Book Description
GBF Discussion; Guide online
Introduction by Cynthia Ozick.
Customer Reviews:
Boring plodding book - 120 pages and still too long.......2007-06-29
Somewhere after realism stopped being about murder and turned to ordinary people doing ordinary things, the literati thought it'd be a great innovation to present the most boring people in society acting out boring lives. The works of Arthur Miller represent this genre quite completely. Forgetting that everyone is unique in some way or the other and we all have quirks, these books chose to focus on the most pathetic individuals and claim them as Everyman.
Tommy Wilhelm is one of the biggest losers in fiction. He's whining about his wife and children. His father doesn't understand him. His acting career was a bust and his sales career is dead. So he invests with a confidence man and spends most of the book worrying that this guy will rip him off. Of course, this guy does rip him off; so he gets to hear "I told you so" from both his wife and his father. You don't like him. He's not interesting. The entirety of the book is to take an unlikeable drone and make him whine for 100 pages.
Besides the historical significance (who knew that poor people ever lived on the Upper West Side?) the book is a trifle and a waste of time. Even at 120 pages, it's much too long.
Of Fathers and Sons.......2007-06-07
I recently finished reading Martin Amis's EXPERIENCE: A MEMOIR in which he cites Saul Bellow as a literary father figure (moreso, it seems, than his own author father Kingsley Amis). This made me want to read something by Bellow and since SEIZE THE DAY is a short novel (114 pages) from his peak period I chose to read this book first. Cynthia Ozick's introductory essay was not a very helpful introduction to the book. She quotes heavily from the novel, which is a bit of a spoiler. Perhaps it would have been better to read her essay after reading the novel.
First published in 1956, the novel is about a middle-aged man in New York City who is separated from his wife (and sons) and living in a residential hotel, the Gloriana, the same hotel where his father keeps a separate apartment. I appreciated this book as a portrait of a middle-aged, middle class white male in mid-twentieth century America. One feels both sympathy for and frustration with the main character, Tommy Wilhelm. He's intelligent and well-meaning, but also weak and easily swayed by others' opinion of him and what he needs to do to become a "success." A failed Hollywood actor, he seems startled to learn, like Willie Loman, that personal attractiveness is not always enough to ensure success. His disappointment in himself is echoed by his own father, Dr. Adler, who is unwilling to give him words of encouragement (or the much-needed financial aid his son seeks). But his birth father is not the only father figure in his life to betray or disappoint him. There was also Maurice Venice, the sleazy agent who encouraged Wilhelm to drop out of college to pursue a career in pictures. And then, in the present day of the story (the entire novel unfolds in a single day like the much longer ULYSSES) there is Dr. Tamkin, a dubiously credentialed psychiatrist, who lures Wilhelm to invest in lard in the Chicago commodities market, precipitating the primary crisis of the novel. Against this tortured backdrop is the story of Wilhelm's own efforts to remain a visible and active part in his own sons' lives while trying to initiate a divorce from their mother. While some readers may perceive the depiction of the "blood-sucking" Margaret as misogynistic, Bellow's depiction of this failed relationship seems authentic, especially for the era he was writing about. Fathers' rights were few and women, even separated and divorced women, were expected to stay at home and take care of their children. And in the end, SEIZE THE DAY is a novel without either untarnished heroes or blameless victims. Even disappointing father figures can speak profound truths, as Dr. Tamkin does when he tells Wilhelm, "Don't marry suffering. Some people do. They get married to it, and sleep and eat together, just as husband and wife. If they go with joy they think it's adultery." In SEIZE THE DAY Bellow has given us a powerful meditation on what it means to pursue the soul's deepest desires and to mourn the many deaths and losses even the most optimistic among us is bound to encounter living out the life they've been given.
A Day in the Life.......2007-05-12
I found this book immensely satisfying in its form and its substance. Yet I felt quite relieved to finish it. The main character Wilhelm's feeling of oppression and despair was so contagious that like him, I as the reader felt that I was searching for relief. And all in the space of one day - or in fact, less than a day. A day in the life.
As the story progresses, it does not progress. It stands still, and Wilhelm is still trapped in his search for the simple, the beautiful. That is, until the last page, when he sinks into "the happy oblivion of tears." The readers, feels like clapping and cheering with every tear he sheds.
This is a man's world, where people "make a killing" in the growing complexities of 1950s New York. Even old men are caught in the obsession of making money. One gets the feeling there is no space for women here.
Although the hypnotic Dr Tamkin holds sway over Wilhelm, his main conflict is with his father - depicted as a vain, cold old man. Wilhelm suffers from that coldness. He is trying to find the warmth.
Bellow seems able to sum up a character in one paragraph. Also, in a Dickensian way, the appearance of the character IS the character.
This is a complete gem of a novel. We are taken through an important day in the life of Wilhelm, in the intensity of New York on the edge of the modern world, vividly depicted. It is a book you will want to dip back into time and again, for its beautiful pearls of language and emotion.
Review of seize the Day.......2007-03-09
The book was pretty goo, never would have read it if i didn't need it for my English class
Powerful and bleak.......2007-02-05
The American Dream is such an awesome, vast, teeming notion that promises so much and forgets those who are broken on its huge wheel. Tommy Wilhelm is one such man, a salesman in mid life who has lost his job, left his family and now festers in limbo, worrying, fretting with his burden in a hotel room. Everywhere he turns, he is scorned. By the mysterious Tamkin, a wild and shifty charismatic character who insists a fortune can be made easily be made by closely watching certain patterns: 'You think the Wall Street guys are so smart - geniuses? That's because most of us are psychologically afraid to think about the details.' He is, of course, a conman, who deceives Wilhelm out of the last of his money, but Wilhelm is too gullible to see this.
Then there is his father, Dr Adler - a proud, dying, stern man who treats his son with wretched contempt when he is forced to ask for money, unfeelingly, his father emasculates Tommy's condition in phrases that cut deep in their scathing: 'You cry about being helped,' he said. 'When you thought you had to go into the service I sent a check to Margret every month. As a family man you could have had an exemption. But no? The war couldn't be fought without you and you had to get yourself drafted and be an office boy in the Pacific theater. Any clerk could have done what you did. You could find nothing better to become than a GI.' Ouch.
All of this combines in a memorable scene towards the end of the novella, after Tommy has been humiliated by his ex wife, who holds him to his payments towards their children which he cannot afford and his father, boling with rage, rejects him entirely: 'Go away from me now. It's torture for me to look at you, you slob!'. Tommy goes out into the street: 'And the great, great crowd, the inexhaustible current of millions of every race and kind pouring out, pressing round, of ever age, of every genius, possessors of every human secret, antique and future, in every face the refinement of one particular motive or essence - I labor, I spend, I strive, I design, I love, I cling, I uphold, I give way, I envy, I long, I scorn, I die, I hide, I want.'
Despite all the circumstances, the slings and arrows Tommy has suffered, he retains the essential human essence, the grappling with existence that Bellow stared into deeply in his work. There is something of the defiance, the glorifying human passage of Augie March, that remains, even in the most desperate, desperate circumstances.
Book Description
Opposites do attract--but is that really such a good idea?
Whit Stillman has won international acclaim as one of the wittiest, most original filmmakers of his generation--"the Balzac of the ironic class, the Dickens of people with too much inner life." in the words of Stephen Hunter in The Washington Post. Now, twisting the film novelization genre in an entirely new direction, Stillman has produced something equally fresh and surprising; a novel based on the characters and events touched on in The Last Days of Disco--the movie The New York Times called "deft, funny, and improbably touching"--with results that are even defter, funnier, and more improbably poignant.
Jimmy Steinway, the "Dancing Adman" of The Last Days of Disco (and, we later discover, a frustrated, desk-drawer novelist), gets his lucky break when Castle Rock Entertainment, unable to find anyone else to write a novelization of the movie, reluctantly gives the assignment to him. Jimmy struggles to bring to light the true origins of the story at Kate Preston's party in Sag Harbor, and the fast, then slow, then fast again unfolding of his love for Alice Kinnon, the boyfriendless social failure from Hampshire College whose quiet charm detonated a bitter rivalry between him and four of his Harvard classmates. (He also sets the record straight about the beautiful, passionate, painfully candid Charlotte Pingree.)
Set primarily in Manhattan in the early 1980s--but spanning two continents and two decades--The Last Days of Disco, With Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards redresses the wrongs done these characters and this period, while helping to ameliorate the comic novel shortage in the world today.
Customer Reviews:
Booooooooooring.......2005-05-04
Loved the movie, but this novelization adds nothing new and really lacks the charm that the actors bring to the dialogue. In fact, it's an almost word-for-word adaptation. Go buy the movie instead. It's a much better value.
Stick To The Movie.......2004-12-29
Without the music (which is described throughout), this book is rather lame. A novelization of the movie, written as though someone asked Jimmmy Steinway (the ad guy who kept trying to get his clients into "The Club") to write it years after he wrote the movie script. You're left wondering: did this really happen or not? Why did Stillman feel the need to write this book?
Although it does explain certain character's motivations, which weren't really clear in the movie, it kind of goes overboard with a little too much insight, even for a novel. In my opinion, it wasn't realistic, and the characters were even more superficial than the movie. In the movie, you know nobody acts that way in real life, but it's a movie! And since when is the IRS a client of an advertising agency? Why would the Charlotte and Alice both be only TWENTY years old in the September following their graduation from college? No mention of skipping grades, starting first grade at age four, or both of them going to college during the summer, in which case, they'd still both be twenty-one. This isn't the 1930's where kids start first grade at age five, there is no sophomore year in high school, so everyone graduated high school at age sixteen. Just a glaring inconsistency which bothered me.
The movie is much more entertaining.
Entertaining and Insightful.......2004-01-11
Let me start off by saying that I have always been a fan of Whit Stillman's films (and am sad that there are only 3) so when I saw that he had written this novel I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I ordered it through interlibrary loan and started reading it only a few days after watching the film, The Last Days of Disco, for the third time.
At first I thought the book was going to be exactly like the movie (some scenes and lines are exactly the same, as if Stillman was transcribing the script) but then there are paragraphs of insightfulness from Jimmy and also added scenes or dialogue that is not in the movie.
I love the way Jimmy makes all sorts of commentary on society as well as specific people. For me, this book gave more depth into the movie and characters I already loved and was well worth reading through some things that I already knew really well from the movie.
Another thing that is fun about the book is that at the end ("cocktails at pretrossian afterward") all the charcters meet up again--17 years after the original story took place--after the movie screening! I think it really works well that the book is so self-aware about the fact that it was a movie first. It makes it all that more real feeling.
The only thing I would say against this book is that, well, I can see why Whit turned to film. I really think his way of writing works better in that media. And, although, it's a great book, there are times when the writing or dialogue just seems better suited for film (although, I suppose in film you would miss out on some of the more personal thoughts and commentary that I loved so much in the book). So I guess it's a give and take sort of thing, but as an example, sometimes Stillman seems to repeat certain words which, in a book, doesn't really work that well for me. But in diologue has an interesting effect on screne. But, as the books says at the very beginning, books and films have different strengths and weakenesses, so I guess that sort of thing happens.
Anyway...I would recomend this to any Stillman fans out there (and anyone else interested in a witty and insightful novel). And watch all of Stillman's movies, too!!
Not too different from the movie..........2002-07-18
I love Whit Stillman. I miss Whit Stillman. We haven't heard a cinematic peep from this fine director, among the best of the 90's, since he moved to Paris. Apparently the City of Light, or at least its ridiculous rents, inspired Whit to write and here we have the results.
Briefly, the literary conceit is that Jimmy the Dancing Ad Man from the film is drafted to do a novelization of the movie. Omnipresent in the film, he is largely a background character, but becomes the point-of-view for the book. The novel rarely ventures too far from the movie, which I thought was the lesser of his three films to date.
Some complaints:
- I was rather hoping that the "with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards" hinted at an expansion of the scope beyond the movie. Although providing us with additional character development, lacking in the film due to the large ensemble cast, the scope of the novel is the scope of the film.
- The entire book is written in the speaking-style of Jimmy the Ad Man. This is extremely funny for the first third, but wears thin. You're investing far more time with Jimmy than the two hour duration of the film and you may tire of the digressions and so forth.
It's still a fine book and I'd recommend to anyone who liked the movie. Just don't watch the film and read the book back to back, or even close together, otherwise you won't get much out of it. It's still very funny and I'd be interested in reading more by Whit should Paris (or the landlord) get him in the mood again. Perhaps something new and original...
Superb.......2002-02-07
An unusual novelization of a film after its theatrical release, that also happens to be written by its director/writer. By telling the story of the movie from the point of view of one of its characters -- who knows about the movie, its script, and various other background materials -- The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards actually improves upon what was an excellent, enjoyable film to begin with. But don't be concerned that this is some trite post-modern, deconstructionist gobbledygook, because Stillman is just as talented a novelist as he is a filmmaker, and he allows the wonderful, affecting story about a group of young people finding their way in the world hold center stage. Set against his marvelous descriptions of New York City at night, and its early 1980s club scene, along with the great dialogue Stillman's films are known for, Stillman's novelization of his own film succeeds greatly on its own.
Book Description
In the stew and dazzle of New York City, savvy, irreverent Fritz Malone–who Susan Isaacs called “the perfect balance of noir P.I. and decent guy”–is embroiled in a string of grisly murders that drags him behind the lurid headlines into the tangled affairs of some the city’s most beautiful people and their ugly truths.
When two women linked with
charismatic late-night TV personality Marshall Fox are found brutally slain in Central Park, Fox becomes the prime suspect and is charged with the murders. At the tabloid trial, one of Fox’s ex-lovers, Robin Burrell, is called to testify–and is instantly thrust into the media’s harsh spotlight. Shaken by a subsequent onslaught of hate mail,
Robin goes to Fritz Malone for help. Malone has barely begun to investigate when Robin is found sadistically murdered in her Upper West Side brownstone, hands and feet shackled and a shard of mirror protruding from her neck.
But it’s another gory detail that confounds both Malone and Megan Lamb, the troubled
NYPD detective officially assigned to the case. Though Fox is in custody the third victim’s right hand has been placed over her heart and pinned with a four-inch nail, just as in the killings he’s accused of. Is this a copycat murder, or is the wrong man on trial?
Teaming up with
Detective Lamb, Malone delves deeper into Fox’s past, unpeeling the layers of the media darling’s secret life and developing an ever-increasing list of suspects for Robin’s murder. When yet another body turns up in Central Park, the message is clear: Get too close to Fox and get ready to die.
And Malone is getting too close.
In Cold Day in Hell, Richard Hawke has again given readers a tale about the dark side of the big city, a thriller that moves with breakneck speed toward a conclusion that is as shocking as it is unforgettable.
Praise for Richard Hawke’s Speak of the Devil
“Richard Hawke has managed what some writers spend a lifetime trying to accomplish: He has come up with a character and place that should entertain in countless stories to come.”
–Rocky Mountain News
“Fast-moving, first-rate . . . Hawke’s plot grabs us by the throat. . . . He keeps the suspense mounting.”
–The Washington Post
“[A] bang-bang thriller . . . We are absolutely powerless to stop reading.”
–Chicago Tribune
“Mr. Hawke’s [novel] tours the city . . . with unusual streetwise panache . . . but this isn’t a book that coasts on its urban geography. It lives by its wits, and its wits would work anywhere.”
–The New York Times
“A deftly paced debut that crackles and pops from page 1.”
–Booklist (starred review)
“Thrill-a-minute pacing and inspired plot twists.”
–Newsday
“[An] amazing thriller . . . Hawke’s dialogue is sharp and snappy and the plot moves with all the energy of New York City.”
–Cleveland Plain Dealer
“Hawke razzle-dazzles us with . . . bada-bing narration and quirky, well-drawn characters.”
–The Boston Globe
“[Packed] with a breathless pace and hair-pin turns.”
–South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Customer Reviews:
Too much talk.......2007-06-09
Worse than his last book. Too many questions being asked all the time. Rambles on and on.
Not Up to Expectations.......2007-06-06
Hawke's Fritz Malone was a great character in the debut novel by Hawke, Speak of the Devil. He was funny and likeable. He a had a great girlfriend and great relationship with her that added to the book. He also had a relationship with the girlfriend's father (his former partner) who added spice, wit, wisdom and and color to the book. Unfortunately, these aspects were missing in Cold Day in Hell resulting in a middle of the road mystery. Fritz' humor was in check. He and the girlfriend were shallowly on the outs because of Fritz' case and the father never appeared.
Fritz is a unique PI. He has an excellent rapport with the NYPD - how many fictional PI's can say they have good relations with their local police force? He shows humor without being cynicism - although less humor in this novel than in the first. He is generally a good guy for whom it is easy to root.
Cold Day in Hell opens with a murder that looks like it was committed by the same perpetrator that committed two prior murders. That suspect is a late night TV star currently being tried for the first two murders. Is it a copycat? Is the star innocent? The victim was a lover of the star and had testified in the nationally telecast trial. Soon a second murder occurs that also points to the TV star and Fritz is on the case.
The mystery is fairly good. There are plenty of suspects and motives to keep the reader hopping. However, I found the presentation a bit disorganized. I also found that Fritz' involvement was a bit far-fetched. He had no client nor interest, except that he had met the first victim - who lived across the street from his girlfiriend - to look into hate mail she had received after testifying against the TV star.
As good a character as Fritz is, the other characters in this book, especially the show biz ones seemed boilerplate. There is an excellent police woman who does have depth and is interesting. She and Fritz carry the book.
All in all, this was a decent murder mystery. I don't know that if this were the first book I read by Hawke that I would read any others by him. However, his Speak of te Devil was so excellent, I look at this as a temporary misstep - that was still okay - and I look forward to his next one.
Prepare to lose your preconceived ideas of what a detective novel can be. .......2007-05-30
Having written only two books, Richard Hawke already has earned himself a place on the "must read" list of detective fiction fans. SPEAK OF THE DEVIL introduced Fritz Malone, a very different (and memorable) private investigator whose territory is New York City. It must be noted that Hawke doesn't write straightforward crime novels; to say that he deconstructs the genre would be inaccurate, but he certainly stretches and tests its boundaries. The result is an implicitly edgy narrative that creates an atmosphere in which anything might happen.
COLD DAY IN HELL centers on Marshall Fox, a wildly popular late-night television personality whose professional and personal life is fodder for daily morning water cooler discussion. The fact that Fox is a bit of a rake only fuels his reputation. But when two women who are linked to him are found brutally slain in a unique, sinister fashion, he is charged with their murder. The trial is, as one might expect, a circus --- it is even referred to as "O.J. East" --- and the testimony of Robin Burrell, one of Fox's many ex-lovers, regarding his points of arousal only serves to further inflame the rabble. Burrell, who happens to live across the street from Malone's significant other, retains Malone to deal with the avalanche of harassing mail and phone calls she receives.
When Burrell herself is murdered in a fashion similar to those for whom Fox is on trial, it raises the issue of whether Burrell has been executed by a copycat killer or if the D.A.'s office is trying the wrong man for murder. Malone is working with Megan Lamb, an emotionally troubled New York police detective assigned to the investigation. They begin digging into Fox's life and discover no lack of suspects or motives for any of the killings. When yet another brutal murder occurs --- similar but not identical to the first three --- Malone comes to the realization that knowing Fox is dangerous, and investigating the murders of his associates might be even more so.
Hawke is not afraid to take chances with his plot or characters. I about dropped the book at the end of Part 1 and then again near the violent climax of this exciting work. Hawke's ability to tinker with the form of his narrative while keeping the story true to the genre results in a unique, and ultimately addictive, reading experience. Pick up COLD DAY IN HELL and prepare to lose your preconceived ideas of what a detective novel can be.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Fritz Malone is back!.......2007-05-08
I thoroughly enjoyed the first installation of the adventures of NYC gumshoe, Fritz Malone and am sooooo happy to see that Richard Hawke is continuing the series. Yeah!
Sophomore Jinx.......2007-04-21
The second in a series is often disappointing failing to live up to the promise a first book, such is the case with Richard Hawke's COLD DAY IN HELL. Mr. Hawke, who also writes the wonderful Hearse mysteries under the name Tim Cockey, established a strong character in Fritz Malone in SPEAK OF THE DEVIL but does nothing with him this time around. This isn't a bad book but it drags almost from the beginning only to pick up in a series of two page chapters towards the end but never really kicks into gear and the final action sequences are disjointed, contradictory and, in the end, unsatifing. Mr. Hawke/Cockey has done much better in the past and, based on his terrific track record, should do better in the future. As for this one, wait for the paperback.
Book Description
What would legendary Boston Celtics coach and 16-time NBA champion Red Auerbach say is the most critical quality for a person to be successful? Would his advice differ from 10-time NCAA championship coach John Wooden's? What would each say to a young person just starting out in pursuit of their dreams? What is the best advice they were ever given?
It took author Christian Klemash more than two years of research, persistence, and original interviews, but now he's ready to pass on the best advice you'll ever get. Only the rare individual has had the opportunity to pick the brain of just one legendary sports coach—let alone thirty-four of the best sports coaches of all time. Klemash gives sports fans a once-in-a-lifetime chance to learn valuable life lessons from the most famous, intelligent, and victorious coaches ever. The legends span the sports world, from gold medal-winning gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi and three-time college football championship coach Tom Osborne to four-time World Series-winning baseball manager Joe Torre and hall-of-fame boxing trainer Angelo Dundee.
These coaches know how to teach top athletes about character and winning, how to manage pressure at crunch time, and how to bring out the best in their players when it matters most. How to Succeed in the Game of Life shares their insights into sports, life, and the most vital keys to sustain success.Featuring Exclusive Interviews with:
Red Auerbach, 16-time NBA World Champion
Bobby Bowden, College Football's All-Time Winningest Coach, 2-time National Champion
Scotty Bowman, 9-time Stanley Cup Champion
Bill Cowher, Super Bowl Champion
Tony Dungy, Super Bowl Champion
Dan Gable, 15-time NCCA Champion
April Heinrichs, Gold Medal Winning Coach of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team
Bela Karolyi, The World’s Greatest Gymnastics Coach
Bill Parcells, 2-time Super Bowl Champion
Emanuel Steward, Boxing Trainer of 30 World Champions
Joe Torre, 4-time World Series Champion
Bill Walsh, 3-time Super Bowl Champion
Lenny Wilkens, NBA’s All-Time Winningest Coach, NBA Champion
John Wooden, 10-time NCAA Champion
And More!
Customer Reviews:
A Great Read.......2007-08-26
Wow!Could not put it down.An extraordinay self help book.Gave it to my kids they loved it.Don't miss this one
What a great read!.......2007-07-25
I took it on vacation with me and I couldn't put it down. A great book for aspiring athletes and coaches as well as your average Joe who works 9-5. The coaches discuss a variety of topics from their childhood to how they motivate their players. Any easy read for all ages.
Game of life.......2007-07-24
I've read through Game of Life and I enjoyed it very much. There are so many things to take from this book, not just into sports, but also some reflections on life. I would recommend this book to everybody.
Coaching advise from athletic coaches.......2007-06-27
A fun read, especially if yoiu're a sports fan. I read it in search of things that would help my own ability as a coach in my company. Much of it is light stuff but the easy read makes it fun nonetheless and there are few golden nuggets laced throughout the book.
Overcome Adversity.......2007-04-12
Anyone looking for inspiration, either for their own life or to share with others, will find a gold mine of quotes here. This book isn't just for sports fans.
Book Description
Spanning more than 100 years, New York: 365 Days is a spectacular collection of then-and-now photographs that capture the rhythms and moods of the greatest city in the world. Selected from the vast archive of The New York Times, the extraordinary images in this book include many rarely-seen moments, with stops at famous landmarks and memorable events as well as a dizzying array of evocative everyday New York scenes. Featuring an introduction by bestselling New York writer Gay Talese, New York: 365 Days offers a portrait of Gotham that natives and visitors alike will find riveting.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful New York.......2007-10-11
I gave this book to my sister because her dream is to go to New York and she was extremely happy with it.
The book contains beautiful pictures from many different years (the book includes many black-and-white photos) and many different places and gives a very good overview of how fantastic New York is.
I've never been in New York, but once I'll go there, maybe together with my sister?
A Fantastic Photo Collection of NYC.......2007-06-18
This is just an amazing collection of fascinating photographs from the archives of the New York Times. Gay Talese offers a brief introduction, but the stars of the production are the incredible photographs drawn from the turn of the 20th century to the present, one for each day of the year--with some in color. There is no table of contents; it is best to just start thumbing at random. Common topics are: personalities; buildings; neighborhoods; music performances; subways; bridges; contruction; weather; immigrants; sports; and politicians. Each picture is captioned and has a short write-up, often a brief excerpt from the NYT story where it originally appeared. Some fotos I found especially moving: returning World War I troops marching past the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1919; early shots of the lower East Side; LBJ and John Glenn in a tickertape parade; JFK visiting the city; plus a 15 page collage of sunsets, morning with fog, and sunrises. The common theme is people living and interacting in the city. Beautifully printed by Abrams, there is an index to the pictures and photographers. I can't think of another book that so artfully conveys the essence of NYC as completely as this inexpensive volume.
Nice Book.......2007-01-23
Nice book, not very expensive, mixing old and news photographs of subjects
about New York.
A good journalistic panorama.
Chunky Big Apple.......2006-11-09
A thick, 744 page book presenting the flavor of the world's premier city. Though the title suggests a visual year it is more a selection of photos arranged round themes: sports, travel, markets, the weather, construction, entertainment, civic events, personalities etc. Each gets a few pages with some images going back to the nineteenth century though most are from the thirties onward.
I thought the selection was quite impressive, there is something for every New Yorker here. Some of the names of the fifty-one photographers in the index will be familiar to readers of the Times. Neal Bonenzi, Sam Falk, Vincent Laforet and Ernie Sisto get the largest showing. Two of Laforet's are particularly stunning: his night time Manhattan skyline from July four 2005 with the sky alight with fireworks and the amazing shot from January thirteen, 2001 looking down on two workman repairing a colored light at the top of the radio mast on the Empire State (I was always curious about this photo because neither of these guys are wearing hard hats). An unfortunate omission, perhaps, is any work by Weegee. He brilliantly captured the lives of the working class over the years but his photos only appeared in the down-market tabloids.
The landscape format of the book works perfectly, the photos (with some in color) are either one to a page or one to a spread, and all have comprehensive captions. This is a fascinating book, dip into it anytime to remind you of the rhythm of the city.
*I wonder if the publishers will do similar versions using the photo libraries of other great metro papers like the San Francisco 'Chronicle', Chicago 'Tribune' or the Washington 'Post'?
Amazon.com
I Am Not Myself These Days is Josh Kilmer-Purcell's outrageously intimate memoir of a young man living a double life in the heady days and nights of mid-'90s New York City. As we follow Kilmer-Purcell through alcohol-fueled nights and a love affair with Jack, a crack-addicted male escort, he offers up an alternative universe where normal is "a Normal Rockwell painting that, if you leaned in close, would discover is made up entirely of misfits."
By day, Josh drudges off to a Soho-based advertising firm where he creates ad campaigns for corporate clients. At night, he dons live goldfish to complete the look of Aqua, a 7-foot-tall award-winning drag queen who trolls gay clubs in search of her next drink/one night stand. In between, he spends his time trying to build a stable, loving relationship with someone whose beeping pager is a constant reminder of the pair's almost inevitable fate. Yet even as Josh's escapades get increasingly absurd, Kilmer-Purcell is always there to remind us that the story we're reading is real, and that fundamental human emotions and desires are essentially universal. In the end, everyone just wants to be loved and to fit in somewhere. And while the lesson may seem hokey at times, Kilmer-Purcell's sharp wit rescues the memoir from becoming an exaggerated sob story:
The night before any major holiday is always a blockbuster night at gay clubs. Thousands... across the city fortifying themselves for long trips home where they'll be met with awkward silences, stilted conversations and cousins with whom they'd experimented with decades ago.
From start to finish, I Am Not Myself These Days is an extraordinary journey into an amazing life. To be a fly on the wall is an adventure that should not be missed. --Gisele Toueg
Book Description
I Am Not Myself These Days follows a glittering journey through Manhattan's dark underbelly -- a shocking and surreal world where alter egos reign and subsist (barely) on dark wit and chemicals...a tragic romantic comedy where one begins by rooting for the survival of the relationship and ends by hoping someone simply survives. Kilmer-Purcell is a terrifically gifted new literary voice who straddles the divide between absurdity and normalcy, and stitches them together with surprising humor and lonely poignancy. As Booklist raved "as tart and funny as a Noel Coward play, for Kilmer-Purcell is especially good at dialogue, and, as in Coward's best plays, under the comedy lies the sad truth that even at our best, we are all weak, fallible fools. Again and again in this rich, adventure-filled book, Kilmer-Purcell illustrates the truth of Blake's proverb, 'The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.'"
Customer Reviews:
Personal, funny and emotional with great writing........2007-10-09
Despite the sadness and difficult times the main chacter emerges stronger to start to new life with stronger determination to start new. The writing is fresh and captures you and propels you into the situations with humor and a very personal touch. Makes you realize your life and style is not the only way through life and learning.
A resonating love story, in drag.......2007-09-14
Yes, this book is funny -- very funny, in fact. And yes, it is titillating, a peek into a world of drag queens and male escorts and a life that is seemingly alien to most potential readers. And yet, "I Am Not Myself These Days" turns out to be a universal love story, one in which even the most outrageous characters become familiar and real.
Kilmer-Purcell doesn't shy away from the details of his life as an over-the-top drag queen in New York City, nor does he soften the story of his tumultuous relationship with his male escort lover or of that lover's drug abuse that ultimately tore them apart. He treats his subjects with a self-deprecating humor that lies over his vulnerability like a dusting of powdered sugar, avoiding both maudlin sentimentality and denial. In the narrative, the author dulls his pain and his fragility with alcohol, but he does so without any pretense of self control or toughness. When he meets and falls in love with Jack, he finds both redemption and destruction, and in the dizzying rise and then subsequent disintegration of their relationship, the author discovers unknown wells of strength and compassion. He does so without bitterness or judgment, ultimately telling a story of love found and never subsequently lost.
Like John Irving at his best, Josh Kilmer-Purcell brings eccentric characters from an unfamiliar world and makes them not just sympathetic, but real and even familiar. He shows that hearts love and break for everyone, and in sharing his funny, sad and ultimately beautiful story, he allows our hearts to do the same. A very highly recommended read.
Love it!.......2007-08-22
I just finished reading this book and I LOVE IT! It's a must read, I think I have a new favorite author.
Grotesque! Disgusting! Terrific!.......2007-07-30
"If we don't laugh at it all, we'll cry," my good friend Father David used to tell me about the horrific parts of our lives. Kilmer-Purcell is brilliant in his insight into human nature--as flawed and decadent as it is. His memoir is shocking, funny--shockingly funny, at times--and poignantly written. Bravo, Josh. Aqua lives!
Impossible to Put Down.......2007-07-15
I had the book sitting on my shelf for a few months and picked it up last night -- in a desperate effort to rid myself of a bad book I had just been reading.
I didn't put it down except to sleep and shower.
No need for the recap -- that has handily been done by others before me -- just know that if you pick this book up, you'll be caught up in a whirlwind of laughter, sadness, relatability in ways you would never imagine and harsh truths.
I was fortunate enough to have the paperback with some extra materials, including a follow-up about "Jack" that just about shattered my heart.
I look forward to new materials from Kilmer-Purcell.
A very quick, easy read that will utterly surprise you.
Book Description
In "Brooklyn Remembered: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers, Allen has captured the emotion, the drama and the sweet reverie of what many baseball people and fans consider the greatest sports triumph ever, the 1955 Brooklyn Series win over the Yankees. It was the one and only Brooklyn championship for the team filled with Hall of Famers like Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Sandy Koufax and even fringe lefty Tommy Lasorda. Two years after the title the team moved from Brooklyn's cozy Ebbets Field to laconic Los Angeles. All of the 11 surviving members of that historic baseball team contributed their poignant and personal recollections of that season that warmed the baseball world and sent millions of memorable moments across America, memories that last to this day in millions of homes across the country. Two game winner Johnny Podres, the handsome bachelor, recalls how he drove to the game from his aunt's home in nearby Staten Island a few days after his 23rd birthday and promised his aging teammates a World Series victory. He delivered with a 2-0 triumph. Historic baseball figure Jackie Robinson and supportive teammate pee Wee Reese, knowing their time for titles was short, reached their ultimate goal. Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, Clem Labine, Don Newcombe and all the rest of Dem Bums eased the pain of Brooklyn's millions with that emotional victory. Allen has talked to all of the Brooklyn 1955 survivors and to the women who carry the torch today for the fallen Dodgers, such as Rachel Robinson and Joan Hodges, for memories of that moment and the impact on their lives half a century later. Other significant figures, such as broadcaster Tom Brokaw, opera legend RobertMerrill, opponents Willie Mays, Whitey Ford and Stan (The Man) Musial recall their days as Brooklyn fans, opposing players or just Ebbets Field fanatics. This is the stirring, funny, romantic, touching, historic story of one team in one town in one time that has lasted across the decades. The Brooklyn Dodgers of 1955 were an epic collection of talented athletes and heroic men.
Customer Reviews:
A VERY NICE READ.......2006-12-26
AUTHOR MAURY ALLEN TAKES US BACK TO 1955, THE YEAR THE BROOKLYN DODGERS FINALLY WON THE WORLD SERIES. HE INTERVIEWS THE 11 REMAINING PLAYERS AND BRINGS BACK SOME GREAT NOSTALGIA. SOME OF THE SURVING PLAYERS ARE KOUFAX, NEWCOMBE, SNIDER AND GAME SEVEN WINNER PODRES. THE STORIES ARE INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING. I ENJOYED THIS AND RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL DODGER FANS AND FOR BASEBALL FANS WHO WANT TO LEARN ABOUT A SLICE OF BASEBALL HISTORY.
Great Subject, Mediocre Book.......2006-02-04
This book was a big disappointment, starting with its awkward subtitle. At first reading it looks like "the one-thousand-nine-hundred-and fifty-five days of the Dodgers," as if the team had only lasted that long! "The Days of the 1955 Dodgers" would have been better.
But the big problem with this book isn't the title-- it's Maury Allen's slapdash and dull writing. Hard to believe this guy was a successful sportswriter for so many years. His prose is careless, rambling, repetitious, and lack-luster. There are even some spelling errors-- the kind of thing we've come to expect from 20- and 30-something sportswriters, but that you don't expect to find in a writer of Allen's generation.
What saves the book and makes it worth reading-- and the reason I gave it three stars rather than two-- are the many extensive quotations of surviving Dodger players from the 1955 team, and others associated with the team that season. Thanks to Allen's long-established credentials as a sportswriter, he was able to get "face time" with many former players and team officials who are difficult or impossible for others to interview. Ever try to set up an interview with Yogi Berra or Willie Mays? As they say in Brooklyn, "Fuggeddaboudit!"
This is a pleasant enough read for Brooklyn Dodger lovers, but that wonderful team and that magical year deserve better than they get in this so-so volume.
Good Read.......2006-01-17
For those of us still in the Brooklyn area and those who ventured far away, this book takes you back to the care-free days of the "Brooklyn Bombers." Go for it!
A LOOK BACK AT THE MAGICAL 1955 BROOKLYN TEAM.......2005-10-18
THE BOOK GIVES YOU INSIGHT INTO THE 1955 SEASON AND WHAT WINNING THE WORLD SERIES WAS LIKE, THROUGH THE MEMORIES OF THE SURVIVING ELEVEN MEMBERS OF THAT TEAM AND OTHER FOLKS WHO RECALL THE STRUGGLE AND EUPHORIA OF WINNING THE FALL CLASSIC AT LAST!BBOOKLYN DODGER FANS AND BASEBALL HISTORIANS WILL ENJOY THE STORY OF THAT MAGICAL SEASON!
The 1955 Dodgers Revisited.......2005-07-01
Respected baseball writer Maury Allen has provided us with an update on the 11 surviving members of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers' championship team on its 50th anniversary. The book is just over 200 pages long and Allen discusses his visits with the former players and the wives of some of the deceased players. I found several of the stories told in other books on Brooklyn's beloved team, but there were a few stories I hadn't heard before. One involved Gil Hodges who has received more votes than any other player who has not been elected to the Hall of Fame. Supposedly Veterans Committee member Ted Williams has been instrumental in keeping Hodges out not because of his playing ability, but because Hodges was more popular as a manager in Washington than Williams was. Dodgers' executive Buzzie Bavasi felt Jackie Robinson should not have retired as a player when he was traded to the Giants following the 1956 season. He felt Robinson could have become a possible assistant who could one day become the general manager of the Dodgers. That never would have happened with Walter O'Malley owning the team due to the tension that existed between O'Malley and Robinson. Although the 1955 team won Brooklyn's only championship the 1952 and 1953 teams were better than the '55 version. The team was on the way down agewise by 1955 while the 1952 and 1953 team (Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer gang) were in their prime. Author Allen also recounts an incident with manager Walter Alston over some unaccounted soft drinks that hadn't been paid for by the players. Allen wrote a column about what he felt was a petty issue, and Alston invited Allen into his office to discuss it. It resulted in Alston physically attacking Allen. Traveling secretary Lee Scott heard the ruckus and came to Allen's rescue. Several of the members of this team keep their championship ring in a safety deposit box to pass down to succeeding members of their family after they are gone. I find it too bad the ring can't be worn and enjoyed, but they feel the risk of robbery is too great. The book also includes a recap of each of the seven World Series games. No team had ever come back from being down two games to none and won a seven game World Series before. I did find one minor mistake. Allen mentioned that Pirates' slugger Ralph Kiner was traded to the Cubs in 1952 when the correct year is 1953. I'm old enough to remember this team and Kahn's 1953 team as well, and I was happy to read their will be a reunion party for the 1955 team in Brooklyn in the fall of this year, 2005.
Book Description
The Chrysler Building is surely the jewel in the crown of New York City's skyline. Completed in 1930, the 77-story Art Deco skyscraper--the tallest in the world at the time it was finished--quickly became the symbol of big city glamour, excitement, and style. Its cloud-piercing spire and gleaming, steel-clad ornament depicting gargoyles, hubcaps, and the winged helmets of Mercury came to represent the thrill of the Machine Age at its most exuberant.
But, until now, this magnificent building has also been one of the least documented and studied, a simple result of the fact that there were no known archives relating to its design or construction. This material was lost in the decades following its completion, or so everyone believed, until author David Stravitz discovered a box of negatives on the floor of a defunct stock photo company, just days before they were to be shipped off for silver reclamation. The never-before-seen photographs, reproduced as sumptuous duotones in this oversize book, illustrate the day-by-day construction of this American icon.
The photographs were taken by professional photo companies hired to document the construction of the building. In so doing, they also captured the day-to-day life taking place on the streets and in the environs of the Chrysler Building in exquisite detail.
This book beautifully illustrates the history of one of the most important buildings in New York as it emerged from street level to spire.
Customer Reviews:
THE New York Skyscraper.......2005-05-02
This is a wonderful book with amazing vintage black and white period photos. The book mostly focuses on the building of the skyscraper in the 30's and my only qualm with the book is the lack of current photos of the building, but that is a minor critisism and should not reflect on the overall excellent quality of the book. The Chrysler Building is a pinnacle of Art Deco style and I love it. The history of the building is so interesting and story of the spire is such a quenticential New York moment. I recomend this book to anyone who loves the romance of the skyscraper and this one is magical.
A Loving Restoration.......2005-04-20
This book is very expensive, but very worth it.
As described, the author discovered, almost by accident, a real treasure trove of exquisitely high quality photographs taken to document the building's completion to architectural specification. Rounding out a wonderfully detailed description of the economic and entrepreneurial forces behind its construction, these beautiful pictures bring the reader back into not just a major building project but a whole era. See the clothes, the cars - everything that made this a pinnacle of American exuberance and optimism.
While the text is good, you might want to look at two other better examples of stories of the buildings that symbolized this era: John Tauranac's book on the Empire State building and "Great Fortune," Daniel Okrent's rendering of "The Epic of Rockefeller Center."
They were hard times, to be sure, but often remembered with special fondness for those things which symbolized what we aspired.
Fascinating--but who is the author?.......2005-03-12
The photos are undeniably great. All that is missing is the Cloud Club. But I'm still trying to figure out who David Stravitz is. Certainly not the author. Not one of the photographs is his. By his own admission he stumbled across this work. The firm actually responsible, Peyser & Patzig does merit a few mentions but not on the cover or the title page. Of course none of this detracts from the photos but as a photographer himself, Mr. Stravitz might be a little sensitive about taking credit for the work of others. Even Christopher Gray, who contributes a lot more than Mr. Stravitz gets low billing.
The glory of Van Alen's frivolity.......2003-10-06
Author David Stravitz wisely bought over five hundred, soon to be destroyed, negatives in 1979. They pictured New York in the 1920s and 30s and in particular one hundred and fifty showed the day by day construction of the Chrysler Building. Over a hundred of them are reproduced in this stunning book. Taken by commercial photographers Peyser & Patzig, most likely as a record for the contractor Fred Ley, they show the building as a hole in the ground on November nine 1929 to the completion of the annex in January nine 1931.
There is something about pre-war photos, perhaps the chemicals used on glass plates or the type of paper used for the black and white prints but whatever, old photos seem to have a richness of texture that enhances their appearance and you certainly notice this in these pictures. As well as their quality (don't forget this was straightforward commercial photo assignment) there is plenty to see of the building construction, what is going on in the surrounding streets and several panoramas of mid-town Manhattan taken from the Chrysler Building, including a dramatic four-page gatefold.
This is the sort of detail you'll see, pages eight and nine show the empty building site (taken on November nine) and traffic on three sides, turn the page to see a photo (November seventeen) showing dozens of male spectators looking down on the building site, now full of working construction equipment, traffic and a newsstand has appeared on a corner, by December one this newsstand has become a hut and incorporated into the fencing that now runs round the site. After the exterior, the cameraman went inside to capture the lovely deco detailing.
In the back of the book there are thumbnails and captions for the photos. Page 154 has five floor plans (I was rather disappointed that there were not more diagrams showing the exterior decorative work) and you realise that the building is not oblong, the non-street end has a chamfered side. Just one of the many insights that you'll get from this fascinating photo study of one of the world's great landmarks.
For the Chrysler Building lover in all of us........2003-07-01
This is it.
This is the one you want, if you have a love for the Chrysler building's construction, her insides and outsides.
Beautiful photos - all black and white, in a beautifully presented book. It creates a brilliant record of the construction of one of the most loved buildings in the world.
Highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- This is NOT The Hours
- Ultimately disappointing
- Walt Whitman as Yogi Berra
- Cunningham does it again!
- SOME IMPRESSIONS ABOUT SPECIMEN DAYS
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Specimen Days: A Novel
Michael Cunningham
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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ASIN: 0374299625
Release Date: 2005-06-07 |
Amazon.com
Book Description: In each section of Michael Cunningham's bold new novel, his first since The Hours, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story that takes place at the height of the industrial revolution, as human beings confront the alienating realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth.
Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, "It avails not, neither time or place ... I am with you, and know how it is." Specimen Days is a genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in our greatest city and a meditation on the direction and meaning of America's destiny. It is a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today.
More from Michael Cunningham |
The Hours |
A Home at the End of the World |
Flesh and Blood |
The Portable Walt Whitman |
Specimen Days & Collect |
Walt Whitman: Poetry and Prose |
Book Description
In each section of Michael Cunningham's bold new novel, his first since The Hours, we encounter the same group of characters: a young boy, an older man, and a young woman. "In the Machine" is a ghost story that takes place at the height of the industrial revolution, as human beings confront the alienating realities of the new machine age. "The Children's Crusade," set in the early twenty-first century, plays with the conventions of the noir thriller as it tracks the pursuit of a terrorist band that is detonating bombs, seemingly at random, around the city. The third part, "Like Beauty," evokes a New York 150 years into the future, when the city is all but overwhelmed by refugees from the first inhabited planet to be contacted by the people of Earth.
Presiding over each episode of this interrelated whole is the prophetic figure of the poet Walt Whitman, who promised his future readers, "It avails not, neither time or place . . . I am with you, and know how it is." Specimen Days is a genre-bending, haunting, and transformative ode to life in our greatest city and a meditation on the direction and meaning of America's destiny. It is a work of surpassing power and beauty by one of the most original and daring writers at work today.
Download Description
A highly anticipated bold new novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours--three linked, visionary narratives set in the ever-mysterious, turbulent city of New York
Customer Reviews:
This is NOT The Hours.......2007-09-23
Wow.
What a weird and disappointing book!
I LOVED The Hours- but this is on par with The Mermaid's Chair, in terms of its failure to measure up. TMChair is no "Bees" and THIS is no "THours"!
If you enjoy historical fiction AND SciFi, you will like the way Cunningham bridges the two genre; otherwise: forget it.
Ultimately disappointing.......2007-07-31
The three stars are for the first two novellas of this three-part novel. The first story is set in Industrial-Age New York and it is, by far, the best of the three, with its eerie settings and interesting insights into 19th-century urban life. The second story takes place in post-9/11 New York and moves along at the crackling pace of a crime novel. So far, so good. In the third section -- a sci-fi "thriller" set in the distant future -- the wheels fly off entirely and it becomes painfully clear that Cunningham is just not comfortable writing in this genre. For me, this ludicrous bit of nonsense, which could have been based on an episode of "Lost in Space," almost ruined the power of everything that came before. If you can bring yourself to do it, read the first two sections and then close the book once and for all.
Walt Whitman as Yogi Berra.......2007-05-26
Specimen Days is not only the title of Cunningham's book, it is also the title of a work by Walt Whitman, the poet whose observations were apparently the inspiration for Cunningham's latest tome.
Less a novel, and more a series of three thematically connected novellas that relates each tale via different literary genres (19th century ghost story, late 20th century crime thriller, and 22nd century sci-fi love story). New York City is the backdrop for each chronicle and similarly named characters make their appearance in each.
The choreography for the presentation is provided through the observations of Whitman and each of Cunningham's stories seems to be a commentary of sorts on past and present political, cultural and social conditions.
The ambiguity at the end of each story presents the reader with various choices. It's up to you to choose optimism, pessimism, or perhaps a little ambivalence.
This book seems to reinforce Yogi Berra's famous quote: "It's deja vu all over again!!
Cunningham does it again!.......2007-05-15
Just as he did in his masterpiece novel,The Hours, he does again in this novel Specimen Days. It is brilliant. In The Hours, Virginia Woolf was the literary muse; in Specimen Days, it is Walt Whitman that ties three stories together. Each of the stories is set in a different time period with the 3 main characters named the same and most of the action occurs in New York. There are other recurring pieces as well but I don't want to give too much away.
In the Machine is the first of the three stories and it is set in 19th century New York. Lucas is a young deformed boy and the main narrator of this story. As the story opens Lucas's older brother Simon has just been killed in an accident at work. To complicate matters further, Lucas finds himself with a desperate crush on Simon's girlfriend Catherine. Simon is something of a ghost here as he reappears to each of the characters in different ways. The Whitman connection in this one is that Lucas spouts poetry from Leaves of Grass when he is under duress. Lucas will even get to quote Whitman to Walt Whitman ~ one of my favorite scenes.
The Children's Crusade is the second of the stories and it is set in present day New York as something of a mystery or detective story. Cat is the main narrator here and she works for the police answering telephone calls from potential killers, bombers, terrorists, etc.. She has a wealthy boyfriend named Simon who gets turned on by the police work she does. As the story unfolds, we learn she once had a child named Luke who died. Cat starts receiving telephone calls from young children saying they are part of "the family" and that they intend to randomly blow people up. The one thing all the children have in common is that they quote Whitman. This story has an unusual and rather surprising ending.
Like Beauty is the final story of the book and it is set in a post-nuclear future. This time Simon is the main narrator and although he looks human, he is really a robot which is evolving and he is programmed to recite Whitman's poetry when he begins to have human-like emotions. Catareen a 4 ½ foot lizard (imported from another planet to work as servants for humans) becomes his traveling partner as they escape the law and head towards Denver where Simon's creator is. On the way a young boy named Luke helps them escape and travels with them.
Cunningham's writing is so beautiful it reads at times like poetry instead of prose. I personally loved his use of Whitman and found myself digging out my old worn copy of Leaves of Grass. Although it is similar to his novel The Hours they are very different also. This book is fun and intense. If you have liked any of Cunningham's other novels, you will love this too!
SOME IMPRESSIONS ABOUT SPECIMEN DAYS.......2007-03-20
"The Hours", probably the most renowned book written by Michael Cunningham, was haunted by the presence of Virginia Woof. Besides being one of the characters in the three stories in this book, she was a sort of common thread connecting its plot: her lost battle against madness and melancholy was relived in a second story (taking place in the early fifties) about the troubled American housewife and in a first and more contemporary story about a depressed poet infected with AIDS, who turns out to be her son.
Michael Cunningham's most recent book - "Specimen days" - consists of three stories again: "In the machine" takes place in the 19th century, in the dawn of the Industrial Age; the second is a modern-day story - "The children's crusade" - depicting the aftermath of September 11 and a new wave of terrorism; "Like beauty", which sounds like a sci-fi story, happens in a distant future and in a wasted world. In Specimen days, there is a writer as a sort of intertextual reference. But, differently from "The hours", this writer is no longer a character in one of the stories. It is his style, his subject and even the soul of his writings that cuts across the whole structure of the book. But even when we identify Walt Whitman as this writer, we must be aware that the Whitman rebuild by Cunningham is not exactly the same poet celebrated by his patriotism and his pride of the greatness of North America. The Whitman in Specimen days, although he keeps his style and his voice, is a Whitman turned inside out by Cunningham along the three stories of his latest book.
The United States remains a great and powerful nation, but "Specimen days" shows us how their greatness is founded on poverty, segregation and destruction. In this context, if America for Whitman was destined to reinvent the world and be a sort of emancipator of the human soul, the three stories of "Specimen days" show us how this project of freedom has failed. One of the most beautiful and touching passages in which we can find this Whitman turned inside out is in the second story of Cunningham's latest book when a woman who breeds terrorist children justifies her actions:
"Look around. Do you see happiness? Do you see joy? Americans have never been this prosperous, people have never been this safe, They've never lived so long, in such good health, ever, in the whole of history. To someone a hundred years ago, as recently as that, this world would seem like heaven itself... And look at us. We're so obese we need bigger cemetery plots. Our ten-year-olds are doing heroin, or they are murdering eight-years-olds, or both... We're bombing other countries simply because they make us nervous, and most of us not only couldn't find those countries on a map, we couldn't tell you which continent they're on. Traces of the fire retardant we put in upholstery and carpeting are starting to turns up in women's breast milk. So, tell me. Would you say this is working out? Does this seem to you like a story that wants to continue?" (p. 171).
The recent past mentioned here is the time when the first story of "Specimen days" occurs and Walt Whitman's time as well. The wonders of a new world chanted by this American poet are very different from the sad realities of today's world, which, in spite of all the progress conquered along a century, became worse and worse. And if we consider that the third story of "Specimen days" happens far beyond our time and in a completely destroyed world, we realize that the future imagined by Whitman will be less and less possible.
Nevertheless, when Cunningham plays Whitman against Whitman it is not to criticize this controversial poet or even his vision of America. It is to show us that if Americans want to deserve the greatness chanted by Whitman, they must change their way of life, their way of seeing American progress and they must cooperate with their partners and even their enemies. Without these changes, it is not Whitman's poetry that is romantic, naïve or even false, but it is North America that, in spite of its power, reveals how fragile a strong nation can be.
Some critics have argued that Specimen days is not as good as the other books written by Michael Cunningham. In my opinion, it is a fact that the first two stories of this book are better than the third one; and "Specimen days" looks more fragmented than "The hours" or even "Flesh and blood" or "A home at the end of the world". But, if we take our puzzling times and the power of Whitman's words into consideration, it is the most impressive book written by Cunningham so far.
Book Description
"Somehow or other I seem to have slipped in between all the 'schools,' " observed Nathanael West the year before his untimely death in 1940. "My books meet no needs except my own, their circulation is practically private and I'm lucky to be published." Yet today, West is widely recognized as a prophetic writer whose dark and comic vision of
a society obsessed with mass-
produced fantasies foretold much
of what was to come in American life.
Miss Lonelyhearts (1933), which West envisioned as "a novel in the form of a comic strip," tells of an advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist who becomes tragically embroiled in the desperate lives of his readers. The Day of the Locust (1939) is West's great dystopian Hollywood novel based on his experiences at the seedy fringes of the movie industry.
"The work of Nathanael West, savagely, comically, tragically original, has come into its own," said novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg. "A new public [has] discovered in the writings of West a brilliant reflection of its own sense of chaos and helplessness in a world running more to madness than to reason."
Customer Reviews:
Reader beware.......2007-05-17
Wow. Much like Paul Bowles, this author takes no prisoners. May I suggest that you be in a stable frame of mind before reading this novel, lest it prove to be one unsettling factor too many for you. I found myself to be none too comfortable to be counted as a member of the human race at the end of this book. Written at about the same time as Raymond Chandler's early novels and set in the same real estate, The Day of the Locust is about five times as sordid. It is totally original and totally unpredictable, except for the scent of doom that pervades it from the opening page. You know that the author was writing about what he saw. Los Angeles and Hollywood were rotten seventy years ago. What must they be like now? West covers so much ground, with such economy, and it's all so readable. This devastating work is a remarkable achievement. What a staggering loss that Nathanael West died so young. And what a surprise to find Homer Simpson hiding out in such a fine novel. Highly recommended.
"Every Man His Own Carver".......2006-12-30
In both of these stunning novellas - one set in New York, the other in Los Angeles - Nathanael West shows us a world without a center, one in which the various characters are therefore free to pursue their own idiosyncratic notions of bliss. Conspicuously absent is any widely accepted code of manners which might have a tonic influence in shaping character and aspiration, or even at lowest ebb in keeping people more recognizably human than grotesque. Thus the considerable element of the distorted which figures strongly in each of these pieces. Shrike in "Miss Lonelyhearts" and Faye Greener in "Day of the Locust" are each self-absorbed to a freakish degree, though West's point in such satiric but painful drawing is to bring contemporary readers to see the frighteningly normal in such freakishness, the unacknowledged bizarreness in modern everyday behavior.
Only because it was assigned.......2006-10-17
I wish there was a rating under one star. I'm supposed to read this for a class, but, in rare fashion, I doubt that I will finish the novel. I realize this is supposed to be surreal, but must I sacrifice plot and character to immerse myself in "literature"?
Maybe I'm a product of the times, but a plot which is at least interesting would be nice, even if I don't care about the characters. Please: Barth, Barthleme, and Pynchon write complex, surrealistic fiction, but also give us characters we can care about and plots which fascinate.
The Torture Of Conciousness.......2005-11-18
Nathanael West was well practiced in the arts of revelation and cruelty that go way beyond what we normally think of as satire. "Miss Lonelyhearts" alone is a dark and disturbing jewel in his very strange crown. It bites the reader softly and injects a moral venom into the reader giving her over to experiences of psychological subtley and derangement that make ordinary psychological novels seem pedestrian - excercises in mere cataloguing. "Miss Lonelyhearts" is a visionary experience.
I wonder if Thomas Harris, the author of "Silence of the Lambs" got any of his inspiration for Hannibal Lector from the character of Shrike. Shrike is very bad. He is a sort of demonic being who cares enough about his victims to give them the very best in a form of torture that interrogates their souls and illuminates every last particle of illusion he finds in them. He doesn't eat their livers with fauva beans and a nice chiante because he doesn't need to. Showing them the nature of their souls in the hellish light of his inquiry is more than enough nourishment for him.
He is happy. He finds it no sin to labor in his vocation.
Miss Lonelyhearts himself is an abusive Christ figure who dies for no one's sins other than his own. He is a directionless victim full of lust and a malice disguised as compassion. He was born for ruin and his death is the exact opposite of anything we would ever call an apotheosis. No one's sins are redeemed. They are confirmed.
Nathanael West apparently was a self-hating jew but his moral rigor is so savage and extreme methinks he might be best thought of as a literary satanist come to torment and educate us all through demonic revelries that move in slow motion. I can't remember if there are very many colors described in this little poisonous novel because the whole effect on my inner eye is a dark wastescape composed of tones in black, false-white, and endlessly arranged shades of gray.
Surely "Miss Lonelyhearts" was one of the best novels of the twentieth century but hardly anybody has heard of it. I recommend it strongly to those who prefer their humor as black as the pit of hell, but hidden behind a sunlight that tortures the ground until spikes of grass grow up.
Surreal and Scathing.......2005-10-21
West always reminds me of Fitzy. Extremely cynical views on love and the America dream.
Books:
- She Comes First: The Thinking Man's Guide to Pleasuring a Woman
- Solutions for Singers: Tools for Performers and Teachers
- Something Beautiful for God
- Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam
- Stevie Ray Vaughan : Caught in the Crossfire
- StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup's Now, Discover Your Strengths
- Teach with Your Heart: Lessons I Learned from the Freedom Writers
- Ten Traits of Highly Effective Principals: From Good to Great Performance
- The Beatles Story on Capitol Records, Parts One and Two (Slipcase Edition)
- The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts
- Magic Tree House Boxed Set of 4, Books 9-12: Dolphins at Daybreak, Ghost Town at Sundown, Lions at
- Badlands: Library Edition
- Flying Colours
- God Thinks You're Wonderful
- Same Kind of Different as Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woma
- I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
- At the Heart of the Union: Studies of the European Commission
- Contribute to Effective Workplace Relationships
- Full of Grace: A Novel
The Street
Herzog (Penguin Classics)
Adventures of Augie March, The (50th Anniv. Edition)
Humboldt's Gift (Penguin Classics)
Henderson the Rain King (Penguin Classics)
