Book Description
Opening in Calcutta in the 1960s, Amitav Ghosh's radiant second novel follows two families -- one English, one Bengali -- as their lives intertwine in tragic and comic ways. The narrator, Indian born and English educated, traces events back and forth in time, from the outbreak of World War II to the late twentieth century, through years of Bengali partition and violence, observing the ways in which political events invade private lives.
Customer Reviews:
A journey through space and time.......2005-12-30
This is a wonderful piece of work. I was off to a slow start - but after the few pages I got so engrossed in the book, I couldn't put it down till I had finished it. Events from different eras, and happening in different parts of the world are beautifully woven into a coherent narrative. I was really impressed by this unique style of traversing space and time in a non-linear fashion. The main characters are well etched out.
The book would be best appreciated by those who have spent time in India (and know of its unique lifestyle!) and have also had a taste of the western world. However, it is a wonderfully told story, and I would recommend it to one and all.
Not upto par.......2004-09-12
I wanted to read this book as it was being praised as a 'great partition novel' and I had previously read a couple of novels set during the independence of bangladesh. However, this book turned out to be more of a love story, with very little mention of the partition of Bangladesh almost till the very end. However for the most part, it's a well written novel.
Ghosh's best.......2004-07-02
A wonderfully nostalgic tale of growing up in Calcutta, going to college in London, and unrequited love in between.
Also depicts the tragedy of the Indian Hindu-Muslim riots of the sixties. Read it!
mind blowing!.......2004-02-03
If I have to name the singlemost life altering reading experience, The Shadow Lines will be it. Given the present political situation, every Indian with even half a claim at intelligence must read this book. But despite its grounding in politics and history, the story is a most personal account of a little boy's life who drifts back and forth between Calcutta and Dhaka...and his journey where he encounters lines and barriers of all kinds, only to find that they're all but...shadow lines. Amitav Ghosh writes with a flair and a command over the language that most other authors can only dream of.
Catapulted 2 different places, times at breath taking tempo!.......2003-12-03
"The Shadow Lines" by Amitav Ghosh was written when the homes of the Sikhs were still smoldering, some of the most important questions the novel probes are the various faces of violence and the extent to which its fiery arms reach under the guise of fighting for freedom. Ghosh's treatment of violence in Calcutta and in Dhaka is valid even today, more than ten years after its publication. What has happened recently in Kosovo and in East Timor show that answers still evade the questions, which Ghosh poses about freedom, about the very real yet non-existing lines, which divide nations, people, and families.
The story of the family and friends of the nameless narrator who for all his anonymity comes across as if he is the person looking at you quietly from across the table by the time the story telling is over and silence descends. Before that stage arrives the reader is catapulted to different places and times at breath taking tempo. The past, present and future combine and melt together erasing any kind of line of demarcation. Such lines are present mainly in the shadows they cast. There is no point of reference to hold on to. Thus the going away - the title of the first section of the novel - becomes coming home - the title of the second section. These two titles could easily have been exchanged.
The narrator is very much like the chronicler Pimen in Pushkin's drama Boris Godonow. But unlike Pushkin's Pimen this one is not a passive witness to all that happens in his presence, and absence. The very soul of the happenings, he is the comma which separates yet connects the various clauses of life lived in Calcutta, London, Dhaka and elsewhere. The story starts about thirteen years before the birth of the narrator and ends on the night preceding his departure from London back to Delhi. He spends less than a year in London, researching for his doctorate work, but it is a London he knew very well even before he puts a step on its pavements. Two people have made London so very real to him - Tridib, the second son of his father's aunt, his real mentor and inspirer, and Ila his beautiful cousin who has traveled all over the world but has seen little compared to what the narrator has seen through his mental eye. London is also a very real place because of Tridib's and Ila's friends - Mrs. Price, her daughter May, and son Nick. Like London comes alive due to the stories related by Ila and Tridib, Dhaka comes alive because of all the stories of her childhood told to him by his incomparable grandmother who was born there. The tragedy is that though the narrator spends almost a year in London and thus has ample opportunity to come to terms with its role in his life, it is Dhaka which he never visits that affects him most by the violent drama that takes place on its roads, taking Tridib away as one of its most unfortunate victims.
Violence has many faces in this novel - it is as much present in the marriage of Ila to Nick doomed to failure even before the "yes" word was spoken, as it is present on the riot torn streets of Calcutta or Dhaka. But the specialty of this novel is that this violence is very subtle till almost the end. When violence is dealt with, the idea is not to describe it explicitly like a voyeur but to look at it to comprehend its total senselessness. Thus the way "violence" is brought into the picture is extraordinarily sensitive: The narrator says, talking of the day riots tore Calcutta apart in 1964, "I opened my mouth to answer and found I had nothing to say. All I could have told them was of the sound of voices running past the walls of my school, and of a glimpse of a mob in Park Circus." I have never experienced such a sound, but God, how these sentences get under the skin, how easy it is to hear that sound, how the heart beats faster on reading these sentences!
Ghosh is also a humorous writer. It is serious humor. Single words hide a wealth of meaning, for example, the way Tridib's father is always referred to as Shaheb, Ila's mother as Queen Victoria, or the way the grandmother's sister always remains Mayadebi without any suffix denoting the relationship. Also look at this passage that describes how the grandmother reacts on discovering that her old Jethamoshai is living with a Muslim family in Dhaka is outstanding and must be read to enjoy
The main characters are very real, almost perfectly rounded. I specially love the grandmother. She is the grandmother many of us recognize. In her fierce moral standards, Spartan outlook of life, and intolerance of any nonsense - real and imagined, she is as real as any patriarch or matriarch worth the name. And there is this very loveable character of the narrator. It is that of a boy who warms your heart, it is that of a man who knows and has lost love - more than once in his life - and thus makes you feel like hugging him close to your heart.
Some of the most important questions the novel probes are the various faces of violence and the extent to which its fiery arms reach under the guise of fighting for freedom. Ghosh's treatment of violence in Calcutta and in Dhaka is valid even today, more than ten years after its publication. What has happened recently in Kosovo and in East Timor show that answers still evade the modern world. On all scores, Ghosh's novel is excellent reading and would make a very impressive film. Excellent Must Read!
Average customer rating:
- One of the best Wambaugh.
- One of his better books
- Impressive But Curious
- An Absolutely Unnecessary Situation
- True Cop Flavor
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Lines and Shadows
Joseph Wambaugh
Manufacturer: Bantam
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ASIN: 0553763253
Release Date: 1995-11-01 |
Customer Reviews:
One of the best Wambaugh. .......2007-02-14
I have read this book over and over again. It combines drama, humor, and enough social commentary that you won't feel it is frivolous. Based on fact, it is a great read. Presently, I am trying to follow up on what happened to the "characters" after the book ended. Can't go wrong with this book.
Sabes que, Wambaugh at his best!
One of his better books.......2004-09-27
because it DOESN'T read like fiction; it's a true story with Wambaugh applying his direct understanding of how cops behave & what happens when they act out because of stress that returns night after night & can't be eased. There's the usual Wambaugh mix of booze, women, blurs between right & law. As usual, there's no insight or development for female characters, who are cardboard cutouts. But this time, instead of playing with character & language, as in other books, he projects his insights into those he depicts, without modifying their character. It's docudrama, despite its gunslinger theme, like Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," a form Wambaugh is good at, maybe because it relieves him of tense necessity of creating a plot. Oddly, this book isn't cynical, even when describing disappointed moral objectives; but it does prove what Aristotle said, "We become what we do repeatingly." A police department that sends men to work in Hell shouldn't be surprised if they turn into devils.
Impressive But Curious.......2003-10-09
I'm both in awe and suspicious of this book. It purports to tell the true-life story of a group of undercover police officers, most of Mexican descent, who work steathily to entice robbers preying on the heavy illegal alien traffic flowing into San Diego County from Baja California into attacking them, then turning the tables on their would-be victimizers.
I'm in awe because it reads like fiction, with deep insights into the professional and personal lives of each of the policemen who are part of the BARF (Border Alien Robbery Force) team. We find out how they spend their off-hours, drinking and cheating on their wives with the sort of abandon of the cheerfully doomed. We discover how much they come to dislike one another, and particularly their leader, a hotshot in disco chains named Manny Lopez. The action sequences are riveting, and you get a real flavor for the desolate highlands these officers probe, and the desperate characters, both deadly and vulnerable, that they come across.
But it reads too much like fiction. These guys either opened up to Wambaugh to a degree few ever do, not even to a very good, empathetic writer who asks all the right questions, or else the writer went the New Journalism route and extrapolated a lot of the inner monologues each of these officers have from time to time. I wonder about the former approach (cops are notoriously taciturn, even with each other or someone like Wambaugh who's obviously skilled at drawing them out) and question the validity of the latter, if used.
Despite the numerous offenses against man, society, and God cataloged here, Wambaugh apparently didn't leave these guys so much out to dry that they got angry. It wouldn't be a good idea angering these guys, but how did he manage it, given the story we have here? I just wish there was some Author's Note explaining the access issue. All we have is the firm statement at the outset "This Is A True Story." Yes, sure, but are these the real characters? Did he do one of those magazine-writer tricks of folding in multiple characters to create fictional hybrids? Did he use pseudonyms? I'd love to know.
The dialogue is brilliant, the writerly asides masterful and witty, and a crisp narrative pulls you through quickly while asking the question of when a good impulse (protecting aliens who are being savaged by gangsters while trying to illegally enter your country) become a really bad practice. By the final third of the book, the cops are strung-out adrenaline junkies probing into Mexican territory and looking for conflict, not the sort of characters you want representing your country in a sensitive border region.
Was this really what they were like? And what happened to them after the book was published in 1984? I'd love to know.
An Absolutely Unnecessary Situation.......2003-05-09
The philosophical setting of this book is littered with "ifs." If the United States government would protect the US from invaders, as it is charged to do, this book never would have been written. If other nations were governed by constitutions conceptually similar to that of the United States, establishing freedom and individual rights everywhere -- such that people would not feel it necessary to flee their home governments, and seek freedom in the United States -- this book never would have come into being. If, if, if.
This excellent book is a well-written tragedy about good law enforcement people who took the initiative to overlook one crime (illegal immigration) and proactively fight other crimes -- robbery, assault, battery etc. The story is compelling and riveting. It is good guys versus bad guys.
Unfortunately, both sides lost.
True Cop Flavor.......2001-08-16
Mr. Wambaugh as always, is able to catch the true flavor of what it was really like to be a cop and be a man. How hard is/was to "keep" a marriage, capture the essence of another culture and still tell a story as if we were all sitting in a bar listening to the ones who saw it all. The Seventies were ripe with blurried lines of two countries, two cultures forever linked in land of sometimes chaos. Those guys were the cowboys of the Seventies. It wasn't just a "Mexican" thing,... it was a Cop thing.
Book Description
(Foreword by Eugene H. Merrill) A compelling call for Christians to rethink the role of Arabs--also descendents of Abraham and recipients of his blessing.
Customer Reviews:
Reviewing an outstanding book.......2005-03-09
En route to commenting on the book I should fly my colors, so one may factor in my possible biases. I am a Jew; I belong to the Messiah of Israel, Jesus of Nazareth; I am in the camp of Reformed theologians.
A book such as this, dealing with volatile contemporary issues, is bound to attract negative responses, as one may see. No doubt it will be attacked and maligned by those with hidden agendas (and who do NOT fly their true colors), but this is par for the course as concerns the truth in such an age as this.
The first thing I want to say about Dr. Maalouf's "Arabs In The Shadow Of Israel" concerns its astonishing even-handedness, and that in a number of areas. Theologically (within the broad Christian camp) he does not promote his views but very minimally; politically he walks a balanced line and does not pursue an agenda; historically his scholarship is careful and conservative. And it is because of this unusual even-handedness that the primary thrust of his vision is allowed to manifest with clarity and force, and without drawing forth the usual defensive responses from those in differing camps, such as myself. This "vision" arises primarily from a careful and fresh exegesis of chapters 16 and 21 of the Book of Genesis, as well as the section of Galatians 4:21-31, where Paul uses Hagar and Ishmael in an allegory of the fleshly seed and the seed of promise, contrasting the unbelieving Jews and those Jews and Gentiles who trust Messiah Jesus.
I first read this material in the form of Dr. Maalouf's doctoral dissertation (titled, "Ishmael In Biblical History"), and while marveling at the wealth of attestation and historical references, when made aware it was going to be published in book form, I thought that very few publishers would care to include the copious and extremely valuable documentation that supported much of his scholarly labor. To my delight I find that Kregel did include it, and so the book is substantially the same, save around 30 pages of added historical survey at the beginning to bring the exegetical and historical material into focus for readers looking at this material in the context of the current world situation.
From my earlier years as an evangelical Christian in America, and involved with Messianic Jewish thought and theology, I had the usual Western biases regarding Arabs, and in particular, the standard Western exegesis of the Hagar-Ishmael narratives in Genesis. Maalouf's painstaking examination of the Biblical text, however, opened my eyes to a more careful reading. Nor is this some flaky interpretation, but sound, and worthy of serious consideration. (Even among Christians there is an anti-Arab bias, in large measure because we tend to superimpose the Biblical Israel of old, and its status as the people of God, upon the modern Jewish state, thus justifying its political and military agendas, and assuming at least a partial approval of God. Anyone who is against this Jewish state, we reason, must be against God. And thus we see the Arabs in a dim light.)
I should mention that I am serving as the minister (as an elder in a mission church in the Middle East) of an evangelical Arabic congregation, preaching and teaching the riches of Christ as contained in His Gospel. This assembly of God's people loved hearing the fruits of Dr. Maalouf's textual labors as shown in my teaching that the Scripture depicted Hagar and her son in dignity and honor, blessed by the LORD even though not of the covenant line of Messianic promise. Ishmael did partake of the blessing of God through Abraham as one of his circumcised sons, and thus a partaker of the covenant the Lord made with Abraham, even though, I repeat, not of the Messianic line.
It is balanced and insightful Biblical exposition such as "Arabs In The Shadow Of Israel" affords that will make the glorious gospel of God in Christ far more appealing to the Arab world, where there are many who are disgusted at the violence of militant Islam (which violence is at the heart of the Koran), and a God who showed marvelous love and saving deliverance to Hagar and Ishmael will arrest their attention. With the erroneous Western prejudices (of which I was a holder myself!) removed, so is a cause of warranted offence done away with. Ishmael had been hijacked by Islam (as Maalouf shows), but the Word of God rightly divided brings him back into the fold of those under the caring and almighty hand of the Father of Jesus the Messiah.
I have touched upon only a few of the wonderful insights to be found in this valuable work, where Maalouf demonstrates that the blessing of God upon Ishmael and his seed found fruition, not only in our Scriptures (such as in the Book of Job), but in history, in friendship and support of the seed of his brother Isaac, all too forgotten in this present age of warfare, of Zionist and Islamic violence both! It is worthy of note that in earlier centuries Diaspora Jews fared better under Islamic governments and civilizations than under so-called Christian ones! As emissaries of Christ we need unbiased views of history, and of various ethnic peoples, that we may not carry baggage laden with poisonous stuff on our pilgrimage / missionary journey. We must keep His name hallowed.
I recommend this book as the work of a scholarly and godly Biblical exegete; of a Christian peacemaker whose instruments are historical and theological truth (no matter the deprecations of those with hidden axes to grind!). For those of you who know the groundbreaking works, Elias Chacour's "Blood Brothers", and Colin Chapman's "Whose Promised Land?", this is a book easily of their caliber.
I love books that clear my mind of falsity and dis-illusion me. Thank you, Tony Maalouf, for being Christ's instrument in doing this. And His people thank you with me.
Arabs in The Shadow of Israel: An Unbiased Look.......2004-08-28
Arabs in The Shadow of Israel: A Book Review
After slogging through Arabs in the Shadow of Israel by Tony Maalouf one must first ask, what was his point and what was his purpose in writing? The answer is quick, concise, and simple. His point is that he believes that Arabs and Jews ought to get along and will be able to do so only by mutual application of the gospel. If that is his opinion, he should have so stated and left it at that.
Analysis of his writing also shows that his overshadowing purpose is to elevate the position of "Arabs" in the minds of his readers. No one would deny that Mr. Maalouf ought to have pride in his ancestry. However, one would deny that it ought to be embellished to the point of superiority. This is a temptation to which many ethnic groups have succumbed, and it may help individuals feel good about themselves and thereby give them inspiration to strive to be successful.
Mr. Maalouf also treads on and off of the turf of Islam in his writing. He realizes that in the world at large the religion of Islam and Moslems has become synonymous with Arabs. This is not correct, of course, but the end result, and this may well have been Mr. Maalouf's primary intention, is that he indirectly ends up giving an apology for Islam.
How is this possible, one may legitimately ask. First, you need a gifted and intelligent writer. Indeed Mr. Maalouf is both. However, his application of intelligence is such that it makes one feel that his stated purpose is not his real one and that he does indeed intend to play upon the misunderstanding now extant in the world that all Arabs and Moslems are one and the same and that therefore the good things he has to say about Arabs apply to all Moslems. Again, this is a very surreptitious, intelligent, and ingenious way of making a positive apology on behalf of all of Islam, whether radical, traditional, or moderate.
Mr. Maalouf approaches this task with one primary method. That is that he takes one well-attested fact, interprets it as he wishes, and then ties it in with four or five specious sources to come out with a conclusion that suits his purposes. This is pretty tricky. He first must violate all of the laws of logic along the way. Second, he must take the most rigorously authenticated documents available to us today, namely the New and Old Testament documents, and put them on a par with documents and writings that have little or no credence or attestation. He does this masterfully.
Mr. Maalouf is concerned that instead of being anti-Semitic that the world is becoming anti-Arab (read that anti-Islam in his purview). Has he not read the statistics regarding Islam being the fastest growing religious system in the "civilized" world, be it right or wrong? Of course he has, he is simply subtly revealing his prejudice and overall hidden agenda.
To make a successful case Mr. Maalouf must also take references in the biblical text and interpret them as no other credible theologian has. He then must, of course, assume that everyone else is in error. The reader, unless he or she has the ability to check the original languages, must then choose whether or not to believe the somewhat attractive arguments put forth by Mr. Maalouf. And, many readers will be conned into doing just this if they are either untutored in theology themselves or are unable to check his linguistic scholarship.
It is unfortunate, indeed, that our society has hit such a low ebb in scholarship and intellectualism that Mr. Maalouf can get away with such a book. One can only hope that he will inspire his readers to investigate on their own and that they will thereby come away with a much more informed and balanced view of history. Alas, in our society, that is probably a pipe dream.
While one might take the time to develop a point-by-point answer to Mr. Maalouf another question is again raised. That is, "who cares?" Why should one spend time refuting the points made by a book that certainly did not beg to be written in the first place? However, this would prove to be good fodder for a doctoral candidate in theology. Such an answer would require some research, but would be easy to accomplish. I will, however, leave that up to someone else since I have no need to write such a thesis.
Some Important Points of Deviation.
Mr. Maalouf thinks Moslems have always been and still are monotheists in the same way as Jews and Christians. This is incorrect.
Mr. Maalouf does not understand or chooses to misrepresent the development of the Palestinian problem.
Mr. Maalouf feels that Abraham, Isaac and indeed Israel are all technically Arabs.
Mr. Maalouf either purposefully or with the application of exceedingly poor scholarship incorrectly characterizes the original Hebrew as it describes the situation between Isaac and Ishmael.
Mr. Maalouf wishes to identify the Magi as Arab kings, because of poorly researched tradition, not because of historicity.
Mr. Maalouf characterizes the refuge sought eschatologically by the Jews in Petra as the Jews running to Arabia for help in their time of need.
If it were not for the subtle point Mr. Maalouf is trying to make, his attempt to convince readers, whom he hopes will be uneducated, would be laughable in it's false reasoning and ludicrous thought processes.
Overcoming Evangelical Prejudice Toward Arabs.......2004-05-21
How can American evangelicalism wholeheartedly discard its antipathy toward the Arab world? Simple-read Dr. Tony Maalouf's book. He starts his discussion by noting that before the modern era, Jews and Arabs lived side by side in harmony for centuries. In reality, conflict between the descendants of Isaac and Ishmael has been the exception rather than the rule. It has only been since the rise of Western imperialism effectuated through the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations that tensions have risen to the point we observe today.
Yet he is quick to bring us to the biblical text to uncover some of the long-standing misconceptions that have clouded the thinking of Western Christians regarding Arab people. The central passage he tackles is Genesis 16:12, "He will be a wild donkey of a man, his hand will be against everyone, and everyone's hand will be against him; and he will live to the east of all his brothers." Contrary to popular opinion, this prophecy by the God of Abraham was actually a blessing rather than a curse. Although Hagar was enslaved, her son, Ishmael, will be free as a donkey to roam the desert in pursuit of his own destiny. Unlike his subjected and powerless mother, he will be independent and strong, able to hold his own in the fierce Bedouin culture of the day. And he will dwell "before the face of his brothers" the Jews (p. 73). As such, Ishmael and his descendants are granted the unrivaled position of inhabiting a region of the world where they could be observers and recipients of the unfolding revelation of God to the nation of Israel throughout redemptive history. Hence, this prophecy would have been nothing but beautiful music to Hagar's ears.
But did not Ishmael mock (Gen. 21:9) and even persecute Isaac (Gal. 4:29), causing him and his mother to be driven from the house of Abraham at Sarah's initiative? Yes, but look closer. As Dr. Maalouf insightfully explains, "[f]rom God's perspective, his plan for Isaac is incompatible with his purposes for Ishmael. No matter how severe Sarah's demand was, and no matter how serious Abraham's concern for his firstborn, God saw it better for Hagar and her son Ishmael to be dismissed to the wilderness and live under his care than to be kept in Abraham's house and live in rivalry with Sarah and her son Isaac. The patriarch had a limited inheritance, and it was ordained to go to the promised seed. . . . This is the primary reason for his summoning of Abraham to listen to Sarah's voice, and not because of any cursing of Ishmael" (p. 92).
The New Testament shows, however, that in an act of divine reversal the Magi (tribal chiefs of Arab descent as Dr. Maalouf convincingly argues) are accorded the privilege of returning to witness and worship the true seed of Abraham, namely, the Messiah (Mt. 2:1ff.). Moreover, Arabs were present in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost and no doubt were counted among the 3,000 baptized (At. 2:11, 41). Surprisingly, they were even given priority in the missionary program of the Apostle Paul (Gal. 1:15-17). And in the future, at the pilgrimage of the Gentile nations to Israel in the Messianic Age, Arabs are first in line to offer their homage (Isa. 60:5-7).
All this confirms Dr. Maalouf's belief that "the religious fate of biblical Israel as a nation and that of the Arabs" are divinely and inextricably linked (p. 223). Accordingly, "this should create among Christians [in the West] a desperate burden to refrain from political agendas and invest in the spiritual awakening predicted among both the Arabs and Jews" (p. 223). Indeed, by "[r]emoving unwarranted biases against Arabs, which neither the Bible nor history sustains, [we can] play a healing role in the Middle East conflict" (p. 223). May it be so!
What the Bible Says about the Arabs.......2004-04-28
Where did the Arabs originate? What does the Bible say about the Arabs and their future? Do God's promises to Israel mean that there are no blessings for Arabs? Were the Magi from Persia or Arabia? These and related questions are answered in a scholarly and readable way by Tony Maalouf, an Arab Christian scholar from Lebanon. This book presents insightful information on the place of Ishmael and his descendants, which is often overlooked by Bible students. Anyone interested in the Midde East and the Arab world will benefit from this excellent study.
Book Description
'A sudden passion of anxious impatience rushed through my veins and gave me such a sense of the intensity of existence as I have never felt before or since.' link title to catalogue entry](exact date?)Written in 1915, The Shadow-Line is based upon events and experiences from twenty-seven years earlier to which Conrad returned obsessively in his fiction. A young sea captain's first command brings with it a succession of crises: his sea is becalmed, the crew laid low by fever, and his deranged first mate is convinced that the ship is haunted by the malignant spirit of a previous captain. This is indeed a work full of 'sudden passions', in which Conrad is able to show how the full intensity of existence can be experienced by the man who, in the words of the older Captain Giles, is prepared to 'stand up to his bad luck, to his mistakes, to his conscience'. A subtle and penetrating analysis of the nature of manhood, The Shadow-Line investigates varieties of masculinity and desire in a subtext that counterpoints the tale's seemingly conventional surface.
Customer Reviews:
Too Short.......2007-08-09
Conrad Not at his best but still worth reading. Only downside is that the actual story is only 70 or so pages long. When you read Conrad you don't want the story to end. Half the book is taken up with forwards and introductions.
A Lesser Known Classic.......2006-05-06
One of Conrad's best novels, less profound than Heart of Darkness, certainly, but more economically written and featuring a narrator that more readers will identify with.
The Shadow Line is a nice sequel of sorts to Conrad's great story "Youth." In that, he showed how we often interpret events differently as youngsters and years later as adults. In The Shadow Line, the young protagonist has to improvise under stress to deal with the big world he's grown into.
Like all Conrad's works, this is wordy and slow by current standards, but well worth the time and effort to read it. Great practice for high-school seniors and college freshmen who want to step up to real literature.
Oh the Humanity!.......2004-05-05
If you are ever aboard a ship with Mr. Conrad as it's captain, and you happen to notice a dead madman playing a violin while frantically following the vessel from beneath the stagnant waters of the South Asian seas, then get the H#ll off the boat before you and your crew start dropping like flies.
To me this novel was leagues better than Heart of Darkness. It's obvious that Joseph knew a thing or two about Human behavior as well as how to frighten the trousers off readers.
Crank the Windlass and set sail.......2002-09-03
I enjoyed reading about the main characters experience of crossing the line from youthfulness into true adulthood. Conrad's eloquent, descriptive, and almost surreal writing style allows the reader to almost experience the stagnation, heat, and frustration that envelop the characters in this book. Perhaps not Conrad's best book, but certainly a good read, and it is quite short and to the point. Especially if you have an affinity for sailing and the power and majesty of the sailing vessels of old. I have always felt that there is a certain amount of effort required to enjoy Conrad's books, but I also feel that this, in a sense, is directly proportional to effort in life. The more you put in, the more you get out.
The Shadow-line : a war novel ?.......1999-10-14
Many critics like to categorize novels, authors in boxes. My thought is that the Shadow-line is a novel apart. The first world war is obliquely alluded in this novel, like a Kurt Vonnegut did for the second world war in his Slaughter's house five. This is not the easier of Conrad's novel to read, though it looks like a bildungsroman at first glance. Other oblique subjects lye behind the plot and the words. A must-have !
Customer Reviews:
More like 4 1/2 stars...........2007-08-28
Dr. Eve St. Giles knows she is witnessing a catastrophe in the making when she is called to investigate a flu outbreak. Is it really possible that someone is specifically engineering this flu and that it is geared to affect women more than men? Unfortunately, her best ally in tracking the perpetrator is also the man she once loved, Nick Petter. Will Eve and Nick be able to stop the spread of this virus before it's too late?
What an action packed tale! SHADOW LINES is an excellent continuation of the series about the Black Madonnas and the Marians who have protected them throughout the centuries. I have to admit that some of the twists Carol Stephenson put into the storyline were a bit unexpected, but added an entirely new layer of depth to this phenomenal series.
SHADOW LINES is easily read as a stand alone. However, readers familiar with the series will appreciate some of the secrets that are revealed. More information is provided on the Adriano family and their quest to destroy the Marians and this information sheds an entirely new light on some of the events in past books.
I love the paranormal element in SHADOW LINES. Eve's ability to sense disease is an unusual one. My only regret about the storyline is that I would have liked to see her use her gifts just a tad more, as the scenes with the flu outbreak are some of the more powerful ones I have read. SHADOW LINES is easily recommended and will appeal across genres due to the strength of the storyline.
COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES
one sitting romantic suspense .......2006-10-15
From Damassine, Switzerland, her sister Yvette, a wealthy widow raising a child by herself, calls European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control epidemiologist Eve St. Giles claiming everyone in the town seems ill including her. When her sibling dies from a virus long dormant, Eve has no time to mourn as she thinks this was a man-made test.
Eve begins her quest to locate the manufacturer before the deadly disease causes pandemic deaths. She uses her psychic skills and reluctantly accepts the help of her former lover, security expert Nick Petter. As the countdown nears the point of no return, Eve seeks the culprit as much as she searches for ancient healing practices that seem to have contained the lethal virus.
The fascination in this paranormal thriller comes from the ease in which Carol Stephenson incorporates a historical subplot mostly through the research Eve does that takes her back to a thirteenth century victim of the French Inquisition. The story line is fast-paced from the moment a panicked Yvette calls Eve interrupting her field work on potential Mad Cow Disease and never slows down as the heroine and her beloved teammate Nick race against the clock. This is a one sitting romantic suspense tale.
Harriet Klausner
Stephenson is just amazing!.......2006-10-12
Carol Stephenson is one of the best, and maybe the most underused writer for Harlequin Romances. She had done three amazing books for them, Nora's Pride, Courting Danger, and now the fourth installment of Bombshell's brilliantly conceived and realized Madonna Keys series. The books in order - 1) Lost Calling by Evelyn Vaughn 2) Haunted Echoes by Cindy Dees 3) Dark Revelation, by Lorna Tedder 4) Shadow Lines by Carol Stephenson 5) Hidden Sanctuary by Sharron McClellan 6) Veiled Legacy by Jenna Mills and then ending up the series with Vaughn again with 7) The Seventh Key.
In this book, Eve St. Giles works for the European Centre for Disease Control. She is head at tracking down flu strains and trying to stop them from breaking free in the population, a "Flu Hunter". Only this is not a visitation of the swine flu or bird flu, terrorist have released a genetically mutated disease in Switzerland and Eve's sister is a victim of this attack. Oddly, this flu is slightly different than most flu viruses - it only attacks females.
Private securities expert, Nick Petter is Eve's former lover, but soon their paths cross again. One of his clients, a manufacturer of drugs, makes the alarming discovery that a highly risky experiment was wrecked by a former employee and Nick must track down the missing virus before it's too late. He is shocked to learn that Eve is already on the same trail. He's never forgotten their love, but now they must put their personal feelings aside and work to stop this killer. They must join forces in a race to stop the deadly flu from killing more women.
Eve has begun to experience visions, visions of a healer from the time of the Third Crusades. She's always known she has psychic abilities, but suppressed them. Now their power is stronger, growing. She must reach out and embrace these visions before it's too late.
Stephenson is a powerful writer that just gets better with each book. She is a strong addition to this wonderful series.
The Madonna Key saga continues in this 4th installment.......2006-10-06
Courtesy of CK2S Kwips and Kritiques
Eve St. Giles is the best flu hunter the European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) has. She loves her job tracking down diseases and controlling them before devastation hits. But this time it's personal. When an unknown terrorist releases a deadly disease in Switzerland, Eve's sister is one of the victims. Though this outbreak has all the earmarks of the lethal Spanish Flu, it appears altered to only affect women.
Former Swiss Guard Nick is now in the private sector as a securities expert. When one of his clients, a huge pharmaceutical company discovers one of its supposedly destroyed experiments was stolen and used by a rogue former employee, Nick is called in to track down the perpetrator. His job puts him in close contact once more with Eve, his one time love, whom he's never forgotten, and they find themselves working for the same cause. But events spiral out of control, pitting them on a race against time to stop the monster responsible for the deadly epidemic before he can destroy even more women.
I love this book! Each installment of the Madonna Key is more complex and more exciting than the last, and Shadow Lines is no exception. Fans of adventure, romance, and paranormal genres will all find something to love between the covers of this story. The action begins in the opening pages when Eve is first set on the course to track down this threat to international health and safety of untold numbers of women. Enter Nick, a suave, sophisticated, and dangerously sexy guardian, and sparks are sure to fly.
The paranormal element comes to play in Eve. A descendant of an ancient sect of Black Madonna worshippers, the Marians, and very strong in psychic abilities, she has suppressed them for several years after one attempt to use the power had disastrous effects. Feeling her talents are unreliable and dangerous, she has no desire to use them now, until their strength seems to have grown by leaps and bounds, with visions of a healer from the time of the Crusades helping her to solve the current crisis.
Readers who have followed the mini series from book one, will love how each book delves farther back in time to the history of the Black Madonna and what has led to today's problems. We also learn more about the just-as-ancient enemy of the priestesses, the Adriano family, and see their desperation to succeed in their mission grow even stronger.
Secrets are revealed, and even more mysteries are introduced, which catapult readers through a fascinating adventure ride. Shadow Lines by Carol Stephenson will grab you by the throat and provide many pulse pounding moments of excitement until the conclusion is reached. I for one can't wait to see what happens next in the unique and compelling Madonna Key series.
© Kelley A. Hartsell, August 2006. All rights reserved.
Awesome Romantic Suspense.......2006-07-13
Having read several I have yet to be disappointed in the Silhouette Bombshell series and the latest one I picked up, SHADOW LINES by Carol Stephenson completely blew me away! Be assured it's going to grab you from page one and never let you put it down!
Dr. Eve St. Giles is an epidemiologist working for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). She is brilliant and dedicated with a kick-ass attitude when it comes to chasing down flu bugs and saving peoples lives. Eve was special in that she had also inherited psychic abilities from her mother later discovering she is a descendent of an empathic `Marian' healer inheriting other traits that she views as both a gift and a curse.
While investigating a horrendous flu outbreak in Damassine, Swizerland which killed her sister, Eve sensed it was man-made. She later discovered it was a mutated version of the Spanish flu re-engineered specifically to target women. Hot on the trail Eve discovers her ex-lover searching for the same madman and they agree to combine forces. Trying to keep her distance from Nick Petter would be as elusive as finding the courier intent on delivering death and mayhem. The closer they come to finding the source, the closer they come to each other in a much more intense understanding of the love and passion that exists between them. In a spectacular cliff hanger-ending and finally admitting to a love that never died, Eve with other worldly guidance, would willingly lay down her own life to save the one true love of her life.
*** AWESOME! The thrilling premise of this book captivated me from the very first pages with high intensity and an emotionally compelling plot. I was fully engaged with this very sensual romantic suspense tale. I especially liked the heroine Eve, who was superbly crafted as both highly professional and achingly tender towards those she loved. The hero Nick was also crafted as the strong silent type who was infinitely capable and one this reader would scoop up in a second if given half a chance! His declarations of love were to die for [sigh]. The references to the Knights Templars, the Cathars, and the mysterious priest Berenger Saunière were interesting historical points adding much to the mystery involved behind the intrigue of the plot. Stephenson showed top form in this volume of the series and I will definitely be looking for her backlists as well as for prequels and sequels to this fabulous Madonna Key series. This one packs a powerful punch, a sweetly poignant ending and I strongly recommend this book for all lovers of romantic suspense.
Marilyn Rondeau, RIO - Reviewers International Organization
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The shadow line;: A confession,
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Doubleday, Page & company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
Conrad, Joseph
| Classics
| British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: B0006DCHAW |
Product Description
Interweaving suspense, romance and redemption, the Newpointe 911 series is Blackstocks salute to firefighters, paramedics and police officers who put their lives on the line to protect their communities.
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