, if not exactly wiser, Marjane reconciles her upbringing in war-shattered Tehran with new surroundings and friends in Austria. Whether living in the company of nuns or as the sole female in a house of eight gay men, she creates a niche for herself with friends and acquaintances who feel equally uneasy with their place in the world.

After a series of unfortunate choices and events leave her literally living in the street for three months, Marjane decides to return to her native Iran. Here, she is reunited with her family, whose liberalism and emphasis on Marjane's personal worth exert as strong an influence as the eye-popping wonders of Europe. Having grown accustomed to recreational drugs, partying, and dating, Marjane now dons a veil and adjusts to a society officially divided by gender and guided by fundamentalism. Emboldened by the example of her feisty grandmother, she tests the bounds of the morality enforced on the streets and in the classrooms. With a new appreciation for the political and spiritual struggles of her fellow Iranians, she comes to understand that "one person leaving her house while asking herself, 'is my veil in place?' no longer asks herself 'where is my freedom of speech?'"

Satrapi's starkly monochromatic drawing style and the keenly observed facial expressions of her characters provide the ideal graphic environment from which to appeal to our sympathies. Bereft of fine detail, this graphic novel guides the reader's attention instead toward a narrative rich with empathy. Don't be fooled by the glowering self-portrait of the author on the back flap; it's nearly impossible to read Persepolis 2 without feeling warmth toward Marjane Satrapi. --Ryan Boudinot

Book Description

In Persepolis, heralded by the Los Angeles Times as “one of the freshest and most original memoirs of our day,” Marjane Satrapi dazzled us with her heartrending memoir-in-comic-strips about growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Here is the continuation of her fascinating story. In 1984, Marjane flees fundamentalism and the war with Iraq to begin a new life in Vienna. Once there, she faces the trials of adolescence far from her friends and family, and while she soon carves out a place for herself among a group of fellow outsiders, she continues to struggle for a sense of belonging.

Finding that she misses her home more than she can stand, Marjane returns to Iran after graduation. Her difficult homecoming forces her to confront the changes both she and her country have undergone in her absence and her shame at what she perceives as her failure in Austria. Marjane allows her past to weigh heavily on her until she finds some like-minded friends, falls in love, and begins studying art at a university. However, the repression and state-sanctioned chauvinism eventually lead her to question whether she can have a future in Iran.

As funny and poignant as its predecessor, Persepolis 2 is another clear-eyed and searing condemnation of the human cost of fundamentalism. In its depiction of the struggles of growing up—here compounded by Marjane’s status as an outsider both abroad and at home—it is raw, honest, and incredibly illuminating.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful read.......2007-09-15

I read 'Persepolis' and 'Persepolis 2', and thoroughly enjoyed both. After living in Uzbekistan for two years, a nation with a similar history and culture as Iran's, I became fascinated with the role of women in Muslim society. As a man, I didn't have many opportunities to understand this world, and it was this curiosity that made me want to read
Ms. Satrapi's graphic novels. Both novels were funny, touching, and poignant.

Fantastic book. One of my favorites.......2007-08-21

I just finished reading Persepolis part 2 (immediately after Persepolis). I absolutely loved both, At times I forgot I was reading a comic strip style book. I just love the writer and her humor and I got a real sense of what Iran was like during the years after the war for young people who were the same age as me at the time.

Amazing.......2007-08-11

After spending several years studying and living a wild lifestyle in Austria, Marjane Satrapi returns to her native Iran, where the effects of the Islamic Revolution are still going strong. Home again, she struggles to find herself, returning to school, falling in love, exploring ideas with new friends, and discovering more about her family's history, all the while trying to avoid The Guardians of the Revolution.

Persepolis 2 is just as enjoyable as the first, and I look forward to reading more of Satrapi's work.

Even better than first Persepolis.......2007-08-10

Marjane Satrapi is reminescent of Marcel Marceau, the famous French mime, able to tell incredible stories visually by touching our hearts through our eyes.
Wonderful!

Decent Followup.......2007-08-09

This book continues where Persepolis left off with Marjane returning home from Austria to attend college. She's returning home to witness the aftermath of the war. The novel wasn't as good as the firs for it focuses on her college relationship with her boyfriend, and basically has a lot of boring parts to it. But, it's a decent followup

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