Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History

Book Description

This extraordinary retelling of American political history shows that—despite the clear separation of church and state—religion lies at the heart of American politics.
“This is American history the way I like it, prodigiously researched and vivaciously told. Mr. Morone has a knack for peeling off veneers, for locating the surprising fact, for adopting the unexpected and illuminating slant. He is a rarity, a scholar who is never boring.”—Tracy Kidder, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of a New Machine
“Hellfire Nation [places] much of our public life in its proper soul-searching context—and its careful anatomy of the hand-in-glove relations between the American state and the American faithful is both welcome and illuminating.”—Chris Lehmann, Washington Post Book World

Customer Reviews:

worthwhile.......2006-09-25

i really love this book. it's got a great set of foundational lines of inquiry, a slick usage of data, and a broad enough focus to consider the politics of gender, race, nationality, class, and so on with coherence.

the only significant problem is that part one ends at 1776 and part two begins at 1800; this skips over both the revolutionary war and the constitutional convention. it might be argued that this period merits a book of its own (perhaps several dozen have already been written), but i would've liked morone's investigatory reasoning to extend over it. that caveat aside, an extremely important contribution.

A very readable book!.......2006-06-26

I am a 50 year old German, who lived in the Southern United States from 1980 to 1990. Is has always intrigued me, why religion plays such a prominent role is the USA, while it plays essentially no role at all in Germany (and in most of Western Europe ). This book explains why this is so.

On the way, one learns a few interesting facts, e.g. that it was King George, who had to tell the settlers to leave the Quakers alone (before, the Puritans took great pride in persecuting and killing them..so much for the quest of freedom of religion...)

The author never leaves any doubt, as to which side he is on, and this renders the book even more believable.

I highly recommend it!

Stunning........2004-06-09

If, like me, you are a bit of a history buff who regrets having paid scant attention in those American history courses, this is an essential book.

Professor Marone reconsiders our national history, in its more wrenching periods, as the struggle for a shifting moral high ground. The result is literally stunning, uprooting, and wise.

History buffs support an entire industry that is spinning out "how-then, what-now" books about the founders, the civil war and the current hit parade of latter day pols. Professor Marone delivers something very different: a brilliant archeology of the winner-take-all contest for righteousness that has so thoroughly characterized our national life, from John Winthrop to yesterday afternoon.

And he can write: in places a little breezily, in others quite densely, but always clearly and engagingly.

Professor Morone's personal political stance is clear enough, and yes, it's left of Fox News. I can only hope that people who don't share his views on the present will take time to relish this masterful, sweeping interpretation of our past.

Good history, but only average politics.......2004-06-08

Morone's study is a fascinating attempt to reinterpret American history through the lens of religion and morality. However, this laudable effort is damaged by his insistence upon maintaining the traditional academic liberal lenses of "race, class, gender" in every historical era, as if there were no other ways to understand what happened. He also does not take religion seriously enough to understand why it causes people to act as they do -- I walked away feeling like he was openly contemptuous of religion, despite his apparent interest in it.

Society's moral revolution and "the other".......2003-05-25

By far the most interesting book I've read in a *long* time, Morone's _Hellfire Nation_ examines the 200+ years of America's history, but takes a wholly different approach from the norm; instead of seeing the early Puritan settlements as an anomaly that would gradually fade as history progressed, he cites the Puritanistic "us versus them" outlook of morality as being an integral part of most of American history.

And yes, this is a very refreshing and fascinating way in which to view history. Morone's basic thesis is that a) "popular" American morality is frequently cited as the only thing that can protect "us" from "them," whether "they" are blacks, the Irish, Jews, et cetera, and b) that this emphasis on those frightening Un-Americans is what fuels "moral fanaticism," like prohibition, Comstockery, the VD/social hygiene movement, c) and from this, laws are put into place which persist long after their spawning social movements have died down, leaving them in the hand of fanatics. The thesis doesn't just hold up; it *thrives*, adequately explaining many facets of much of American moral history, and while Morone's constant repetition of the final point stated above (that fanaticism eventually dies down, leading a select few to continue its legacy to the detriment of a no-longer-incensed society) becomes a bit wearisome, it really does show how *well* so many social events fit into this pattern.

Book Description

Collects Ultimate X-Men #21-25.

Customer Reviews:

My thoughts.......2007-08-06

I'm a old shcool X-men fan , the ultimate X-men Comics are cool . don't get me wrong , but I grew up watching the Fox Kids cartoons and reading the Comics in witch Wolverine , Cyclops , Jean Gray , Storm and Beast were cool , These new comics kinda tone down the characters and give them more of a helpless high school kids theme . I still enjoy reading this collection of books , but not as much as the original , Overall , I say buy it .

Excellent Work.......2007-06-20

This is a really good continuation of the series and has a lot of foreshadowing into later X-Men events. Definitely worth a read. Beautiful artwork as well.

The hideous art really is a problem.......2006-04-22

Unlike many others, I prefer the Ultimate X-men to the previous versions, so I don't have much nostalgia for older versions of these characters.

The main problem with this volume is the same one that afflicted volume 3: a sudden switch from good to appalling artwork for a few issues really derails the whole thing. The art in 23-25 is just horrible, and I was hard pressed to keep reading through it. Kitty, in particular, is just grotesque.

Get the book if you want to fill out your collection. Otherwise, skip it.

Excrement.......2006-01-18

This is a positively terrible book. The artwork is by no means up to the standards of the first three books. I would not waste my money!

Compiles issues #21-#24 and double-sized #25.......2005-12-17

Issue 21 begins the "Hellfire and Brimstone' story and introduces Kitty Pryde to the Ultimate Universe. #22 explores the Brotherhood of Mutants before degenerating into an uncomfortable fight between Cyclops and Wolverine. The Disneyish artwork and a tired chatroom gag spoil some interesting subplots through #23-#25. Millar's versions of these characters are unlikable compared to those of other Marvel titles.

Average customer rating:

A haunted, unsettling tale of a great artist
The Last Man Standing...we just don't know how
Just Like The Movie
Good biographical sketch, absurd prose style
King of Rock and Roll

Hellfire: The Jerry Lee Lewis Story
Nick Tosches
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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

ASIN: 0802135668

Customer Reviews:

A haunted, unsettling tale of a great artist.......2007-10-06

Out of the many biographries I've read, outside of Marilyn Monroe's life, this was one of the most unsettling stories I have yet to read. The book takes us back to the roots of the Lewis family, the depression era, and gives a highly personalized look into this man's life. I believe this to be an excellently written work, very stylized, enthrawling and informative. I feel that Jerry Lee was victimized by the press. His rival, Elvis, seemed to have gotten away with much as everyone turned a blind eye. After all, Elvis brought home a 14 year old girl from Germany and horded her away for a few years like a big fat surprise mushroom for 'some day.' How unsavory was that?
I think much could have been done to protect Jerry from the sufferings he had to endure, including the IRS cleaning him out, and as Nick puts it, 'left him like a wolf in a burnt out woods.' Where were the accountants and the attorneys and what bar were they sitting in?
It seemed the Lewis family had one tradgety after another, as Elmo Lewis was run over by a drunk driver at the age of nine (Jerry's older brother) and later the grievious event of losing his son Steve Allen to the swimming pool. The photo of his tombstone with the little lamb atop is a heartbreaking, chilling scene, and it emitts a lonely sadness that certainly will touch even the most coldest of readers.
The story tells of all the struggles Jerry Lee had with trying do what was right, or what others 'thought' right, but in the end, he did do the right thing. He played his music. The struggles headed off the 'y' path of right and wrong toward his sheer persistance playing trashy clubs and cutting records until his big day came.
The story leaves room at the end for many questions...what became of Myra after they divorced? What happened to Jerry Lee after the night we leave this wonderful yarn, as he glazes out the window of his empty house? I think there should be a follow-up novel, because the story is not over!
This was a very interesting and entertaining read about one of century's great piano playing talents and I highly recommend it as a very gripping tale you won't want to put down, and just enough pages it can be read in 2 nights!!Loved it!

The Last Man Standing...we just don't know how.......2007-09-16

After I read this book, I got online and did a search for Jerry Lee Lewis on youtube.com. I found some video of Jerry Lee recently performing in 2006 and 2007. Elderly, exhausted, still banging out boogie woogie rock-n-roll music for adoring fans.

Tosches' book ends around 1980, which is unfortunate because it feels like you're only halfway through Jerry Lee's life (another review brings up the mysterious deaths of a couple of wives afterward that would have made fascinating reading, I'm sure). It's amazing that so many people who anticipating The Killer's demise way back then...and he's still out performing in 2007!

I read HELLFIRE because I read Tocsches' outstanding DINO: LIVING HIGH IN THE DIRTY BUSINESS OF DREAMS, a dark and hilarious look at Rat Pack crooner Dean Martin, the King of Cool himself. DINO was the first biography I'd ever read where I actually knew LESS about the subject than before I started the book.

In HELLFIRE, Jerry Lee Lewis comes across as a tortured Southerner caught in a lifelong struggle against the good and evil in himself--all of it taking place at the keys of a piano! Reaching the top of rock royalty or bottoming out in excess and scandal, one thing is certain: Jerry Lee could never be spit out for being lukewarm.

Just Like The Movie.......2007-05-29

If you saw the '89 biopic, "Great Balls of Fire," then you pretty much know what's in this book. The movie brought Jerry Lee Lewis to a whole new audience, and this book will probably be a revelation to kids and 50s types who never knew the real story behind one of the best of the early rockers. The Jimmy Swaggart/Mickey Gilley connection is explored, but the best part is the tale of Jerry's marriage to his 13-year-old cousin, which wrecked his career for about four years. Tosches adopts a silly pseudo-preacher's cadence in some of his writing, which I guess he figured suited Jerry Lee's hellfire and brimstone southern roots. It detracts from the book, but not enough to make you not read it. This is essential stuff about an American original who is still kicking.

Good biographical sketch, absurd prose style.......2006-09-02

The only failing of this book is Tosches' stilted, pseudo-Faulknerian prose style which he apparently thought appropriate to Jerry Lee, who has been driven by the conflicting extremes of Southern culture like no other white entertainer. Unfortunately it gets in the way of what is otherwise a solid, well-researched biography. Don't let it prevent you from reading Tosches' later books, especially his Dean Martin biography and Cut Numbers (a novel).

King of Rock and Roll.......2006-07-30

Who's gonna play this old piano after the killer's gone? Answer: Nobody! This is a great monument of the life of Jerry Lee Lewis. The real King of Rock and Roll.

Nick writes a brilliant expose of Jerry Lee. The most interesting person in rock and roll. Pure hillbilly roots that take you to the foundations of rock and roll and the rise and fall of the golden boy. Jerry Lee Lewis!

Jerry Lee has led one of the most interesting lives. Did you know he is first cousins with Jimmy Swaggart? I didnt. His whole life has been a battle between good and evil. I have a feeling when all is said and done you will see the killer in Glory.

We could all use a horse to KO every now and then.

Average customer rating:

Well-crafted and evocative
Emotion, danger, politics, humor and I wanted more
A subtle, solid novel that was well worth waiting for
"We live on a mean, sinful planet."
Another "Comfortable"

The Hellfire Conspiracy: A Novel
Will Thomas
Manufacturer: Touchstone
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British Detectives | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 141654805X

Book Description

In the latest adventure in what is "fast becoming one of the genre's best historical-mystery series" (Booklist), roughhewn private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker and his assistant Thomas Llewelyn must track down London's first serial killer.

When Barker and Llewelyn are hired to find a girl from the upper classes who has gone missing in the East End, they assume her kidnapping is the work of white slavers. But when they discover five girls have been murdered in Bethnal Green, taunting letters begin to arrive in Craig's Court from a killer calling himself Mr. Miacca.

Barker fears that Miacca might be part of the Hellfire Club, a group of powerful, hedonistic aristocrats performing Satanic rituals. He must track the fiend to his hideout, while Llewelyn confronts the man who put him in prison.

Dodging muckrakers, navigating the murky Thames under cover of darkness, and infiltrating London's most powerful secret society, The Hellfire Conspiracy is another wild ride that "brings to life a London roiling with secret leagues, deadly organizations, and hidden clubs" (Ron Bernas, Detroit Free Press).

Customer Reviews:

Well-crafted and evocative.......2007-10-15

The Hellfire Conspiracy was my first Barker and Llewelyn novel but it won't be my last.

Will Thomas does an enviable job of crafting a compelling mystery involving disparate historical elements such as the Salvation Army, the Fabian Society and the Hellfire Club and bringing them all to vivid life.

The prose style is clean and crisp. Rather than struggle to imitate the type of ponderous exposition so common in popular Victorian age fiction, Mr. Thomas manages to suggest it rather than copy it.

Also, instead of depicting the protagonists as little more than a Holmes and Watson pastiche, the relationship between Cyrus Barker and the much younger Llewelyn has echoes of the Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin byplay, particularly with the descriptions of the Barker household.

Many colorful characters propel the plot and little bits of welcome detail fill it out...however, I wish Mr. Thomas had given us more of the Hellfire Club, since they don't come on-stage until the last quarter of the novel.

I'm hoping the organization becomes something of a recurring adversary for Barker and Llewelyn in future novels.

That's a minor quibble, and does not detract from the overall enjoyment of the book.

Emotion, danger, politics, humor and I wanted more.......2007-09-05

First Sentence: I recognized the sound, though I had never heard it before.

Private Equity Agent Cyrus Barker and his assistant Thomas Llewelyn are hired to find the young daughter of a Queen's guardsman. The fear is of white slavers. The police find the body of another young girl who had been abused, strangled and maimed and the hunt is on for a serial killer who is taunting Barker with bad poetry.

The biggest problem I had with this book is that I couldn't put it down until I'd finished it. But who needs sleep when you've a book this good. The story is told by Llewelyn; a young man with a painful past. Barker is fascinating and because you learn about him as Thomas does, and it's interesting to watch bits of his past unfold. I love the historical detail both of life in that period and police procedures. The style is one of a traditional mystery but it takes to the dark side of Victorian London. The story has emotion, danger, politics, humor and I wanted more.

A subtle, solid novel that was well worth waiting for.......2007-08-25

About a third of the way through this book, I realized with a pleasant start that not only was I enjoying the specifics of this particular mystery, but I was even more pleased simply to be once again in the company of Thomas Llewelyn, Cyrus Barker, and the other characters who have populated this series for four books now.

I think that's a pretty good sign of Will Thomas' skill as an author. I read the first three books in the Barker-Llewelyn series in close succession about a year ago, and have been waiting, somewhat impatiently, for the fourth book to come out. I (and Thomas' other fans) have been rewarded by a book that is in many ways the best of the four. I've always been impressed by the author's ability to take a familiar setting -- the late-Victorian London so many mystery writers have used as a backdrop -- and twist it in a way that reveals its essential foreignness. In earlier novels, he did that by immersing us in London's Jewish or Asian subcultures. In "The Hellfire Conspiracy," the setting becomes unfamiliar -- even uncomfortable -- much more subtly, described by attitudes and actions as much as by nationality or race.

I also need to commend Will Thomas' ability to weave real-world historical figures into his narrative. Some authors do this as a way of showing off: "Look! Robert Louis Stevenson right here in my novel!" But Thomas does it subtly (that word again), without telegraphing their future significance, and their appearance seems entirely appropriate to the demands of the story. In fact, I admit with some chagrin, it wasn't until this volume that I realized Llewelyn's close friend and smoking buddy Israel is (or will become) the famous author, playwright, and Zionist Israel Zangwill.

One of the most satisfying things about this series so far has been watching Thomas Llewelyn develop -- gaining confidence, expanding his abilities, and becoming more of an asset in his employer's investigations. In "The Hellfire Conspiracy" he again takes important steps forward, while also dealing with vital matters from his history. With every volume, we learn more about Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn both, and they continue to be intriguing and interesting characters. While readers unfamiliar with the series thus far will find "The Hellfire Conspiracy" a solid murder mystery in its own right, it's as part of the series that it really shines.

I'm pleased, as you can probably tell, to give book and author both a rousing endorsement. Will Thomas remains, along with Rick Riordan, one of my two favorite active mystery authors, and as before, I'm again looking forward to the next work from Will Thomas' (as I understand literal) pen.

"We live on a mean, sinful planet.".......2007-08-12

It is 1885 in Victorian London, and private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker is retained by Major Trevor DeVere to find the abductor of his twelve-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn. Major DeVere informs Barker that his wife, Hypatia, was in the habit of bringing her daughter to the squalid East End to witness her work for the Charity Organization Society; Hypatia was hoping to sensitize her spoiled child to the needs of the poor. The little girl resented having to spend her time in this way, and she fled, never to be seen again.

In "The Hellfire Conspiracy" by Will Thomas, Barker and his Welsh assistant, twenty-two year old Thomas Llewelyn, are faced with a daunting task--tracking down a sadistic fiend who kidnaps and slaughters young girls and then disposes of their bodies in sewers or in the Thames. The killer sends Barker mocking poems, in which he defies the agent to find and capture him before he kills yet again.

Will Thomas, as he did in his previous Barker/Llewelyn novels, skillfully contrasts wealthy Victorians with those unfortunates who live in such places as Bethnal Green. The indigent come to London looking for work and are condemned to life in a "bland, seedy quarter, choking daily on the reek of factories and dung of dust-covered streets." While members of the upper class have servants to do their bidding, the impoverished slum dwellers eke out a meager subsistence in filthy and overcrowded conditions. Some, in desperation, turn to prostitution or petty theft in order to survive. Against this backdrop, it is small wonder that depraved individuals are able to prey on innocent victims with impunity.

The varied cast of characters includes the brusque but compassionate Cyrus Barker, the callow and ambitious Llewelyn, a man who has yet to put his tragic past behind him (his wife, Jenny, died two years earlier in horrific circumstances), as well as a host of snitches, dandies, and do-gooders. The police prove to be ineffectual and uncooperative; the Thames Police and Scotland Yard are rivals who refuse to share information with one another. In addition, people of means with high-powered connections pay off and pressure those who are supposed to enforce the law to turn a blind eye to their misdeeds.

Barker and Llewelyn have a difficult time trying to locate a criminal who always seems to be watching them and anticipating their next move, and the two agents nearly lose their lives in their search for the murderer. In addition, Thomas comes across his old nemesis, Palmister Clay, who challenges him to a boxing match presided over by "the Marquis of Queensberry himself, creator of the famous rules of boxing." Barker's old friend, Reverend Andrew McClain (Handy Andy), a former heavyweight bare-knuckle champion, has the unenviable task of trying to teach young Llewelyn how to box four days before the dreaded bout.

"The Hellfire Conpiracy" combines an intriguing murder mystery with black humor, biting social commentary, and well-researched historical information about the chasm between the rich and poor in urban England during the latter part of the nineteenth century. To the author's credit, the book does not culminate in an unrealistically happy conclusion. There is a cliffhanger ending, however, which indicates that Will Thomas is busily preparing the next installment in this extremely entertaining series.

Another "Comfortable".......2007-08-04

Will Thomas has hit another homerun with this terrific book. Reading it was like welcoming friends that you wish you would hear from more often. The adventures, misadventures and journey through Victorian England is a trip I can't wait to take again. Write faster. As I said before, women writers do "cozies" and Will Thomas does "comfortables". The story and characters are so well developed that I can feel the rain seeping through my clothing on a sunny day in modern San Francisco.

Average customer rating:

Builds Patiently Into A Riveting And Moving Horror Tale
Great Book
Creepy
Saul At His Best
Decent horror

Hellfire
John Saul
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

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

ASIN: 0553258648
Release Date: 1986-07-01

Book Description

[DESCRIPTION TO COME]

Customer Reviews:

Builds Patiently Into A Riveting And Moving Horror Tale.......2007-09-04

It seems to be a John Saul defining characteristic to write in a plainer, simpler style than most of horror's other consistently good authors. It also seems to be a Saul trademark to tackle familiar, not especially original-sounding material, and to open it up in such a way as one quickly feels they know exactly where things are going. More notable, though, is Saul's ability to use that plain language, those simple premises, and the illusion that things will unfold predictably, to continually create intriguing, genuinely scary tales with characters one can care about, with ideas that one can really get into more and more as the book goes along, and with out-of-nowhere surprises and twists that start cropping up just when the novel feels like it's boxed itself into a corner and can't possibly move in any unforseen direction.

"Hellfire" is the story of an old mill with a dark history, that's about to be worked on for the first time into a century and converted into a shopping mall. The central character of the tale is Beth, a 13 year-old girl who moves in with her mother to the mansion belonging to her mother's new husband, (Beth's stepfather), and his daughter (slightly older than Beth), mother, and staff of servants. Inside the mill, someone or something is not happy with its being opened up, and Beth seems to develop a connection with that prescence. When you're working material like this, it can either come off feeling like you're treading cliched ground, or like you're treading classic ground. Classic ground turns out to be the case here, as "Hellfire" develops into a great addition to the realm of horror material involving haunted buildings and/or menacing prescences. In the early chapters, the novel builds up slowly, developing characters, taking some along lines where you really like, others along lines that you really start hating them; and slowly mounting an air of mystery and later, dread. Beth's new home is not happy, tormented by her nasty stepsister and under the disapproving glare of her snobbish grandmother, but one interesting twist is the situation with Beth's mother, her new stepfather, and her biological father. What's different is that Phillip Sturgess (the stepfather) and Alan Rogers (the father) are best friends and have stayed that way, and there's no great acrimony between Carolyn (Beth's mother) and Alan. Usually in novels with the divorce/remarriage angle present, there's a lot of angst and such, but in a refreshing twist, Beth's parents seem to have parted simply for the real-life reason that sometimes things don't work out. Having a likable core group like this becomes important to the tale as things around the protagonists start to turn darker, in both supernatural and more worldly ways.

The dark history of the mill - drawing a lot on real-life horrors and inequalities of the 1800s - is intertwined with the Sturgess family history, and both begin to be revealed simultaneously. I found that with this novel I could really feel in sync with the characters - it's like you can feel a portion of what they're feeling directly, not just from an observer's vantage point, and there are a couple of instances in which a character's discovery - such as a secret, or of the death of another of the book's characters - really packs an uncommon wallop. The tension and suspense really veer up in the last third of the book and make it hard to put down. The final chapters are jolting, moving, and left me wanting more. "Hellfire" is definately a book horror readers - or mystery readers, for that matter - shouldn't pass up.

Great Book.......2007-01-10

If you are a John Saul reader, you don't need a review. You already know how good he is. If you are not a reader already, then get this book and get started. You will be hooked like the rest of us already are.

Creepy.......2006-08-30

This was among a friend's book collection that she gave me to read. And this one is just creepy ~~ not scary and not spooky, just creepy and malicious. I think I read it as a teenager when my sister had it ~~ so it's not that unforgetable.

This one has Carolyn Rogers who married Philip Sturgess, who inherited the mill. The mill holds a deep dark secret and as the book progresses, the secret is let out. Over a hundred years previous, several kids were trapped in the mill during a fire and was killed. Philip's older brother, Conrad Jr., was killed there when he was a child. Philip's daughter Tracy and Carolyn's daughter, Beth, are also main players in this novel. The secret reveals itself to Beth and Tracy, who hated her stepsister with a passion, did anything she could to drive her away. Somehow their stories are tied up with Amy's story of the day she died.

This book is creepy and felt very unfinished. It dragged on several chapters and then rushed to the end. It's not my favorite of Saul's works. It is creepy enough though to make a good evening's reading under the blankets. But not creepy enough to make you recheck all the locked doors and windows. It's more sad than spooky.

8-29-06

Saul At His Best.......2006-01-15

This was the second book I read by John Saul. In my opinion he is a genius. He knows how to get in your head and play with your emotions, and he has earned my respect, not that he needs it. Some of his newer works seem to repeat the story in some form, so it's better to buy anything he wrote up to The Second Child. Check out The Unwanted too.

Decent horror.......2004-01-10

Carolyn Rogers marries Phillip Sturgess -- rich, eligible, successful bachelor with a heart of gold despite his snobbish breeding. Phillip, along with Carolyn's ex-husband, plan on reopening a mill where a group of the town's children burned to death in the late 1800s and has recently become the site of many mysterious accidents. And that's about all the Carolyn and Phillip have to do with the story.

The main focus of the story is Beth Rogers, Carolyn's daughter from her first marriage, and Tracey Sturgess, Phillip's daughter from his first marriage. Tracey goes out of her way to make Beth feel unwanted through any means necessary, and Beth finds herself miserable and lonely. Beth befriends a girl-child who died in the fire at the mill (not unlike the girl in Saul's Comes the Blind Fury) who becomes something of a best friend to Beth. Finally, this all comes to head in a "grand finale".

This was a good read, typical early-Saul fare. It shared many similarities with Comes the Blind Fury, but it was different enough to keep me reading. Saul has a way of really making you love and hate his characters. I sort of thought that the ending was a little rushed and the revealed "secret" a little weak, but an enjoyable read still.

Average customer rating:

For The Tender Minded

Working Class fiction?

It stinks

Excellent

A Dangerous Novel

Tender as Hellfire: A Novel
Joe Meno
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Bluebirds Used to Croon in the Choir: Stories

How the Hula Girl Sings

Hairstyles Of The Damned (Punk Planet Books)

The Boy Detective Fails (Punk Planet Books)

ASIN: 031220051X

Book Description

In Tender as Hellfire, first-time novelist Joe Meno limns a near-fantastical world of trailer park floozies, broken-down '76 Impalas, lost glass eyes, and the daily experiences of two boys trying to make sense of their random, sharp lives. Dough and Pill are brothers bound by more than blood. The anguish of their past, the terror of their present, and the uncertainty of their future all underscore the only truth that is within their grasp: each other. For beneath the cruel surface of their trailer park community lies a menagerie of odd characters, each one strange yet somehow beautiful, including Val, the blowsy bottle-blonde who shows surprising maternal instincts when the boys need it most, and El Ray del Perdito, the "Undisputed King of the Tango," a widower who dances nightly, imagining his wife in his arms, as Dough peers through the window contemplating a love that seems not to die. Surrounded by the strange and displaced, Dough and Pill must navigate through a world of constant pain and confusion. Finding beauty in unexpected places and maintaining reverence for hard-won scars, these two brothers learn, finally, that even broken things can be perfect.

Customer Reviews:

For The Tender Minded.......2005-05-06

Wow...another crappy trip down to "workin' class land" with clever character names and no depth. I saw this clown and his "band" open up for Link Wray once and his tuneage sucks as much as his writing. At one point, Link invited a couple of the guys from his band to jam and they couldn't hang! The folks at Columbia College and the Northshore eat this stuff up because they don't know any better.

Working Class fiction?.......2004-03-21

Joe Meno always talks of his "blue collar" roots because his dad was a steel worker. Columbia professors are not really "blue collar" eh Joe??? A mockery of literature from a small mind who just happened to know people, right Joe???

This guy is a hack, skip it at all costs...

It stinks.......2004-02-13

I read 3 pages of this and gave it to my upstairs neighbor, a guy who hoards cast-off novels from bargain stores and piles them on his floor to give the illusion of being a wise hermit (he's actually a packrat without a job). Even he didn't like "Tender as Hellfire." It reads like any other college boy's attempt to be "literary" using forced slang and run-on sentences---kind of like Bret Easton Ellis, but dumber. Avoid at all costs (assuming you could even find it).

Excellent.......2003-10-20

This novel does a wonderful job of drilling into your head just how stagnant and alienated a child must feel after being forced into such an unpleasantly dull environment during his formative years. The author's voice is exceptional, and few stories I've read have had such unique characters. Each chapter is a short story in and of itself, a few so compelling that I was tempted to flip back and read them a second time before moving on in the book, but at the same time I could hardly help but race to the end.

A Dangerous Novel.......2003-07-17

--And that's exactly what I liked about it. Many readers, no doubt missed the themes of desperation and alienation that accompanied a boy's transition into adolescence. In a time where the answer to avoiding another Columbine is a cocktail of ritalin and anti-depressants, "Tender as Hellfire," displays the stark realities of poverty, where the liminal state from child to man becomes (quite literally) a trial by fire. Most striking of all, Meno is able to bring sympathy to his narrator's older brother, whose reaction to his socio-economic-imposed ostracism is pyromania. I call it a dangerous novel, because it dares to tell the story of American "trailer trash." Someone had to publish news of their existence; not pretty, but Meno certainly couldn't wait on Hollywood.

Customer Reviews:

"The living perform the will of the dead.".......2007-04-29

"A Carpenter's Trilogy: A Chronicle in Three Plays", "Hellfire Pass" is Part One, setting the stage for a family drama that reaches back into 1920s Italy. Acted out in 1956 Chicago, thirty-six year old Silvio Rosato arrives at the home of his estranged father with a request. After filing for immigration in Canada, Silvio needs his father to sign over the deed to the house in Italy, which Silvio can then use as a stake for his family in Canada. A simple enough request, but one that releases years of secrets, pent up emotions and accumulated guilt. Surrounded by his wife, Angelina, daughter Ida, and younger son, Eddie Jr., Eduardo must look Silvio in the eye and meet him man to man, having abandoned Silvio, his mother and sister when the boy was only four months old. In the intervening years, Silvio has grown up, been drafted into World War II and spent the final years of the war as a British POW. After looking death in the eye as a soldier, Silvio has lived as a man of honor, begun a family and set his sights on a future in Canada.

Eduardo realizes the justice of Silvio's demand, but family dynamics intervene, Ida's husband lobbying for her share of the house in Italy; little by little the tensions build, first son stepping into the delicate balance of his father's second family, the old country, the old ways competing with the new, the American rush to own the future without respect for tradition. What begins as a son asking for recognition from his father escalates into an emotional conflagration that leaves everyone stunned, the ugly truth exposed. The dark secrets of the past no longer shielded by convention and familial respect, Eduardo's decisions then and now appear crass and self-serving. The heart of the matter lies between father and deserted son, who struggled to survive the war, to be a man and one day face his father: "I will not die. My war is not yet finished. I have to finish this in Chicago one day."

From the first scene, the dialog is riveting, various family factions reacting to changed circumstances. Slowly, the tension rising as the truth is revealed, the family dynamic is shattered, the lies left in tatters, a father shamed before his children. As powerful as the drama of the first part of the trilogy, Part Two can only be anticipated. This is fine, clear writing, powerful and passionate, a family drama as poignant as the seeds of discontent and dishonesty that have been sewn years before. In the shadow of World War II, the past demands an accounting. Luan Gaines/2007.

The God Of Hellfire: The Crazy Life And Times Of Arthur Brown

Average customer rating:

The God Of Hellfire: The Crazy Life And Times Of Arthur Brown
Polly Marshall
Manufacturer: SAF Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0946719772

Book Description

"I am the god of hellfire, and I bring you . . ."

In 1968, wearing a flaming helmet and sacrilegious robes, Arthur Brown hit the number-one slot worldwide with his hit single "Fire." The English singer has rained a volcano of influence on pop culture ever since. From the legendary UFO club in London's psychedelic heyday, to working with Pink Floyd and the Pretty Things, Arthur Brown has an amazing story to tell.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books