Average customer rating:
- Peck's Masterpiece
- A bit of a bore
- A Son's Moving Tribute To A Father
- Keats and Fitzgerald would be very pleased indeed
- PICK A PECK...
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What We Lost: Based on a True Story
Dale Peck
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0618251286 |
Book Description
In the haunting new book by the acclaimed author of Now It's Time to Say Goodbye, a young man must choose between his troubled family and the new home he loves. Dale Peck, Sr., grew up poor in rural Long Island in the 1950s, sharing a one-room house with seven brothers and sisters, an abusive mother, and an alcoholic father haunted by his past. When, at fourteen, Dale is more or less kidnapped by his father and taken to his uncle's farm in upstate New York, the change wrought by the move is remarkable. Thriving on the farm, Dale develops a loving relationship with his uncle Wallace, and for the first time he knows contentment. But when Dale's mother demands that he return, he is forced to choose between his broken family and the land and uncle he has come to love. It is a decision that will determine his future and the legacy he will pass on to his own son. What We Lost is a coming-of-age story that startles in its immediacy and lack of sentimentality. Refracting his father's past through the prism of his own vivid imagination, the author Dale Peck forges a bridge between generations and reveals the dark secrets at the heart of family.
Customer Reviews:
Peck's Masterpiece.......2007-06-06
What We Lost is a wonderful fictional memoir about the author's father's early life and what he endured. Peck's prose is breathtakingly poignant and he delves into the human condition with a delicate but plain touch. The result is a work of fiction that has been woefully overlooked and underappreciated. I'm so glad to have found What We Lost.
A bit of a bore.......2004-12-27
Dale Peck is an incredibly thoughtful, articulate and emotionally moving writer, but this piece fails him. His writing career, which i have followed from the beginning, has had its ups and downs, but the writing has always managed to keep things afloat. He has such a mastery of the language, its incredible. But this true story is a major drag, and you need a great deal of faith to keep going.
Hopefully the next book will once again engage an interesting story with the poetics of his use of language.
A Son's Moving Tribute To A Father.......2004-08-05
Dale Peck has written as moving a tribute to his father as I can remember reading. Here he writes of his father's (Dale, Sr.) leaving an abusive mother and alcoholic father at the age of 13 to live on a dairy farm in upstate New York with his father's loving brother, his Uncle Wallace, and his soon-to-be wife Bessie. There he learns for the first time in his life what it's like to be surrounded by adult love. Peck's prose is descriptive and full of similes and metaphors, my one concern with this book. There is never any indication that Peck, Sr. was particularly gifted in language. While many of the beautiful passages obviously come from the narrator, occasionally there are words coming from Peck, Sr. that belong to Peck, Junior. For example: "As he walks, the ladies (cows) behind him low in anticipation of his arrival. Their calls make him think that he is a finger running a glissando the length of a giant keyboard. . ." I do not believe these words would have come from someone who grew up to learn the business of trenchless sewer line replacement. This is certainly a minor blemish though of a really fine book.
Dale Peck, Junior introduces himself to the reader in the last few pages of the narrative when he and his father return to upstate New York in 2001-- Peck, Senior now lives in Kansas and Junior is a writer in New York City-- to attend a family reunion in what is a very warm finale to this story.
Keats and Fitzgerald would be very pleased indeed.......2004-05-14
Dales Peck's writing is so beautiful and lyrical that at times you simply stop reading and stare at a phrase or sentence in amazement. Like this little gem at the beginning:
"It is too cold and the factory is six blocks away and the boy can smell little more than a ghost of sugar on the wet air, but in his mind the street is doughy as a county kitchen, and as he inhales he pretends he can sort the different odors of crumb and glazed and chocolate-covered donuts from an imaginary baker's hash of heat and wheat and yeast."
This sentence brings to mind the "valley of ashes" passage in Fitzgerald's GATSBY and is reminiscent, as well, of the first stanza in Keat's EVE OF ST. AGNES. Peck may just be the most lyrical writer we have today.
PICK A PECK..........2003-11-18
I'm a huge fan of Dale Peck's work, especially LAW OF ENCLOSURES (which has one of the best endings I've ever read). This new book is a memoir--or at least a re-imagining of his father's life on Long Island and in upstate New York--and it's beautifully written. I never expected to say Willa Cather and Dale Peck in the same sentence--except, perhaps, in a sentence like "Willa Cather could beat up Dale Peck,"--but the comparison here seems appropriate. It would be a crime to break this beautiful book down into "literary elements," but Peck is the best maker of similes around. There are so many stunning sentences here; I copied whole paragraphs and passed them out to my high school students as examples for writing. The slim last act of the book expands the focus to include Dale Peck the writer and becomes a meditation on fate and fatherhood and reconcilliation. And maybe forgiveness. I'm surprised there hasn't been more buzz about this book. I'm hoping for a review in the NYT or somewhere that will make people notice it. If not, you have this first review to urge you to read it.
Book Description
In The Boy on the Back of the Turtle, Quarrington attempts to discover his own little niche in the cosmos. Cruising the volcanic Galapagos Islands on a 90-foot liner in the company of his daughter, age 7, and his father, age 73, he tries to find his place as a Son, as a Father, as a Mortal frolicking beneath the heavens. Given that the Galapagos is the historic site of God’s greatest setback, he points out, it is a fitting place to play out the battle within him. Quarrington employs his trademark combination of wry wit and poignant observation as he takes readers on a wide-ranging investigation of everything from blue-footed boobies, careerism, taxonomy, and the nature of creation to pirates, frigate birds, Herman Melville, and the precarious ecology of the islands and the planet. The exploration of questions big and small make this an enlightening voyage for the reader as well.
Customer Reviews:
Islands for insight.......2003-10-17
What prompts sixty thousand people per year to visit an isolated group of barren, arid, volcanic islands? They tramp dusty trails, peer into bushes and caves, suffer equatorial sun and strange animals almost without a murmur of complaint. A few, like Paul Quarrington are seeking some answers. Sometimes it's The Answer that's sought. These pilgrims are trailing the man who conceived the best idea anyone, any time, ever had. They retrace the footsteps of Charles Robert Darwin, who visited the Galapagos Islands, then returned home to think about what he'd seen. What Darwin saw and thought led to the first understanding of how life, the universe and everything, actually works.
Quarrington visited the Islands with his daughter Carson, seven years old, and his father, "ten times that age". Quarrington, in an illustrious account, sought what Darwin found - a Great Insight. In keeping with that quest, his narrative is highly personalized and introspective. That is, after all, what "insight" is - looking inward. He recounts his boyhood adoption of divine Special Creation of the universe. Over the years, however, he came to understand how unsatisfying divine creation is in explaining life. As with those thousands of others, he came to see a pilgrimage to the islands as a likely source of enlightenment.
He admits the symbolism of visiting the Galapagos with three generations. The account explains his travails as both a son and a parent. Where does "natural selection" fit in his dealings with his father and his daughter? He examines his own life, what he knows of his father's and how confesses to how adroitly Carson manipulates him. Through it all, Quarrington gives snippets of Darwin's life and thinking, that of natural selection's critics and how many questions have been pondered and answered. In order to accomplish this, he relies on a bevy of writers listed in a five-page bibliography. That's an enterprising effort for a writer listed as a "humourist". Yet, the humour, rich with ironies, is in full flower in this lucid account. Between the science, the charming [and sometimes not so charming] wit, he has provided a singularly readable account of one man's wrestling with the attempt to find something divine, where divinity has no place. It's a book reflecting what many have experienced, although likely with less success.
In the end, Quarrington does achieve an insight. Perhaps even an Insight. While it's doubtlessly his own, unique in a way that may keep only its conceiver satisfied. Still, he accomplishes it after strenuous effort. He achieves it very early one morning in his kitchen, sipping a single malt and expressing contentment at what he has wrought. That's not a bad environment for gaining Insight. If he attains well-being from what he's wrought, who are we to dismiss it? He's made the effort, laid out his own path, and, like those pilgrims following Darwin's trail, perhaps we can follow Quarrington's example. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Book Description
This book offers a critical context for Salisbury's work, discussing his novels in terms of plot and style, analyzing literary themes, and examining critical responses to his work.
Customer Reviews:
About this book:.......2005-07-13
Graham Salisbury, winner of the Scott O'Dell and Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards, grew up in Hawaii during the 1950's, and the lion's share of his fiction is set there. He writes about boys of all races trying to carve an identity for themselves and struggling to make moral decisions as they grow into manhood.
The first section of this book chronicles the labyrinthine path of Salisbury's life and career: from barefoot island boy to college dropout, from bubblegum pop musician to schoolteacher, and from real estate manager to young adult author. The book then offers a critical context for Salisbury's work, discussing his novels in terms of plot and style: analyzing literary themes and examining critical responses to his work. Salisbury's use of archetypes and the coming of age stories that dominate his work are explored in depth. Fans are also treated to a peek at some of Salisbury's future projects.
Librarians, teachers, and teen readers will find this critical biography to be a useful resource for the library, classroom, and reference bookshelf.
Amazon.com
It's a rare pleasure when a new author shows not only notable talent, but the skill and chutzpah to go where no one else has gone before. Daniel Robb takes a subject that many have considered but few understood--juvenile delinquents--and writes about it with rare insight. For a year and a half, Robb was a teacher on Penikese Island, off Cape Cod, where teenage boys are sent by the courts and social services to put six months between themselves and their chaotic daily lives. During this time they experience safety, a routine, hard work, and the decency and constancy of adults better adjusted than the ones they've known. The place is less a school, Robb writes, than "a family, or a way of life, a rhythm, a discipline, a music, with many voices of boys competing with my own for ownership of the tale." The boys have varied résumés: Mose shot a man who threatened him one night; Edward torched a boat for money; Alan is the king of substance abuse; Burt's parents have both been in jail since he was 7. But Robb finds that they all have a number of things in common--childhoods fraught with so many uncertainties that they never learned cause and effect, the lack of a father's guidance--the same things, it turn out, that plague Robb's own heart.
Robb has a gift for evoking their natural surroundings on the island in a language that resembles poetry while capturing the cadences and tribulations of his surly yet charming students with perfect pitch and clear-eyed sympathy. Not only does the dichotomy make for compelling reading, it works on the kids as well: Ned, the longhaired metalhead, gives CPR to a mouse and actually revives it; Wyatt, who stole cars out of boredom, considers his absent father's legacy after reading a Gary Snyder poem. Robb is a literary voyager in the most unlikely of places, and, in the end, reveals that even boys such as these have a poetry all their own. --Lesley Reed
Book Description
Off the coast of Cape Cod lies a small windswept island called Penikese. Alone on the island is a school for juvenile delinquents, the Penikese Island School, where Daniel Robb lived and worked for three years as a teacher. By turns harsh, desolate, and starkly beautiful, the island offers its temporary residents respite from lives filled with abuse, violence, and chaos. But as Robb discovers, peace, solitude, and a structured lifestyle can go only so far toward healing the anger and hurt he finds not only in his students but within himself.
Lyrical and heartfelt, Crossing the Water is the memoir of his first eighteen months on Penikese, and a poignant meditation on the many ways that young men can become lost.
Customer Reviews:
A brilliant literary journey as well as a coming of age novel.......2005-09-11
As I read this wonderful book by Robb, I mused that I wish I had been able to teach it at the University where I taught Young Adult literature teachers of young adults. So much of the YA literature offers "insider" stories, but never seems to give the idea that there is a way out, often leaving readers feeling hopeless and helpless in our modern world. This remarkable book offers us a true glimpse into a modern young person's problematic life, and yet shows us that there are always choices, always people like Dan to offer a better way.
One thing that truly impressed me was the subtle, never over-wrought literary allusions to such writers as Henry David Thoreau and Mark Twain. Daniel Robb went to the Island to live deliberately, to simplify, to get in touch with himself, the core of his being, and to reach out to some of the troubled young men of our current world. Furthermore, the entire story is built on a the extended metaphor of the story of Beowulf. Robb informs his readers at the end of his book just how the ancient story of Beowulf is anything but dead literature--it still resonates in our modern world. The readers of this excellent memoir will be given as much as the subjects of the story, and this reader is indeed grateful to Daniel Robb for his insight and his fine writing. Dr. Janice E. Patten
Couldn't get into it.......2004-03-09
As my title states, I just couldn't get into this book, even though I work with kids. I didn't finish it. I thought it was sad that the school's success rate with the kids wasn't much better than the prison system's success rate. It seemed that the school administration was proud of the fact that they didn't have any professional counselling for the kids, and I'm not so sure that's something to be proud of.
Intesecting Worlds.......2001-12-18
Dan Robb's memoir criss-crosses the worlds of the Pennikese bad boys--his students; of his own memories of a sometimes tempest-tossed adolescence; of his adult role of teacher in uncharted territory; and of an island--sere and beautiful, immutably changing with the seasons and with the boys who come and go--a place isolated yet self-contained, severe and yet secure, once "home" to lepers, now a prison-home for boys perched on the brink of social leprosy.
Robb's beautifully descriptive book carries the reader back and forth among these intersecting worlds while limning sharp yet fleshy portraits of the boys, each of whose stories grabs and engrosses. This is a book--yes, for teachers who know, or are learning, that the best kind of pedagogy is through memory, storytelling and the imaging of new worlds; for those concerned about how to treat and heal our outcast and abandoned children; and for those who, along with their interest in a critical and wrenching problem, also take pleasure in the work of a gifted teacher/writer/artist.
Intesecting Worlds.......2001-12-18
Dan Robb's memoir criss-crosses the worlds of the Pennikese bad boys--his students; of his own memories of a sometimes tempest-tossed adolescence; of his adult role of teacher in uncharted territory; and of an island--sere and beautiful, immutably changing with the seasons and with the boys who come and go--a place isolated yet self-contained, severe and yet secure, once "home" to lepers, now a prison-home for boys perched on the brink of social leprosy.
Robb's beautifully descriptive book carries the reader back and forth among these intersecting worlds while limning sharp yet fleshy portraits of the boys, each of whose stories grabs and engrosses. This is a book--yes, for teachers who know, or are learning, that the best kind of pedagogy is through memory, storytelling and the imaging of new worlds; for those concerned about how to treat and heal our outcast and abandoned children; and for those who, along with their interest in a critical and wrenching problem, can also take pleasure in the work of a gifted teacher/writer/artist.
Heartwrenching and hopeful.......2001-12-11
In this wonderful book, Dan Robb has managed to write about his experience teaching troubled boys with soul and without sentimentality. The rawness of his experience teaching on an isolated island off of Cape Cod, and the soul searching it prompted, makes for compelling reading no matter how much time you spend thinking about or working with kids. As the mother of a small boy, I also felt that reading this book was a way of learning about how to be a good parent to my child. I recommend this book with all my heart, and hope that it touches you as deeply as it did me.
Book Description
Capture the tension, danger, and triumph in this story of Kamehameha's growth from lonely and frightened young boy to the might warrior who conquered and united the Hawaiian islands.
Customer Reviews:
stunningly beautiful.......2006-05-15
This book is so wonderful! The artwork is gorgeous. And it is interesting because it is a true story. With the beautiful writing and stunning artwork, the effect is magical. It's also exciting for boys, because it has some action scenes. I love when my son requests I read it to him. It is an unusual and beautiful book.
Average customer rating:
- The story of a total winner
- Where there is a will there is a way. Great movie potential
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Island Boy: An Autobiography
Thomas R. A. H Davis
Manufacturer: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 9820200717 |
Book Description
Brought up in the multiple worlds of the Rarotonga waterfront, Sir Tom Davis, Pa Tuterangi Ariki, KFE, has always had access to all cultures and classes. The first Cook Islander to quality in New Zealand, he returned as a "Doctor to the Islands" (the title of his first book) in 1945.
The first Cook Islander to attend Harvard University, he got there in a typically Tom David way - by sailing a small yacht half way round the world. He later served on the Harvard faculty for five years.
He headed medical programmes in Alaska and the Himilayas, attained the civilian status in the US army of a three star genera, and the highest personal distinction in the US public service and managed medical research and consulting aspects of one of the world's largest consulting firms, wrote two books and eighty scientific papers, qualified as a Space Surgeon and took a leading role in developing the US space programme.
At the request of Cook Islanders he returned in 1971 and became Leader of the Opposition. He survived operations for cancer and became Prime Minister from 1978 to 1987. Awarded the Order of Merit of Germany in 1979, he was knighted by the Queen in 1980. As Prime Minister in a time of world economic decline he lifted the real per capita income of Cook Islanders more than 10 percent annually throughout his leadership, a remarkable achievement. It declined the year he was out of power, and again since his retirement. He emphasised distribution as well as growth, broadened participation of ordinary Cook Islanders in the economy, awarded guaranteed increases to the Public Service and increased pensions.
Tom Davis has taken prizes in several sports. He gave up coaching rugby at 59, and at 71 helped to coach the Cook Islands team to the Oceania Boxing Championships. Now 75, he recently wrote two books, composed songs, designed and built an ocean-going canoe, held an exhibition of his recent art, caught up on reading in comparative religion, philosophy and Polynesian history, considered options for the Cook Islands next century, and took part in many community activities.
Sir Tom expresses his views clearly, and admits what he failed to achieve or wished he had done differently. His power of description, as in handling a ship in a storm, is tremendous.
Like the man, it's a terrific book.
Customer Reviews:
The story of a total winner.......2006-01-22
It's a good thing that Polynesian culture encourages boastfulness among its elders and leaders, because otherwise this wonderful story would never have been told. In delightful detail, Tom Davis describes his many victories in life: over the challenges of living in two cultures at once, over poverty during the depression, over shoddy office practices in a Rarotonga hospital, over hurricanes at sea, flawed FDA processes in the USA, boxing and rugby rivals, cancer, and political opponents. His energy and enthusiasm for life shine through on every page. But for those who would follow his example, something else shines through: a sense of what a person can accomplish who is better with systems than people. That's right, he's a bit of an introvert, at least compared to his political rivals. A huge factor in his success is making processes work better for people rather than just trying to please everyone directly with his behavior. The lessons here are timeless.
Where there is a will there is a way. Great movie potential.......1999-10-29
This true life fascinating story, about a great man, is an inspiration to others, especially the young. It shows what one can accomplish with tremendous determination, perseverance, a creative mind, timing and an adventurous spirit.
Having known and worked with the author for many years, I can say first hand that this story would be enjoyable for the young, the old, the adventurous and politically minded. It is both educating and quite entertaining.
Read it!
Book Description
Deep diving operations, rescues at sea and tearing up every port pulled into, this was the life of the young and ready navy divers stationed on the USS Reclaimer in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii during the early 1990's. The Reclaimer was the navy's go anywhere and do anything vessel in the Pacific. In charge of directing and supervising the roughshod deep sea divers on board was master diver Ed Starkey. Starkey was a leather-skinned and gruff voiced hard hat diver from the Vietnam era who pushed his men to get the job done regardless of danger and uncertainty. Master diver Starkey led the Reclaimer into salvage operations and open ocean rescues for many years. Starkey's Boys is a sailor's true story of the navy's toughest training, deep sea dive school, and most arduous duty, two years on the salvage/rescue ship USS Reclaimer. From the dangerous streets of Panama to the bomb covered landscape of Kahoolawe, the divers of the Reclaimer followed master diver Ed Starkey across the oceans and back. Starkey's Boys is the true story of navy diving in the Hawaiian Islands.
Book Description
Island boy is a heartwarming and tearjerking book about the journey of a thirteen year old boy form a little island in the south pacific to a city in Southern California. His life with a white American family in a city that did not allow non-whites. The book chronicles the hardships faced by the young boy in a strange place where people made fun of the way he spoke and his brown skin. For the first time in his life, he faced discrimination and humiliation. Everyday he cried and longed for his carefree life in the islands with his extended family. America was not the land of freedom that he had heard about as a boy. It was a harsh and cruel country that made him cry. However, he persevered through the hardships, fought the racism, and eventually realized the American dream. He entered the teaching profession and climbed through the ranks to become the deputy superintendent of the California Department of Education. But the road to success was difficult because he did not fit into any of the major racial categories. He was the island boy.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic Masterpiece!!!.......2007-04-17
I love this book because...1. As I said before, it is already a megahit for the lawsuits against the author and Lynwood USD in both federal and state courts. 2. Gives practical examples on how to take the law in your hands. 3.It is a great example of demagogery and how to blame personal and professional failures on others. In conclusion, only a district like Lynwood USD could portray a book written like in 9-10th grade English as a great masterpiece...But don't worry Dhyan, you are still our hero. All of us, plaintiffs, owe you eternal gratitude for this literary masterpiece.
More to come.
Book Description
By the age of 11 Stephen Cronin was more trouble than his widowed mother could handle. He was becoming a "tough"-running the streets of Rockland with his pals, skipping school and refusing to respond to even the strongest threats. After much soul searching, his mother sent him to live with an elderly couple farming on Matinicus Island, isolated from the rest of Maine by 20 miles of cold Atlantic Ocean. In his autobiography Stephen recounts the slide into delinquency on the streets of Rockport, his arrival on Matinicus Island and the next six years living under the patient tutelage of "Grandfather" and "Grandmother" Hall. Viewed as an outsider, Stephen struggles to learn the island culture, earn his keep and fit in within a community whose values are different from those he developed to survive in a big city. Stephen Cronin complied his autobiography at the age of 88. His memories are windows into the challenges of rural life in maritime Maine in the mid 1800's, as well as testament to the eternal power of love to rescue a child.
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