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John Lennon could be angry, as he is in Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970, and nasty, as proven by Albert Goldman's brilliant, scathing The Lives of John Lennon.
But he could also be charming, smart, and extraordinarily witty, as he is in his last interview, published in book form as All We Are Saying. Co-interviewee Yoko Ono is charm-free but valuable, because she sparks the conversation and brings up fascinating stuff that Lennon wished she hadn't, like their mad plots to kidnap her daughter from her ex-husband. As interviewer David Sheff's tape rolls, John and Yoko's anecdotes flow effortlessly: the joys of making their 1980 comeback album, Double Fantasy; the mortifying horrors of John's "lost weekend" in L.A. with Harry Nilsson; John's interestingly twisted family life; John and Yoko and Paul's last get-together, watching Saturday Night Live the night producer Lorne Michaels offered the Beatles $3,200 to reunite on the show (they almost got in a cab and did it!).
Best of all is Lennon's song-by-song account of who wrote which famous tunes and where they came from. "Strawberry Fields" contains an entire childhood memoir, and the production reflects Paul's alleged "sabotage" of Lennon's work. "Please Please Me" was based on a Roy Orbison melody and Bing Crosby's punning song title "Please (Lend an Ear to My Pleas)." The "element'ry penguins" in "I Am the Walrus" refer to idiots like Allen Ginsberg who chant "Hare Krishna" worshipfully. "Hey Jude" was Paul's song comforting John's son Julian when John left his family for Yoko, and Paul's unconscious, reluctant farewell to his writing partner ("go out and get her").
Lennon had been publicly silent and artistically dormant for five years before these interviews, and he was just bursting with the exhilaration of the rebirth of his imagination days before his death. Reading this book is like sharing a day in the life of a very happy man. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
Twenty years ago David Sheff climbed the back steps of the Dakota into the personal thoughts and dreams of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. From the kitchen to the studio and up those fateful Dakota steps, Sheff recorded 20 hours of tape, discussing everything from childhood to the Beatles.Sheff gives a rare and last glimpse of John and Yoko, one that seemed to look beyond the kitchen table to the future of the world with startling premonitions of what was to come.AUTHORBIO: David Sheff's articles and interviews have appeared in Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Wired, Outside, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Esquire and Observer Magazine in England, Foreign Literature in Russia and Playboy (Shueisha) in Japan. He also writes for and is West Coast editor of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine.Other interviews, including those with Ansel Adams, nuclear physicist Ted Taylor, Gore Vidal, Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks, Scott Peck, Betty Friedan, and Keith Haring, received wide recognition, as did his "Portrait of a Generation" in Rolling Stone. His radio documentaries for National Public Radio on John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird won several awards.When it first appeared in 1981, Sheff's "The Playboy Interviews With John Lennon and Yoko Ono," which has been described as "historic," "compelling and compassionate" and "definitive," was a Literary Guild selection.
Customer Reviews:
The Walrus and the Carpenter.......2007-01-09
My favorite Lennon quote comes not from this book, but from the Beatle's set during the Royal Variety Performance for the British Royal Family in 1963: "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry." I love that, though I've been told you need to be raised in the British class-consciousness to fully appreciate the insolence of that.
I grabbed this book just out of curiosity, as a Beatles fan and a Lennon fan in particular. I read in a review that Lennon goes through the whole catalog of Beatles songs and comments on them. I thought that would be interesting to read. Yoko Ono was the least of my concerns, but they were and are a package deal. I bought into the popular cultural conception of Yoko as the villainess who broke up the Beatles. So the first thing that struck me, reading these interviews, is what an intelligent, sympathetic, and likeable figure she is, when heard in her own words, in the comforts of her home base. And the two of them together actually seem like a nice, well-matched couple, decent people who- against the odds- had found contentment amid the surreal circumstances of their lives. No doubt that they are eccentric in some ways, and some of their philosophizing has that post-Hippie, flaky, dated feel, as you might expect. They are artists after all. But at the same time, they surprised me at times at how level-headed they came off. Despite the near deification of the Beatles, it is John who continuously reminds us that they were just a rock and roll band that was in the right place at the right time and wrote some good songs. And they are able to honestly talk about the strain on their relationship caused by their celebrity. With all the typical defiant talk about letting people think whatever they are going to think, Yoko admits to the heartache of bad press: "It's a very strange thing that society can do that much to a relationship, but it does because we're social animals. We're social beings. A relationship is not isolated from society." "Society can break an individual. That is what happened." John, too, often displays the vulnerability buried within the armor of the iconoclast: "We're both sensitive people and we were both hurt by a lot of it." Enough time has passed for them to analyze the hostility garnered by Yoko, as a woman, when she began managing John's business affairs. John talks about the attitude towards Yoko at these meetings where she was the only woman, "They're all male, you know, just big and fat, vodka lunch, shouting males, like trained dogs, trained to attack all the time." Yoko is wonderful, chiming in with "I was emasculated." Then launching into her formulation of male aggressiveness, "you must have the womb-envy thing," she speculates. Men are aggressive to mask their intimidation and jealousy. After all, she notes, "we give life."
The most valuable part of this book, in which John systematically goes through almost every Beatles and solo Lennon song, is a concession John granted after blowing Playboy's scoop by giving an interview to Newsweek magazine. We get John's feelings about each of the songs as well as the memories triggered by them, what was going on in that period of his life and how they were written. Though John continues with the superficial model of `John songs' and `Paul songs,' we see that the truth is more complicated, they wrote the best of the Beatles "one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball... both playing into each other's noses." We see why they were great together (and why George and Ringo are two very lucky men to have been along for the ride) and why neither of them, as solo musicians, could produce songs that measure up well to the Beatles. There are several examples of the two of them contributing little touches to each others songs, the little shadings that profoundly deepen the work. Without Paul, John was mostly a writer of catchy tunes, superficial fluff with great hooks. Some of Paul's solo works come close to the best of the Beatles, but for the most part, he was missing the nuances- the melodies and tenderness- of Paul's sound. A song like "Michele" is a perfect example. Paul wrote a pretty little love ballad. John heard it shortly after hearing Nina Simone sing the blues, and he suggested the bluesy "I love you, I love you, I love you," bridge. Paul writes "It's getting better all the time," and John adds "it couldn't get much worse." Paul writes "We can work it out" and John adds "Life is very short..." Or conversely, John writes about "A Day in the Life," about a man violently killing himself, and Paul adds the sweetest little lick to ever float into a song from nowhere: "I'd love to turn you on." And so on. I particularly recommend this section as a morning commute read, riding the train with Ipod in hand, keeping the songs in your ears as you read John's analysis of them.
Of course, one can't read these interviews without being constantly reminded that John was assassinated just months afterwards. It gave me chills to read some of John's philosophizing in that light, "Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are great examples of fantastic nonviolents who died violently. I can never work that out. We're pacifists, but I'm not sure what it means when you're such a pacifist that you get shot."
And the heartbreak is palpable when reading of the pride John took in stepping out of the action and becoming a full time father to Sean. "Here we are: I'm going to be forty, Sean's going to be five. Isn't it great! We survived!"
If you are a real fan you will love this!.......2006-08-14
This for me is better than any other book because it is reading the acutual words that John said. He gives his own first hand comments on each song (no guessing what each song was about -- he tells you). When he can't remember (it was the 60's after all) John will say so. The most important thing he says is "get interested in your own life" meant in the very kindest way John wants to remind us that we can identify with him, we can love him, but to please NOT make him to focus of your life -- YOU should be the focus of YOUR life. His insights to life can help you acchieve insights of your own. John rules! But I am thankful that he reminds us it is not important to memorize his height and weight or other "facts" but rather to LIVE the life we have -- as I wish he had the option to do. American must stop naming cruel people and making them famous if we do not want more useful people to be killed by those who have little human value -- of course that is only my take -- I can't rule YOUR thoughts (and for that you should be glad ha, ha).
Get the book if you are a Beatles or John Lennon fan... ;-)
I COULDN'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!! 10 STARS!!!.......2005-12-30
INCLUDES AN AMAZING SERIES OF QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS, THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN! I WAS SURPRISED AT SOME OF JOHN'S ANSWERS; BUT IT DID MAKE SENSE COMING FROM HIM. I WON'T SPOIL IT FOR EVERYONE....SO EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT A DIE HARD LENNON FAN, YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED BY THIS FUNNY AND TOUCHING PIECE OF WORK...JUST BEAUTIFUL!
Listen to this Book!.......2005-11-16
John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono give an excellent interview by pulling out all stops. Sheff's interview in "Playboy" with the pair is a vital oral history about the former Beatle's life and his insight on each Beatle song. Sheff takes readers on a Magical Mystery Tour through the recording studio; the Dakota and in and around the neighborhood. The interview is candid and direct; readers are given a clear look of and at John and Yoko.
John is shown, warts and all in real, living color. He is not glamorized nor vilified; he is presented as the man that he was. John Lennon was many things to many people; Sixties icon; musician extraordinaire; artist; spouse; father; author; actor; joker; interviewee; "militant pacifist," an oxymoronic term. John was a very complex man and this Rubik's cube of a book puts the pieces together in such a way that readers can readily assemble their image of John Lennon.
John makes no bones abut the Beatles being part of his past; he appears to want to move further down the Long & Winding Road without further Hard Day's Nights in re his Beatle history. It was also interesting to learn what groups and artists John liked and how he felt they influenced him.
Hats off to Sheff for introducing readers to each person in the interview. If there is one literary pitfall to avoid, it is never, repeat, never spring characters or real people onto readers without introducing them. That weakens a work and Sheff is quite adept at dodging this trap.
John appeared to be moving at a quicker pace in this interview; whereas Sheff wanted to discuss the Beatles more in depth, John gave one word answers to Beatle related questions and seemed eager to discuss his 1980 album, "Double Fantasy" as well as works he was planning after that.
This is a bittersweet book for Beatle and Lennon fans because of John's untimely death in late 1980. Even so, the book remains an excellent source of information about the man who founded the World's Number One Band, the Beatles and the man who made the world listen.
Listen to John Lennon.
"She doesn't need a Beatle. Who needs a Beatle?".......2005-08-31
Indeed, All We Are Saying: The Last Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono pulls out the punches. The book shows how far former Beatle, John Lennon, had come and where he was headed. David Sheff's "Playboy" interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is the most fascinating piece of oral history about Lennon's life as well as the story behind every Beatle song. Sheff intimately takes reader through the studio, John and Yoko's Dakota apartment, and down the neighborhood coffeeshop sharing a cappuccino. All We Are Saying presents an extremely candid and frank interview that was held two months prior to Lennon's passing. Sheff reveals Lennon's growth and new beginning that would unfortunately be cut short.
All We Are Saying does not lack in humor and seriousness. This was the man, not the Sixties icon who sang against a "Revolution," who still had dreams and aspirations to accomplish at the time the interview was conducted. For fans of Lennon as well as the Beatles, this was Lennon stripped down and open for questions, and he merely tells it like it is or was. He expresses the breakup of the Beatles, and emphasizes that they were great, but they were in the past. He talks about the ups and downs of his individual experience from being a heroin addict to a househusband. He was living in the here and now, and the music that he was making at the time reflected that mantra. Though the references he made about the music scene now appear dated, Lennon was ahead of his game and kept up with bands, such as the Clash, Pretenders, and the B-52's. He even raves how the B-52's rip-off Yoko's style of music.
Sheff writes the interview in clear and picturesque narrative. For every new chapter, he introduces the reader to where the interview is going. However, the concluding portions of the book appear too rushed. Sheff appears to have wanted to discuss or at least learn about every tidbit about each Beatles song, which almost portrayed a to-do list, and at times it appears as if he did not want to run out of tape. From the transcript of the interview, Lennon appears too tired to talk about each and every Beatle song as he answers with yes and no answers. For the most part, Lennon wanted to speak about his new album at the time, "Double Fantasy", and new projects he was planning.
All We Are Saying is an important document of the life of John Lennon. For Beatle and Lennon fans, the book is quite ironic and sad due to the circumstance, but that should not stop any one from learning more about one of the most legendary artists of the twentieth century.
Product Description
A world-traveled writer recounts the amazing adventures of an American who mentored Robert Baden-Powell and inspired the Boy Scouts. Burnham is bigger than the Chief Scout.
Customer Reviews:
King of Scouts - the title is an understatement for this man........2007-10-08
Fred Burnham wrote "Taking Chances" and "Scouting on Two Continents" - biographies written from his point of view.
This book/novel fills in some of the holes in the facts of what the modest Fred Burnham didn't include.
The author draws upon information not available until 2000 - a collection of private letters between Burnham and Baden-Powell stored under seal in the Yale Library.
I have read many books about Fred Burnham and that mention Fred Burnham.
(Biographies of Winston Churchill mention Fred Burnham cause Burnham saved Churchill's life during the Boer War in South Africa.)
This book one is a welcome addition to my collection of African Tales.
Burnham's exploits never fail to amaze me.
His attention to detail is complete.
His ability to see detail, while prevailing in the most trying of conditions, are so advanced that mere mortals can only dream of having that level of perception of their environment.
He doesn't seem to have realized the extent of his mental and physical gifts.
Its seems like the complicated information that Burnham collected,processed,interpreted and communicated while scouting came to him as easily as if normal people were checking to see if it was raining.
But it wasn't that simple - he dedicated himself to the study of the details that would keep him alive in lands filled with tribal strife - the American West and South Africa.
In this modern world of instant gratification its hard for today's men & women, outside the elite military units like SEALS, SAS, Delta Force, to understand the importance of the art & craft of true scouting behind enemy lines.
I truly believe that Homer would have included Fred Burnham in the Iliad as a major figure if Burnham had lived in that time... That's how singular and brilliant he was.
Deperately needs an editor.......2007-05-06
It's good, but it was published on-demand by the author and could have used a professional editor to clean it up a bit.
Also, although it's a novel it would have been nice to have an introduction, bibliography, and notes, and generally some more explanation.
Book Description
A handsome, well-bred poet, playwright, actor, and partygoer, Andr was the dilettante spymaster for Britain with a vast Loyalist network. Walsh brings Andr and his role in American history to light in a book that readers of history will embrace.
Customer Reviews:
JUST DESERTS.......2006-03-09
The negative perspective of Major Andre is supported by plenty of historical literature, especially the biographies of Benedict Arnold. Andre loathed Americans and delighted in the murder of American prisoners; he looted Benjamin Franklin's house when the British occupied Philadelphia and took time during the occupation to put on a scurrilous pageant utilizing local prostitutes. It is interesting that the incriminating papers were not exactly found in his boot, but within his sock,
where he had kept them several days (!). The militiamen reduced this haughty twit to his birthday suit before finding them.
Hanged once, assassinated once..........2005-03-08
Long a student of American History and a teacher of it, I am always interested in alternative perspectives on significant events. This book, however, is mere character assassination disguised as historical fact. I have read every available source on the events leading up to and the trial/execution of Major John Andre, and by all accounts, he was an honorable man. Walsh attempts to paint Andre as a narcissistic, self-serving social climber, when according to those who were there (his enemies, no less), he was a genuinely sincere man who was merely out of his league. He was not a spy, and could not have been expected to have behaved as one. That he held his composure so well in the days leading up to his death speaks volumes as to his character. A truly narcissistic man would have done almost anything to save himself. Andre did nothing other than to preserve his sense of honor and dignity. Where did Walsh get his ideas? I read the same material, and I have no idea...
Washington hung young Major Andre........2003-11-21
First let me tell you I am not a fan of the narrative approach in history because it gives the author some leeway in slanting history. I think Walsh does a good job with the available material to make this narrative work in the executuon of John Andre. What I disagreed with in this book was Walsh making Andre appear as a calculating arrogant person, when in reality he was out of his element as a spy. After reading the book, I came away with a good impression of Major Andre, not the one the author was trying to convey.
I learned from this book how a brave man met his end with dignity. I also learned the severity of Arnold's treason, and why he should have dangled from the rope, rather than Andre.
Washington came across as a distant figure trying to save the young Republic. The three captors of Andre came across as patriotic men trying to perform their job. It is sad that in war, some brace, decent men have to die doing their duty. Andre was just such a person. He may have been an inept spy, but he was a decent soldier.
Walsh Does Not Like Andre.......2002-05-08
John Walsh does not like Major Andre. This is what you come away with after reading Walsh's book. Walsh sees Andre as some master manipulator. This is at odds with the fact that Andre couldn't amanipulate his way out of capture despite having a legitamate pass from Gen. Arnold. All Andre had to do was to show the pass and say nothing. Instead Andre takes a guess at his captor's allegiance and blurts out his own. Is this the work of a master manipulator?
Walsh's section on the trial is informative.
I think it speaks volumes about the author that on page 69 of his work he adds a footnote informing the reader that the lower arm of the Hudson River has regular tides as it is part of the sea. "This fact and its bearing on the Andre story has escaped almost all previous writers. None dwell on it." On one hand I am glad that Walsh mentions the point becuase it does make clearer why two men were needed to row a boat out to the Vulture. On the other hand it seems as if he stops his story to take a bow. It left me a little confused.
I suggest instead J.T. Flexnor's "The Traitor and the Spy".
Walsh Does Not Like Andre.......2002-05-08
John Walsh does not like Major Andre. This is what you come away with after reading Walsh's book. Walsh sees Andre as some master manipulator. This is at odds with the fact that Andre couldn't amanipulate his way out of capture despite having a legitamate pass from Gen. Arnold. All Andre had to do was to show the pass and say nothing. Instead Andre takes a guess at his captor's allegiance and blurts out his own. Is this the work of a master manipulator?
Walsh's section on the trial is informative.
I think it speaks volumes about the author that on page 69 of his work he adds a footnote informing the reader that the lower arm of the Hudson River has regular tides as it is part of the sea. "This fact and its bearing on the Andre story has escaped almost all previous writers. None dwell on it." On one hand I am glad that Walsh mentions the point becuase it does make clearer why two men were needed to row a boat out to the Vulture. On the other hand it seems as if he stops his story to take a bow. It left me a little confused.
I suggest instead J.T. Flexnor's "The Traitor and the Spy".
Book Description
The secret of Woolman's purity of style is that his eye is single, and that conscience dictated his words. This Quaker preacher and tailor was a man of wisdom and true philosophy. These pages are filled with insight and messages for our time. A major classic of American spirituality.
Customer Reviews:
The definitive John Woolman, accessible at various levels.......2001-10-27
A classic in Christian engagement with the world, by a Quaker minister best known for his role in convincing others in the Society of Friends - as individuals and as a group - to withdraw from the slave trade and stop holding slaves. Woolman also contributed insights into the nature of war and conflict, wealth and simplicity, right livelihood and spiritual humility.
This is the definitive edition - as in, this is the one that scholars and serious readers want, with a solid introduction, explanatory footnotes, and notes on which passages were changed along the way. Woolman based his Journal on personal diaries, rewriting and editing it with his Quaker audience foremost in mind. His essays apparently were aimed for a wider audience; they show his familiarity with Enlightenment trends that many Friends ignored. The essays "On Keeping Negroes" and "A Plea for the Poor" are included in this edition.
After his death in 1772, the Journal has passed through the hands of a succession of editors, including Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, whose edition can be found on the web. From one generation to the next, Friends and others have rediscovered John Woolman and cherished his sweet reflections on human relations and Divine leading.
Average customer rating:
- Well Done Look at an Important Civil War Era Figure
- Long Overdue
- The Best Military Biography I've Read
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Major General John Alexander McClernand: Politician in Uniform (History Book Club Selection)
Richard L. Kiper
Manufacturer: Kent State University Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0873386361 |
Book Description
John A. McClernand was a leading Democratic congressman from Illinois, who, in 1861, became a brigadier general in the Union army. Although a political general, McClernand proved himself on the battlefield until he ran afoul of Ulysses S. Grant and was relieved of his command in 1863 during the Vicksburg Campaign. Richard Kiper presents a balanced and sympathetic assessment of this highly controversial individual who served his country as a soldier and a statesman.
Customer Reviews:
Well Done Look at an Important Civil War Era Figure.......2006-07-07
While best known to Civil War buffs for his feuding with Grant, John Alexander McClernand remains an important second tier figure in the effort to preserve the Union.
Richard Kiper helps shed some light on this obscure politican in uniform and offers new appreciation for his services. While Kiper rightfully shows McClernand as something of a blowhard who had little use with the chain of command, the biographer also argues that the Illinois general deserves better than to be lumped in with failed political generals like Nathaniel Banks and Ben Butler. While not uncritical of his subject's military leadership, Kiper presents a strong case that as recruiter, organizer and, even as a battlefield commander, McClernand proved a solid and brave soldier. Kiper also brings some light on his subject's military career after being removed by Grant, offering insight on McClernand's role in the Trans-Mississippi in 1864.
This is not to say that Kiper provides a definitive biogrpahy of McClernand. McClernand's important role as one of Stephen Douglas's chief lieutenants in Illinois and in the U.S. House is lightly skimmed over. McClernand played an important role in the Compromise of 1850 and the shattering of the Democratic Party, from the Buchanan-Douglas showdown to the 1860 presidential convention in Charleston. McClernand also played a leading role in the compromise debates in the 1860-61 congressional section. He even played a fairly prominent role in the post-bellum Democratic Party. All of this Kiper glosses over. While the focus of the book is on McClernand's military career, there should have been a bit more focus on his political career as well, especially as the subject remained, despite his talents, more of a candidate than a military leader. Despite that flaw, this remains a very good look at an important, and unfairly neglected, leader in the Civil War.
Long Overdue.......2000-10-12
Kiper has written a long overdue account of a general who fell through the Civil War cracks. Solid understanding, impeccable research, fluid writing = biography at its best.
The Best Military Biography I've Read.......2000-10-12
Rich Kiper has written a biography of a little-known personality, John Alexander McClernand, that is a lesson for soldiers who may be tempted to politick and for politicians who may be tempted to "play soldier." This book is an objective and balanced description of the period when the Union Army was suffering from the drain of military talent to the South and "politicians in uniform" were a national necessity. In spite of an abject lack of military training and experience, McClernand did perform remarkably well while preparing troops for combat and while leading them in the field. While he used his political clout to organize, train and equip the soldiers of his brigade, McClernand's tendency to be self-serving and critical of his superiors (to their superiors!) ultimately outweighed his usefulness and hastened his relief by Grant. John McClernand's nemeses included Generals Ulysses Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and, most notably, John McClernand himself. This book was written from a soldier's perspective and can be read and appreciated by soldiers and civilians alike.
Average customer rating:
- Brief bio's for the first 13 Sgt's Maj of the USMC
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Uncommon Men: The Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps
John, C. Chapin
Manufacturer: White Mane Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Marine! The Life of Chesty Puller
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The Old Man's Trail/a Novel About the Vietcong
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Battle Cry
ASIN: 157249154X |
Book Description
New insights into the senior command levels of the United States fighting elite. Stories include accounts of men in battles from World War II. This book fills a void in the literature of Marine Corps leadership. Supplying the biographies of the first eleven men to hold the proud title of Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, Uncommon Men offers new insights into the senior command levels of the United States' fighting elite. This book portrays not only the lives of those pioneers, but also gives us a social history of the Corps since 1942 as only a Marine could tell it. The Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps come from all parts of the country. Chapin reminds us of their humanity, their families, and off-duty friendships and hobbies, and how they rose through the ranks.
Customer Reviews:
Brief bio's for the first 13 Sgt's Maj of the USMC.......1999-08-20
This book in on the USMC Professional reading list, but as a Marine (any rank) you should read this book to gain an understanding of where the top enlisted in our Corps came from. This is not a story. The book contains short biographies that give you insight about the Sergeant's Major of the Marine Corps who set the standard for future Marines. Simply a great source of history for Marines, or those who are interested in our heritage. Semper Fidelis!
Average customer rating:
- delightful, tongue in cheek memoir
- Gentle humor, fine craftsmanship, sentimental and perceptive
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Minor Heresies, Major Departures: A China Mission Boyhood (Philip E.Lilienthal Books)
John Jenkins Espey
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0520082508 |
Book Description
An American boy, son of Presbyterian missionaries, was born in Shanghai early in this century. The boy lived two lives, one within the pious church compound, the other along the canal and in the alleys of a traditional Chinese city. There he faced the alley brats' Lady Bandit, heard the shrill screams of a child's foot-binding, learned rank obscenities from passing boatmen, and, while still in short pants, chewed Sen-Sen and ogled snake-charmers in the old Native City. He sailed up the Yangtze to attend boarding school, and along with his Boy Scout patrol, met Chiang Kai-shek. And when John Espey grew up, he wrote about his years in China.
This memoir is the story of those years, and while it is a wry, affectionate account, it also conveys an often overlooked picture of China in the years before communism. Seen through the eyes of a child, the interplay of religion, commerce, and American colonialism that took place during this period is revealed more tellingly--and more lightheartedly--than in many an analysis by an "old China hand."
Espey's bent is to use a "Chinese" approach to his subject, that is, to hide a second meaning within his words, to speak in parables. This he learned from both his single-minded missionary father and the family's Chinese cook. The result is that the reader of Minor Heresies, Major Departures will learn a great deal about the Pacific Rim while having a rollicking good time.
Customer Reviews:
delightful, tongue in cheek memoir.......2003-02-08
Minor Heresies, Major Departures is best summarized by Robertson Davies' back cover quote describing how Espy makes "high comedy about Presbyterian missionaries without any way jeering at their sense of dedication." These episodes from his childhood are a delight to read. He combines the truth of a child's eyes with the sarcasm of an adult as he describes events such as the battle with his sister for the longest prayer or his failure at "cementing the international bonds of love and law" during play with the cook's nephew.
This book is recommended not just to those interested in missionary work, but to anyone who enjoys travel or cross-cultural memoirs. If you are looking for an inspirational tale of missionary good deeds, however, it might not be your cup of tea.
Gentle humor, fine craftsmanship, sentimental and perceptive.......1998-10-26
John Espey's memoirs of his Shanghai boyhood are a finely done portrait of a moment in history. He expresses, with a wry humor, his "view of things" as a child, a view which contrasts with those of the adults around him. His disagreement with the Western perspective and Protestant missionary outlook that formed the backdrop to his life in Shanghai before WW II is recorded in civil tones; he gives people credit for good intentions and does not denigrate their sometimes misguided efforts. Espey's memories are a delightful entry into cross-cultural psychology--by one who knows what that term really means.
Average customer rating:
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Major John Andre: A Gallant in Spy's Clothing
Robert McConnell Hatch
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0395353246 |
Average customer rating:
- A Great Book!
- Better Speaker
- NOT INCONSIDERABLY EVENTFUL
- Forceful, clear, balanced autobiography of a pragmatic man
- From Major to minor...
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John Major: The Autobiography
John Major
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Major, John
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Similar Items:
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The Downing Street Years
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Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
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The Path to Power
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The Accidental American
ASIN: 0060196149 |
Book Description
John Major's autobiography is one of the most personal and revealing ever written by a former British Prime Minister.Eagerly awaited, the remarkable story of his life, from an extraordinary childhood to becoming an influential leader at the forefront of global politics and subsequent fall, is candid, scrupulous, and unsparing.
With complete candor and compelling insight, Major describes how he left school at fifteen, was unemployed, and through hard work and determination was elected to Parliament as a member of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Party, which would transform Britain.
Quickly becoming one of Thatcher's Cabinet members, he served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Foreign Secretary, and then Chancellor of the Exchequer, the powerful position from which he vaulted to Prime Minister in 1990 when, after Thatcher fell, he fought and won a shrewd campaign to succeed her.
Major vividly recounts his role in shaping some of the most profound world events, including conferring with George Bush on the Gulf War, making the most decisive steps in a generation toward peace in Northern Ireland, leading Britain through the formation of the European Upon, and calling a general election in 1992 in which his party won the most votes in British political history. Yet within months of the 1992 election his government was in troubled waters, and Major is candid about his difficulties and losses and the controversies and divisions within his own party. Through it all, including the landslide defeat of his Conservative Party on May 1, 1997, and his immediate stepping down as party leader and Prime Minister, John Major acted with a dignity rare in politics.
As he talks about his leadership triumphs and defeats and his work with a diverse range of inter-national figures including George Bush, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Helmut Kohl, and Nelson Mandela, he offers invaluable insight into how political power is exercised both in the United Kingdom and abroad. Here is a fascinating story of a man, his passion for politics, and the genuine and significant contributions he has made to the lives ofthe British and people around the world.
Customer Reviews:
A Great Book!.......2007-10-15
I did a report on the history of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. We were asked by our instructor to use at least ten sources, you really only need one and it's this book! It is presented in chronological order and is easy to understand. The rift over Europe helps explain why the Tory Party was so badly beaten in the 1997 General Election. A great source for anybody doing research into this time in British history!
Better Speaker.......2007-06-28
I wanted to read this book both because of the Speaker Series and because I will be going to London later this year. It has taught me about some of the culture and politics of that great land. Yet, John Major drones on about topics in way too much detail. I usually enjoy the first 10 pages of every chapter at which point he chooses to drag the subject into areas that often don't seem related.
NOT INCONSIDERABLY EVENTFUL.......2005-11-05
John Major said it himself - if he had been the only candidate in the 1997 election he would have come second. The usual view of his premiership is of an interlude between the eras of Thatcher and Blair. Historians in due course may see it otherwise, but the first thing that needs to be said is that as a historical record these memoirs are first class. For candour, fair-mindedness, lack of ego and clarity in separating fact from inference and opinion I have never read their like from anyone who ever attained such a position.
The candour doesn't stretch to telling us absolutely everything. Like Jimmy Carter John Major was unlucky on top of his own errors, but one great piece of good luck was that his affair (while in a junior post) with a parliamentary colleague Edwina Currie did not come to light until he had left office. It was the funniest story in 20th century British politics and it highlights what was always his problem - he wasn't taken seriously. His face was against him, his voice was against him, and his bank-managerish way of expressing himself at times, such as I have borrowed for my caption to this review via Private Eye, was a gift to the satirists and the chattering classes. Otherwise his style of writing is, in all important and relevant respects, excellent. I cringed on reading `...the huge constituency and its rich variety of interests'; or `...he was always ready with a good-humoured story'. His innocent pride at his own little jokes and bons mots is pretty embarrassing too, but some of his more acid asides such as regarding the overlooked hopefuls whose self-ascribed talents would have needed a long-range telescope to be discerned are actually much better, although he floored me with his remark about the `column inches' devoted by the papers to Hugh Grant after his famous arrest.
There I go. It's all too easy not to take him seriously, and it's all wrong too. This man was a national leader through some pretty momentous times. I can't say that his narration of the gulf war added much to what I already knew, but nobody else was in a position to enlighten us so much about the economic ups and downs of the 80's and 90's, and especially about the issue that more than any other wrecked his government, namely relations between Britain and Europe. Unlike many national leaders, Major understood economics. His rise to the top was mainly via the Treasury, and when next, I wonder, will we ever see an economic narrative like this, told by a man who knows what he's talking about, who was right at the centre of decision-making, who is or appears to be completely willing to tell the whole story, and who is able to put it across with such lucidity? If you think economics is complicated, try understanding the British Conservative party and its behaviour over Europe. Here we find Major the historian at his superlative best. The behaviour of his `euro-sceptic' MP's was a psychologist's field-day, and Major assesses them individually with a dispassionate calmness that is staggeringly impressive considering the hell they put him through. It would all have broken many a lesser man (or woman). I never voted for his government nor would I if I had the chance again, but I can't see how his bitterest critic can fail to be impressed by the way he kept his nerve, and by the way he can stand back from his own performance under that sort of pressure and assess it as if he were marking an exam paper.
As if all this were not enough, he had Northern Ireland to deal with. If it would be fair to say that he was out of his depth with the issue, the same could be said about every other prime minister who has tackled it. Major made a bold and honest attempt to cope, and some of it has stuck, and Blair has been the beneficiary as he has been in a significant number of other ways. Above all, Blair inherited a sound economy after all the travails of the previous 10 years, Major knows that, and he's sore about the lack of recognition of the fact. Major was unlucky to come to office at the time he did - Thatcher and Blair were elected on a wave of disgust at the failures, real or perceived, of the preceding governments, up with whose shortcomings, as the phrase goes, we were fed. Major entered 10 Downing Street at a time when changes were going on that he only partly understands and, characteristically, doesn't claim to understand fully. He came from a poor background, and he is a `compassionate' conservative. Those have actually been around for a long time, witness Disraeli himself. Witness also Macmillan, the premier who said `We are all socialists now'. Macmillan was quite unquestionably compassionate, but he belonged to a tradition, and in an era, when the Conservative party had every reason to believe that power was its birthright. These days it still thinks so, and, worse, acts as if it does. Its problem is that the rest of us think otherwise. Labour's shortcomings are manifold and monstrous, but it doesn't make that mistake and that could be Labour's salvation for quite a long time. If I'm right, Major's thoughtful musings, while valid in point after point, are missing the main one. He was a good manager, but he failed as a leader and as a politician. Blair could see, as FDR could all those years ago, that if you at least act as if you understand what people are asking for they will put up with a great deal. For all his humble origins Major failed to connect, partly through his own fault as he can see very well, but mainly because nobody associated the Conservative party with the values that he himself is most interested in - health, safety, pensions, schools, hospitals and so on. These are traditionally Labour's strong suits, and, largely through his inheritance from Major, Blair has slain the dragon that Labour can't be trusted with the economy. That leaves the Conservatives rowing over Europe on the assumption that what matters to them must therefore matter to the rest of us. Their own chairman and advertising magnate Lord Saatchi has grasped the point perfectly well `Who needs the Tories now?' Blair is running into trouble through pushing his phenomenal luck a little too far and he will be going shortly in any case, but as he faces his fifth Conservative opponent in 8 or 9 years I expect he and his successor will make short work of whoever it is because they have grasped this point. I wonder whether Major has come to see it this way too by now.
Forceful, clear, balanced autobiography of a pragmatic man.......2005-09-18
John Major's autobiography is a clear and balanced account of his early life and of his time in office leading the United Kingdom. He forcefully defends most of his policies and a few times admits that he got some important things wrong.
The first nine chapters are chronological and recount his childhood, his early life in business and politics, his rise within Thatcher's cabinet, and finally his attaining the Prime Ministership. The remaining nineteen chapters deal with his days in office. Each chapter addresses a topic or issue, beginning with his first international test in leading the UK through the first Gulf War. He deals with domestic issues like Ireland and the poll tax, but spends much time on Europe as European issues hogged the agenda during most of his tenure. He explains his position as a pragmatic Eurosceptic. On one hand, Major has always wanted to remain British and fears the coming of a United States of Europe; on the other hand he sees the foolishness of the UK giving up its influence by refusing to participate.
Pragmatism colours all of Major's decisions and policies. Unfortunately, Major led a party polarized by extreme views on Europe, on Monetary union, and even on the question of Ireland and to many at the time his pragmatism looked weak or lacking in beliefs. It was not. Major convincingly recounts how he was trying to save the Tories from splitting. He saw the Conservative party as a crucial institution, one whose survival in the long term mattered much more than the transient questions of Europe. But Major is an opinonated pragmatist. He believes in the basics of Toryism and then had to watch in frustration as New Labour under Tony Blair appropriated (Major bluntly says "stole") basic Tory social and fiscal policies.
Thus pragmatism had drawbacks. It caused Major to back off a little in order to appease; he accepts responsibility for the Conservative failure and the new Labour landslide.
From Major to minor..........2003-05-28
As I watched the results from the 1997 General Election from the sidelines of America (remembering that ten years prior I had been in the thick of things, on the floor of a count and being shown on BBC intently staring at the bank teller drafted to count the box in which I had an interest), I was variously amazed, pleased, saddened, and in the end, pleasantly surprised at the good humour of John Major, who said very simply, 'Okay, we lost.'
I met John Major first when he was a rising parliamentary star recruited to come to the constituency of the backbencher for whom I worked. He came to give a pep talk to the local Conservatives on a local radio programme; this constituency (Basildon) was considered a dead loss, so much so that the PM and various other Cabinet names wouldn't waste their time making a stop--but John Major came, and, we won.
Major has put together an interesting account of his time in office. Thankfully he concentrates on his political career (not spending hundreds of pages giving us the sort of childhood information that rarely adds value to a political autobiography), starting with his first victory coming to the House of Commons in 1979 (Margaret Thatcher's first victory as leader) and culminating with the 1997 electoral defeat, which he took with relatively good grace and rather few recriminations. And, whereas many political figures spend a large part of their memoirs in a 'If I were still there' mode, Major only devotes a few pages to the follow-up and future (in a five-page chapter entitled Aftermath) preferring not to speculate on irrelevant imponderables, and avoiding the problem of which he was most critical in his predecessor--that being of not wanting to let go.
It was no secret that one of the things the press and public eagerly sought in this book was Major's opinions on the continued attempts by Thatcher to exert an influence in leadership. His rocky relationship with the former prime minister has many examples through the text, some explicit and some subtle (such as the caption from a photo taken at the 1990 Conservative Party Conference, which reads 'Still on good terms with Margaret following the announcement of our entry into the ERM.').
In general, this is a well-written book, and John Major's tenure of office is rather more interesting than popular memory or the press would have one believe, perhaps understandable due to following a person of such flash and sparkle as Thatcher--who could compete with that? Major did in many ways, and, as his autobiography shows, he won in many ways, and when he lost, he was a gentleman.
Book Description
John Keats is unique among all post-Shakespearean poets in that he offers "an example of what human life at its most wise and compassionate," according to Bloom. Study his "Ode to a Grecian Urn," "The Eve of St. Agnes," and others. This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School. History's greatest poets are covered in one series with expert analysis by Harold Bloom and other critics. These texts offer a wealth of information on the poets and their works that are most commonly read in high schools, colleges, and universities.
Customer Reviews:
Blends a biography with extracts of major critical essays.......2001-05-30
John Keats (5934-0, $19.95) adds to the research guides in the 'Major Poets' series, blending a biography with extracts of major critical essays examining the poet's works. New to the Major Short Story Writers series ($19.95 each) is D. H. Lawrence (5947-2) and Henry James (5943-X), which use similar approaches to examine the major themes and ideas of each writer. All are recommended as basic library acquisitions.
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