The Deep Six

Book Description

When a well-known eccentric scavenger in Key West shows Dusky MacMorgan a golden chain, it's no ordinary trinket-it's the key to finding a treasure at the bottom of the sea. Before MacMorgan can find out where that is, the eccentric vanishes off his boat, the apparent victim of a shark attack. But MacMorgan suspects the true killer walked on two legs. Surrounded by predators in and out of the water who are armed with both brute strength and breathtaking beauty, he's going hunting for the treasure-and for vengeance.

Customer Reviews:

Sophmore effort.......2006-12-22

disappoints. Not up to the action level of the first. But, Doc, see the stilt house? Good things to come.

Early Randy Wayne White, Good Randy Wayne White.......2006-10-22

Years before Randy Wayne White started writing his wonderful Doc Ford novels - and wound up with the best successor to John MacDonald's Travis McGee - he wrote a series of minor adventure novels featuring ex-SEAL Dusky MacMorgan. As even White more-or-less admits in his introduction to this reissue of these books, these were never intended to be great literature. They were cheap adventure novels filled with action and sex, cranked out quickly and with a minimum of rewriting. Even if these were, in effect, "training novels", they are still, however, good, which just shows that a great writer can often produce minor gems even when he is just learning his craft.

In this second volume in the series, MacMorgan is wrapping up a "healing" voyage with Lisa-Lee Johnson from the first book, Key West Connection. "Lee" is recovering from a bad marriage; Dusky from more serious pains, both physical and emotional (including the death of his family and best friend). A month of lounging around with a beautiful woman out in the ocean off Florida has worked wonders. Towards the end of the trip, they meet amiable scavenger Gifford Remus, who produces a valuable gold chain and tells a tale of finding a lost Spanish treasure. Remus promises to tell Dusky more the next time they meet; of course, that means he will be killed before any more can be disclosed.

Dusky investigates Remus's apparent murder and in the process learns of a boat filled with Cuban-Americans that is in the same waters that Remus occupied. These Cubans are apparently up to no good, although Dusky and his government connections are not sure if it is illicit treasure hunting, drugs or espionage. In the course of his work, Dusky gets an unusual ally: an ex-Green Beret who is now a devout Christian and is leading a group of men and women in their late teens and early twenties. This group is also searching the waters, although with the more benevolent goal of archaeological research.

Although not a great novel, this is definitely a good one. The only real flaw in the book seems to be White's pacing; it takes a long time for the book to really cook into gear with Dusky's hitting the high seas in search of Remus's killer. That minor complaint aside, this is a fast-paced, entertaining story that can probably be read in a single sitting. If you are looking for a "beach read" or are a fan of White's other books, then this book should be enjoyable.

Average customer rating:

Very entertaining
The indestructible Pitt
Unabated Actions Both Land and Sea Borne!
Off the deep end
Great brainless summertime read

Deep Six (Dirk Pitt Adventures)
Clive Cussler
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1416516859

Book Description

A ghost ship drifts across the northern Pacific....

A Soviet luxury liner burns like a funeral pyre....

And the U.S. President's yacht is heading for disaster....

Somewhere off the coast of Alaska, a sunken cargo poses a threat of unthinkable proportions. Potentially, the lost shipment of chemicals could destroy all life in the ocean -- and perhaps the world -- unless DIRK PITT® can find it first. But time is running out for the NUMA agent and his team. Pitt's main target is just one deadly component of a vast international conspiracy fueled by hijacking, bribery, and murder. And at the center of it all is a powerful Korean shipping empire with a chilling political agenda -- to kidnap the President of the United States....

Customer Reviews:

Very entertaining.......2007-08-09

This book reminded me a lot of a good season of 24: tons of action, ridiculous political scheming, one-dimensional evil villains, an indestructible hero, and an implausible but highly entertaining plot. A great beach read if you're looking for something action-packed and fast moving.

The indestructible Pitt .......2007-06-19

The indestructible Pitt does it again, but this time is puts a feather in his political cap (not that he needs it) by saving the President. Great action adventure story that can keep you guessing and entertained.

Unabated Actions Both Land and Sea Borne!.......2006-02-10

Deep Six is an apt title for this Cussler's action novel, for I have lost count of the number of vessels deliberately and accidentally deep-sixed in the plot. Ship sinking were only parts of the story, this novel is 50% action, another 50% political issues stuffs.

This action packed novel told a story of human greed, power hungry and revenge mixed with the explosiveness of Clive Cussler writing wit. The main plot is organized along the political issues in Washington and beyond. A number of the highest US officials, including the president, were having a rendezvous in a yacht. The supposedly regular meeting turned disaster when a bunch of assassins came overboard to take over these officials. These assassins were operated by an entity whose boss had a deep hatred and revenge in her mind. Lots of old non-fictitious shipwrecks were also involved in this novel, making it better for reading since it had a historical weigh in it.

If you like Dan Brown's Deception Point or John Grisham novels, this novel has those qualities + lots of Robert Ludlum in it. A recommended four-star nov

Off the deep end.......2006-01-19

I have read and enjoyed many Cussler books, and though this one was mildly entertaining it was way out there as far the plot goes. If you haven't read Cussler before don't let this be your first, there are many more that are much better.

Great brainless summertime read.......2004-05-29

Clive Cussler has made a very successful career at producing fast paced, entertaining adventures which provide us with a clean cut hero in the form of Dirk Pitt as he finds himself battling yet another villain out to ruin the world.

While Cussler's fans, who number in the legions, faithfully purchase each new novel as it comes out, there has been a change in the novels as they have become longer in length, with more exotic locales and more fantastic in their stories.

Deep Six is one of the older novels, written in the 1980s, and does not suffer from some of the far fetched coincidences that plague the latest stories. The novel concerns itself with the machinations of the Bougainville Shipping corporation. This Korean based company has used hijacking, bribery and murder to grow to its influential status and has become involved in a plot, with the Soviet Union, to kidnap and brainwash the President of the United States.

Into this steps our hero, Dirk Pitt, of the National Underwater Marine Agency (NUMA) who loses a friend to one of Bougainville's old crimes. While investigating this crime, he stumbles across the Presidential kidnapping plot.

Like most of the Pitt novels, this one motors along at breakneck speed as we are introduced to a surprisingly large cast of characters and spend our time moving between US government figures trying to hide knowledge of the kidnapping plot, Soviet agents aiding and trying to block the success of the kidnapping/brainwashing scheme, a private investigator seeking revenge, and a host of myriad characters. The novel nevers spends long at any one location and there is a refreshing lack of multi-dimensionality. The good guys are always good. They are willing to risk their lives for the cause of truth and justice. The bad guys are uniformly bad with no redeeming qualities.

There are, admittedly, gaps in some of the logic and you have to decide to go along for the ride at the beginning of the novel if you hope to enjoy it. However, the novel never strays into fantasy and though it may seem improbable, it never seems unbelieveable.

In the later Dirk Pitt stories, the novels are jam packed with extra information as we learn about, among other things, the diamond trade and the trade in illegal antiquities. The earlier novels, like this one, don't seek to educate but merely to entertain. There are no extraneous scenes here, everything happens for a purpose. Simply put, it is a fun adventure. Great for those times when you just want to turn your brain off and live in the moment.

Amazon.com

Just six numbers govern the shape, size, and texture of our universe. If their values were only fractionally different, we would not exist: nor, in many cases, would matter have had a chance to form. If the numbers that govern our universe were elegant--1, say, or pi, or the Golden Mean--we would simply shrug and say that the universe was an elegant mathematical puzzle. But the numbers Martin Rees discusses are far from tidy. Was the universe "tweaked" or is it one of many universes, all run by slightly different, but equally messy, rules?

This is familiar ground, though rarely so comprehensively explored. What makes Rees's book exceptional is his conviction that cosmology is as materialistic and as conceptually simple as any of the earth sciences. Indeed,

cosmology is simpler in one important respect: once the starting point is specified, the outcome is in broad terms predictable. All large patches of the universe that start off the same way end up statistically similar. In contrast, if the Earth's history were re-run, it could end up with a quite different biosphere.

Rees demonstrates how the cosmos is full of "fossils" from which we can deduce how our universe developed as surely as we infer the earth's past from the relics found in sedimentary rocks. Rees's theme is nothing less than the colossal richness of the universe. It is an ambitious book, but if anything, it deserves to be longer. --Simon Ings, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

The genesis of the universe elegantly explained in a simple theory based on just six numbers by one of the world's most renowned astrophysicists.

Customer Reviews:

very interesting........2006-11-03

One of the most interesting scientific books I've ever read.
I think there is a deep religious implication to the numbers described in the book.
We cannot possibly believe it is all just luck.

Excellent Overview of Cosmology.......2006-10-08

There are many books on cosmology that cover essentially the same material. As can be expected, some of these books are better written than others. In my opinion, this small book is one of the better ones. Combining the very large, e.g., the universe, galaxies, etc., with the very small, e.g., atoms, nuclei and sub-atomic particles, the author discusses six numbers whose values are essential to our existence. He explains that if the value of any of these numbers was different from what it is, we would not be here to contemplate them. He also explains, in very lucid prose, why that is. The author's writing style is very clear - something that is essential when discussing such a complex subject - and quite engaging. This book would be of most interest to science buffs, but it can also be enjoyed by anyone wanting to know more about the strange, non-everyday concepts that fuel the field of cosmology.

Fine Tuning.......2006-06-21

ESSENTIAL reading for anyone interested in the cosmos. Just Six Numbers are the key properties of this universe. The slightest tweaking and this universe as it is would not exist.

Rees calculates the odds of the suite of universes capable of evolving sentitent beings to discuss said universe at one in 10 to the 243 power!!!!!!!!!!

Marvelous book that makes you marvel even more.

An interesting book!.......2005-10-21

You should read this book if you are interested in cosmology. The six numbers mentioned in the book are too amazing.

Expansive Insight.......2004-10-07

"There are three great frontiers in science: the very big, the very small and the very complex. Cosmology involves them all." - Sir Martin Rees.

It takes sound grasp, knowledge and intellect to explain with clarity and simplicity. Sir Martin Rees achieves this here. He provides a useful, absorbing and accessible contribution to lay understanding of cosmology, astrophysics, mathematical astrophysics and so on.

In explaining why a 'Big Bang' (or 'Expansion') might account for our universe, Martin Rees pins his exposition around six key properties: 2 relating to basic forces, 2 to scale and structure, and 2 describing space.

By the end of this book you will understand more about cosmology and how it relates to chemistry, Newton's laws, the general theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, superstring & membrane theory, the search for a Grand Unification Theory, and so on.

Sir Martin also admits what remains to be discovered and how this might refine or deflate the 'Big Bang'. He also explores alternate theories and challenges (but does not here address 'Plasma Cosmology' or the revived interest in 'scalar particles'. However, due to the rate of new ideas entering the field since any such book's publication, this kind of omission is inevitable). Mercifully he does not embrace or expound any facile drivel of the 'Goddidit' variety.

If you wish to broaden or deepen your comprehension of cosmology, you will develop fascinating insights and a more encompassing horizon on the subject here.

Average customer rating:

Deep Six (The Dirk Pitt Series, Book 7)

Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: 0736622756

Product Description

A deadly tide of poison flows into ocean waters. A ghost ship drifts across the empty northern Pacific. A luxury Soviet liner blazes into a funeral pyre. The presidential yacht cruises the Potomac night -- and the president disappears without a trace. Dirk Pitt returns in an intercontinental duel of nerves with a sinister Asian shipping empire. In this dangerous, fast-paced adventure, he fights to save the U.S. government -- and to seize one desperate moment of revenge! 9 cassettes

Average customer rating:

Deep Six
Cussler. Clive
Manufacturer: Hamish Hamilton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KEQNJS

Average customer rating:

The Deep Six

Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HIR4YK

Average customer rating:

The Aquanauts #7: Operation Deep Six
Ken Stanton
Manufacturer: Manor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000TYV3QM

BLEEDING HEARTS: The Play's the Thing; The Executioner; Man on a Leash; The Deep Six; Hidden Tiger; The Sensitive Juror; Fat Jow and Chance; Slay the Wicked; Into the Morgue; I'll Be Loving You; Motive: Another Woman; The Brotherhood; The Final Reel

Average customer rating:

BLEEDING HEARTS: The Play's the Thing; The Executioner; Man on a Leash; The Deep Six; Hidden Tiger; The Sensitive Juror; Fat Jow and Chance; Slay the Wicked; Into the Morgue; I'll Be Loving You; Motive: Another Woman; The Brotherhood; The Final Reel
Alfred (editor) (Robert Bloch; H. A. DeRosso; Jack Ritchie; Richard Hardwick; Michael Brett; Richard Deming; Robert Alan Blair; Frank Sisk; Hal Ellson; Fletcher Flora; Donald Honig; Theodore Mathieson; John Lutz; Talmage Powell) Hitchcock
Manufacturer: Dell Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000P63N9O

Clive Cussler: Iceberg, Dragon, Deep Six

Average customer rating:

Clive Cussler: Iceberg, Dragon, Deep Six
Clive Cussler
Manufacturer: Pocket Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Mystery & Thrillers | Boxed Sets | Formats | Books
ASIN: 0671967762

Deep Quest: The Entry, A Forty-six Year Challenge Underwater

Average customer rating:

Deep Quest: The Entry, A Forty-six Year Challenge Underwater
Richard Thomas Bennett
Manufacturer: Manta Pub. Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Adventurers & Explorers | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0974081655

Book Description

Sharon McCone, weary of San Franciscos persistent rainy weather, jumps at the chance to investigate sabotage on the set of a documentary film being shot on the island of Kauai. Based on the writings of Hawaiian scholar Elson Wellbright, the film has incited major controversy among some of Wellbrights family members who arent anxious to see the project reach completion. Vandalism quickly escalates into big-time violence, and McCone discovers a world of family secrets, drug dealing, political insurgency, and murder in this new crime novel by one of the worlds most beloved mystery writers. Marcia Mullers previous Sharon McCone mystery, While Other People Sleep (Mysterious Press 7/98), hit the bestseller list. Its paperback publication will coincide with A Walk Through Fire. Both Ends of the Night was also a bestseller and was named one of the seven best mysteries of the year by Publishers Weekly. Mysterious Press has published the novels of Marcia Muller since 1988.Muller handles the professional and personal threads of her stories with dexterity and fine suspensea pro in her happily continuing prime. The London Free Press

Customer Reviews:

Maybe A Bit Under-Rated.......2007-07-29

This installment in Muller's Sharon McCone series takes our heroine to Hawaii. Office neighbor Glenna Stanleigh is attempting to film a documentary on Kauai, but filming has been plagued by a series of "accidents" that may not have been very accidental. Overall, the plot of this story is pretty good. There are some pretty transparent aspects to it, and not too many big surprises, but it kept me turning pages right up to the end.

As I write this, the average rating among reviewers here for A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE is below average for the books in the series. While I agree that this isn't one of the best McCone mysteries I've read, I also don't think it's as much of a letdown as others have indicated. I have just two criticisms. First, the attempt to inject additional melodrama into the story through the invocation of the mystical "spell" of the islands and through the romantic entanglement with the helicopter pilot really didn't work for me. Second, Ms. Muller took up flying some years back and since flying has become a significant element in every McCone mystery. Ms. Muller apparently likes flying. Great, but give it a rest in the stories. Sometimes is OK, but it's gotten overworked. Once in a while it would be nice to get a story that stays on the ground. I always thought that her use of San Francisco as her setting was part of the charm of the McCone mysteries. A return to that sometimes would be welcome.

A WALK THROUGH THE FIRE isn't the best McCone mystery I've encountered, but it kept me turning the pages to the end. My routine rating for books in the series is four stars and that's what this one is getting, as well.
Casual readers may not be greatly impressed, but most fans will find this another enjoyable episode in the on-going saga.

Muller's plotting is getting tired, but still like her books.......2004-08-23

Most of the other reviewers have said what needs to be said concerning this book. It's a good read for the beach, yet that in itself is a bit of criticism because most fine authors want to be better than that (I would think). This genre is supposed to be entertaining, and this book is exactly that. No less worthy of spending your time then sitting in front of the boob-tube for hours at a time!

It's hard, I'm sure, to continue writing about a single protagonist all the time. And it's difficult to ask readers to suspend belief over certain things happening constantly to one person (though I can testify that bad things do happen constantly to good persons). Not enough effort put into the plot, and newcomers to Muller's books usually get a better introduction into the characters, and so the characters seem rather cardboardish at this point.

Karen Sadler

Amateurish.......2003-07-28

Amateurish, stiff, thin, contrived--these are the adjectives I can think of to describe the novel best. Although I might add one more: disappointing. This is my first Marcia Muller mystery, and I expected more from a seasoned writer--too much, as it turned out. After reading Steve Hamilton, Bill Pronzini, Andrew Greeley, Tony Hillerman, Stuart Kaminsky, Les Roberts, and others of that level, this seems stale as yesterday's gruel.

There's no point in reviewing the plot details. Other reviewers have commented adequately on those. So I'll proceed to the other two major points of any mystery--atmosphere and characters. Set in Hawaii, for the most part, I just never quite got there, despite all the green vegetation, flowers and fiery volcanoes. Beautiful, beautiful, so what? The characters are pretty much standard fare for mysteries--too rich, too spoiled, too much alcohol and drugs. As for love affairs, mystery writers might do well to heed S.S. Van Dine's rule from decades ago and leave sex out of the work. If the mystery is thin, the romance won't thicken it. The murder and the detection are, after all, why we read crime fiction. If I want romance, I'll go with Bertrice Small.

In short, I doubt that I'll try another Marcia Muller book, at least, not for a long, long time. Sorry.

Sharon McCone goes to Kauai.......2002-09-25

Private Investigator Sharon McCone gets tough duty in this 20th. book of the series when she is asked to go to Kauai. Glenna Stanleigh, a friend from San Francisco, has asked Sharon to investigate the strange happenings on the set of the documentary she is filming in Hawaii. Sharon takes the job and flies over with her significant other, Hy Ripinsky. When she arrives, she begins investigating the family whose patriarch is at the center of the film. Glenna has used his notes and research about some of the folk tales of the native Hawaiins as a starting point for her documentary. As Sharon's investigation proceeds, several skeletons begin to come out of the closet and family secrets are revealed. At the same time, Sharon is being romanced by a local helicoptor pilot and Hy leaves the island in order to give Sharon some time and room to consider her relationships with the two men. The plot has some intriguing twists and turns and at last all of the secrets are revealed. Marcia Muller and her heroine have matured over the 20-plus years that this series has been written, and this book does not disappoint.

A Walk through the Fire.......2002-03-20

"A Walk through the Fire" is the 20th Sharon McCone novel. ...I think this is one of the best of the Sharon McCone novels. Glenna Stanleigh, a friend of McCone's, is filming a documentary on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It appears that someone is trying to sabotage the project and Glenna fears that someone is trying to kill her. She asks McCone to come to Hawaii and investigate. She and her lover, Hy Ripinsky, go to Hawaii. Glenna's project focuses on the Wellbright family, a wealthy family with quite a few dark secrets. Sharon almost becomes involved with helicopter pilot Russ Tanner, and her relationship with Hy is put to the test. This is a different kind of McCone novel. I did miss the San Francisco crew, but all in all I thought this was an excellent novel.

What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire

Average customer rating:

Bukowski lives on...
Consistent Quality Even After Death
Not his best stuff, but still worth reading.
Not Buk's best, but some fine work
Charles lived in the now

What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
Charles Bukowski
Manufacturer: Black Sparrow Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1574231057

Customer Reviews:

Bukowski lives on..........2007-04-16

Any fan of Bukowski's should enjoy this collection. I personally loved it. However, then again, there is very little of Buke's stuff that I don't enjoy. Whatever your personal feelings are regarding Bukowski and his work, there is no denying one thing - he was definitely original. The man pulled no punches and wrote straight from his heart. It's spontaneous prose at it's finest. I can sit for hours listening to jazz or classical music(the latter of course was Hank's personal preference) and read his poetry.

If you are relatively new to Bukowski then I don't recommend starting with this collection. To really understand where the man is coming from I would start with his semi auto-biographical novels "Ham on Rye" and "Post Office" in that particular order. This will help lay the foundation for you to really comprehend where the man is coming from before you start reading his poetry. It is so easy to judge a man and his work unless of course you practice the lost art of EMPATHY. This guy had a horrible childhood and an even worse time of it in his teenage years. He comes from a much different world than the majority of writers and it's a world, for the most part, few have really ever seen let alone experienced. However, one thing I can say for sure is that the more you read Bukowski's work and the more you learn about the man, the more you can't help but fall in love with him as a person. He is undoubtedly the bravest writer I have ever read in my entire life.

Consistent Quality Even After Death.......2005-10-10

Here is another collection of Bukowski poems posthumously released and what else can be said that hasn't been said before. If you have read any of his poetry in the past and you are a fan, here you go folks; more edgey, off beat, colorful stories told in Bukowski's unique poetry rhetoric. The title of this book sums up what I believe to be the most important aspect of Bukowski's message. Let no bar napkin be left unread, Chuck has still got it, even after death.

Not his best stuff, but still worth reading........2005-04-27

Charles Bukowski, What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire (Black Sparrow, 1999)

With the exception of The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, the posthumously published Bukowski material just doesn't live up to the stuff he published while he was still alive; cynical readers will likely say he made his reputation while alive, then left the leftovers to be published afterwards. Be that as it may, that's not to say the posthumous stuff isn't worth reading. Bukowski hit his stride as a poet in the mid-fifties, and snatches of greatness continued up through the late seventies/early eighties with regularity; much of the material here was written during the latter half of that time period, and, as expected, flashes of brilliance show through. Flashes, however, are not likely to sustain a reader coming to Bukowski for the first time over the course of four hundred nine pages of poetry; the neophyte would be well advised to turn to Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame or War All the Time for a first crack at the man who made it all look so easy. What Matters Most... is best left for after you're an established Buk fan and know how to separate the what from the chaff. This is about half and half, but remember, chaff is a whole lot lighter, and so you can pack more of it in, pound for pound. ** ½

Not Buk's best, but some fine work.......2004-01-08

Itýs astonishing just how many people, when they hear the name Bukowski, are ready to dismiss him, in less than a breath, as some sort of sexist, macho, skid-row bard, caught up in his teufelskreis of booze, broads, and back-rent, whose poetics consisted of nothing more than a ýgritty roominghouse lyricism.ý In these days of postmodern, deconstructed, politically correct aesthetics, itýs easy to forget the immense contribution that Bukowski made to American poetry. Picking up where W.C. Williams and the Beats left off, Bukowski reasserted the power of the demotic and its relevance to American experience. Of course this has not been without its negative flip-side, the result being a deluge of confessional, ýslice-of-life,ý petit moi poetry, from which contemporary American poetry has yet to recover. But what sets Bukowski apart from all of his imitators is his ability to turn his bleak, existential vision into something truly universal, which is also the secret of his worldwide popularity. You donýt have to be intimately familiar with dingy bars, nasty whores, run-down hotels, and the harsh Los Angeles sun to know where Bukowski is coming from. His understanding of the human dilemma, his compassion for animals, and his impatience with conformity and the ýdead-before-death gangý transcended the claustrophobic milieu of down-and-out, blue-collar Los Angeles, and the true crux of Bukowskiýs art was his remarkable talent to turn his quotidian despair into something that even Japanese bank executives or Spanish art students can relate to, approximating a sort of tongue-in-cheek Kafka of American poetry.
What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire is the second in Black Sparrowýs series of posthumous volumes of Bukowskiýs poetry, and is full of some of his most incendiary poetry to date. This is not just some old mothballed Bukowski that John Martin has dusted off and wheeled out to help pay the rent now that Black Sparrowýs star poet is gone; at 412 pages, this is a veritable tome of vintage Bukowski culled from the early 1970s up to the 1990s, from one of Americaýs most influential, oft-imitated, yet essentially inimitable poets ever.
Aside from the usual bar, racetrack, flophouse, and hangover poems, all blazing brilliantly with Bukowskiýs trademark fusion of angst and irony, there are also many poems of sheer, exacting, even frightening, beauty, executed with all the boldness and audacity of a German expressionist painter, such as the haunting ýfull moon,ý here in its entirety;

red flower of love
cut at the stem
passion has its own
way
and hatred too.
the curtain blows open
and the sky is black
out there tonight.
across the way
a man and a woman
standing up against a darkened
wall,
the red moon
whirls,
a mouse runs along
the windowsill
changing colors.
I am alone in torn levis
and a white sweat shirt.
sheýs with her man now
in the shadow of that wall
and as he enters her
I draw upon my

cigarette.

Of course one canýt help speculating as to the true strategy behind such posthumous collections. Did the author feel the poems werenýt strong enough to be included in other collections? Were they purposely held back by the publisher in anticipation of the authorýs eventual death and the ensuing dry spell? Or were they simply too personal, too gut-level and potentially libelous to risk publishing during the authorýs lifetime? In the case of Bukowski, it was obviously partly the latter. He takes merciless jabs, pokes, and swings at many peers and contemporaries, as in the hilarious ý4 Christs,ý where Bukowski attends a poetry reading in Santa Cruz with ýGinsbing,ý ýBeerlinghetti,ý ýG. Cider,ý and ýJack Bitchelineý. In other poems, many other writers, such as Henry Miller and Diane Wakoski, are also caught in the beam of Bukowskiýs critical searchlight.
For anyone who wishes to re-examine the work of this immensely popular, highly contested poet, this collection is an excellent place to begin, covering as it does a span of over twenty years. For fans wishing to fill out their collection of already published Bukowski, this is a must, a cornucopia of outtakes and bonus tracks that will further establish Bukowskiýs already enduring place in American literature.

Charles lived in the now.......2003-08-07

However people have come to think of his womanizing, heavy drinking as somehow cool, and something worthy of being emulated.
Charles had it so who am I to call him out on his ways, it worked for him.
Though it is worth it to note that he became a vegetarian and drastically curtailed his drinking towards the end of his life.
But again its all really irrelevant, if you live Charles' life and dont have it, you're a worthless drunk. If you drag human evolution along kicking and screaming like Charles did, being a drunk is a 5 yard penalty in a game of miles.

The Women Who Walk Through Fire: Women's Fantasy and Science Fiction

Average customer rating:

The Women Who Walk Through Fire: Women's Fantasy and Science Fiction

Manufacturer: Crossing Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0895944200

Average customer rating:

Nice book
Engaging story about the South in the early Civil Rights Era

A Walk Through Fire
William Cobb
Manufacturer: Crane Hill Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

Multicultural | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1575871580

Book Description

Amidst disorder and angst, these characters face an unthinkable struggle to find order and commonality among people they’ve known all their lives.

Customer Reviews:

Nice book.......2002-01-28

This book is mainly about civil disobedience and a white man who sided with Blacks. It takes place in Alabama during the sixties. Sometimes the book moved very slowly, but overall it was a great novel. There are many subplots such as love stories contained within the real plot. This leaves the reader thinking more and more.

Engaging story about the South in the early Civil Rights Era.......2000-12-28

I read an earlier edition of this book a few years ago and am so glad to see it re-released. I have lived in the South all my life, through the time and in the kinds of places where this novel is set--a small Alabama town during the early sixties. This novel broadened my knowledge of how different people from different walks of life experienced this time. Characters are drawn with sensitivity and compassion, and the reader can sympathize with those on both sides of the struggle. They are not stereotypical, as I know that whites and "rednecks" were not all the same and not all anti-black, and not all African Americans were the same. The characters play themselves out in a very tragic and engaging plot that carried me back to my childhood, making me feel both pride and shame in being a white person from Alabama. Cobb does an especially good job handling the shifts from present to past (flashbacks). A friend of mine was writing a "Civil Rights novel" using flashbacks, and I referred him to A Walk Through Fire as an example of how they can be done well.

9 Sharon McCone Series Titles: A Walk Through the Fire; A Wild and Lonely Place; Till the Butchers Cut Him Down; Where Echoes Live; Wolf in the Shadows; Eye of the Storm; Cheshire Cat's Eye; There's Something in a Sunday; Shape of Dread (Set of 9)

Average customer rating:

9 Sharon McCone Series Titles: A Walk Through the Fire; A Wild and Lonely Place; Till the Butchers Cut Him Down; Where Echoes Live; Wolf in the Shadows; Eye of the Storm; Cheshire Cat's Eye; There's Something in a Sunday; Shape of Dread (Set of 9)
Marcia Muller
Manufacturer: Various
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000WUM042

Average customer rating:

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire
Roger Elwood ed
Manufacturer: Chilton Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TQXKL6

Average customer rating:

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire
Roger Elwood
Manufacturer: Chilton Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000U0BLZI

Average customer rating:

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire
Roger (Editor) Elwood
Manufacturer: Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company, 1972
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NVDIHI

Average customer rating:

And Walk Now Gently through the Fire
Roger Elwood
Manufacturer: Chilton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OXE4MS

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire (And Other Science Fiction Stories)

Average customer rating:

And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire (And Other Science Fiction Stories)

Manufacturer: Chilton Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MG6C40

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books