Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction

Customer Reviews:

A mixed bag.......2007-09-27

No one will read this but anyhoo...Raise High the Roof Beam is vintage Salinger and gives us some real insight into the Glass family. The second half I found frustrating to read and really feel like it is some convoluted monument to Salinger himself. Seymour an Intro seems intent on extolling the virtues of Seymour the poet. It is rather odd though that not one poem is shared. It is a lot like attending a concert and having them talk about what the music would be like the whole time. This book (Seymour an Intro) is more of an essay on what would make a great poet. Oh well, Franny and Zooey, The Nine Stories, and of course Catcher in the Rye were fantastic. I guess you can't be ON all the time.

Salinger's Best.......2007-04-10

I did not think anyone could beat Catcher in the Rye in its quirky yet real humor. But I was wrong. Salinger's Raise High is even better. The characters are so well sketched out that you feel like you are sitting with them and the madness of Catcher lingers in them. A MUST buy for Salinger lovers.

Crease By Crease.......2006-07-12

J.D. Salinger's last published work is more than 43 years old now, and still stirs many in the same absent way Seymour Glass animates his brother Buddy in this pair of stories first published in 1963. Are both cases of delusional devotion?

In the first story, "Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters," originally published in The New Yorker in 1955, we get what amounts to Salinger's first deep-dish treatment of the Glass family saga ("Zooey" saw print later, and previous stories featuring the Glasses were far less insular) as Buddy shows up for Seymour's wedding, only to find Seymour stood up his bride. In the second piece, 1959's "Seymour: An Introduction," Buddy foregoes any semblance of plot to explain who Seymour was.

Like a lot of other people, I am put off by the convoluted nature of "Seymour," as well as the explanations of those who defend it. Actually, there could be something to the idea of writing a plotless story, using characters like the Glasses people know from other works, but this is assuredly not it. Salinger too obviously indulges himself, spouting contempt at his generation and his critics, throwing up lame jokes and referencing obscure Japanese poets as a smokescreen to conceal his literary, intellectual, and metaphysical nakedness.

"What a marvelous convenience it would be if writers could let themselves describe their characters' clothes, article by article, crease by crease," Salinger writes in the role of Buddy, pretty much summing up the approach of "Seymour" as well as its underlying failure. His interest in his subject is not only all-consuming, it is not all that deep.

"Raise High" is a better story, though that's not saying much. "Franny And Zooey," the previously published Salinger book, also combined a better story with a weaker one, but there at least you got one terrific story in "Franny," a bold, empathetic tale of power and focus. "Raise High" doesn't know where it's going, and is in no hurry to get there. You get nice asides, like when Buddy sees an old chair and remembers a beloved bulldog, long dead, who slept there and left his chewmarks. There's also some arresting ambiguity, as when Buddy reads Seymour's journal and we get maybe a suggestion of unease at some apparent insanity.

But "Roof Beam" doesn't end so much as fizzle away, with Buddy snoozing in an empty apartment after the mystery of Seymour's absence has been resolved via an unseen phone call. Emptyness is a recurrent theme in Salinger's Glass writings, here as in "Franny & Zooey," where various Glasses are often seen in isolation thinking or writing about absent kin. For such a happy family, there's an overwhelming sadness about the Glasses that suggests Salinger found himself in a bit of a dead end with them, one from which he never emerged. Further evidence of this can be found in the web-available "Hapsworth 16, 1924," Salinger's last public blast, published in The New Yorker in 1965.

Salinger was one of the most important American writers of our lifetime, not to mention a seminal figure of our culture, but his greatness lies elsewhere, not here. Read this only if you are a Salinger completist, or else interested in the price genius can extract from its recipients.

Carpenters a great Salinger story, Seymour not so much.......2006-07-03

Raise High the roof beams is a standard Glass tale involving Buddy attending Seymour's wedding in 1942. It is a different look into the Glass family, depicting Buddy's interactions with non-family members, as opposed to the other stories. Seymour: An Introduction I did not enjoy as much. It is longwinded scatological and excruciating to read at times, there are far to many run-ons and poor segues, and you can see that Salinger tries to hard to showcase the narrator as a "conflicted writer". It differs from Salinger's other works as more of a philosophical statement, instead of a straight-up story with philosophical undertones, and this is where Salinger's talents are lacking. Where Vonnegut and Kerouac found the balance of story jumping, and mass dialogue, Salinger comes off as more of an annoyance. The first portion being a jumble of "Hemmingwayesque" rants, I often found myself skipping the quotations (which greatly benefits the story), and footnotes. The best portions are the physical description of Seymour as well as his athletic prowess in the 2nd half of the story. A must read for Salinger fans none the less, not his best work, but there is still some brilliance within the pages. (More so Roof beams then the latter)

Half of it's a tough undertaking..........2005-12-31

...which doesn't make the experience any less rewarding. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters is a complete joy...and like the other Glass stories, a fun part of the family puzzle. Seymour: An Introduction feels less fulfilling. While it provides much information that helps the Glass-family-follower, much of it seems unformed, rambling and rawly philosophical. Nothing wrong with that unless you'll feel more rewarded by an actual story in the second half of this collection.

Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenters And Seymour An Introduction

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Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenters And Seymour An Introduction
Salinger
Manufacturer: Little Brown and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000CDKHHQ

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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour an Introduction
J.D. Salinger
Manufacturer: Little Brown: Boston 1959.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Salinger at His Best

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An introduction
J.D. Salinger
Manufacturer: Little, Brown & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Nine Stories

ASIN: B000GS05HY

Customer Reviews:

Salinger at His Best.......2007-07-24

(This review is based on the Penguin Edition, paperback.)

Much like "Franny & Zooey", the book that comes right before this one, "Raise" is divided in two stories, and that "Seymour: An Introduction" is not a subtitle to the former, it's the second story of the book. Before you even consider reading this volume, you must have read "Nine Stories" and "Franny & Zooey"; well, it's not that you couldn't enjoy them in the wrong order, but it would pain my little heart if you read them in an anachronological way. You may consider reading "The Catching in the Rye" before as well, but it's not required.

Talking of which, "Raise", like the preceding volumes, doesn't use the same tone as "Catcher"; not at all. The narrator of these two stories is Buddy Glass, and he's one wordy fellow. The first story "Raise", is one of the best I ever read by Salinger; it is fantastically written, with that ever-rich style Salinger so well masters, and it honestly is hilarious. But not the obvious hilarious, it's subtle, but so funny, and so profound at the same time. It's a pure joy to read and that definitely makes Salinger one of my favourite writers of all times, and God knows if he has some fierce competition to deal with.

The overall story is about the Glass family, as in many of the stories of "Nine Stories" and as in "Franny & Zooey", which is why you should definitely have read those two books before you get to this one.

As in the precedent book - "F & Z" - the plots are minimal, but that's not what matters the most. Even though little happens, a lot happens, really. And it's just so good, I can't tell you enough. I'm sure that it won't please every reader out there, but if you have read other books by Salinger and loved his style, wittiness, and heart, this book will be a must-read to you.

The second story, "Seymour", challenges the conventions of story-telling and at times is very confusing. It's definitely not the same style as the first story, but it's worth reading. It, too, is a pleasure. And you get to know more about the Glass family, and that alone is worth the effort that the text may sometimes put you through. It's part of the fun, though, and it makes for an original read.

So if you feel ready for clumsy wedding partes, Japanese poetry, reclusive teachers living in the woods, women with metal in their voices, soldiers with never-ending coughs, and cryptic quotes written with soap on the mirror of the bathroom, this is the book for you!

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and, Seymour: An Introduction (Bantam)

Average customer rating:

If you hang in there, it's worth the effort.
Are all your stars out?
no title

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters; and, Seymour: An Introduction (Bantam)
J. D. Salinger
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: B000BGV69M

Customer Reviews:

If you hang in there, it's worth the effort........2007-06-19

I'm a longtime lover of Salinger's writing, but I've never been able to get through Seymour. I liked Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, but I would always get bogged down in the first 20-30 pages of Seymour and stop reading it. In the beginning of the story he jumps around a lot, and his paragraphs can go 2 or 3 pages long. I always felt like I was listening to a clever and witty narrator who didn't care at all about connecting with his audience. But after getting through these first pages, I started to really like the writing. There is a great letter from Seymour to Buddy that you're bound to like if you like the emotional, family exchanges in Zooey. There are also some great sections where Buddy speaks directly about what writing means to him. They're fascinating, and you won't find a more moving discussion of writing anywhere.

Are all your stars out? .......2006-03-06

In some obscure interview from the 1970s an amateur, elderly "reporter" finagled her way into a meeting with Salinger and about the only thing she got out of him other than a raised eyebrow and cold shoulder for having snaked her way into his solitude, was the following quote: "I don't care about politicians - they limit our horizons. I try to expand horizons." I don't recall the context but I think this encapsulates the meaning behind the title "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters". This carpe diem is younger sister Boo Boo's wedding day mantra for Seymour, written with soap on a mirror. It is June 4th, 1942 and a hot New York summer day. Seymour Glass, the Glass family Zen guru and idol, is about to be married to his fiancé Muriel, but does not show, ostensibly because "the flight ceiling" for his plane ride from Ft. Benning, GA did not "raise" in time. Significantly, Buddy is the only Glass family member able to attend his older brother's non-wedding. "Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters" is Buddy's detailed recounting of that vacant afternoon six years before Seymour's suicide. It essentially reads like a mystery in that the "action" centers around the question: what's going on with Seymour? Having only read "Nine Stories" and "Franny and Zooey" we have only had snapshots and vague reminiscences of Seymour, mostly from Buddy. Even "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" is supposedly from Buddy's hand. Here, we are tantalized with a little more information, but it's never enough (even the long-winded, obsessive "Seymour, an Introduction" will only wet the appetite of the most devoted Salinger and Glass sage fans). "Raise High" has an easy-going post-war dialogue and banter akin to "Catcher" and "Franny & Zooey", making it an enjoyable read at face-value; but as with most of Salinger's stories there's more than meets the eye. In addition to the mysterious "Fat Lady" we now have the mute, delightfully grinning old man with top-hat and cigar; more ghostly presence than reality. The turgid comments of the bride-to-be's guests are classic Salinger, and we sympathize with irritated brother Buddy's tossing back some scotch as he serves Tom Collins' to them at his apartment. He sneaks away for a moment and reads Seymour's 1941-42 diary, discovering Seymour's self-description as a "paranoiac in reverse who suspects people of trying to make him happy". Even though he claims to be happy with his fiancé, he doesn't really believe that he'll make her happy, and thus an understated hesitancy to marry. Nevertheless, they do elope later that same afternoon despite the non-wedding. As for why Seymour never appears (and he never does physically appear in any story except to die in "Bananafish") the irascible and pushy Matron of Honor disdainfully relates Seymour's phone-call to Muriel the previous night explaining how he was "too happy" to be married and that the wedding needed to be postponed until he felt "steadier". In his diary Seymour writes that he felt "too keyed up to be with people", mystically adding that he was feeling as though "he was about to be born".

This brings up the prophetic story of "Teddy" (1953) which symbolically closes "Nine Stories". Here is the tale of Seymour's reincarnation, as I see it. 1942 is not only the year of Seymour's awkward marriage, it is also the year of young savant Teddy McArdle's birth. As Seymour's dies his "spiritual death", Teddy (whose facial descriptions exactly match those of Seymour as described in "an Introduction", among other uncanny resemblances) is born. At ten, in late 1952 his sage-like qualities renown, in much the same way that adolescent Seymour was a popular TV game-show whiz, Teddy predicts his own death. Through a diary (another common Salinger device for revelation) he provides two possible dates: that same day, 10/28/52 or his 16th birthday on 2/14/58. The connections with these dates are as of yet beyond me, but there are far too many coincidences to not believe that Salinger attaches significance to them. For example, the publishing dates of "Bananafish" (Seymour's death) and "Teddy" (a re-incarnated death) are exactly 5 years apart.

"Seymour, an Introduction" is somewhat of an encomium with profound insights into art, writing, and life (i.e. writing not to please but because "all your stars are out" & giving it your all - and be warned, Salinger is certainly not writing to please here!). This self-described, self-absorbed panegyric is an essential key to understanding the Glass cycle, but leaves more questions than answers. Buddy is revealed to be the author of "Bananfish", "Raise High", in addition to "Zooey" and potentially "Teddy" (there are references to "Catcher in the Rye" it would seem too). Anyhow, this would change our perception of the stories, for the implication would be that Buddy - ostensibly not the disinterested 3rd person of Salinger - has been telling us about Seymour. And even the notoriously unpublished "Hapworth 16, 1924" (available on-line, among several other uncollected, unpublished stories), which the verbose NY Times critic K. Michiko in her 1997 review judges a "sour, implausible and completely charmless story", suggests some sort of "purposeful disfigurement" of a precocious Seymour by an embittered Buddy. Michiko and other critics agree that the implication is that Buddy is jaded and re-writing his family history. Therefore, we would be reading Buddy's "scripts" for his actor siblings. There is some support for this in Salinger's use of the Kafka and Kierkegaard quotes related to this theme in Seymour's "Introduction", but there has to be more to it than that. Seymour speaks through Buddy as though he were an amanuensis for his spirit. From what I've read in "Hapworth" (the real "charmless" thing is having to read on-line!), and likewise with "Raise High" and "Seymour", there is definitely much to be reckoned with here. Only serious readers of Salinger will get it, or want to, but will be gratified I think with the level of depth here.

There is a metaphorical reference to an "outrunning of one another", when Seymour chases down a racing Buddy at the end of "Seymour". At the half way point of that story where Buddy/Salinger takes a two and a half month break from writing due to "acute hepatitis", Seymour overtakes and consumes Salinger (or is it Buddy?). This is an epiphanal moment for those who enjoy Salinger's increasingly elliptical writing and are curious about what he's aiming for with the Glass family. These two stories create more questions than answers, adding a whole new dimension to his earlier stories. The real question is whether or not there will be more revelations to come. Will Salinger, I wonder, have the audacity to produce and print Seymour's hundred some-odd haikus which Buddy so tantalizingly describes to us? Or is this all wishful thinking to hope for more from a man who hasn't published a morsel since 1965? The mystery continues, and sadly, maybe no one (including Salinger himself) cares anymore. Well J.D., shall we indeed see, more?

no title.......2005-11-18

Please note that I am reviewing only "Seymour, an Introduction".
I don't think I'd ever read Salinger before, and this piece was a pleasant surprise. Hard to describe, is it a short novella? Fiction, a homage to Buddy Glass's brother, Seymour, who committed suicide eleven years before, written in the voice of Buddy Glass. This was first published in The New Yorker in 1959. As it is all written as an essay, with no dialogue and precious few paragraphs, I doubt it could get published today. Talkative, conversational style, as if the reader were simply sitting beside him. Of course I liked it. Difficult to believe it is fiction. Or is it? Wonderful line about writing on page 187. If you had your heart's choice, what piece of writing in all the world would you most want to read? Then sit down shamelessly and write the thing yourself.

Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters & Seymour, An Introduction

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Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters & Seymour, An Introduction
J. D. Salinger
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters & Seymour, an Introduction
J.D. SALINGER
Manufacturer: Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters / Seymour an Introduction
BLANK Endpapers Slight Fox , Former Owner XLIBRARY STAMP J. D. Salinger
Manufacturer: Little Brown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JD7XTO

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Raise high the roof beam, carpenters ; and, Seymour: An introduction
J. D Salinger
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters And Seymour An Introduction
J. D. Salinger
Manufacturer: Bantam, 1981
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Corporate con games from the #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING author.

On the cutting edge of high-tech corporate warfare, two state-of-the-art con artists find the noose tightening--when their ultimate con turns against them.

Con artist Kidd and his partner-in-crime are about to pull off the perfect sting-until they find themselves on the wrong end of the ultimate con.

Customer Reviews:

Mark this one "Out of print".......2007-07-09

This book was origionally published in 1989. The information in it is hopelessly out of date now (2007). For example, he talks about a 2400 baud modem as if it were cutting technology!
At one time it probably made a good read when the technology was accurate and up to date. However, it's not current. I suggest that you skip this book for something with technology newer than 20 years old!

a great beginning to the Kidd series.......2007-03-30

I finally got around to read one of my favorite author's early novels, The Fool's Run, by John Sandford. The Fool's Run introduces Kidd (no first name is ever given). Kidd has been featured in four Sandford novels and this is the first (the Empress File is second). He's an artist by day and a computer hacker by night.

Anshiser Corporation has problems. They are developing a new fighter jet for the US Defense Department. Their corporate rival, Whitemark, is also developing a new jet. Whitemark has stolen some technology from Anshiser that threatens to destroy the company. The beautiful Maggie Kahn finds Kidd painting on the riverbanks of the Mississippi and gives him an offer he can't refuse. It seems that Maggie knows all about Kidd's abilities with computers. She offers him a job to destroy Whitemark and reap the rewards of a big payday.

Obviously, the technology in this computer related thriller will be outdated, but that doesn't take away from the fun of reading one of Sandford's first novels. The first thing I noticed is the high quality. Sandford started out great and has remained that way. I enjoyed learning how Kidd and friend LuEllen (full-time thief met). We're also introduced to Bobby, Kidd's hacker friend that gives him some much needed assistance. Fans of Sandford and the Davenport series will love this book. Those of you who have read Dead Watch will have deja vu reading an ambush scene located in the deep woods of West Virginia.

This is a traditional Sandford novel, with a lot of suspense, bad language and sex. Kidd and LuEllen are interesting characters. They are, after all, thiefs, and LuEllen does have a drug habit. Still, you'll find yourself rooting for them as they try and outwit Whitemark and live happily ever after.

Forgettable and sub-par for Sandford.......2007-01-13

I have been reading John Sandford's Lucas Davenport series for years and find them generally to be excellent, but I had avoided the Kidd series as I had heard that they were lighter in nature and content.

I should have listened to the advice.

The book concerns company sabotage where a company owner hires Kidd and his team to infiltrate and sabotage the computer workings of a rival company.

Now, I am not a computer person so I don't know how much of this hacking business was factual or fanciful so I concentrated on the actual story. I found it pretty dull stuff and maintaining my solidarity behind John Sandford, I skimmed the last 100 pages just to say that I had finished the book, no matter how disinterested I was. I couldn't summon up any interest in the characters or the storylines at all.

One distasteful moment is when the lead characters kill a watchdog. Didn't want to read about the killing at all and left a bad taste in the mouth.

KIDD BOOKS.......2006-03-04

Can't go wrong with a Sandford book.... Love the Kidd series hope to see more.

Mediocre Sandford.......2005-05-26

This story's main problem is that it is significantly outdated IT wise which detracts from the thrust of the whole thing. Whilst it is an easy 'plane' read and has some of Mr. Sandford's trademark elements, in the end, it is not a satisfying experience as old hat technology merely underpins a flimsy story which suffers from both predictability, and at some points, extreme stetches of incredulity!

Stick with the Prey Series which are in a different league from this unremarable rendition of a very old theme saddled with even older IT elements.

Average customer rating:

THe First two thirds were good. the last third was great.
Industrial sabotage by computer
Fast-paced, computer hacking mystery that kept my attention!

The Fool's Run
John Camp
Manufacturer: Henry Holth & Co (J)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Computers | Science & Technology | Teens | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0805009906

Customer Reviews:

THe First two thirds were good. the last third was great........1998-10-31

I really enjoyed this book. AS Kidd gets his assignment, hires Luellen and Dace, and begins his project, it is just fast enough to keep you interested.Then, right around the time Dace dies, it really picks up. THe plot centers around this Tarot-reading, Computer-hacking painter who is hired by a military defense company to sabatoge another company's computer systm. This book was areally good read and I can't wait to read 'the empress file'

Industrial sabotage by computer.......1998-01-15

I read this book until 3 am and finished it afer several hours of sleep. Kidd is hired to sabotage a rival company's computer system. He in turn hires a female cat burglar to help. I am a retired computer programmer and this book really held me.

Fast-paced, computer hacking mystery that kept my attention!.......1997-04-25

This book is part of a 2-book series. I read them out of order because of the publisher's comments on the back of each one. It said that The Fool's Run was the sequel to the The Empress File. It's actually the other way around......... I love these two characters... Kidd and LuEllen. They are very intelligent, ingenious and fun-loving people. I can't believe they get away with all of the mischief they cause, but its a fast, fun read. I'd love it if John Camp (Sandford) would continue this series! John Sandford writes very intelligent, suspenseful books. I'm already hooked on his "Prey" series. Every year I patiently await the arrival of the next sequel

Investment Clubs: How to Start and Run One the Motley Fool Way

Average customer rating:

Great beginners book.
Very very useful and practical reference tool
Great Book!
Excellent book for a summary of how to start an invest club.
Quick and easy

Investment Clubs: How to Start and Run One the Motley Fool Way
Selena Maranjian , and Brian Bauer
Manufacturer: Motley Fool
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Public Finance | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Introduction | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Stocks | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1892547007

Book Description

Because investment clubs allow members to minimize risks and share knowledge, many investors are seeking them out. This guide, brought to you by the creators of the best-known personal investment site on the Internet, shows you how to set up a club, recruit members, and keep them informed and motivated.

Customer Reviews:

Great beginners book........2000-06-21

In starting an investment club it's important that everyone involved has a good idea of what to expect from a club. In signing agreements and feeling as though you are going to be bound to a group for a long term endeavour, this book helps to ease the anxiety that goes along with the club forming experience.

As with any other Motley Fool book this one has a reasonable balance of good, clear concise information, and foolish humor.

As a primer for beginners, this book is the best I've seen. It has lots of samples of forms and the agreements and by-laws. It is written at a level that any investor should understand what is going on.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in starting an investment club.

Very very useful and practical reference tool.......2000-05-17

My friends and I (all women) just recently started an investment club and this book was just great. It provided useful forms, guidelines and warnings on how to setup your club and who should be in your club. A lot seems like common sense and lot isn't. We took this book with it's nice forms, etc. and ran with it. Today we have a bonafide investment club, filed our taxes and have been making investments that make us happy (not necessarily rich).

Like some of the others I bought other investment club books but you really don't need them. This one will do just as well and it's entertaining to boot.

Great Book!.......1999-05-07

I have read both Starting and Running a Profitable Investment Club: The Official Guide from the National Association of Investment Clubs and The Investment Club Book in addition to this book.

While the other two books are very thorough and very well done, this one is the easist to read and understand.

I recommend all new Investment Club members to try this book.

Excellent book for a summary of how to start an invest club........1999-03-30

My sister and I were looking for info on starting an investment club for our family and we turned to the Motley Fool book. It was great for everyone in our family as we are all novices to the investing game. It was easy to read and everybody got through it before our first meeting. A big, big help!!!!

Quick and easy.......1999-02-14

My friends and I at my work place were interested in starting an investment club but we were not sure how to do it until one of the women said: "Aha, Motley Fool has put out a book about it!" So, we ordered the books, highlighted everything, and got excited about starting a club. And we did it all because of this book.

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Fool's Run
John Sandford
Manufacturer: POCKET BOOKS (SIMO)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0743415604

Book Description

Kidd is a pretty good painter, but it's selling his genius with computers that pays the rent. The billionaire owner of Anshiser Aviation offers him his biggest ever payday to deal with a corporate spy and wreak havoc on the computers of Anshiser's rival, for whom he was working. For his money Kidd is even willing to work with a team -- LuEllen, a cat burglar, and Dace, a journalist who'll do anything for a scoop.

Customer Reviews:

A great story.......2007-04-22

This novel exemplifies everything wise and wonderful in McKillip's art. There's a plot, a mystery (which the Editorial Review on this page annoyingly solves--don't read it!), memorable characters, lyrical prose, and a kind of clarity that much of her recent work seems to lack. I loved Fool's Run when it came out, and I still love re-reading it.

A vision of light.......2002-04-22

"Fool's Run" is one of the many good books written by Patricia McKillip prior to her current run of fantasy novels. It's definitely worth reprinting, and hopefully it will be sometime.

Terra Viridian is a young woman on a colony, who sees a vision and destroys fifteen hundred people with a laser rifle. Deemed insane and dangerous, she lapses into a waking coma and is sentenced to live in an orbital prison called the Underworld. There, she spends seven years stuck in her strange, inhuman vision of light.

Seven years later, she is subjected to the experimental dream machine, and for the first time other people see her seemingly insane visions. A man named Aaron Fisher searches for the long-lost sister of Terra Viridian, after his pregnant wife was killed by Terra. Elsewhere, a band of cubers come to the Constellation Club; one of them is the enigmatic Magician, and the other is the Queen of Hearts, a beautiful woman with heart pins in her red hair and a golden mask hiding her face -- and her tragic past. But there is a connection between the Queen of Hearts and Terra Viridian. And when the vision touches the Magician as well, he and his friends set out to find what it is that made Terra kill those people, and what dreams of light.

As with her fantasy books, Patricia McKillip falls into no plot cliches. Though this space opera contains some elements that all SF books have to some degree, there's a fantastical bent to it all, and a lack of the usual parts such as aliens, ultra-powerful ships, and so on. This is a story where you can't predict what is out there, and can't guess what and why.

The characters start out as enigmas and gradually unfold in front of the reader. We have Aaron Fisher, the man tormented by his lost love; the beautiful Queen of Hearts, who is determined to keep her past a secret until it becomes vitally important; Terra Viridian, a hollow-eyed prisoner locked in her dream for years, until she has to wake up; and the Magician, perhaps my favorite character, who is in some ways the most mysterious and entertaining person in the whole book.

The writing is starker than her fantasy books, except in the last fourth of it; there we have the dreamy beauty of language that McKillip is famous for. She balances it nicely, as such language would be totally out of place in a grubby bar than out in the stars over an alien planet. We are also treated to more of McKillip's musings on revenge, loss, and forgiveness. There is some innuendo unsuitable for kids, but this is fine for teens and adults.

One of the most original SF books I've read...

Definitely worth re-issuing.......2000-07-21

I came to Patricia McKillip's science fiction from her fantasy and was immediately hooked by the tale of two sisters, one of them a musician and the other, a visionary, mad-dog killer. The musical imagery was especially evocative in this story of a futuristic Orpheus a.k.a. the Queen of Hearts, who rescues her sister from the Underworld (an orbiting penal colony). The killer sister, Terra Viridian comes to the best end possible, after we discover why she killed fifteen hundred of her fellow soldiers. That mystery is the heart and plot of the book.

"Fool's Run" is beautifully written, with characters that are drawn with the precision of diamond on glass. All of them are totally transparent; totally innocent. I ached for all of them, especially for Terra Viridian. The ending is unsettled. The King of the Underworld gives up his throne and joins the Queen of Hearts' band---a superficially happy conclusion. But the thing that was responsible for the deaths of fifteen hundred soldiers is now watching them from orbit.

The vision is light..........1999-09-20

"The vision is light." Seven years ago, a vision drove Terra Viridian to the murder of fifteen hundred innocents underneath the blazing sky of Desert Sector. Now she waits within the orbiting penal colony known as the Underworld, doomed to a life sentence, seeing nothing but the endless, enigmatic vision unfolding before her eyes. On Earth, Patroller Aaron Fisher, whose wife was one of Terra's victims, searches for answers and for the missing sister of Terra Viridian: he too is driven by a vision. The Underworld revolves in its double ring of light and dark, Terra waits and Aaron searches...but things are changing. Quasar, the Scholar, Gambler, the Nebraskan: they are the band Nova on a off-world tour beginning at the Underworld, led by the Magician, a musician who can play anything, who shares in the alien visions unfolding within Terra Viridian's mind. And joining them is the Queen of Hearts, a musician who hides her past behind a mask of gold; who, like Orpheus, will go down into the Underworld in search of the thing she loves...in search of a vision.

Set in a futuristic environment, where Earth is divided into fourteen sectors under the eye of the Free World Government, where the weapon of choice is the light-rifle and sol-cars form daily air traffic among the towering ghettos, "Fool's Run" proves itself capable of blending both the distant future and the ancient past, the immediacy of the present and the atmosphere of myth. Its language is rich, precise, effortlessly describing the alien imagery of Terra's vision and the bar where Nova plays; characters reveal themselves through speech and action, not through long exposition; and the plot unfolds with the certainty of legend. Patricia McKillip's exploration into the world of science fiction is not to be missed. "Pick a card from Fortune's morning," and read "Fool's Run." It will not disappoint.

McKillip is as masterful at science fiction as at fantasy..........1999-07-16

The year is unknown, and the setting hauntingly familiar. In the orbiting penal colony known as the Underworld, convicted mass murderer Terra Viridian dreams of light. An enigmatic musician known only as the Queen of Hearts travels with her band, Nova, carrying secrets behind the gold mask of her face. A federal agent, his wife murdered by Terra Viridian, searches for answers in silence. In classic McKillip style, these disparate elements are woven together by detailed, surreal prose into a story as futuristic as anything by Theodore Sturgeon, as rich and compelling as the ancient myth of Orpheus. Science fiction is not a field into which Patricia McKillip seems to venture often, but "Fool's Run" proves that she should make the attempt more often. Here, the results are stunning.

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The Fools Run
Camp
Manufacturer: A Signet Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JCMJDK

3 John Sandford KIDD AND LUELLEN book set: THE FOOL'S RUN / THE EMPRESS FILE / and THE DEVIL'S CODE

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3 John Sandford KIDD AND LUELLEN book set: THE FOOL'S RUN / THE EMPRESS FILE / and THE DEVIL'S CODE
John (John Camp) Sandford
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000QB3HZI

3 Titles in the Kidd and Luellen Series - Fool's Run - Empress File - Devil's Code

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3 Titles in the Kidd and Luellen Series - Fool's Run - Empress File - Devil's Code
John Camp (aka John Sandford)
Manufacturer: berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000L9OA2E

Product Description

3 massmarket paperbacks

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Fool's Run
Patricia A. McKillip
Manufacturer: New York: Popular Library, 1988
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0812463447

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Fool's Run
Patricia A. McKillip
Manufacturer: Warner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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