Book Description
"'Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass." So begins The Towers of Trebizond, the greatest novel by Rose Macaulay, one of the eccentric geniuses of English literature. In this fine and funny adventure set in the backlands of modern Turkey, a group of highly unusual travel companions makes its way from Istanbul to legendary Trebizond, encountering potion-dealing sorcerers, recalcitrant policemen, and Billy Graham on tour with a busload of Southern evangelists. But though the dominant note of the novel is humorous, its pages are shadowed by heartbreak—as the narrator confronts the specters of ancient empires, religious turmoil, and painful memories of lost love.
Customer Reviews:
A Great--And Very Different--Read.......2007-10-01
*MILD SPOILERS*
This is a sneaky book. It starts off one way--as a comic recount of eccentric, genteelly arrogant Brits (the narrator's Aunt and a high-church Anglican priest) on a quixotic mission to convert and reform Turkey. As told by the crazy Aunt's niece (?), Turkey itself (and the Turks' reaction to the Brits) is beautifully evoked. Then, a hint here, a little more explication there, then a major plot twist as the Aunt and the Priest disappear into the Soviet Union, and the book evolves into a profound rumination on love and faith, and the conflicts the two can engender.
The story is always told in an arm's length, almost unemotional, way. And I think the last page of the book, on the "eternal dilemma" of searching for the City on the Hill is one of the most moving and profound pieces of writing I have ever read.
The book is also hilarious. There is more than one LOL moment, but my favorite is when the narrator from her (?) Turkish phrase book confuses, "I don't speak Turkish well," with "Can you connect me with Mr. Yorum"--and then is introduced to a Mr. Yorum.
Kudos to whomever it was that noted that the gender of the narrator is never clearly identified. One tends to assume it is female, from the voice of the book, yet when you look back, you really don't know. The ambiguity just adds one more layer to an already many-layered book.
I'd like to conclude by noting my thanks to New York Review Classics. I have read something like twenty of them now, none of which I would have heard of, much less read, without their publication through this series. The editors have done a magnificent job in bringing back to new and more-than-deserved life these forgotten classics.
It's witty and erudite.......2007-01-11
Macaulay's Towers is clever and generally a joy to read. A familiarity with classical near east history helps but is not absolutely necessary; an appreciation of strains of high church Christian theology is almost essential. I especially liked Aunt Dot, who appears in the bulk of the book. When she takes a sabbatical, I found my attention wandering; the fantastic bits with long camel rides and driving monkeys did not appeal to me. The underlying theme of the book deals with how ones religion is manifested in ones life, and the author's views are sophisticated. Much is made of interplays between traditional Christianity and Islam; evangelical Christianity makes a minor appearance, and a few basic issues of feminism are sprinkled throughout. The book does a fine job in identifying many of the troubles which continue to plague the Levant in the present era. Recommended.
Take my camel, dear.......2006-08-12
I stumbled across Rose Macaulay while browsing through the "New York Review of Books Classics". It turns out that the Towers of Trebizond was a great hit in the UK and US back in the 1950's. I highly recommend taking a look at those wonderful reprints of older books. All praise to the New York Review of Books.
This book is a mostly hilarious sendup of conventional society (primarily British, but others do not escape unscathed) in the form of a travelogue and memoir of a youngish upper middle-class English woman who travels to Turkey with her Aunt Dot and their High Anglican minister Hugh Chantry-Pigg. A camel, Billy Graham sightings, and a disappearance into Soviet Russia are involved in this wonderfully witty tale. Macaulay also sprinkles some philosophy along the way and a sudden and sobering twist at the end.
By turns quirky, eccentric, funny, and thoughtful, The Towers of Trebizond is a nugget well worth rediscovery.
Eccentric And Touching.......2004-09-07
The Towers of Trebizond might mislead a reader who picks it up into thinking it to be a standard travel account of a journey to Turkey and the Middle East in the 1950s. However, the famous first line "Take my camel, dear . . ." will soon warn that there is much much more to this hilarious, odd little novel.
Rose Macaulay uses as narrator the ambiguously named Laurie. Most people assume Laurie is a woman, and there is some internal evidence to substantiate this, but as other reviewers have pointed out, Laurie could just as well be a man, and in some ways, the story makes more sense if he is.
Regardless of Laurie's gender, the story revolves principally around her/his Aunt Dot, one of the great British eccentrics, and her escapades on a journey through Turkey and into the Soviet Union. Her adventures, and those of Laurie, the camel, a monkey, and various other assorted characters, are hilarious. At the same time, there is a sad note of wistfulness tand a sense of loss and deprivation that are not quite so easy to sort out.
Read The Towers of Trebizond and laugh, but you'll be pondering it in more solemn moments for a long time to come.
" Considered Macaulay's masterpiece".......2004-09-01
Rose Macaulay, the author of 35 books, The Towers of Trebizond is considered her masterpiece. In it, she recounts an hilarious overland journey in the 1950s across Turkey to the legendary town of Trebizond. On the way she meet potion-selling sorcerers, dirty cops and a busload of Southern Baptists.
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The Towers of Trebizond
Manufacturer: Farrar Straus Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0374515905 |
Average customer rating:
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THE TOWERS OF TREBIZOND
Manufacturer: Reprint Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000F7PQ48 |
Customer Reviews:
A thrift store treasure.......2007-08-11
I found a yellowing English edition of this paperback on the shelf at a thrift store and bought it on a whim, thinking, it's set in Turkey? My mother loved Turkey, so I'll read it. I was not prepared for what appears to be the originator of the Bridget Jones style of narration. Laurie, the narrating character, travels Turkey with her Aunt Dot and a grumpy retired cleric, Father Pigg. An amazing travelogue, it's told in breathless, run-on sentences, mostly hilarious and casual but interspersed with thoughtful and touching meditations on morality, faith and adulterous love. This is a fine, fine novel. I'm going to investigate more Rose Macauley through the third-party sellers on Amazon.
Book Description
A collection of case studies illustrates real-world techniques, implementation, and strategies on corporate restructuring
Over the period 1981-1998, public companies with combined assets of over half a trillion dollars filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Over the same period, over 400 public companies underwent corporate spin-offs, divesting businesses valued at more than $250 billion. Each of these companies, and all of these dollars, were in some way or another involved in corporate restructuring. Gilson's cases studies have been used extensively in executive programs and are perfect tools to refer to when faced with real-world corporate restructuring issues.
Stuart C. Gilson (Boston, MA) is an Associate Professor at Harvard University and a widely acknowledged expert on corporate restructuring. He has studied and published on the intricacies of both domestic and international corporate restructuring.
Customer Reviews:
Finance with Negative Signs.......2004-01-23
Someone (perhaps it was I) has said that bankruptcy is corporate finance with negative signs. This has always been true but it is amazing how far mainstream finance has gone to try to resist the comparison. The resistance must be, must have been more cultural than economic, because it is axiomatic that anything is a bargain at the right price, and that there is no more or less money to be made in "distress investing" than in any other. Two generations ago, there seems to have been only one person in American that really understood this point - the late Max Heine, who made his grubstake by investing in out-of-favor railroad bonds in the Great Depression, and then riding the wave of prosperity that emerged in World War II. In the same vein, 40 years ago just about any bankruptcy judge would have looked on an "assigned claim" as some kind of monster.
Times have changed. Now everybody's an arbitrageur. The "vulture investors" have their conferences, their social clubs, and for all I know, their own softball team.
Stuart C. Gilson"s "Corporate Restructuring" symbolizes the sea change from the old attitude to the new. It adds the imprimatur of the Harvard Business School to the notion that vulture investing is just another way of making money. As others have noted, this isn't a work of high theory - indeed it has a kind of slapdash, direct-off-the-photocopier feel that is remarkably common in business publications. For fancy theory, you look elsewhere - in law to the likes of Douglas Baird or Lucian Arye Bebchuk; in finance to the developing lore of "real options." But the case studies are an excellent device for getting a sense of the texture and possibilities of vulture investing. It can be read with profit alongside Hilary Rosenberg's "The Vulture Investors." Ambitious students who want the full theoretical framework will match it with David G. Luenberger's "Investment Science." But Gilson's work has merit on its own as one kind of introduction to this revolution in investment thinking.
Only usefull for students.......2003-03-04
What a waiste of money.... The writer has not included any anlyses or real solutions to the cases that a provided. Unless you are a student in a class that use this book, this book gives you absolute nothing.
Good book but needs a companion text.......2003-02-18
This is a very good case book, complete with intricate case studies illustrating numerous aspects of challenges often faced in restructuring in bankruptcy. However, the book assumes a level of knowledge about M&A concepts that many readers may not have. Consequently, I would recommend using this book in conjunction with another excellent text by DePamphilis entitled Mergers and Acquisitions: Integrated Approach. There are two editions. The second edition is more complete and up to date. It also tackles some of the problems illustrated in this book.
Just a collection of old cases.......2003-01-30
This book is a complete waste of time. It is just a collection of case studies bundled together and resold. There is no analysis done. The cases are merely reprinted word for word from the original HBS cases. There are three short intros to the different sections, but once again nothing useful. Great marketing ploy, lousy book.
Corporate Restructuring: It's Not Just for Lawyers Anymore.......2002-12-05
You'd be surprised by how few business schools offer courses on bankruptcy and restructuring. I know that I was. I came to Wharton this year to teach "Advanced Corporate Finance" in the MBA program. In preliminary "due diligence," I discovered there were no finance electives on bankruptcy and restructuring. To bridge the gap, I decided to conclude my course with two modules, one on Corporate Restructuring and the other on Bankruptcy.
Material for both modules came straight from Gilson's book. Students relished the case studies. They fueled many of the most lively and engaging discussions we enjoyed all term. Students are worried about the economy. For the first time, many also sense career opportunities in the area of distressed debt. When I planned the course, I counted on both to spur interest in the modules.
What I didn't count on was how well Gilson's cases would frame virtually all other material that I covered. Key lessons resurfaced from all modules: Financial Analysis and Forecasting, Capital Structure Policy, Capital Budgeting, and Mergers and Acquisitions. In each case, revisiting the ideas in the context of bankruptcy and restructuring threw them into high relief. So much so that I was able to substitute restructuring cases for those I had intended as "comprehensive" case discussions.
As important for educators, Gilson's cases provide all necessary background information about how key legal and procedural aspects of the Bankruptcy Code influence managers' decisions. In Gilson's cases, the decisions featured are crucial to determining how to maximize value in distressed situations, as well as how to distribute it when all is said and done.
In the final analysis, aren't these *exactly* the issues that MBA courses in corporate finance should address? My students at Wharton this term sure thought so. In the spring, my two sections are also already full. I've been told the "buzz" is mostly due to Gilson's restructuring material. Hopefully, some value was created in the delivery. Nonetheless, I couldn't recommend any material more highly for anyone planning to teach a spring term corporate finance course.
Average customer rating:
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Bankruptcy and Insolvency Accounting, 2 Volume Set, 2004 Cumulative Supplement
Grant W. Newton
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Corporate Finance
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ASIN: 0471464724 |
Book Description
The 2004 Cumulative Supplement includes the following:
- Revised bankruptcy forms.
- Description of recent decisions by bankruptcy courts, bankruptcy appeals panels, district courts, circuit courts, and the Supreme Court dealing with bankruptcy and business restructurings.
- Discussion of the impact of Chapter 11 on SEC reporting.
Book Description
In 1982 Johns-Manville, a major asbestos manufacturer, declares itself insolvent to avoid paying claims resulting from exposure to its products. A year later, Continental Airlines, one of the top ten carriers in the United States, claims a deficit when the union resists plans to cut labor costs. Later still, oil powerhouse Texaco cries broke rather than pay damages resulting from a courtroom defeat by archrival Pennzoil.
Bankruptcy, once a term that sent shudders up a manager's spine, has now become a potent weapon in the corporate arsenal. In his timely and challenging study, Kevin Delaney explores this profound change in our legal landscape, where corporations with billions of dollars in assets employ bankruptcy to achieve specific political and organizational objectives. As a consequence, bankruptcy court is rapidly becoming an arena in which crucial social issues are resolved: How and when will people dying of asbestos poisoning be compensated? Can companies unilaterally break legally negotiated labor contracts? What are the ethical and legal rules of the corporate takeover game?
In probing the Chapter 11 bankruptcies of Johns-Manville, Frank Lorenzo's Continental Airlines, and Texaco, Delaney shows not only that bankruptcy is pursued by managers more and more as a strategy, but that it is becoming accepted by the business community as a viable option, and not just a last-ditch solution.
This searing exposé of current corporate practices will incite debate among corporate executives, lawyers, legislators, and policy makers.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Bother.......2004-02-27
The author should have stuck with sociology or at least taken an accounting class before writing this book. Overall, the book is what you would expect from a sociologist writing about business.
Corporate bankruptcy can be a STRATEGY!.......2003-06-05
I wanted to learn more about the asbestos problem and the bankruptcy filing of John-Mansville since I knew someone who had lung problems from asbestos. I heard about this book and got it. This is the first thing that I have read that really helped me to understand what happened when Mansville, the biggest asbestos company went bankrupt. The book is clear and explains complicated bankruptcy cases to the lay person. Now, I finally understand why people with asbestosis ended up going through years of delay in BANKRUPTCY court of all places! What is most amazing is how people who get asbestos end up being treated like "unsecured creditors" as if they lent their life to the corporation like a bank loan! Truly amazing.
Great book.......2003-02-13
I read this book for a college class. I expected it to be boring because it was about bankruptcy but instead it was really interesting... The cases do come alive and you realize bankruptcy means something different than you thought it did. This book has me interested in taking bankruptcy classes in law school, something I thought I'd never do!
The politics of corporate bankruptcy: top-rate.......2002-08-19
This book is not about the financial aspects of bankruptcy and it is not about how to turn around companies. It is about the politics of major corporate bankruptcies. It is clearly written and well documented. It is amazing how prescient the book is given what has happened at WorldCom and at Enron. For anyone that is interested in politics and the ways that Chapter 11 can be used as a strategy, this book is the best. If you want to understand why some huge companies might actually CHOOSE bankruptcy and gain some advantages by doing so, check out this book.
A Poor Use of Paper.......2002-08-14
This is without a doubt, the most uninsightful book I've ever laid eyes on. The book reads like a freshman term paper written in short order. It is clear the book was written without objectivity and any depth in understanding of finance. The book was also originally published in 1992 (or sooner). Save your money.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, published by The National Underwriter Company on January 28, 1991. The length of the article is 779 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Ambase bankruptcy looms if sale of Home Ins. Co. fails.
Author: L.H. Otis
Publication:
National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 28, 1991
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Issue: n4
Page: p1(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Arkansas Business, published by Journal Publishing, Inc. on October 8, 1990. The length of the article is 1267 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Back from bankruptcy: Pickens-Bond's new owner, Hensel Phelps, has revved up revenues to $100 million in 1990. (company profile)
Author: Rod Lorenzen
Publication:
Arkansas Business (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 8, 1990
Publisher: Journal Publishing, Inc.
Volume: v7
Issue: n24
Page: p20(2)
Article Type: company profile
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Bankruptcy and Distressed Restructurings: Analytical Issues and Investment Opportunities (New York University Salomon Center Series)
Manufacturer: Irwin Professional Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
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ASIN: 1556239017 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Arkansas Business, published by Journal Publishing, Inc. on December 30, 1991. The length of the article is 1627 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Boardroom coups, red ink and big profits. (activity of Arkansas' public companies in 1991) (The Year in Review: Public Companies) (Industry Overview)
Author: George Waldon
Publication:
Arkansas Business (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 30, 1991
Publisher: Journal Publishing, Inc.
Volume: v8
Issue: n53
Page: p14(2)
Article Type: Industry Overview
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from San Diego Business Journal, published by CBJ, L.P. on October 14, 1991. The length of the article is 513 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Cray may purchase troubled company that bought Celerity. (Cray Research Inc.; Floating Point Systems Inc.)(Special Report: Computers)
Author: Jeff Manning
Publication:
San Diego Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 14, 1991
Publisher: CBJ, L.P.
Volume: v12
Issue: n40
Page: p17(1)
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Frozen Food Age, published by Cygnus Business Media on August 1, 2003. The length of the article is 748 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Flash! frozen.(Aurora Foods will file for chapter 11 bankruptcy and sell a majority stake in the St. Louis company to J.W. Childs Associates, L.P)
Publication:
Frozen Food Age (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2003
Publisher: Cygnus Business Media
Volume: 52
Issue: 1
Page: 1(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Music Trades, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2007. The length of the article is 521 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Guitar Center prevails in bidding war for Woodwind & Brasswind: stepping in after Conn-Selmer dropped its offer, Guitar Center acquires Woodwind & Brasswind assets for $29.9 mill. The final price was $7.2 million less than GC's first offer in December.(RETAILER UPDATE: NEWS FROM THE RETAIL FRONT LINES)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication:
Music Trades (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 155
Issue: 2
Page: 46(1)
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- A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier
- Ailey Spirit: The Journey of an American Dance Company
- Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America
- Animal Farm and 1984
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Arrowsmith, Elmer Gantry, Dodsworth (Library of America)
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