That Summer

Book Description

For fifteen-year-old Haven, life is changing too quickly. She's nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried, and her sister&150the always perfect Ashley&150is planning a wedding of her own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then an old boyfriend of Ashley's reenters the picture, and through him, Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the future.

Customer Reviews:

Great.... if you have a sister........2007-10-10

No book has ever made me cry as much as That Summer. Yeah, I know it's not Sarah Dessen's best. The thing about this book is that I read it right after my sister graduated. Reading Haven's thoughts about how it would be different when her sister wasn't "across the hall" made me bawl. I could relate to Haven bettter than any of Dessen's other characters. I'll probably never read this book again because I never want to lose the feeling that I got the first time I read it, but I do recommend it to anybody who has had to deal with their sister (or sibling) growing up before them.

How did this get published?.......2007-10-09

At the beginning I liked the book because it had some interesting possible plot lines: the supermodel who had a meltdown returning home, the older sister's old ex returning and making life more interesting, the father marrying a shallow weatherwoman, etc. But here are the problems I have with this book:

- As others have said, there ended up not being a plot! What exactly was the purpose of this book?
- As I was reading it I thought, "WOW! Sarah Dessen is actually writing a book where the main guy character isn't the girl's love interest!" I was happy that Sumner would be able to help Haven become a better person, but that didn't really result in much. (as a side point, why is it that Dessen always ends up bringing in a boy to fix things? Whatever happened to strong female characters not having to depend on a boy to improve themselves?)
- What happened to the supermodel who had a breakdown? I didn't see her story go anywhere, so what was the point? It could have been very interesting!
- The way Sumner's story ended was terrible.

Readable, pleasant, but lacking substance - 3 1/2.......2007-08-23

"That Summer" is not a bad book. In short, it's a glimpse of one teenage girl's summer as she struggles with typical teenage issues, taking everything in her life and discovering that it can be made worse. Haven, the main character, deals with her father's remarriage, her mother, and her sister. Not particularly remarkable. Mostly, though, it's that this story lacks a plot.

Oh, don't get me wrong. A thoroughly readable book. It flew by. I enjoyed catching a glimpse of another's life, even if it was simply a series of events as opposed to the typical dramatic plot format. In a sense, that is both a pro and a con for this book. Yes, it lacks a plot, but on the other hand, it makes for a much more realistic book, one that is easier to relate to.

It was mostly pleasant as well. The relationships they all have with each other are very real and there are some touching moments to the book. Nothing heart-stopping, but still okay. Recommended to someone looking for a quick, pleasant read.

Fun Former Boyfriend.......2007-07-03

Haven feels a little bit like her life is escaping from her grasp. She remembers being small and safe, having her parents together and loving each other, having her sister sometimes be nice to her. Now, though, Haven is quickly approaching six feet tall and she feels gigantic. Her parents are divorced and her father, a television sportscaster, has just remarried, to his television station's weather forecaster. Haven's mother has become the type of woman who goes out to a bar once a week with a new female friend. And the worst thing of all is that Haven's sister is getting married and is unbearably obnoxious and selfish.

When Haven thinks back to when things felt better, her mind gets stuck on one summer, when her sister was in high school and dating a boy named Sumner. Sumner was the type of guy who could bring people together and make everything seem fun. He was nice to Haven and made her sister be nice to her, too. When Sumner came into their house, everyone gathered to greet him. They were all happy.

So when Haven meets up with Sumner again, back in town to work odd jobs before going back to college, all of her memories are stirred up. Could he be the key to her life getting back to normal again? If she tells her sister he is back in town, will she get back in touch with him?

I liked the character of Sumner and the way he always seemed to pop up when Haven needed him. I also liked seeing the dynamics of Haven's family. It was interesting to see the ways she viewed her mother and her father now that they weren't together anymore, and the way she viewed her sister and her wedding plans.

The ending of this book was sort of a letdown, though. Sumner ended up being just a bit boring at the end. Also, Haven's sister was simply over the top. I don't think anyone would have allowed her to behave like she did for so long.

That Summer.......2007-05-28

I would recommend That Summer to other readers because it is an interesting book which describes the challenging life of Haven. I enjoyed this book very much becuase I felt as you were reading it you could feel both happy and sad at the same time. Although this book is ficton; it seemed that this story could be so real at the same time. Typically, girls would appreciate this book more because it is based on a young girl's life. That Summer would be an interesting and adventerous book to choose.

The Gross: The Hits, The Flops: The Summer That Ate Hollywood

Average customer rating:

Great book about the business side of the movie industry
Flopzilla!
Good Writing, High Gross
Grossly Entertaining
Hollywood Gossip Cental!

The Gross: The Hits, The Flops: The Summer That Ate Hollywood
Peter Bart
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Industry | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

The Movie Business Book, Third Edition (Movie Business Book)
Boffo!: How I Learned to Love the Blockbuster and Fear the Bomb
Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops
DANGEROUS COMPANY
OPEN WIDE: HOW HOLLYWOOD BOX OFFICE BECAME A NATIONAL OBSESSION

ASIN: 0312253915

Amazon.com

In the summer of 1998, as far as Hollywood was concerned, nothing went the way it was supposed to. As Peter Bart recaps that season:

A cheaply made gross-out comedy generated twice the revenues of a Steven Spielberg high-concept adventure; two pricey asteroid films collided, yet neither suffered damage; Jim Carrey made a hit movie that didn't offer a single laugh; Eddie Murphy buried his hard edge long enough to make two successful, warm-and-cuddly family films; Harrison Ford made a love story playing opposite a self-avowed lesbian; and finally, defying the mythology of the "youth demos," two stars in their sixties, Robert Redford and Warren Beatty, enjoyed yet another warm moment in the sun.

Bart is a seasoned observer of the film industry both as studio executive (holding seats at Paramount and MGM/UA) and as the editor in chief of Variety and Daily Variety. His insider's perspective, and his ability to gain access to the major players in the business, serve him well here. The Gross is filled with juicy behind-the-scenes stories on how certain summer blockbusters got made and positioned for release--even though the book could strongly benefit from both an index, to make finding information on particular films easier, and information on its sources, to determine exactly how much of the story is Bart's original legwork and how much comes from the trades. Along the way, he sketches a grim portrait of an industry whose leaders have become increasingly frustrated with the high cost of filmmaking; even when they're making fun-filled romps like The Mask of Zorro and Armageddon, people at the studios don't seem to be enjoying themselves. Bart manages to cover almost every major summer release of '98 with enough detail to hold readers' interest, so while The Gross may not be the ultimate overview of the film business, it's a captivating snapshot of an industry in flux. --Ron Hogan

Book Description

The Gross is an all-access pass to the movers, shakers, and fakers who make Hollywood run. Tinseltown is an edgy place where risk-taking is a way of life-and the risks now run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Summertime, when the studios unfurl their most expensive and effects-laden "tent-pole pictures," has become the only season in which Hollywood makes money, and so, as this book illustrates, the summer season provides an ideal microcosm for scrutinizing the mega-budget-driven revolution that has forever changed the movie business. Bart interviews all the key players, including studio executives, producers, directors, and stars, to show how creativity and commerce hang in a dangerous balance in the new Hollwood.

Customer Reviews:

Great book about the business side of the movie industry.......2006-09-08

This was definitely a fast read. The author writes about the inner workings of the movie industry in regards to the summer box office. The book looks at how the movie industry has changed the meaning of a blockbuster and importance of opening weekend totals. Instead of relying on word of mouth to create a blockbuster, the main objective of a movie's success is the size of its opening weekend box office totals. Mr. Bart shows the irony of this logic, by examining the word of mouth success of There's Something About Mary and the failure of Godzilla's box office performance. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in learning more about the entertainment industry.

Flopzilla!.......2005-02-09

I love this book and read it about once a year. Yes, it's shallow and superficial (it's hard to be "deep" when you cover as much ground as Bart does in this book), and yes, there are some errata and other mistakes which could have been easily fixed, but were not (and least in the edition I have), but so what? "The Gross" is not hard history, it's an gossipy, insider's stab at the business of movie-making. If you take as much schadenfreude as I do from watching arrogant and venal studio suits make fools out of themselves, it's a hell of a lot of fun, and I'm pretty sure that is what Bart intended it to be.

"The Gross" examines the blockbuster year of 1996 ("The summer that ate Hollywood") and how it affected all the major studios. It follows the various big-budget movies from the idea phase to completion and their lives -- or deaths -- at the box office. Included are "Armaggedeon" "Deep Impact" "Saving Private Ryan" "The Truman Show" "There's Something About Mary" "Bulworth" "Out of Sight" and many others. But my favorite part of the book, bar none, is about "Godzilla."

"Godzilla" to me represents everything bad about Hollywood. I am not simply referring to the movie, which is unwatchable garbage,
but to the process by which it was made, and the deafening, in your face 24/7 marketing campaign which accompanied it. Commercials, billboards, toys, fast-food tie-ins, T-shirts, promotional junkets....Hollywood pulled out every stop in order to sell this movie, and the suits involved were riding a wave of smug self-confidence that threatened to drown the whole industry. And then it crashed. Hard. Egos were savaged. Fortunes were washed down the drain. Reputations were wheeled off to ICU. Bitterness went around like the Asian flu. And I laugh harder every time I read the tale. There's nothing quite like watching a bomb explode in the face of the shmucks who put it together, especially since they planned to shove it down our collective throat.

"Godzilla" aside (I'm laughing as I write this!), I enjoyed "The Gross" for its gossipy look at the big players -- studio heads, suits, actors, writers, et al -- as well as the savage and merciless process of getting a movie "green-lighted." The story of "Bulworth", Warren Beatty's pretentious vanity vehicle that caught fire in the driveway, is another howler, since to this day nobody, absolutely nobody, knows who green-lighted it...or if they did, will admit it.

"The Gross" is kind of like movie popcorn. If you eat it expecting a meal, you'll be very disappointed (not to mention slightly sick to your stomach); if you take it for what it is, it's a finger-lickin' good time.

Good Writing, High Gross.......2002-09-08

Peter Bart, editor of Variety, penned this sketch of the Hollywood summer season of 1998, and offers insight and background information both useful to the interested moviegoer/home critic, and to screeenwriting professionals looking for strategies to break the script-reader barrier. As the title implies, he analyzes in-depth the dollar amounts going into studio movie projects from initial option monies to the screenwriter to post-production marketing campaigns and all points in between. There are a couple of things to be learned here: 1) that the Hollywood moviemaking process doesn't necessarily reward truly innovative and creative material; and 2) that the movie going public does. Hence, Something About Mary comes out of nowhere with a miniscule budget and scores big with the public, while Godzilla hopes to make back some of Sony's money overspent on a shove-down-your-throat marketing campaign the public didn't buy. The gist of this book is that a truly creative screenplay will find a way no matter what financial juggernauts happen to be cruising through Hollywood, with a little bit of faith, hope -- and luck.

Grossly Entertaining.......2001-03-08

I am a avid movie lover and so enjoyed Peter Bart's fun trip through the summer of 1998. Reading it now in the spring of 2001 I really already forgot that summer had so many really awful films. And Peter Bart does a fine job saying how they came to be. It does look like coporate Hollywood has done a fine job of killing off Hollywood. I was interested to note my favorite film of that summer, Smoke Signals,was only mentioned twice in passing. My other favorite Everest was not mentioned at all. But the point of the book was just that... Hollywood wants the dumb down block buster. After reading this I'm glad I missed Godzilla. If you like the movie industry and how and why things get made and marketed you will find this an intersting few hours read.

Hollywood Gossip Cental!.......2000-09-01

Most of us love a good tidbit of gossip. If you do, you have 323 pages of movie behind the scenes snippets. I really enjoyed this book for what it was - gossipy, insightful and enlightening. Particularly enlightening to those of us who are saturated with movie "glamour" but are interested in how "not glamourous" the business really is. How fascinating that a business which is essentually about fantasy is really about the bottom line - money.

Summer School! What Genius Thought That Up? #8 (Hank Zipzer)

Average customer rating:

A Great book!
LD from a child's point of view
My 7 year old loves all the books in this series.
Witty and Wise

Summer School! What Genius Thought That Up? #8 (Hank Zipzer)
Henry Winkler , and Lin Oliver
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

School | Issues | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Help! Somebody Get Me Out of Fourth Grade #7 (Hank Zipzer)
The Night I Flunked My Field Trip #5 (Hank Zipzer)
The Secret Life of a Ping-Pong Wizard #9 : Hank Zipzer The World's Greatest Underachiever (Hank Zipzer)
Holy Enchilada! (Hank Zipzer, 6)
My Dog's a Scaredy-Cat #10: A Halloween Tail (Hank Zipzer)

ASIN: 0448437392

Book Description

Summer school are two words in the English language that Hank Zipzer doesn't want to learn. But there's no getting out of this one for Hank-summer school, here he comes! Will Hank have to spend the summer bored to death inside a sweltering classroom, or will he actually learn a cool lesson or two?

Customer Reviews:

A Great book!.......2007-05-13

This book is another winner from Henry Winkler! Very realistic, and funny. My son (10 years old) loves these books. This one is great because it reminds my son of the year he had to go to summer school. Very enjoyable to read together!

We love Hank Zipzer!

LD from a child's point of view.......2007-02-02

Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver have nailed the world of the LD child. Hank Zipzer is the quintessential kid with a learning disability. He's smart, he's funny, he thinks outside the box (ok he doesn't even see the box)and views the world as only a child with LD can. I read this book to my fourth graders who immediately demanded more of the same. Everyone in my class felt an instant kinship to Hank, and gained insight into LD that I could only wish for before. My students with LD identified with Hank and suddenly saw themselves in a different, more positive light. Kudos to Winkler and Oliver, and thank you so much for helping the world see LD for what it truly is.

My 7 year old loves all the books in this series........2007-02-01

This is a well written series of kids books - funny, good lessons, good plots.

Witty and Wise.......2007-01-09

This Zipzer book really helps kids cope with having to attend summer school. Hank has a gift for normalizing things for kids who are struggling in school and in life. It is fun to read and theraputic too.

Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900

Average customer rating:

Here's the rest of the story
A racist history of the Boxer Rebellion
Excellent Writting and research
Popular History Well Told
The Boxer Rebellion, a political society for the expulsion of Europeans from China in 1900.

Boxer Rebellion: The Dramatic Story of China's War on Foreigners that Shook the World in the Summer of 1900
Diana Preston
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

The Origins of the Boxer Uprising
Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy
The Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another
The Chinese Opium Wars
The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes

ASIN: 0425180840
Release Date: 2001-07-10

Amazon.com

During the 19th century, rapacious colonial powers squeezed China mercilessly, seizing territory and extorting profits while missionaries sought souls. In the late 1890s, a virulently resentful peasant movement spread across northern China; foreigners nicknamed its adherents "Boxers" for the martial-arts exercises they practiced en masse. When the movement erupted into open violence in 1900, the imperial government supported attacks on foreigners that escalated into a siege of the foreign embassies in Peking. Diana Preston's The Boxer Rebellion is an account of the 55-day confrontation that alarmed the world. When Western and Japanese troops eventually routed the Boxers, soldiers and civilians looted the capital (to the benefit of Western museums) and extracted yet more concessions from China. The events of 1900 showed both sides at their colorful worst, and the author spares neither Chinese cruelty nor colonial pomposity and racism. Though this narrative history is told almost entirely from a Western viewpoint--of the 200 titles in the bibliography, not one is in Chinese--the many diaries and letters that Preston consulted ensure a lively portrayal of personalities and evocation of the times. She enjoys racy rumors, whether substantiated or not, and is so enamored of the charlatan Backhouse's salacious claims that he had an affair with the Dowager Empress that she details them twice. With little analysis but all the pace and immediacy of a popular novel, The Boxer Rebellion makes for absorbing reading. --John Stevenson

Book Description

Chinese peasants chafed against the foreign technologies and ideas that the imperialists introduced. Then a new movement-mystical, materialistic, and virulently anti-Christian-began to spread among them like wildfire. The foreigners laughed at the peasants' martial-arts routines and nicknamed them "the Boxers"-never imagining that the group, with the backing of China's empress dowager, would soon terrorize the world...This acclaimed account of the Boxer Rebellion, by an Oxford-trained historian, is an important new addition to every shelf of high-quality, highly accessible history.

Customer Reviews:

Here's the rest of the story.......2007-08-28

Preston's book is typical of the ethnocentric views characteristic of the previous literature on the subject. Although written in the politically correct present, it still harbors those biased sentiments of the past. Little is said about the arrogant Western powers running ramshod over China, grabbing land, carving spheres of influence and insulting the locals. Little is said of an incident during the Boxer rebellion in the Amur River town of Blagoveshchensk, where all Chinese inhabitants of the neighboring 64-villages were driven at gun-point into the Amur to drown en-masse. Thousands died and what was Chinese terrritory was taken over by the Russians. On the cultural side, the plunder of art treasures by both troops and diplomatic personnel went unchecked. The rape of civilians and summary executions by the occupying troops followed. The famous Admonitions scroll, one of the oldest masterpieces of Chinese painting, now in the British Museum, was looted at the time fom the Imperial Palace. The horrendous indemnity levied against the Chinese, 450 million taels of silver, one tael per person when most Chinese were barely making a few cents, is downright criminal. When the indemnity was paid in full by 1939, China was suffering the ravages of the Japanese invasion while the West continued to sell Japan the oil and other raw materials that allowed her to prolong the war. History is not one-sided as some people might wish to interpret it. The definitive Boxer Rebellion has yet to be written and is eagerly awaited.

A racist history of the Boxer Rebellion.......2007-07-20

Preston's book has a number of fundamental weaknesses which belie its title and ultimately can only be characterized as racist in their utter indifference to the lives and personalities of the Chinese. Preston again and again quotes the racist drivel of the White officers and politicians, without once taking distance from such remarks, without once calling them what they were--despicably racist. I very much agree with the first review that, the Preston's book presented "`good Europeans' vs. the `bad" Chinese" and that, "Rudyard Kipling would be proud."

Throughout the book Preston repeated refers to the Chinese men with the racist epithet -- "Chinaman," and repeatedly and uncritically quotes the racist U.S. and British troops and government officials calling the Chinese "chinks." Preston also frequently uses "coolie" without clarifying the usage of this term for Chinese men as cheap laborers, or who have been press-ganged into labor or indentured servitude. It is certainly considered racist and Preston should have clarified why she felt she had or could use it, instead of simply saying "laborer" or a Chinese man.

Preston also refers to some of the Chinese solders, the Kansu, as "braves." While the term "Kansu brave" was the common racist term used at the time, there is no reason for Preston to repeat it.

Even the conservative and historically racist dictionaries such as Websters and the OED are clear on the matter:

--"CHINAMAN: 1 capitalized : a native of China : CHINESE often taken to be offensive" Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

--"COOLIE: [...] b. S. Afr. [Afrikaans koelie (also used).] An Asian or Indian, esp. one of the lower classes. Also attrib.
1920 Cape Times 1 Apr. 3/2 Great Public Sale.+ No coolies. 1959 L. Lerner Englishman xiv. 220 It was his girl the other one took, the one who slept with koelies. Ibid. xv. 226 You wont, you koelie girl. 1967 Guardian 4 Oct. 13/7 In South Africa the word `coolie' is used by some whites to describe Asians, and is as bitterly resented by them as the word `Kaffir' is resented by Africans." Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed.

No doubt such was the despicable language of the time and the author should accurately quote this reality, but it is also true that to fail to distance herself from this racism, makes her susceptible to being identified with it.

As is often the case with most "histories" of events involving whites and people of color, the history is written from the perspective of the whites. Rather than a history of the Boxer Rebellion, Preston writes a gushing and admiring history of the lives of the elite whites from the various legations (embassies of the day) that were under siege. Preston makes no effort to explain or analyze what events had taken place that led to this uprising. She also failed to provide any background of the persons in the legations. Rather than admirable heroes, these ambassadors or ministers were the persons in charge of imposing the humiliating and murderous policies of collecting crippling payments of "reparations" imposed at gunpoint by invading forces, as well as deleterious trade policies forced on the Chinese by occupying forces. Preston fails to make any mention whatsoever of this very important background that explains in good part the ire of the Chinese people toward these foreigners.

Why were so many millions of Chinese enraged against the foreign invaders who had imposed their presence in China at gunpoint, who had killed thousands of Chinese, and forced the sale of opium addicting millions of Chinese?

Why were so many Chinese enraged at the missionaries? The book does mention in passing what it characterizes as the "high-handed attitude" of the racist missionaries. It fails to mention the slave labor utilized by the missionaries, the humiliations and beatings and worse of Chinese at the hand of the missionaries. These missions were usually established on stolen lands, often using false accusation to force the Chinese authorities to handover lands they desired.

Preston fails to mention all this and much more. Preston refers with great sympathy to the killings of missionaries, calling them "murders" and using inflammatory terms such as "gruesome" to describe the acts. Yet such language is missing from any description of the terrible murders of tens of thousands of Chinese in their own country at the hands of foreign invaders. Preston makes great effort to arouse the reader to the alleged atrocities against the foreign missionaries. Yet the murders of the Chinese are largely presented as trifles by Preston. In Preston's book murder is reserved only for the death of whites. It would appear that Preston does not assign Chinese lives the same value.

Only briefly does Preston mention the near apocalyptic famine killing millions of Chinese peasants between 1887-1901. Another publication, "Late Victorian Holocausts: El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third Word, by Mike Davis, does a good job of documenting the fact that these famines were in part due to droughts but in fact they were largely due to the inhuman demands of the European governments for "reparation" payments imposed on the Chinese.

Preston also fails to provide any background to the readers concerning the procolonial character of the missionary societies. In fact, the missionary societies served as spies and provocateurs, and provided pretexts to justify colonial demands and attacks against the Chinese. An example was the use by the French of alleged slights against missionaries as the pretext for invading and seizing Vietnam. The author Mike Davis explained, "The first phase of drought, which lasted from 1897 through summer 1898, caused acute distress in the western and southern counties of Shandong, where anti-foreign anger was already at a fever-pitch because of repeated German military interventions on behalf of Catholic missionaries."

Other than a handful of Chinese elite generally described unflatteringly by Preston, there are no Chinese people in her story. In Preston's book, the Chinese are largely nameless caricatures who simply serve as examples of primitive cruelty, except for the noble and servile Christian converts. Of the thousands of converts being held in the legation not one has a name. Interestingly, even the Japanese other than their commanding officers have no names, and no accounts are given by Preston. It seems odd that none of the Japanese would have written diaries nor given interviews about their experience. Indeed, the descriptions of the social life and partying of the interventionists does not include any descriptions of the Japanese, except to refer to their military bravery and discipline in killing Chinese, and their subsequent mass rapes and slaughtering of the Chinese.

Another example of Preston's viewpoint is provided when she writes "for most the diet was a monotonous one of horse, pony, or mule and rice, which gave many people digestive problems and make the feel `out of sorts'." The "most" that Preston refers to are the white Europeans, which is eloquently revealing of Preston's values. While the colonialists are bored with meat, the Chinese converts are left starving, eating tree bark, or if they are lucky, Preston describes the Europeans occasionally leaving the Chinese the largely inedible head and guts of a horse, after they took all the meat.

Preston's descriptions of the Europeans are the usual adulatory tripe of the jolly good and decent, noble and brave white men and women, who faced the hordes of savages with a touch of humor and a dash of fashion. In one part of the book Preston describes the dashing whites who, notwithstanding the inconveniences of the war, were sure to keep clean and wear clean clothes. Preston describes a laundry service for the whites. Unsurprisingly, she does not clarify who was doing the washing. Obviously, it must have been the Chinese hostages who had been forced to keep the Europeans' clothes clean, while the Chinese were filthy and dying. Moreover, as the Chinese were severely malnourished, imposing such hard physical labor as washer-men and women can only have hastened their misery and death. But Preston expresses no concern for with such matters while she spends most of her book describing the parties, food, gossip and hardships, for the white Europeans, which an occasional obligatory mention of the Chinese hardships, and European discrimination.

"When a shell burst into the bakery and killed on the Chinese bakers, Madame Chamot kept the others [Chinese] to their work by brandishing a rifle." [page 159] How quaint!

Preston describes the rapes of the Chinese schoolgirls among the converts by the white soldiers, using a grotesque euphemism "unfortunate incidents" [page 182]. Preston belittles the horror in a titillating humorous tone that is absolutely shocking.

A far more thorough critique of Preston's book is certainly needed, as I have barely scratched the surface.

Excellent Writting and research.......2007-01-04

The author does an excellent job of writing and researching this book however, it is obviously based from the point of view of the imperial powers. This would be fine if she expressed this clearly and emphatically in the Prologue or even added a chapter at the beginning describing the opium wars and a more thorough description of the actions of the imperial powers leading p to the rebellion.

Later in the book Ms. Preston mentions several quotes from German military and political leaders but fails to follow up on their implications in future events. Comments from German officers about the inadequacy of French troops and statements that they could defeat "all of America with a Berlin Fire brigade" clearly set the tone for Germany's attitude towards the armies they would later attack. Germany's' other ominous statements are also glossed over "the Chinese "would feel the iron fist of Germany heavy on their necks"" (p.25) and later "You must know my men, that you are about to meet a crafty, well-armed foe! Meet him and beat him! Give him no quarter! Take no prisoners! Kill him when he falls into your hands! Even as a thousand years ago. the Huns under king Atilla made such a name for themselves as still resounds in terror through legend and fable, so may never again will a Chinese dare to so much as look askance at a German." (p.209) The author also mentions that most of the Chinese modern weapons and war ships came from Germany and especially from the krupp family but fails to follow up with the fact that the Krupps would continue to enrich themselves by selling arms to both sides in many conflicts and by encouraging the following world wars. Despite the fact that they would be tried for their crimes the Krupp manufacturing empire still thrives in plastics.

In summary Ms. Preston seems to fail to put the long term effects of the boxer rebellion especially of the multinational rescue force that would later be fighting each other, into a larger historical context. This leaves the book as a fascinating first hand account of the besieged and their rescuers viewpoints, but fails to adequately explain the reason for the uprising in the first place, and its long term results. This combined with the lack of a Chinese point of view results more in a collection of personnel narratives, impressions and feelings and less of an analysis of the Boxer Rebellion and how it "Shook the World".

R Philip Reynolds
Research Education Librarian

Popular History Well Told.......2006-09-09

The short lived, generally forgotten Boxer Rebellion took place in North China in 1900. The Boxers were Chinese rebels who hated foreign Christian missionaries, their converts, and the foreign diplomats who had taken up residence in China during the last century. They wanted China to be rid of all of them. They were called "Boxers" because of the martial arts they practiced and the poses they assumed. It was very short lived, put down in a couple of months by a coalition of troops from Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Germany, Italy and the United States.

The author is an Oxford trained historian, writer and broadcaster. As she states, the book is a popular history, telling the story of what happened, not necessarily why. It is published by Berkley Books, a division of Penguin Group which has specialized in best selling authors. While it is intended for a general audience and has been a best seller, the support and documentation for the narrative would make any scholar proud. Relying upon many published sources and unpublished letters, diaries, and statements of the Western survivors, many of them women, the book, which contains extensive endnotes, sets forth the day to day resistance of the foreigners and converts encircled in the diplomatic area of Beijing. To a lesser extent it chronicles the movements of the allied troops slowly coming to relieve them. Finally, assuaging the understandable curiosity of the reader, she tells what happened to the major characters as the disastrous twentieth century progressed. For those readers who have no familiarity with this long forgotten war, the book reads like a novel. The tension every novel must have is present in the slow revealing of how the end came and who survived.

The causes of the war are stated very briefly and without extensive Chinese citations. In fact, this war cries out for a history written by the Chinese, perhaps similar to Arthur Whaley's The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. The cause, in summary, was that the Boxers were angered by the Christian missionaries (mostly Catholic) and their converts, the "rice Christians." They were also incensed by the disruptions of traditional Chinese life by the construction of railroads and the establishment of other businesses by foreign companies. The diplomatic missions were imposed upon the Chinese as a result of a conflict with the French and English in 1860. Concessions to the Japanese were made as a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1894. By 1900 there were 672 foreign companies in China, more than half of which were British. The takeover by the foreigners of sections of Beijing and their unilateral actions as occupiers, were not endearing to the Chinese. They certainly were entitled to strongly resent their presence.

The actions of the various nations involved were harbingers of the events to come later in the century. The European powers present in China, as in Africa, were competing for colonies and economic concessions and were keeping more than just an eye on each other. The British had the largest fleet and controlled much of Chinese shipping. The French conversely appeared to have no stomach for armed conflict. The Japanese, on the other hand, were willing to fight and die with the tenacity the world would witness forty years later on Iwo Jima and other South Pacific Islands. The United States, although most of the missionaries were American, was the one nation that just wished everyone would leave China alone. Finally, the Chinese demonstrated a disastrous lack of cohesion and leadership, especially of their military forces.

The barbarity of the Boxers is on display throughout the book. They tortured and killed tens of thousands of missionaries and converts, hacking them to pieces, skinning or burying them alive, or burning them to death. Like the Taliban of recent history, they destroyed churches, temples and other buildings, tore up railways which they particularly hated, and destroyed buildings. They also burned the Hanlin Academy and the only surviving copy of the "fabulous Yung Lo Ta Tien, an encyclopedia completed in 1408 by 2,000 Ming scholars and comprising about 12,000 volumes bound in yellow silk." (139) This was in spite of British efforts, while under attack to extinguish it. Religious fervor or hatred then, as now, seems to lead to the bloodiest acts. The author does not dwell on why.

The characters of some of the players in the drama are well drawn. Of course, pictures help. The British minister to Peking, Sir Claude MacDonald, looks like a British minister should look and he acts the part, leading by undramatic example rationing food, directing the placement of defenses and not being shaken by any of the many small defeats that occurred. The senior American officer present, a future Chief of Staff, Major General Adna Chafee, has an equally representative countenance. His threatening eyes matched his aggressive and courageous actions in directing the American soldiers and in paying respect to those who had fallen. Perhaps the most remarkable is the description of a few members of the diplomatic corps who hid in the British legation compound during the fighting, surfacing to sit outside and drink what appears to be an endless supply of champagne during the lulls. They are contrasted to the women who spent most of the time cooking, making bandages and filling sandbags. The extensive looting that followed the occupation of The Forbidden City is set forth in detail, seemingly accepted as the right of victors.

The Empress Dowager, "the old Buddha," Tzu Hsi, "a woman of unimaginable sexual appetites and political ambition who murdered anyone" (xiii) is a central figure. She and her "state department," the Tsungli Yamen, equivocated; waiting to see if the Boxers would prevail. They judged wrong and threw the weight of the government and its nearby available troops in with the Boxers. Although armed with some of Krupp's most recent weapons they lacked the marksmanship of the U.S. Marines and the discipline of the British and Indian troops. After one false start, led by a British Vice Admiral, Sir Edward Seymour, with only the soldiers and sailors available from the foreign ships in the area, which was repulsed by the Boxers, the allied countries brought in over 20,000 troops from the Philippines, India, Japan, Russia and Indochina. With very little preparation, they fought from the port of Taku through Tientsin, where the first attempt was halted, to Beijing, arriving on August 14 to relieve the encircled missionaries, converts and diplomats.

The questions left open by this book are numerous. Why did the Empress equivocate, letting a rebel group within her country destroy infrastructure and kill missionaries? Why were the diplomats so out of touch so as not to see the violent rebellion coming? What intelligence did they have? After all one of an embassies most important functions is to find out what is going on in the country in which it is located. The leaders of the Boxers are not identified, who were they? We are told the fates of some of the major characters, but are left wondering what their thoughts were, and where all the loot resides. That being said, the author intended to write a popular history and has written a very detailed and interesting one. Many war histories are dulled by endless recitation of where units moved, body counts and rounds fired. This one is not. The author has combined the actions of the civilians in defending themselves and avoiding starvation with the courage of the troops, or the lack of it in a few instances, in rescuing them with little time to spare.

The Boxer Rebellion, a political society for the expulsion of Europeans from China in 1900........2006-05-15

Diana Preston writes a compelling book which is well written, easy to follow, and well documented with 38 pages of notes and sources regarding the epic challenge to China and their foreign occupiers during "The Boxers' Rebellion of 1900".

While the European Powers, consisting of ----Britain, United States of America, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Holland and the Asiatic power Japan, were bickering over how to slice up the pie of China; this caused a great hatred of Europeans to sweep like wild-fire over Northern China.
A U.S. Senator, Albert Beveridge, from Indiana [1899-1911] claimed,"we are a conquering race, we must obey our blood and occupy new markets and if necessary new lands". "The Pacific was "the true field of our operation".[Also see, Albert J. Beveridge: In support of an American Empire. Source:Record, 56 Cong.,1 Sess.,PP.704-712.

In this connection, this book described how a new movement, ----mystical, militaristic and anti Christian, called Boxers by the contemptuous foreigners, had trapped in Peking and murdered 250 Europeans and nearly 20,000 Chinese Christians, called "Rice Christians" because it was believed that they were converted to Christianity in order to get enough rice to eat and receive other preferential treatment from the Europeans.

55 Days in Peking:

This book closes with a combined allied force of 20,000 marching to Peking and relieving the trapped Europeans and their Chinese Christians converts, who had been under the Boxers' siege from June 21,1900 to August 14, 1900.

It is to be noted that unbeknownst to the European Powers, who participated in the Boxers Rebellion; they could not see in their wildest dreams that they would lose within the next 45 years all of their influences, and possessions in China, and later all of Asia, India and Africa, through two suicidal Civil world wars among the white Races of Europe, which was caused by WWI and WWII. Japan would lose its ill-gotten gains also via WWII.

In this regard, I highly recommend this book to all serious minded people who enjoy history from a different perspective.

Average customer rating:

Tearjerking, Addictive & a Definite Keeper...
Great book... more about family then romance
It was good, just not amazing.
Awesome reading!
A really good book!

That Camden Summer
LaVyrle Spencer
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Romance Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

November of the Heart
Family Blessings
Years
A Promise to Cherish
Separate Beds

ASIN: 0399141200

Amazon.com

Fiercely independent Roberta Jewett is returning to her hometown of Camden, Maine, with her daughters in tow. Having just endured a scandalous divorce, Roberta only wants to settle down and create a decent life for herself and her children. Romance is the furthest thing from her mind, but when Gabe Farley enter her life Roberta soon learns to trust in love again. The endearing characters and pleasing plot to be found in That Camden Summer make for an excellent romance read. --Maudeen Wachsmith

Book Description

"A modern fairy tale, complete with a deserving heroine, a prince of a guy, and a happily-ever-after ending." (People)

Download Description

"When a fiercely independent young woman returns with her three daughters to her hometown of Camden, Maine, after divorcing her philandering husband, she finds a less-than-hospitable welcome. But she's about to show an entire town what one good woman can do. "

Customer Reviews:

Tearjerking, Addictive & a Definite Keeper..........2007-09-03

Description from the back of book:

The year is 1916. The place is a tiny New England village called Camden - where a newly divorced woman learns that love can be more special the second time around...

When free thinking divorcee Roberta Jewett returns to her hometown of Camden, Maine, she discovers that small-town folk consider a divorced woman little more that a prostitute. Condemned by her mother and scorned by neighbors, she nonetheless perseveres in her struggle to forge a good life for her little girls and herself. Behaving like no "respectable" woman would, she gets a job as a county nurse, learns to drive, and buys her very own Model T. Embittered by her painful marriage to an unfaithful husband, she has no intention of being any man's victim again. So when widowed carpenter Gabriel Farley begins work renovating her house, Roberta's first response to him is blatant resentment. But Gabriel's quiet, vibrant masculinity soon finds a way to soothe Roberta's heart.

And in the ultimate test of will and devotion, she must depend on the man she has grown to love and summon the courage to stand up to the entire town.

* This book was so great. I can't tell you how many times it brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't put it down & it's a definite keeper. The story is wonderful & sad at times but Roberta doesn't let the bad things overrule the life she's worked so hard to keep exciting for her girls. I don't see how anybody wouldn't love this book. I HIGHLY recommend.

Great book... more about family then romance.......2006-12-01

I would highly recommend this book and agree with almost all the reviews here, and yet... I felt this book lacked true chemistry bewteen the H/H. I dunno, something was missing. Roberta seemed TOO bitter, DRY.. old, meh... and Gab too... wonderful.

However, its still worth the money and the time.

It was good, just not amazing........2005-12-14

I can't exactly pinpoint why I didn't LOVE this book. I guess it took a long time for me to start to like Roberta. I thought she was too abrasive at first to Gabe, who was sweet, strong and understanding (a trademark of Spencer's men it seems), but it was still a good story.

Awesome reading!.......2004-05-22

This was one of the "newer" novels from Ms. Spencer I read and I was a little hesitant because it was newer..But so far I have read this book TWICE and would read it again in a heartbeat. I always like writers who can pull a reader into the book or novel to the point you see yourself there. That is what happens with this one. I traveled back in time and lived with Roberta and the kids and laughed and cried with them. I would have to say the most enjoyable parts of the book were when Roberta wanted to buy a car (how scandalous!!) and her first driving lesson. This is a love story, but it is also an adventure. Buy this, you will enjoy it.

A really good book!.......2003-05-03

Wonderful, wonderful! I agree! LaVyrle Spencer is one of my favorite authors. Her books are about everyday people- lives that touch you. There are times you cry for the characters and times you laugh at them. I enjoy that they are in different settings and times. This particular book is during the early 1900's when automobiles have just come out. Through this story the reader really gets a glimpse of what women went through in the earlier years before women's rights. Roberta Jewitt has had enough of her "playboy husband" who came around when he needed money or a place to stay. After several years of marriage she has filed for divorce and brought her 3 girls back home to renew her relationship with her family. Divorce was not an accepted thing back then especially when instigated by the woman. The townspeople look at her like she is diseased, her mother and sister are furious at the disgrace she has caused them, men think she is "fair game" for their pre-marital affairs (especially her brother-in-law who won't take no for an answere), etc. But she always had her daughters' love and respect.

Gabe Farley is a handy-man around town who is a widow of several years with a teenage daughter. He has made a good life for the 2 of them but he is lonely, still hanging onto the love of his dear deceased wife. Recognizing that fact that Roberta needs his help to get the house she has purchased presentable for her and the girls to live in to- makes a deal to get it in shape. While he is there everyday, he is given a chance to get to know Roberta for who she really is instead of listening to gossip. He comes to appreciate the time they spend together- realizing the void he has had in his life up to now. But what will people say he's seeing a "divorced woman"? It is a story of strong family ties and values, and the sweetest of love stories.

Tea in the Garden: Quilts for a Summer Afternoon (That Patchwork Place)
Average customer rating:

great book !

Nice book in mostly pastels

Tea in the Garder

Tea in the Garden: Quilts for a Summer Afternoon (That Patchwork Place)
Cynthia Tomaszewski
Manufacturer: Martingale and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Needlework | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Patchwork | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Quilts & Quilting | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Garden Party: Applique Quilts That Bloom (That Patchwork Place)

Courtship Quilts: Inspired by the Victorian Language of Flowers

Quilts from Grandmother's Garden: A Fresh Look at English Paper Piecing

Cottage-Style Quilts: 16 Projects for Casual Country Living

Baltimore's Country Cousins: Album Quilt Patterns

ASIN: 156477600X

Book Description

Just like fresh-baked muffins and a calming cup of tea, these quilts are filled with homemade goodness. Bursting with blooms, each cheerful design spotlights this popular author's beautiful floral appliqué.

· Combine easy patchwork with hand or fusible appliqué in 13 wall-hanging to lap-sized projects

· Accent pretty pastel fabrics with embellishments such as embroidery, beads, and buttons

· BONUS!—Includes 13 delicious muffin recipes plus tips for making the perfect cup of tea

Customer Reviews:

great book !.......2007-03-07

This is a wonderful book for those who like applique. The patterns are beautiful florals with unique borders. They are a little advanced so they might be challenging for beginers.

Nice book in mostly pastels.......2007-02-06

I like the patterns in the book. My tastes are more on the brighter side of fabrics. So I will be making something in brighter colors. All the patterns are beautiful.
~Donna

Tea in the Garder.......2006-03-03

These "theme" quilt books are often fun and entertaining. This one not only provides the directions for quilts for quilters of varying abilities, but gives recipes and tea tips as well. Gardeners will find that the quilts run true to a gardening theme, and are well designed. Begin one in the depth of winter, and dream of draping it over your porch chair as you sip a special afternoon snack. What fun!

$That Summer Place: Private Paradise\Island Time\Old Things (Mira Romance)$
Average customer rating:

Wonderful reading
Magical setting!
Great Book!
Skip the Summer Place
Summer Sizzles, Seethes, and does the Macarena

That Summer Place: Private Paradise\Island Time\Old Things (Mira Romance)
Debbie Macomber , Susan Wiggs , and Jill Barnett
Manufacturer: Mira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Anthologies | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Anthologies | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Romance Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

$An Ideal Marriage?: Father's Day\First Comes Marriage\Here Comes Trouble$ An Ideal Marriage?: Father's Day\First Comes Marriage\Here Comes Trouble
More Than Words, Volume 2
One Night
$Hearts Divided: 5-B Poppy Lane\The Apple Orchard\Liberty Hall$ Hearts Divided: 5-B Poppy Lane\The Apple Orchard\Liberty Hall
Moon Over Water (Deliverance Company #3)

ASIN: 0778321193

Amazon.com

The San Juan Islands in Washington State come alive in That Summer Place, an anthology set on fictional Spruce Island. In "Old Things" by Jill Barnett, California divorceé Catherine Winslow seeks to recreate the magic of her childhood with her two daughters on the island where her family spent many happy summers. She has no idea that she is about to revive a teenage romance as well.

In Debbie Macomber's "Private Paradise," widow Beth Graham is invited to stay on an island with friends. But when a last-minute accident keeps her friends from the island, Beth and her son end up sharing quarters with a handsome single father, John Livingstone, and his teenage daughter. Close quarters cause tempers to flare, but Beth and John just may manage to find love before the trip is over.

"Island Time" by Susan Wiggs finds workaholic Mitch Rutherford and Dr. Rosalinda Galvez busily conducting an environmental impact study of the island, although Mitch wonders if he will ever get anything done with the beautiful doctor around.

Barnett's trademark humor, Macomber's poignancy, and Wiggs's expert storytelling all combine to create the perfect summer beach book. --Maudeen Wachsmith

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful reading.......2007-01-09

I was unable to put the book down. As always Debbie Macomber is a wonderful author.

Magical setting!.......2005-08-18

This was a great summer read. The wonderful descriptions of the Pacific Northwest had me going online to research my dream vacation! If magical, serene, outdoorsy settings are important to you, this is the book for you! I especially enjoyed the stories by Jill Barnett and Susan Wiggs.

Great Book!.......2001-01-20

This book includes three stories all revolving around one location, San Juan Islands in Washington State. One author started the stories by setting the scene, then two other authors continued with Debbie Macomber's story in the middle. I have enjoyed much of Macomber's work, so I selected this novel to a quick summer read. I truely enjoyed the combinations of the three authors, and all three stories were enchanting.

Skip the Summer Place.......2000-08-17

This review is for the Audio version. I would not recommend this tape to anyone! The narrarators are soooo dramatic - for instance in the first story ( I can't even remember the title, it was so bad) the person reading the story emphasises every last word of the sentence, whispers and has to take a breath every few words. It is very annoying. I couldn't listen to any more than 20 minutes of the story - that's how bad she got on my nerves. The second story was not much better - she should have skipped the accent and I was disapointed in the storyline - Susan Wiggs is usually much better.

Maybe reading the book instead of listening would make a difference. But I will never know because there is no way I would waste more money on these short stories.

Summer Sizzles, Seethes, and does the Macarena.......1998-10-06

Putting authors Jill Barnett, Susan Wiggs and Debbie Macomber together at Rainshadow Lodge was a brilliant idea - and what a gift for readers. For three women, Catherine Winslow, Beth Graham, and Dr. Rosalinda Galvez, the old Victorian summer house on a remote island in Puget Sound is a sanctuary, a place to draw a deep breath, rest, re-evaluate their lives, and heal. None of them expected to find love. For Catherine, love comes packaged in the shape of her first love - and wow, have the years been good to him! Rosalinda discovers a workaholic boss that needs shaking up - so she teaches him the Macarena and raises his blood pressure. Beth finds a man whose teen-age daughter just may give them both grey hairs before they get around to saying "I love you".

These may be stories set in a summer place, but they'll keep you awake, smiling, any time of the year.

That Summer's Trance
Average customer rating:

Poignant tragedy

Summer trances

breathtakingly bad

Devastating

Stunning Journey

That Summer's Trance
J.R. Salamanca
Manufacturer: Welcome Rain
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1566492203

Book Description

In That Summer's Trance his subject is betrayal, both of oneself and of others, in a culture of material rewards. It is an unforgettable story of one actor outdone by another, and it tells us more about role-playing, and the theater of everyday life, than I would have thought possible.--Charles Baxter

Customer Reviews:

Poignant tragedy .......2007-07-31

This book does not require a review! It is the kind of a perfect book that occupies the spare time as well as the mind. Dr. Salamanca proves again that he is one of the greatest living American writers as he offers more insights into these powerful human conditions: love, lust, greed and jealousy. This book is closer to his A Sea Change than Southern Light as it maintains the brilliant prose, the rolling words, the exquisite detail and the loving poise about its pages. Can anyone ever capture the breadth and detail of one's personal anguish better than J.R.? Read and enjoy!

Summer trances.......2001-05-10

Salamanca has been publishing since 1958, and since then his works have been often praised, often chastised, and relatively seldom understood. The reviews here at Amazon give a fair idea his books' tendency to be either loved or reviled, and I'll tell you honestly that whether you really want to buy this book depends on what you want as a reader.

If your taste has been honed on latter-day twentieth century realism, as filtered through a tradition which judges the real by its grittiness and roughness, you don't want this book. If you think the real and the surreal don't mix, you also don't want this book. If you don't think sellout and betrayal are major issues, or if you think the only forms they take are dramatic and violent ones, you'll wonder what all the fuss in the book is about. Finally, if you don't like prolonged conversations, don't believe in the "realism" of people speaking articulately and elegantly about their passions and failures, or have trouble connecting frame tales and inside narratives, you really don't want this book.

But, as you can see, I've given it five stars. As I argue at some length in my doctoral dissertation, Salamanca's books, including *That Summer's Trance* are beautiful. They partake of the traditions of the Gothic and of nature writing at least as much as they do of conventional "realism", and the comparison to Proust in one of the other reviews isn't a bad one at all. Their real analogue, though, is to the Jacobean plays to which the author sometimes refers: they're elegant, sometimes stylized, their characters are sometimes archetypes as well as characters, they're neither afraid of earnestness nor without irony, and their sense of disaster inevitably gathering to fullness is discernible from the beginning. If you liked *The Duchess of Malfi* or *The White Devil* or even *The Changeling*, you DO want this book. If you're not afraid of length and complication or put off by any of the factors I mention above, you want this book. If you like Proust, you probably want this book.

And why? Well, among my other (several dozen) reasons, there's the fact that Salamanca's writing is beautiful, at the sentence level. I warn you, many people hate him for this: they say it's *too* beautiful, too conscious, too unrealistic to be--well, real. I can think of no contemporary author whose style is like his, and, I warn you again, he's been castigated vigorously for that by some critics. I don't say they're necessarily wrong in despising the elaborately beautiful, or in wanting less sense of artifice. But I can't despise it. And I think it behooves us to remember that the original is not always the fashionable, the obviously cutting-edge, nor what we expect of the real. There are, I grant you, a lot of words (rather in the way that, in the film *Amadeus*, the ruler decided that Mozart's opera had "too many notes.") But they are good words. A sentence pulled at random from a random page: "The quality of everything had changed; the blazing, fervent world had become abandoned, enervated, a place of drifting sand and smothered footprints and lengthening shadows."

Honestly, if you want a shorter and less intimidating Salamanca to read, you might want to start with *Embarkation*, if you can find it. But if you're game, and if you're not put off by a style which few readers now really understand or enjoy, by all means have a go at *That Summer's Trance.* It's beautiful, and painful, and disastrous. I won't tell you the plot, since plenty of other reviews will (the poem from which the epigraph is taken, Santayana's sonnet "As in the Midst of Battle", will give you a pretty good idea of how it ends) but I will add that Jill is NOT "evil personified", as one reviewer claimed (quite the contrary) and that the book's numerous betrayals are nearly all the protagonist's. Not a comfortable book to read, either, if one's own betrayals and sellouts are at all tender to the touch.

breathtakingly bad.......2001-04-10

Truly a marvel of a book that should never have been published. The characters are wooden, they talk far too much, and in paragraph form (David Mamet can't hold a candle to this guy). The ending is telegraphed a third of the way through. And, the book is really boring. really boring. It's like reading Proust, but if Proust couldn't write, or think, or make sense. Just lots and lots of self-indulgent thoughts, strung together in sort of a plot, sort of an extended theater review of a play I never, ever want to see. Eek. This book is a mess.

Devastating.......2000-09-23

This beautiful, and ultimately shattering, novel held me in a trance for weeks. Somehow, J. R. Salamanca manages to intertwine character-driven psychological and emotional suspense, richly poetic language and contemporary (nay, timeless) themes so skillfully, I read as though compelled. It left its mark, and one far deeper and more enduring than anything I could have imagined when I first entered the deceptively placid fictional world of its characters. Deeper praise I cannot offer than to say that I will miss and wonder about these people for a long time.

This is terrible, beautiful writing and knowing....

Stunning Journey.......2000-09-08

This beautifully written novel takes us deep into the life of an man who has lost his soul. Out hero is a gifted actor who becomes a successful entrepreneur only to face the consequences of wearing too many masks. His undoing is another equally talented actor. Together they reveal the beauty and betrayals implicit when "all the world's a stage" edges out love in life's passion play.

The exceptional quality of That Summer Trance is its combination of narrative drive, fully realized contemporary characters, and shimmering prose. Any one of these elements is rare enough, but together, it's quite stunning.

That Summer in Paris: A Novel
Average customer rating:

Yaaawwwwwwwnn, 2.5 Stars

A small suggestion

Past the Pretentious Hyperanalysis of Writers and Writing This is Actually Quite Good

Beautiful Story, Beautifully Told

"To love is to bleed, but to bleed is a sign of life"

That Summer in Paris: A Novel
Abha Dawesar
Manufacturer: Nan A. Talese
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Asian American | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Capturing Paris: A Novel

Babyji Babyji

Salaam, Paris

Paris Hangover

Miniplanner: A Novel

ASIN: 0385517491
Release Date: 2006-06-13

Book Description

Prem Rustum, a celebrated aging Indian novelist, unexpectedly meets Maya, a vibrant aspiring writer, and surprises himself by following her to Paris. In the slow, sensuous summer that follows, Prem looks back on his muses, his art, and his lost loves. Maya’s presence brings Prem into direct confrontation with his mortality and desires. As he struggles anew with the eternal question of love, Prem’s longstanding friendship with Pascal, a fellow writer, illuminates them both in the final chapter of their lives.

Written with sureness of style and tempo, That Summer in Paris reflects on how art informs love—and love, literature. With elegance and humor and even heartbreak, Abha Dawesar delivers a novel at once seductive and contemplative.

Customer Reviews:

Yaaawwwwwwwnn, 2.5 Stars.......2007-09-15

"That Summer in Paris" turned out to be not as hot as I remember; but then again that was my summer in Paris. The novel's premise, coupled with my passion for reading and writing, interested me enough to start the book. The story is about an aging writer and his quest for everlasting love. From New York where he sought the adoration, via the internet, of a young writer enthralled by his talents to Paris where he is the object of the adolescent adulation of girlhood friends, the author explores the intricacies of love and its influence on art and the artist. I made it halfway through the novel but ultimately the story couldn't maintain my interest. Although I enjoyed the aspects of the novel dealing with writerly matters, I found the parts of the story set in Paris and focusing on museum paintings and sculptures quite boring. I labored through half of the novel enjoying spurts of wonderfully erotic writing but ultimately the story moved too slowly for me and the eroticism bordered on perversity in some instances. I mean, Dawesar would have to have made an incredibly creative and powerfully visceral connection with this reader to justify Prem's physical intimacy with Meher. The absence of this connection and the languid pace of the story caused me to give up on "That Summer in Paris".

While I can't recommend this one based on my encounter with the story it appears to have struck a cord with other art and literature enthusiast. Take your chances, you might get as lucky as Prem did in Paris.

A small suggestion.......2007-08-02

It's this: That you read M.J. Leonard's review of the book before you read That Summer in Paris: A Novel. I couldn't have written a better review, nor one as well done.

It will definitely increase your enjoyment and understanding of Dawesar's book.

Well done, Mike.

Past the Pretentious Hyperanalysis of Writers and Writing This is Actually Quite Good.......2007-01-30

This book takes the reader, through a pretentious description of the virtues of great writers before presenting the story. I almost put it down 1/3 of the way through. I finished it because a dear friend had recommended it, and I wanted to be sure that my negative critique was warranted.

In the end, the book retrieves itself from hero worship and writer deifying. The love story is compelling, and the writer turns human. It is smart, and raises many interesting questions about the value of our work. I'm glad I finished it.

Beautiful Story, Beautifully Told.......2006-09-03

Prem Rustum, a seventy-five year old Indian born writer, thinks love and romance has left him behind, but then he meets young wannabe writer Maya online, who is in love with his work. And, as it turns out, she is just over a relationship, so she's ripe for another, perhaps even one with a man who is over fifty years her senior, after all, his work makes her feel complete.

They agree to meet and are attracted to each other right away. Maya tells him she's going to Paris to work on a novel and it just so happens Prem is going there too, supposedly to visit a friend who is a writer and Maya is excited at the prospect of spending so much time with somebody who is so famous.

The desire that has eluded Prem for so long returns and he falls in love with the much younger Maya and Maya feels like she's just awakening to new and wonderful emotions.

I've been to Paris several times, so I really enjoyed this book. Abha Dawesar has captured this city beautifully. I felt like I was really back there. The art, the cafes, the Parisian life. Plus the story is so beautifully told, that I couldn't put it down and you won't be able to either. Really, this book is so captivating that Abha Dawesar's people will live without you for days after you've closed the final page.

"To love is to bleed, but to bleed is a sign of life".......2006-08-30

Art and sex, literature and love, and even plain old companionship are at the heart of That Summer in Paris, a strange and heady novel set in New York and of course Paris. Everyone harbors memories of their youth, but time inevitably passes and accommodations are made, hopes moving to more pragmatic goals. Which is why it comes as such a shock to the ageing writer Prem Rustum when over the Internet, he meets the vibrant, energetic twenty-something Maya.

At seventy-five, the Indian born Prem never thought he would be able to feel desire or even be beloved by another, but in Maya he sees a kind of ardent kindred spirit, a deeply intellectual young girl who cares just as passionately about art and literature as he does. In reality, Maya is so infatuated with the older gentleman's novels, that in her personal advertisement she quotes: ''Worship at his altar like I do.''

Maya constantly reads Prem's novels and almost seems to live breath and sleep Prem Rustum. Indeed, for the past year Prem's books have meant everything to Maya. After it ended with her boyfriend Tom, she discovered that as long as she was reading his books, she didn't miss other human contact, life felt complete.

The two arrange to meet and hit it off. Maya tells Prem that she's going to Paris for the summer to work on her novel about a white hippy in India, and Prem tells her that he is also traveling to Paris, ostensibly to visit his famous French writer friend Pascal. They promise to connect, but it is almost impossible for Maya to imagine spending so much time with a famous man who has reached the acme of success in a métier she had just started out in.

In Paris, Maya meets Jean-Pierre who is trying to write a screenplay. She tells him she is alone, when in fact she has met up with Prem and is spending her days with him in cafes, restaurants and museums, where they eat expensive dinners, sample cheese and wine, and talk endlessly about art, literature and sex how art motivates love. Clem rediscovers desire, gradually falling in love with this enigmatic girl, yet becomes afraid he might manipulate his sentiments for Maya or hers for him. He admits that he does not want to love her as though she were a character in his book.

Meanwhile, Maya becomes hypnotized by Prem as he casts a spell on her when he touches her in front of the Degas. Hitherto she is also seduced by the city of Paris itself, every corner of the city so criminally beautiful and Paris without Prem suddenly becomes unthinkable. She feels in Prem's presence like" a very young flower receiving the first rays of the vernal sun and opening to the world."

Can Prem and Maya reconcile their age difference and discover true love? Prem, for all his intellectual posturing, is a bit of a male chauvinist. In the past he has prided himself on his looks, his sexuality, and his desirability, and he has carried his complexities on his sleeve, and the hundreds of women who had kept his bed warm in his lifetime. But age has made him realistic, and he's the first to admit that all he wants is a form of love where "his own state and that of someone else's matched."

Author Abha Dawesar beautifully weaves in Prem's past with his present. He talks of his first true love with his sister Meher whose later cancer and her death led to an extension of his own death. After Meher every affair of his life had been intricately connected with books he had been writing, especially his encounter at sixty-five with Valerie and Julie, two sixteen-year-old French girls where he teaches them the knowledge of touch, an ageless knowledge and whom he eventually falls in love with.

Although Maya appears to be the central protagonist, the novel is really about Prem's very personal quandary. The affair with Maya consumes him physically, morally and mentally and his recollections on the excitement and enthusiasm of youth begin to fill his distracted and aging mind. Prem can give Maya his wisdom, his experience and his comfort with the world, which he understands much better because he's lived longer, but can he give her his physicality?

Set in one of the world's most beautiful cities and steeping her pages in art, sculpture, literature - and even sex - Dawesar beautifully explores the nature of a writer and the power of losing and then discovering love; it's a world that is often always bigger than we are and often the reason for uniting the two people, the writer and the person. Maya's obvious beauty and grace is potent enticement for the disenchanted Prem, even though his libido is now sorely lacking.

Deeply intuitive and observant, the author really seems to be able to get the heart of these two people who are intent to nurture and foster culture, art and friendship, and perhaps even love, which especially for Prem has regrettably aged and died. Mike Leonard August 06.

That Summer in Paris (Exile Classics series)

Average customer rating:

That Summer in Paris (Exile Classics series)
Morley Callaghan
Manufacturer: Exile Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Crazy Years: Paris in the Twenties

ASIN: 155096688X

Book Description

It was the fabulous summer of 1929 when the literary capital of North America moved to La Rive Gauche—the Left Bank of the Seine River—in Paris. Ernest Hemingway was reading proofs of A Farewell to Arms, and a few blocks away F. Scott Fitzgerald was struggling with Tender Is the Night. As his first published book rose to fame in New York, Morley Callaghan arrived in Paris to share the felicities of literary life, not just with his two friends, Hemingway and Fitzgerald, but also with fellow writers James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, and Robert McAlmon. Amidst these tangled relations, some friendships flourished while others failed. This tragic and unforgettable story comes to vivid life in Callaghan's lucid, compassionate prose.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books