Customer Reviews:
A kings story.......2002-12-08
I felt sorry for the duke, he must have been such a lonely man.....He never got any compliments from his father or his family. They all seemed so far away from each other. No wonder he fell in love with Wallis, she paid attention to him, this is what he needed, someone to treat him with respect and high regard, no wonder he abdicated....He wouldn't have to abdicate,but the P.M. at that time was a very vicious and ugly person who was JEALOUS of King Edward, he wouldn't even allow the king to speak to the other members on his own behalf...Queen Mum was also jealous and vicious, she did not like Wallis, because she was divorced and an american, she would not allow King George to communicate with the duke after he was exiled. The people all wanted King Edward to become King, they all loved him because of his charistma and his feelings for the common people.Edward and Diana were very much alike and treated VERY BADLY by their so called "royal families". Edward and Diana had more "guts" than all the royals together. King Edward would have been a "great" king, thanks to Queen Mum and her coldness toward Edward and Wallis caused him to live in an empty wrld. All the worl loves "lovers"and the Duke and Duchess were the lovers of the 20th century. How many people can have such a love????????I really loved this book and read it over and over.....
Vapid, yes...though totally fascinating..........2001-03-12
I can't help it. Even though I believe that the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor were probably two of the most self-serving people ever to exist on the face of the planet, I find them totally fascinating. And this book lets us into their domaine. Imagine a man so totally mesmerized by this woman, that not only did he leave her a fresh flower on her pillow every night of their married life, he slept surrounded by photos of her (separate bedrooms). There were 10,000 photos of them in his bathtub (covered with a mahogany top. He ONLY showered.) that were discovered after her death. That means for the duration of the time that they were married, they were photographed approximately 300 times a year. Every year. The photographs of the refurbished decor in the Paris house were fascinating. Too bad everything was sold after Dodi & Diana's death. This book is truly a window into a lifestyle that no longer exists.
finally a sneak peek into their very private world.......1999-09-08
I was very impressed with the photography and the information contained in this book. Wallis Simpson is amazing, she comes off as more chic and more royal than any of the royals. Fascinating inside look into that very glamorous era, and it's most powerful couple.
too much to pay for a couple with zero to offer.......1998-04-03
It is beyond me how any person with a functioning brain could ever find the Windsors more than the most over publicized, most tedious couple who ever inhabited the pages of People Magazine and its predecessors. What is even more alarming is that there are people willing to pay $67.50 for a book of pictures of the duke, the duchess and their collection of stuff. Pardon me for my rant, but I needed to do it. I don't think I've ever typed out my feeings on this subject before. I've ranted about this couple more than I wish to admit.. but, hell, we all have our quirks.
Average customer rating:
- This might be a good book, but not for an American
- Dreary
- Shallow but fun
- A fantastic cultural history
- 007 as the Robin Hood of Dark British Imperialism
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The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond
Simon Winder
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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ASIN: 0374299382
Release Date: 2006-10-17 |
Book Description
Bond. James Bond. The ultimate British hero—suave, stoic, gadget-driven—he was more than anything the necessary invention of a traumatized country whose self-image as a great power had just been shattered by the Second World War. Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was an upper-class wastrel who had found purpose and excitement in the war, and to whom, like so many others, its end was a terrible disappointment—the elation of survival stifled by the reality of the new British impotence. In 1952 Fleming set out to repair this damage. By inventing the magical, parallel world of secret British greatness and glamour, he fabricated an icon that has endured long past its maker’s death.
To grow up in England in the 1970s was to grow up with James Bond, and The Man Who Saved Britain is first of all the story of the author’s relationship with the “national religion.” Simon Winder lovingly and ruefully re-creates the nadirs and humiliations of fandom while illuminating what Bond’s evolution—from books to film, from his roots in the 1940s to his “managed decline” today—says about the conservative movement, sex, the monarchy, food, attitudes toward America, class, and everything in between. The Man Who Saved Britain is an insightful and, above all, entertaining exploration of postwar Britain through the palliative influence of one of its most legendary icons, the larger-than-life Agent 007.
Customer Reviews:
This might be a good book, but not for an American.......2007-05-24
I consider myself a well-read and learned person, but I didn't feel like one after two chapters of Mr Winder's book. Granted, I have an American's worldview, which is admittedly different than a Brit's. And this is a problem, because Winder constantly references British history and literature. I don't know, maybe it's me. But to all Americans reading this review, are you familiar with the Boer War, the Indian Mutiny, or General Gordon in the Sudan? Winder assumes that you are. Have you read any of the works of H. Rider Haggard, Dornford Yates and Sax Rohmer? Again, Winder assumes that you know what he knows, and page after page I felt completely disconnected with the author's point of view.
Dreary.......2007-05-23
James Bond actually features surprisingly little in this dreary book - the author essentially uses Bond as a stick to beat Britain with as he indulges in a vigorous and relentless workout exercising his personal loathing of his own country and its 20th century history. The author has an impressive knowledge of the Bond books/films and their creator, and I have to admit he writes very well (albeit rather smugly), but away from Bond this book is shoddily researched, as evidenced by the numerous factual errors. Not recommended.
Shallow but fun.......2007-04-12
A rambling, formless discourse on recent British history and pop culture and how James Bond (sort of) fits into them. Winder never quite gets around to explaining how James Bond managed to save Britain (nor what he saved it from), but is nonetheless entertaining. Reading it is akin to listening to a slightly intoxicated British fanboy nattering on about every Bond-related topic that comes to mind for three hours.
A fantastic cultural history.......2007-03-12
Earlier this year, I read a find book entitled: The Tour de France, a cultural history. It's a fine book, and it shows the links between French culture and perceptions of the Tour. This is light years beyond it. This book is a cultural history as well, and shows the links between Ian Fleming's Bond character and post WWII British history, but does it in remarkably entertaining way. It parallels the Bond stories and the last gasps of the British empire, and ties the miserable state of Britain's economy in the 1970's to the Roger Moore film versions of Fleming's books. This book is one of those rare triple threats: Funny (hilarious at times), perceptive, and thought-provoking. If you're looking for the Compleat James Bond, look elsewhere. But for a bracing, enlightening view of a cultural icon, get this book. Mr. Winder brings a wide breadth of knowledge and arcana to bear on the subject.
007 as the Robin Hood of Dark British Imperialism.......2007-01-06
This book is indeed a personal study of James Bond as depicted in the books and in the films. For a half century, the Bond franchise has been enormously successful. Certainly no other superhero enjoys his uninterrupted popularity. Why is that?
To answer that question, the author considers that Bond appeared just when the British Empire was collapsing...and the English were feeling impotent in global affairs. Along comes Bond - a Churchillian figure - who saves his country and the West from evil blackmailers and dangerous villians.. Bond restores the psyche of the English male. Then again, Bond's attitudes were comforting to those trying to cope with new dangerous ideas: third world or womens' liberation. Bond takes charge...of women, and persons from other lands - some exotic, some from enemy camps.
I liked the part when the author discusses his impressions of James Bond when he was 10, 20, and beyond; it is interesting to see the evolution of his opinions. As a boy he was thrilled to death by the movie "Live and Let Die." Today, he notices the flaws and even silliness of the some of the scenes.
Bond is also popular because (unlike most of us) he can sample the opposite sex from around the world and make generalizations (to men) about their sexuality. Then there is the "male-talk". Amazing - the books have sold 100 million copies...true, they are pulp fiction but usually well written pulp fiction. Ian Fleming's novels are ideally suited for the movies because their quick pace and strange adventure are exactly what Americans want from action films. In my view, whenever a Bond film follows the book, it tends to be good. When the film strays, it is considerably weaker. (Consider the critical success of the 2006 CASINO ROYALE or the old success of Sean Connnery's original Bond flicks)
Simon Winder's "personal reflections" are intelligent and witty. Most assuredly, he helped me understand Bond, not just enjoy him. Those unfamiliar with the Bond BOOKS should read one or two to get the flavor of Ian Fleming's writing. Then tackle this volume. Recommended.
Amazon.com
Since the 1960s, when his work gained a new recognition in the literary canon, biographies of Oscar Wilde and critical analysis of his work have become commonplace. While this writing acknowledged the "fact" of Wilde's homosexuality, it did not, for the most part, explore the complexity of the impact it had upon his life and work. This is remedied in Neil Bartlett's Who Was That Man?, which squarely places Wilde in a gay historical context and literary tradition.
Neil Bartlett--an openly gay British novelist, critic and leading innovator on the British stage--has produced the one of the most remarkable books ever written on Wilde. Who Was That Man? is a personal meditation on Wilde's work and the relevance of the artist and playwright in the contemporary world. Bartlett uses his own experience as a gay man to understand Wilde's life and manages--through extensive historical research and evocative language--to make observations and connections and illuminate our understanding of the writer and his place in his own world and ours.
Customer Reviews:
The Wilde Side.......2000-02-04
A gay Londoner of the 80s goes searching for his roots and finds Oscar Wilde, a complex figure early on in the history of the cultural and social construction of twentieth-century homosexuality. If you're interested in Wilde, this is a very good book to read along with Richard Ellman's more standard biography.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2007-07-14
This is a strange book, with no mention of how these women supported one another other than a photo or two of them relaxing together (and I myself have more interesting photos of that from a copy of a 1946 Yank newspaper!), no interviews, no diaries, no mention of whether they testified in post-war trials for or against one another, no mention of what defense their attorneys put up, no mention of the kind of lives those not convicted of anything then lived out, a photo of Himmler inspecting their unit with nary a word of what he said, and virtually no quotes from any of the women themselves. This book almost make one wish someone like David Irving, who might be expected to be prejudiced in their favor but would also certainly have seriously delved into these womens' lives, had written it....
Not worth the money.......2006-11-01
Not worth the money. The only thing you learn is how little is known about the women guards
big list.......2006-05-03
The bulk of this book is an endless list of women's names possibly emplyed as Aufseherins by the SS in the Concentration camps. Added to that is a nice essay about these women and some pictures.
Could use a lot more work.
Mainly a Roster.......2005-10-26
While there are 2 or 3 very brief essays in this book, the vast majority of pages consist of a roster of women who helped run the Nazi concentration camps. I gave this item only 2 stars in part because the title should more accurately reflect this. If you want extensive narrative you'll need to look elsewhere.
Average customer rating:
- The finest book in the collected works series of GKC.
- Fun to read!
- Three Great Books in One Volume
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Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: The Club of Queer Trades : The
Man Who Was Thursday : The Ball and the Cross : The Napoleon of Notting Hill
G. K. Chesterton
Manufacturer: Ignatius Press
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Binding: Paperback
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The Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton: The Return of Don Quixote/Tales of the Long Bow/the Man Who Knew Too Much (Collected Works of Gk Chesterton)
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The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Vol. 1: Heretics, Orthodoxy, the Blatchford Controversies (Collected Works of G. K. Chesterton)
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The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume 2 : The Everlasting Man, St. Francis of Assisi, St Thomas Aquinas
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The Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton, Volume 3 : The Catholic Church; Where All Roads Lead; The Well and the Shallow and others (Paperback)
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Collected Works of G.K. Chesterton: The Outline of Sanity, the End of the Armistice the Appetite of Tyranny, Utopia of Usurers and Other Essays (Collected Works of Gk Chesterton)
ASIN: 0898703654 |
Customer Reviews:
The finest book in the collected works series of GKC........2002-02-28
The Club of Queer Trades - Not quite like the Father Brown mystery stories but very close. GKC traces the adventures of a club comprised of men and women who invented their own trade. You usually don't understand the trade until the end of the story, and the book never disappoints.
The Man Who Was Thursday - This is probably the most famous of all Chesterton books. The book describes the attempts of a Scotland yard detective to infiltrate a secret anarchist society. The garden party conversations between anarchists are laugh out loud funny. I'm still fascinated by the ending, mainly because I don't understand it.
The Ball and Cross - Chesterton's hilarious story of how an adamant Catholic duels to the death with an ardent atheist is a worthy read. Chesterton systematically critiques popular delusions of educated thinking as the book unfolds. The atheist and the Catholic grow closer together through their duel, and realize that they understand each other better than the other characters understand either of them. Chesterton's wit is second to none and if you liked Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis, you will love this book.
I've loaned two of these books to friends, and both of them were immediate fans. If you find this collection interesting, try the Napoleon of Notting Hill also by GKC.
Fun to read!.......2001-08-17
The Club of Queer Trades is by far the funniest story I have ever read! I assure you that it will keep you rolling on the floor from the beginning to the end of the story.
Three Great Books in One Volume.......2000-09-01
G. K. Chesterton was probably the greatest optimist who ever lived. He BELIEVED where most of us give up and become despondent. The three stories in this volume take place in a strange twilight world in which the author, as he says in THURSDAY, makes you want to see the lamppost by the light of the tree rather than vice versa. This, by the way, is his most profound and eccentric book.
In THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY, we see an incredible global conspiracy dissipate like swamp gas. (As Calvin Coolidge once said, nine out of ten of the troubles one sees down the road swerve off and disappear before they get to you.) THE BALL AND THE CROSS is about two heretics who appear to fight each other to the bitter end, until they find a worse enemy. And THE CLUB OF QUEER TRADES is a delightful entertainment made up of wonderful shaggy dog stories, much like THE PARADOXES OF MR POND.
If life hasn't been going your way, curl up with this volume -- and you WILL feel better.
Book Description
John "Red" Shea, 40, was a top lieutenant in the South Boston Irish mob run, led by James "Whitey" Bulger. An ice–cold enforcer with a red–hot temper, Shea was a legend among his peers in the 1990s South Boston, as much as John Gotti, Bugsy Siegel, and Al Capone were in their time and place. When the actor and producer Mark Wahlberg, raised in nearby Dorchester, learned of a script based on Shea's life circulating in Hollywood, he immediately committed to playing the gangster on screen. A major feature film project is now in development.
From the age of thirteen, when he started robbing delivery trucks, to the age of twenty–seven, when he began serving a twelve–year federal sentence for drug trafficking, Shea was a portrait in American crime – a bantam–weight, red–headed terror, brutal with his fists and deadly with a lead pipe, a baseball bat, or a knife. At fifteen he was selling marijuana . At seventeen he was handling Bulger's cocaine. At eighteen he was loan sharking and laundering Bulger's money. At twenty, initiated into Bulger's inner circle at the point of an Uzi, he was running a multimillion–dollar narcotics operation for his mentor.
RAT BASTARDS was the first–ever, firsthand account of mob life that wasn't told by a rat. Red Shea did his crime, then did his time––and never informed, unlike Henry Hill of Wiseguy, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano of Underboss, and so many others. Holding fast to the code of his upbringing, he remained a man of honor.
Customer Reviews:
Rather Mindless.......2007-10-17
John "Red" Shea spends his life making sure he is a "man." To him, this means beating up anyone who doesn't conform to his macho teenage code learned on the mean streets of Southie. One would think Shea would have learned a few lessons about maturity after 12 years in federal prison. You don't get that impression after reading his memoir, which is one of several by members of Whitey Bulger's former gang. Shea takes pride in being the only one not to 'rat,' an act akin to him of the lowest human order. His tale will be glorified by Mark Wahlberg in an upcoming film, evidently. It will make a good movie. But as real life, it's just a waste. The book is a decent read, not as good as some of the others in this genre. It doesn't really take off until the middle when he finally reaches the stage where he becomes Whitey's "protege," as a drug dealer. The prison section is interesting, too. If you like tales of human depravity and bleakness, you'll eat this one up.
Well what did you expect from a self-described criminal ?.......2007-03-05
I saw this book and was interested because of the movie The Departed. I saw it in the theatre, and then got the DVD when it came out. Because I am from the area, I knew The Departed was about Whitey Bulger, more than some movie remake of Internal Affairs.
Up until now I had resisted the other books about Whitey and the Irish mob in Southie. This one just looked more interesting, and hit me at the right time.
I have read the other reviews for the hardcover, especially those who are from Southie. It seems people either love it or hate it, and him. I am more lukewarm about the book. I don't have any inside knowledge to tell if he was telling it straight, or making it up.
I thought the writing was ok, not great, but not awful. I imagine his writer was trying to keep the tone and structure true to how Shea speaks. It was a quick read, and a bit engaging, though not a real page turner to me.
I thought that there was a real lack of self-reflection from Shea for the most part. He was just as brash in his story as he was in life. He says this is what I did, this is the surface reason why, deal with it. Very rarely does he dig beneath that.
Other than the prison stories he is very vague about what he did, or what his activities were for Whitey. As he says he followed Whitey's advice about never letting someone else have anything to hold over you. But even without that you shouldn't expect anything specific from him in the book because: 1.) Anything that didn't come out in his trial, he could probably still be prosecuted for; 2.) He says he is not a rat, and so he won't tell anything about anyone else, that isn't already known; 3.) he doesn't want to get those who are guilty in trouble with the law, or make them feel a need to come after him.
What you do get is the sense that he never really grew up. He does want to prove continually how tough he is, and after all the others ratted out, that he is not a rat, but better than the others. He comes from that odd group of males who think that they still should act like teenage jerks, even when fully grown. By choosing to be a perpetual child he also throws away any chance for a real happy life, when he won't commit to Penelope. He gives up a wife, a family, and a home. He is probably too scared of that type of work, and risk. Rather he wants to follow the movie image of the tough-guy gangster, and take the easy way out. Its an empty image that he has opted for, rather than a real life. Its actually sad.
Yes what he did in terms of selling drugs, and being a criminal is bad. He doesn't really care, and he never says he is sorry. He feels bad for the accidental innocent people he hurt, but he never considers the families of his marks/victims/customers, as innocents whom he hurt all the time.
I think the book says just as much about him indirectly as it does with his input. It was a quick, interesting read. I wouldn't buy it in hardcover, but think paper is ok, and maybe borrowing from the Library is the best.
Average customer rating:
- More Buildup Than Payoff
- she who dared a readers opinion
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SHE WHO DARED: Covert Operations in Northern Ireland with the SAS
Jackie George
Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
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Binding: Hardcover
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OPERATORS: On the Streets with Britain's Most Secret Service (Pen & Sword Military Classics)
ASIN: 0850526868 |
Book Description
The personal account of a female British agent, including her controversial photographs of actual operations.
Customer Reviews:
More Buildup Than Payoff.......2000-08-09
The history of women who served in military special forces or intelligence operations is completely virgin territory. However, the promise of She Who Dared by "Jackie George" is ultimately unfulfilled.
The book, in a similar manner to ex-SAS trooper Andy McNab's Immediate Action, details George's upbringing, joining of the British Army, and recruitment into the British Security Forces operating in Northern Ireland. She mentions the difficulties involved in being a woman in a man's world, but readers should not expect sociological discussions of this!
Most of the book is detailed with her training. The publishers try to tie George's account into the mania for British SAS (Special Air Service) accounts. While SAS members trained her unit, she actually belonged to the 14th Intelligence and Security Company, a highly secret British Army unit performing surveillance on Irish Republican groups.
Readers hoping for detailed accounts of her operations "over the water" will be disappointed. The authors state that the book has been submitted to the Ministry of Defence for review, and that probably accounts for the shortness of these accounts.
A reader well versed in British special forces history or that of Northern Ireland may appreciate this book more. I would refer readers to McNab and the SAS writings of Barry Davies.
George has no love lost for the British Army officer corps and details many of their transgressions with the enlisted ranks. However, she does not really explain why her officers would act in such a manner, or how the British Army managed to operate effectively in spite of this. Her rants thus become a shortcoming.
I give the book three stars, mainly because of the dearth of similar accounts. However, in time, with other accounts, I might have to remove a star.
C. Husing ex-Dept. of the Air Force military historian
she who dared a readers opinion.......2000-04-10
an excellent book, information albeit sensitive was put across in a very professional manner,The author managed to maintain the readers interest from the start to the finish also ensure that the human emotions of what was and is a particulary sensitive occupation
Amazon.com
Nobody writes about the immigrant experience like Gish Jen. What sets her apart from other ethnic writers is the wide-angle lens she turns not only on her own Chinese American ethnic group, but on Jewish Americans, African Americans, Irish Americans, and just about any other hyphenate you'd care to name. Though her tales are filtered through an Asian experience, they are, at heart, the quintessential American story of immigration, assimilation, and occasional tensions with other ethnic communities. The title story, for example, is a neat variation on a time-worn theme: mothers and daughters. The narrator is an elderly Chinese woman whose thoroughly assimilated daughter, Natalie, has married into an Irish American family. Natalie is successful; her husband, John, is not. Natalie's mother comments early on:
I always thought Irish people are like Chinese people, work so hard on the railroad, but now I know why the Chinese beat the Irish. Of course, not all Irish are like the Shea family, of course not. My daughter tell me I should not say Irish this, Irish that.
The narrator has other thoughts on the Irish question as well, including the connection between national diet and world view: "Plain boiled food, plain boiled thinking," she says of John, then adds that "because I grew up with black bean sauce and hoisin sauce and garlic sauce, I always feel something is missing when my son-in-law talk." But it soon becomes apparent that the problems between the narrator and her daughter's family are less cultural than generational, and in the end the mother forms a surprising alliance.
Jen comes at the question of identity from another angle in "Duncan in China," in which a second-generation Chinese American man returns to Mainland China to teach English. Here she manages to delicately suggest the enormity of the differences between the very American Duncan and his Chinese students, coworkers, and relatives. And in "Birthmates" she places her computer programmer protagonist, Art Woo, in close proximity to the low-income, mostly black residents of a welfare hotel that he's accidentally checked into. Class, race, gender, and job security all figure into this brilliant, subtle story that looks at the dark side of the American dream and finds that failure comes in all colors. These eight stories are sharply written, filled with humor, pathos, and more than a few surprising twists and turns. Quite simply, Who's Irish? is a delight. --Alix Wilber
Book Description
"Sparkling--a gently satiric look at the American Dream and its fallout on those who pursue it."--The New York Times
With dazzling wit and compassion, Gish Jen--author of the highly acclaimed novels
Typical American and
Mona in the Promised Land--looks at ambition and compromise at century's end and finds that much of the action is as familiar--and as strange--as the things we know to be most deeply true about ourselves.
The stories in
Who's Irish? show us the children of immigrants looking wonderingly at their parents' efforts to assimilate, while the older generation asks how so much selfless hard work on their part can have yielded them offspring who'd sooner drop out of life than succeed at it.
Customer Reviews:
Uneven Adventures in the New World.......2003-07-15
I was reading this book because I was considering using it in the high school class that I teach. Ms. Jen is a well regarded member of the Asian-American writers pantheon.
"Whose Irish?: Stories," is a collection of short stories about the Chinese-American experience. Several of the stories were interesting, well written and enjoyable. My favorites include "Who's Irish?," "Chin,"Just Wait" and " In the American Society." All showed some nuanced understanding of Chinese- Americans chasing the immigrant dream and the pitfalls of assimilation.
The problem with the book is a basic one-- the writing isn't terrible compelling. Many of the remaining stories are dull and listless. The last one in particular, "House, House, Home" was excruciating to get through, which is unfortunate because it is also the longest, clocking in at 65 pages.
I was disappointed overall, but would be interested in reading Ms. Jen's best known novel, "Typical American," to see if she has better luck with the longer format.
It gets much better as it moves along...........2003-06-09
I have truly enjoyed both of Miss Jen's novels--Typical American and Mona in the Promised Land--and I was really looking forward to this collection. I wasn't so thrilled by the time I was into the third story in this collection as I though this book was shaping up to stand as the classic example of someone who can write novels but can't write short stories. Then, suddenly, things improved dramatically. By the end I was convinced that Miss Jen can write short stories but, apparently, needs a much stronger hand in selecting what is working and what isn't, as this book is filled with good examples of both types of story.
Anyway, the second half of the book is much, much stronger than this first half.
The elements that make Miss Jen such a good writer are there throughout-a very gifted ability to render the immigrant experience, a strong writing "voice" and a potent sense of the drama that fills ordinary life combined with a gifted sense of timing. The problem with the first few stories is that they seem incomplete and disjointed. That dissipates quickly as the book moves along.
This is a book that's well worth the read but one has to stick with it and not let the early sections distract and irritate you to the point where you don't truly enjoy the really good parts.
Hopefully Miss Jen will manage any future collections more adroitly.
Wonderful Evocation of Chinese-American Life.......2002-07-08
The collection of short stories titled, "Who's Irish?" by Gish Jen, is a contemporary look at middle class, Chinese-American life in the suburbs. Generally, the stories are about Americanized children in conflict with the traditional Chinese values of their immigrant parents.
In all of her stories, Gish Jen shows an ability to create vivid characters with just a few telling details. He stories have a component that is comic and a component that is sad. Although most the stories are written in a very feminine voice, "Birthmates" and "Duncan in China," have male protagonists, and I am amazed at how authentic her male characters seem, especailly the latter.
The title story, "Who's Irish?" is a picture of cultural differences between America and China. The story is told in broken English through the eyes of an immigrant Chinese grandmother. Her daughter Natalie is banking professional with a three year-old daughter named Sophie. Natalie's husband John is an Irish-American who works only intermittently due to bouts of depression. Natalie and John rely heavily on Natalie's mother to baby sit Sophie. Natalie and John's marriage and child rearing are terminally American. Natalie's mother's attitudes and customs are traditional Chinese. Natalie's mother's comments and criticisms of American child-rearing methods and life in America are absolutely hilarious. The conflict over the granddaughter, Sophie, gets so bad at one point that the parents accuse the grandmother of child abuse and cut off all contact between granddaughter and grandmother. But, I'm not doing the story justice. It is a gem; I'm tempted to call it a masterpiece. It must be read to be appreciated. The only flaw that I can detect is that between the broken English and Gish Jen's use of sentence fragments, I found the rhythm a little choppy. I read this one twice. It was that good. I'm sure I will read it a third time.
John Updike selected the story, "Birthmates," as one of the best stories of the past century, but I don't even think it's one of the best stories in this collection. It's about a middle-aged man, a lost soul named Art Woo, a computer industry professional whose marriage has fallen apart and whose future career is uncertain.
In, "The Water Faucet Vision," the main character is a fifth grade Catholic school student. Her parents fight viciously, and her best friend's father has run off. She and her girl friend deal with it by practicing extremes of Catholic spiritual asceticism. The girls behavior and conversation is highly comic, but is doesn't take a therapist to see their underlying emotional pain.
"Duncan in China," is one of my favorites. Even though I am not of Chinese descent, I identified strongly with Duncan. He is a man in his thirties who hasn't found himself yet. He's gone through all sorts of jobs, careers, colleges, and training programs. He has become fascinated lately with ancient Chinese art objects-vases from the Ming dynasty, and he decides to take a long trip to China. He visits Shantung province where an uncle and nephew lives. His expectations are that he will find the true spirit of China and in doing so, will find himself. He's also hoping to fall in love. I can certainly relate to that. Duncan discovers that his uncle and nephew live in the worst destitute poverty, and they don't show the faintest sign of manners or hygiene. Duncan learns no one in China cares about Ming vases or any other high, cultured aesthetics. Duncan takes up teaching English at a factory. He develops a big crush on a ravishing and sophisticated older woman who is a student in his class (I can really relate to that!).
In, "Chin," the viewpoint character is a white ninth-grade boy in an urban neighborhood. He interacts with a boy named Chin whose parents are recent immigrants. His observations make the family seem peculiar and inexplicable. Although it's not a great story, I liked the idea that the author chose to look at a Chinese immigrant family through the eyes of a white American.
"Just Wait," is centered around a pregnant woman's friends and family gathering for a baby shower. It took her years to get pregnant. The story ends in a mother's joy at having a child. In real life, Gish Jen had great difficulty getting pregnant, and her stories are sprinkled with the hopes and sorrows of women desiring a baby. This is strictly a woman's story.
"In the American Society," is told by Mona, who is in junior high school. He family lives in the suburbs where their father owns a pancake house. Mona's family is invited to a fancy outdoor party, but Mona's father and some of the other guests don't exactly get along.
"House, House, Home," is the story of the daughter of Chinese immigrants who goes to art school and without telling her parents, marries a fruitcake professor who is thirty years older than her. The husband's personality and physical appearance seems to be modeled after the artist Andy Warhol, right down to the white hair. She tells the story of their very bohemian life together. (Very un-Chinese-American!) Her husband is a royal [pain]. You want to scream at her for staying with such a jerk. Her parents, I felt, were relatively tolerant for immigrant Chinese, but eventually they shunned her and cut her off financially.
Although the story is slow and drawn out in parts, the descriptions of pregnancy, nursing and raising kids is very vivid, touching and close to home. Ironically, what kept me going was the lack of credibility of the story. Children of Chinese immigrants do not major in art, and they certainly don't marry fruitcake white art professors! The part with the most credibility was when the parent's cut off contact. What kept me going was that I felt sooner or later the story had to burst.
Don't Call It a Beach Book!.......2001-03-29
Unfortunately, the experience (or should I call it trauma?) of taking high school English leads most people to believe that serious literature can't be any fun. That "serious literature" is either turgid debates about the place of evil in a benevolent God's cosmos (Dostoevsky), or else allegorical whaling adventures with encyclopedic discursions (Melville). Give us something a bit more quotidian in subject matter and write it up in a style that's both elegant and witty, and some people assume it can't possibly be literature. Hence the reviewer who paid this fine collection of short stories (as well as Jen's second novel- was it the same person?) the decidedly back-handed compliment of calling it a "a great beach book!"
I suppose "Who's Irish?" could be read at the beach, but just because most of its stories go down so easily, please don't lump Gish Jen in with the John Grisham's, Ann Rice's, and Thomas Harris's of the world. Dig beyond the humor (which is just one aspect of Jen's talent) and you'll also find probing psychological insights as well as some truly tender, elegiac moments. I think the best example of these three strengths coming together is "House, House, Home", the collection's last, longest, and best story. Ostensibly about the slow disintegration of a callow young woman's marriage to a much older art history professor, "House, House, Home" is also a paean to early motherhood as well as an exploration of ethnic identity. Though some might be taken aback by Jen's seeming kowtows before the altar of multi-culti racial essentialism (a hunky Hawaiian keeps reminding the main character of "how she had been wifed, how she had been fetishized, how she had been viewed as Orientalia"), a fair-minded reading suggests that this is in no way a privileged viewpoint. For how else to explain the bemused incomprehension with which a "children of color" picnic for kindergarteners is described at the story's beginning, or the fact that the "fetishizing" art history professor is no emblem of the White Male Patriarchy(TM), but instead a crusty relic of the 60's New Left. If there's one place Jen goes wrong, it's in naming the professor Sven and titling one subsection "Sven Heads North". The latter I found just a little too cute.
As for the other stories in "Who's Irish?", "Duncan in China" is nearly as strong and most of the others are nothing if not enjoyable. When Jen tries to be naughty she still can't keep from being very proper and lady-like ("'Could it have been the penile suggestion that piqued you?' Then he would have maybe suggested some piquing himself."), but coming from a Philip Roth background, I find this turn from the clinically explicit a refreshing one. The only things stopping me from giving five stars are "Just Wait" and "Chin". The former is a rather pointless baby shower vignette while the latter finds Jen trying to write- commendablely, if not successfully- from the viewpoint of a white-ethnic teenager. That her graceful style often leaves her here ("we're talking someone who would sooner puke on the Pope than cut across two lanes of traffic") indicates that this is a writer in whom style and substance are happily joined and that her future successes should be no less pleasurable to read than this one.
Excellent read.......2000-07-23
Some of these stories were outstanding, all were good. The title story was great. This book is an excellent commentary on American society, and the experience of being an immigrant. This collection, like many other short story collections explores the theme of "East meets West," for lack of a more politically correct term. It explores some valuable questions in todays society. Jen's writing style is also excellent, and much improved since "Mona in the Promised Land."
Book Description
Bobby Sands was twenty seven years old when he died. He spent almost nine years of his life in prison because of his activities as a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). When he died on 5 May 1981, on the sixty-sixth day of his hunger strike against repressive prison conditions in Northern Ireland’s H Block prisons, parliaments across the world stopped for a minute silence in his honor. Nelson Mandela followed Sands’ example and led a similar hunger strike in South Africa, and Fidel Castro compared his suffering to that of Jesus.
Bobby Sand’s remarkable life and death have made him an “Irish Che Guevara.” He is an enduring figure of resistance whose life has been an inspiration to millions around the world. In Hollywood, actors like Sean Penn, Mickey Rourke and Brad Pitt have flirted with a biopic of his life. But until the publication of Nothing But an Unfinished Song, no book has adequately explored the motivation of the hunger strikers, nor recreated this period of history from within the prison cell. Denis O’Hearn’s powerful biography, with new material based on primary research and interviews, illuminates for the first time this enigmatic, controversial and heroic figure.
Customer Reviews:
This is worth the read.......2006-03-22
The life in the Northern Ireland Prison system was a horrible existence. What these men and women went through for their people is something any student of history or of the cuase of Irish freedom should know about.
The details of the "Dirty Protest" are enough to make a person cry. What the British government did should never be forgotten. The author does a great job showing how Long Kesh and the H-Blocks became a school - a place where people learned what the definition of freedom really is... and how Irish freedom was just like the freedom of all colonial peoples in the world.
The death of Bobby Sands and the other 9 men who followed him is a story that needs to be told again and again and again.
inside a struggle.......2006-02-23
Every now and then a book comes along that can transport you inside a moment in history, or an aspect of human experience, that had seemed remote, or unimaginable, and bring it close in a way that changes how you see the world. Nothing But an Unfinished Song is such a book. If you are old enough, you probably remember the hunger strike and Bobby Sands' death, perhaps as your first awareness that something was terribly wrong in Ireland. If you are like me, your memory is colored by a sense of unreality - the dual shock of men starving themselves to death as a political statement, and of this somehow being acceptable (at least to those in power) in the latter part of the twentieth century in a country as culturally, politically, and historically close to the U.S. as Ireland. And yet, while the thought of prisoners being kept in conditions that drove them to such lengths was cause for enormous outrage, there was another source of confusion and moral discomfort. After all, these were IRA men, and the IRA was waging a military campaign. The Brits were killing people, but the IRA was too. So who were these men and what did they die for? This book is an extraordinary gift to all who asked this question. O'Hearn's exhaustive research, including interviews with many of the men who were imprisoned with Bobby, makes human and comprehensible the development of political consciousness that led Bobby from an unremarkable life to one that inspired millions. For those who continue to struggle against any form of oppression, it is as inspirational as it is heartbreaking. With truly nothing, behind prison walls, Bobby never ceased to think, learn, and create - and to strive to reach beyond those walls. Any group struggling for change must make choices about how their part of the struggle will be waged - however limited the range of possible means may be. By illuminating one moment in one struggle, O'Hearn's book offers much for all of us to ponder.
An Inspiring Life Story.......2006-02-10
This is a meticulously researched and gripping biography of the hunger-striker who gave his life in the struggle for political recognition of the Republican struggle in Ireland. Bobby Sands transformed politics in Irish society and became an inspirational and internationally respected figure for his selfless political activism. He later became renowned for his transcendent poetry and rousing songs that captured key episodes in Irish history. But few knew this man intimately even as he became an icon of the Irish struggle for self-determination and a member of the British Parliament while he lay in a prison hospital.
Denis O'Hearn has put this to rights in a historically informative and yet intimate account of Sands' short life that included community and military activism and a harrowing journey through a gruelling and oppressive prison system. Through sheer bloody-mindedness, mental and physical resolve, and the capacity to recognise 'opportunities' in the most brutal forms of detention, Sands changed the trajectory of Irish politics. O'Hearn reveals a character full of ceaseless energy, buoyancy, sensitivity as well as political vision in a brisk, gripping and deeply moving account of Sands' life.
This book challenges complacency, urges activism and rejects thinking within the narrow confines of mainstream political discourse. Bobby Sands, the activist, has been revealed to a new generation and continues to inspire.
nothing but an unfinished song.......2006-02-01
very good book a great life story of a irish hero
Bobby Sands in his true and pivotal place in Irish Republican struggle.......2006-01-20
This book is superb and should be read by anyone with even a fleeting interest in Irish politics and events. As a biography it is a wonderful account of one of the few truly great 20th century Irish political icons. As an historical record of political change and development in the Irish Republican movement in the 1970s and 1980s - the repercussions of which still resonate today - and the unique role played within it by Bobby Sands, it is an extraordinarily detailed, formidable and unmatched piece of political, social and personal research. And yet the book is also an enthralling read, breathlessly taking the reader through the tumultuous times of one man and his far too short but generation-changing life. Many, many books have been written about Ireland. Very few have achieved the level of empathy for the subject as "Nothing But An Unfinished Song". The Sands' family should feel proud and hugely indebted to the author for placing Bobby Sands in a pivotal position in Irish Republican struggle.
Book Description
A triumph of literary detective work: the first popular biography of the adventurous Elizabethan earl whose life and letters indicate that he was the true author of the works of Shakespeare
William Shaksper of Stratford was an actor and entrepreneur who had little education, never left England, and apparently owned no books. In the centuries since his death more and more questions have arisen about the true source of the plays and poetry conventionally attributed to him. Now journalist Mark Anderson's page-turning and groundbreaking new biography “Shakespeare” by Another Name offers tantalizing proof that it was the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere—a courtier, spendthrift, scholar, traveler, scoundrel, patron, and prolific ghostwriter of state propaganda—who actually created this timeless body of work.
Weaving together a wealth of evidence uncovered in ten years of research, Anderson brings to life a colorful figure whose biography presents countless mirror images of the works of Shakespeare. De Vere lived in Venice during his twenties—racking up debt with the city's money- lenders (Merchant of Venice); his notorious jealousy of his first wife spawned both self- critical works (Othello, The Winter's Tale) and self-mocking japes (The Comedy of Errors); an extramarital affair led to courtly disgrace (Much Ado About Nothing) as well as street fighting between his supporters and rivals (Romeo and Juliet). Anderson contends that the only way de Vere's compromising works— including brutally honest portraits of the powerful elite at Queen Elizabeth I's court—could ever be published was under another man's name
Customer Reviews:
The Man Who Most Probably Was Not - Shakespeare.......2007-08-25
This book is very much of the type that used to be called a 'rollicking good read' in the old days; fairly light on the facts, but with a damn good plot. Rather like books about the Bermuda Triangle or Atlantis or the Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, it presents its story as if it were a thriller or detective story. Perhaps it is?
The book itself is really not so much a biography of Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, as a new demonstration of the thesis that the Earl was really the author of Shakespeare's plays. As such, if the reader if looking for a scholarly, thorough, well-researched and historically informed account of the Earl's actual life, then they should really turn to Alan H. Nelson's magisterial biography: 'Monstrous Adversary: The Life of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.' (Liverpool University Press, 2003). Thiis likely to be the standard work for anyone interested in the historical man for many years to come.
While Anderson doesn't really add much to a large number of other books that make broadly similar claims regarding Oxford's authorship of Shakespeare's plays, one cannot fault the author for his vigorous story-telling abilities: 'ON APRIL 12, 1550, IN THE PRIVATE APARTMENTS OF A BRITISH stone-walled medieval fortress, a lord and lady welcomed their heir into the world...'. Being British, I had a slight chuckle over the fairy-tale style opening lines, and I always thought we just called them 'castles', but perhaps this represents an American usage. Apart from the books very popular style, its other strength is to make the argument in an economical and straightforward way.
Yes, the author provides much detail to match elements of Shakespeare's poems and plays against Oxford's life, but these often seem peripheral and conjectural. Take 'Hamlet', yes it is true that Oxford's mother remarried when his father died - but there's no evidence he resented his stepfather, or that his father died of anything but natural causes. James the 1st is a better bet than Oxford for Hamlet, if you consider who killed his father, were the King a contender in the 'was he really Shakespeare?' stakes.
Likewise the argument that Oxford knew about Italy which Anderson demonstrates at length. Well, the problem here is that a great many Elizabethans went to Italy and so had first hand knowledge of the area. Anderson is therefore making a case against Shakespeare, much more than he is making a case for Oxford as Shakespeare. In any case bearing in mind there were Commedia Del'Arte actors in London who had travelled from the Continent, it needs to be a stronger case that it is: otherwise it could just be that the playwright had talked to someone who knew Italy very well, such as an Italian actor. He seems to assume that once he has demonstrated the plays aren't by what he calls the 'actor from Stratford', then it necessarily follows they must necessarily be by Oxford. But it doesn't.
What, I think is a shame is that Anderson doesn't really attempt to deal with some of the obvious objections to be made against the case for the Earl being the author of Shakespeare's plays, which would have made it a much stronger book, but relies on the 'conspiracy of silence' thesis.
Bearing in mind that many aristocrats eventually found their work published either during or after their deaths during in this period, it has never made much sense that if the Earl of Oxford had really written Shakespeare's plays, why the secret hadn't come out after his death, when he wasn't around to be shamed by it all? Though the claim there was a stigma against aristocratic publishing is quite slender when you consider both Oxford's actual character - as Nelson makes clear he did not much care what people thought of him and so many people said unpleasant things about him as it was- and the fact that the many people who must have known the secret would have realised by about 1610 that these works by Shakespeare weren't going to disgrace his memory in any case. So why weren't they published under his name by his friends? Elizabeth and James I had a tremendous passion for plays, so would either have been scandalised to discover one of their Earls had become a famous playwright.
However, there are a also number of other objections that the book doesn't address which it should have, as they would have made for a rather more solid work.
1. Oxford's published poetry is generally judged by literary critics as fairly mediocre, if competent, by Elizabethan aristocratic standards, so how exactly does he rise to become the greatest poet of his age in so short a time? If his published poetry represent his early work, then his rise to be able to write Shakespeare's plays is really quite unprecedented in world literature? Are there any other examples of such development?
2. As Nelson shows quite conclusively, there isn't much evidence that Oxford is very well educated (although he had expensive home tutors, that doesn't actually mean much unless he was learning). He left University when he was still a child and both of his University degrees were honorary, awarded when he visited Oxford and Cambridge later as part of royal parties. In any case a degree at Oxford and Cambridge basically marked attendance during a period at this point in history - and there's no evidence that he was any kind of University star like Marlowe. From his extant letters, Oxford doesn't seem very much interested in literature, beyond the typical patterns of aristocratic patronage. How can we reconcile this with his writing of Shakespeare's plays that seem to demonstrate the type of learning you would expect from someone educated to at least good Elizabethan grammar school standard and where you either learned in school, or else you suffered? Though Nelson in his book on Oxford does demonstrate convincingly that his Latin wasn't very good, which might suggest that Jonson's famous comment about Shakespeare's 'Litle Latin' has an applicability, Oxford's published letters don't suggest he had much feel for English either and he invariably refers to himself as Oxenford, not Oxford.
3. While Oxford certainly knew about Elizabethan court life, is there really anything in Shakespeare's plays representing court life in general, that isn't in the works of a host of other middle class playwrights of the period from Marlowe to Webster etc.? More significantly, Shakespeare's plays are filled with depictions of the everyday worlds of rural and urban life and the big question is how would an aristocrat such as Oxford have easy access to that kind of knowledge? There was plenty of material available in books and in plays about court and aristocratic life, some of it written by playwrights further up the social scale than Shakespeare, but very much less was avilable on the inside life of farmers or workers.
4. It is a common truism, but very much proven by the dramatic qualities of Shakespeare's plays over the years of performance, that he is the supreme example of the actor's playwright - no one writes as well for actors. You see this in similar figures like Sophocles, Moliere, Brecht, and the playwrights who weren't actors have spent sustained periods of time in the theatre - Checkhov, Beckett, etc. It is usually assumed that this means that Shakespeare must have been an extremely experienced actor to have that kind of insider knowledge of how plays worked. If so, where is the evidence of Oxford working in the theatre in that hands on kind of way?
5. Whatever autobiographical facts Shakespeare's plays may conceal - one of the most obvious things about them is their ability to present a wide variety of different kinds of people in wholly sympathetic and convincing ways. Shakespeare can present sympathetically anyone from a murderous Macbeth, to a jealous Moor, to a maligned Jew. Focusing on proposed autobiographical facts is one thing, but the book doesn't provide any evidence that Oxford had that kind of amazing ability to enter into other's lives so convincingly that is often cited as one of Shakespeare's trademarks.
Stephen Greenblatt's 'Will in the World', his recent biography of Shakespeare makes this point again, though John Keat's did it better than anyone else when he spoke of Shakespeare's 'negative capability', implying that was the reason it was so hard to get an idea of the person behind the drama. Yet, Oxford's life and published writings don't seem to give any of that impression that he can see things from other people's radically different and often conficting points of view.
6. Last, there's a long critical tradition of critics perceiving Shakespeare's work as being subtly ironic and subversive of the feudal world order and therefore the power structures of the Elizabethan world. That is why a whole series of radical thinkers from Marx and Engels to generations of the European Left have thought Shakespeare was quietly but consitently undermining the whole of the social structures he lived in.
How can we square this with an aristocrat writing as Shakespeare using a nom de plume and in addition, one who seems to accept the social status quo as right and natural? Wat evidence is there that he isn't confined to the narrowness typical of his social class - bearing in mind that almost all of the Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights came from middle-class, professional and gentry families and none (that I can think of) from the aristocracy, let alone the highest and most socially elevated and isolated aristocracy like Oxford? It is more of a leap to see an aristocrat capable of this than one of the bourgeois Elizabethan playwrights who'd experienced poverty as a child or as an artist.
If there is a second edition of this book, or another one with he same thesis. then these are the kinds of questions it will really need to be able to answer, to make a more convincing case for Oxford having anything to do with Shakespeare's plays. Identifying possible allusions and references just isn't enough - the literary qualities of the plays and poetry and the theatrical quality of the drama need to matched against what we know of Oxford. Or a contemporary Elizabethan document announcing that Oxford wrote Shakespeare's poetry and plays.
In the meantime, it is a fun read, but treat it more an an enjoyable work of fiction that anything more substantial.
REVIEW OF MARK ANDERSON'S SHAKESPEARE BY ANOTHER NAME BY JOHN CHUCKMAN.......2007-08-23
This is a biography of Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, but the focus of this book is not so much to document the Earl's life as to demonstrate that the Earl was the author of the plays and poems we ascribe to William Shakespeare.
The known facts of Shakespeare's own life are few and seemingly unpromising to have produced the language's greatest poet. Many scholars and critics over the centuries have speculated that others were responsible for the plays and poems.
In de Vere, Anderson does have a fairly strong candidate. The author does show many connections between events in the life of Edward de Vere and facts and references in Shakespeare's work.
I think Anderson's strongest argument is the idea that a man like the real William Shakespeare, actor and theater producer, a man without any access to high levels of government, a man who so far as we know never traveled to any extent, and a man who would not have had access to any great library, simply would not be familiar with all the sophisticated matters touched on in the plays.
To bolster this general argument, Anderson identifies many circumstances from the plays that may be explained in terms of de Vere's experience, but they all remain suggestive, and in many cases Anderson does go through a rather tortured effort to make what he regards as a strong point.
Anderson offers many other supporting suggestive bits such as anagrams and drawings seeming to reveal another as the actual playwright and passages annotated by de Vere in contemporary books. The whole of this is suggestive, at times powerfully so, but it is somewhat less than convincing.
Although I enjoyed this book, nevertheless, in the end, I remain unconvinced. As Anderson says himself, there is no "smoking gun" - and, God, how I wish a scholar writing about our greatest writer would avoid such clichéd American expressions.
The most important doubt for me is found in de Vere's own known writing. While his letters show a man of learning and eloquence, I just do not hear Shakespeare in his words. There are times when Anderson says a reference in a letter is the same matter as a reference in a play or poem, but the magic of the language just isn't there to my mind.
Several interesting thoughts come to mind with the de Vere thesis. First, de Vere - wastrel and swashbuckler, was not a particularly pleasant or even ethical man, quite different to the figure most of us imagine Shakespeare's being.
Second, de Vere was not just a failure as a businessman, he was a total failure at being even the keeper of his inheritance. He had no commercial sense at all.
In the American national battery of tests for teachers some years ago, I noticed an odd question about Shakespeare in which the "correct" answer was about his being a good businessman - running a successful theater company, etc - rather than the romantic ideal of the artist. I thought the question heavily biased by America's focus on making money. If de Vere was Shakespeare, the question is not only odd, the desired answer was altogether wrong.
Despite my reservations, this is a book that should be read by all admirers of Shakespeare and by all who are fascinated by the Elizabethan period.
A curious dislike for Oxford.......2007-05-23
Mark Anderson's book is best understood within the context of Oxfordian history to better reveal its strengths and weaknesses. The seminal book was Shakespeare Identified by the English schoolteacher J. Thomas Looney (pronounced Lohney).
This was followed by The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford by B.M Ward in 1926. Nothing was published until after the war years when Charlton and Dorothy Ogburn wrote This Star of England, which was followed by their son's The Mysterious William Shakespeare. There were also some smaller books arguing the Oxford case, such as Shakespeare Who Was He by Richard Whalen and Alias Shakespeare by Joseph Sobran.
Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography by Diana Price is a detailed account of the life of the man from Stratford-upon-Avon.
The Ogburns in their biographies of Oxford advanced the notion that Henry Wriothesley was the son of Oxford and Queen Elizabeth I. They provided evidence that the Queen and Oxford were a romantic couple and interpreted Venus and Adonis and Shake-speares Sonnets as a literary record. This was followed by Elisabeth Sears Tudor Rose, which details the mysterious circumstances of Southampton's birth. This is known in Oxfordian circles as the PT Theory (Prince Tudor).
However, if PT and PT II are true, this means that Queen Elizabeth had an incestuous relation with her own son, producing Southampton. And this is what every orthodox Oxfordian avoids. Yet, the works of Shakespeare abound with what Hamlet says is "incest that abomination."
My book, Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I, asserted that Princess Elizabeth had a child in 1548 by her stepfather, Thomas Seymour, and this child was placed in the home of John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford. He was raised as Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. This is known as PT Theory Part II.
The book further asserted that Elizabeth had a total of six children, Robert Cecil, Robert Devereux (Essex), Henry Wriothesley (Southampton), Mary Sidney and Elizabeth Leighton. Elizabethan history had to be rewritten to understand Shakespeare and Oxford.
Second, that Oxford did not die in 1604, but was exiled to the Isle of Mersea in the English Channel and there he wrote The Tempest, Shake-speares Sonnets and created the King James Bible. Subsequent, articles have shown that there is no acknowledgement of Oxford's death until January 1609 and an article that compares the topography of Mersea to the island described in the Tempest.
Mr. Anderson has chosen to ignore the main themes developed by Oxfordians and other historians over the decades and presents a rather sanitized version of Elizabethan events. For example, it is simply a known fact that Robert Dudley (Earl of Leicester) was the Queen's lover and rumors abounded that she had children with him. This Mr. Anderson ignores.
It is further known that Robert Dudley was married when the Queen ascended the throne, but Robert Dudley was married. His wife was found at the bottom of the stairs with a broken neck and everyone in England thought Dudley murdered her. The clamor prevented the Queen from marrying Dudley.
Mr. Anderson makes many comparisons between the characters of Shakespeare, and the life of the Earl of Oxford. Yet, in the most autobiographical of all the plays, Hamlet, he states that Polonius is William Cecil, Ophelia is Anne Cecil, Oxford's wife, the Queen is the Queen, but he fails to draw the logical conclusion that Hamlet, the prince, is Oxford, the Prince of England.
He posits this strange interpretation of the Venus and Adonis and the Sonnets as a literary recreation of Southampton's seduction of Oxford's wife. This seems to be the only way he can avoid the directly dealing with Oxfordian thinking on the Earl of Southampton as the son of the Queen and Oxford.
Mr. Anderson's has many strengths, in particular is account of Oxford's trip through Italy is worth the price of the book. He shows that the Earl of Oxford could have only written the Italian plays of Shakespeare. However, his description of the relation between Oxford and the name "William Shakespeare" and the man from Stratford named "William Shakspere" is so confusing that no one is ever going to figure out what Mr. Anderson means.
Finally, Mr. Anderson has a curious dislike or disgust with Oxford throughout the book that becomes stronger toward the end. His final description of Oxford "from a preening and prancing young champion to a betrayed and jealous middle-aged skeptic to a resigned and bitter old man."
The book has its virtues, but many other books on the subject are clearer explanations of the life and works of the Earl of Oxford, better known to the world as "William Shakespeare."
Paul Streitz
Author: Oxford: Son of Queen Elizabeth I
Superb biography of Edward de Vere.......2007-04-28
The book is a detailed and fascinating account of the life of Edward de Vere, probably the best candidate for the true authorship of the works of William Shakespeare. It is in truth highly unlikely that the man from Stratford-on-Avon, often called "Shaksper", wrote any of the Shakespearean plays, although four hundred years on even raising the authorship question continues to elicit violent emotional protests from untold thousands of supporters of the "Shakespeare myth".
The advocacy of Edward de Vere is indeed blessed by a huge amount of largely circumstantial evidence, most of which comes clearly to light in this volume. Among the most impressive evidence is the litany of detailed parallels between many of the plays and the life of Edward de Vere, including the multitude of colourful characters that surrounded him at the court of Elizabeth. And Mark Anderson does a superb job of spotting very specific references in the plays to events, places, and stories that de Vere for certain knew of first hand.
Two other things that Mark Anderson does very well and with great gusto: Firstly, the book pre-supposes that de Vere is in fact Shakespeare, and thus follows a strategy of seducing the reader rather than battling the adversaries in the authorship question. This "fait accompli" approach is extremely effective. I dare anyone to read this book and not agree that de Vere in all probability was Shakespeare.
Secondly, Mark Anderson never directly tries to discredit the Stratford man. In fact, with the "fait accompli" approach it becomes unecessary, the darkness of doubt closes upon his head quite automatically the deeper you get into the biography. This also means that no advocates of other Shakespeare authors - including the Stratfordians - are ever ridiculed. A clever tactic unless you are out to make a lot of enemies!
I think about 95% of the arguments and details presented in the book are readily believable, although there are a few that are hard to swallow for me personally, such as the interpretation that Prospero's Island (of the Tempest) should represent England - this to me is too far gone. However, a lot of the other parallels seem to make sense and are, if you will, probably true in that they reflect the relations and real life stories surrounding de Vere in great and consistent detail.
The book certainly leaves the lasting impression that de Vere is a very likely Shakespeare. That the plays to a great extent are autobiographical should surprise noone. After all I cannot think of a single author, greater or lesser, who does not write based on personal experience.
Does it have to be either/or?.......2007-04-10
I really enjoyed this book, even though I came away from both more confused and more knowledgeable about the authorship problem. But what a wonderful confusion this is - an intriguing whodunit with great literature at it's centerpiece! What I unequivocally liked about Shakespeare By Another Name was its vivid evocation of Elizabethan history by following the life events and adventures of Edward de Vere.
The circumstantial evidence that Mark Anderson marshals to his thesis that De Vere is the author is really quite remarkable, and the weight of it cannot be ignored. On the other hand, this evidence is by its nature speculative and is really not enough to base a definitive decision on. Just like someone can sure "look" guilty, De Vere sure "looks" like the author of the Shakespeare works.
However, there are bits of circumstantial evidence that work against De Vere as well, chief among them Ben Jonson's comment about the "Sweet Swan of Avon" in the First Folio. (Not adequately explained away by De Vere's former property in the area.) And then there are the poems of De Vere that were attributed to him and published under his name during his lifetime. Many folks will say they are not poetry experts and decline to evaluate them, but after looking at them, I encourage you to do the same and see for yourself what unremitting schlock they are. The spirit of Shakespeare is nowhere to be found in De Vere's published poetry. He comes across as what he was, an extraordinary Renaissance man and adventurer living life to its fullest, but far, far from a man of letters.
So what are we left with? Shakespeare's plays seem to be about De Vere's life, but there seems to me no way that he could have written them. I don't know who actually wrote them, maybe it was the Bard of Stratford, but to me they are clearly the coordinated work of two people. Shakespeare never left England and had little access to books. As great as his imagination was, he would have needed content from somewhere. I think De Vere provided that content to the writer of these plays. Even though De Vere's mark is all over the Shakespeare works, it is the writer "Shakespeare", him or herself, who is the true genius here, not De Vere.
I don't think this kind of collaboration is either unprecedented or unheard of. Goodness knows, there was plenty of mystery about authorship in those days.
In Mark Anderson's book, one gets the continual sense that he is reaching just a bit beyond himself to make a case for something he wants to be true. He may have come closer to the truth of the matter if he had just been satisfied with seeing De Vere as a content provider for Shakespeare. The role of Edward De Vere in the Shakespeare plays was indispensible, but the genius of the plays lies somewhere else.
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Books Index
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