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- Excess as liberation
- Roth's Worst
- Welcome to Late Roth, the Old Master
- Pointless middle-aged sexual picaresque
- Roth's best
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Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Vintage
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0679772596
Release Date: 1996-08-06 |
Amazon.com
Mickey Sabbath, the hero in Sabbath's Theater, the winner of the 1995 National Book Award, makes a concerted effort to be bad. Like Alexander Portnoy, the famously self-abusing character in Roth's 1969 novel Portnoy's Complaint, Sabbath has an appetite for "acts of exhibitionism, voyeurism, fetishism, auto-eroticism and oral coitus." But while Portnoy's antics were usually comical and liberating, Sabbath often feels imprisoned by his own acts of self-indulgence. Though his frantic pursuit of sex is a desperate attempt to abate his anxieties about death, it only serves to obliterate any semblance of real life he could have had.
Book Description
Sabbath's Theater is a comic creation of epic proportions, and Mickey Sabbath is its gargantuan hero. Once a scandalously inventive puppeteer, Sabbath at sixty-four is still defiantly antagonistic and exceedingly libidinous. But after the death of his long-time mistress—an erotic free spirit whose adulterous daring surpassed even his own—Sabbath embarks on a turbulent journey into his past. Bereft and grieving, besieged by the ghosts of those who loved and hated him most, he contrives a succession of farcical disasters that take him to the brink of madness and extinction.
Customer Reviews:
Excess as liberation.......2006-12-04
Roth is adept at writing of sexual excess, of course, but he is always careful to show the dark underbelly of this pursuit. Mickey Sabbath is the avatar of this dark side, a character that for the first third of the novel has few redeeming qualities (there are times when the reader will ask, why should I continue to read this novel?). Yet an amazing transformation takes place in Sabbath: while he does not learn to change his ways, he begins to see that there are redeeming elements to his life. The apogee of this is at the end, where Sabbath and his lover recount their experiences urinating on each other. Only Roth could transform this animal act into something elevating and spiritual. So ST, a story of tragedy, has a kind of silver lining... which I suppose here is yellow.
Roth's Worst.......2006-09-06
For the life of me I can't understand how it got the Book Award. It's a pointless heap of drivel without any appealing characters. Roth also combines multiple quotes in the same paragraph causing confusion about who's speaking. That, plus long rambling confused stntences with no direction make reading it a head pounding chore. I quit after reading to the half way point. This muddled mess is not worth your time.
Welcome to Late Roth, the Old Master.......2006-08-23
With this book Philip Roth initiated what promises to be the most impressive "late phase" in American literature since the later works of Henry James. This is an extreme book, very strong medicine, the perfect antidote for American Puritanism in its current (and politically triumphant) Christian Right phase. It is also a masterpiece of American prose. Roth lets rip in the opening sentence and doesn't let up until the great, shattering, Kafkaesque final line. (No, I won't spoil it for you. Read it yourself.) "Sabbath's Theater" is one of the greatest American novels of the last 25 years. Check it out.
Pointless middle-aged sexual picaresque.......2006-07-17
Roth can be an amazing stylist, but this book lacks any sense of forward motion, and precious little suspense about the past. Mickey Sabbath is obsessed with his dead Croatian sex-goddess mistress, and with sex in general, and the book explores his sexual escapades (mostly in the past, but some ick-factoring fantasies in present too) in microscopic detail. This might be acceptable if it was leading to enlightenment or some kind of catharsis, but if it's intended to be there, it eluded me. When Mickey masturbates on her grave, for example, his release isn't more profound merely because apparently, he's not the only ex-lover of hers to do so.
It's as if Portnoy aged but never matured. Mickey is on the outs with his wife, and ruined that relationship partly with a dalliance with a student that came to life when the tape recording the student made of their erotic phone calls finds its way into the university's hands. perhaps this is meant to comment on some of the "sexual harassment" excesses of the nineties, but it's so implausible, it doesn't wash, and seems to be little more than an excuse for a tour-de-force reproduction of that recording printed side-by-side with a scene of Mickey and student.
Mickey is a retired puppetteer, and his first wife was his muse. she disappeared mysteriously long ago. This thought nags at Mickey like a scab, but it is never resolved for the reader. Sometimes Mickey claims to have murdered her. There's no reason to believe this, but there's no alternative either.
The book goes on and on episodically: Mickey throws himself on the mercy of an old friend, but is kicked out when he attempts to seduce the wife, and also, is found sniffing the panties of the daughter whose room he is staying in. Just because the rants of a dirty old man are described vividly, without holding back, doesn't make them somehow emblematic of the human spirit. Roth fails to turn these details into something universal and worthwhile. It's a long book that just never catches fire. I suspect it won its various awards because the judges didn't know what to make of it and didn't want to be considered prudish. There's no "there" there, no story to reflect upon...
As always, there are some lovely passages. Roth writes vividly and is often funny. It would have made a good novella or collection of stories, but as a novel, it sprawls in its own flab.
Roth's best.......2006-06-02
This is Philip Roth's masterpiece. Here is where it all comes together in an unforgettable eruption: the giddy sensualism, the infuriating guilt, the brilliant narcissism and the punctured self-loathing, the mortal terror and sexual obsession. Mickey Sabbath is shocking and painful and hilarious and ultimately heartbreaking. Every time I read this book I am amazed. It is what novels are meant to be.
Average customer rating:
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El Teatro De Sabbath/ Sabbath's Theater (Contemporanea)
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Debolsillo
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Roth, Philip
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ASIN: 8497936086 |
Book Description
Arguably no other author has inspired more musicians than has Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Here, for the first time, is a book documenting the music inspired by the works of this literary genius, with insights provided by the artists. The book features a foreword by H. P. Lovecraft expert S. T. Joshi and cover artwork by Joseph Vargo.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for Lovecraft or music lovers alike.......2006-10-28
The Strange Sound of Cthulhu starts with an introduction to Lovecraft's life. This provides good background for readers who are there for the musical aspect and unfamiliar with his writing. It is strait-forward, giving just the information needed to understand how he could still have an impact on music today, almost seventy years after his death.
The rest of the book is broken down into the musical genres he inspired. From psychedelic rock to country, groups little heard of all the way to big names, such as Black Sabbath and Metallica, have attributed some of their inspiration to Lovecraft.
Hill analyzes the songs--and even group names--that have roots in the literature of Lovecraft. The book compares lyrics with Lovecraft prose, and touches on music rumored to have Lovecraft ties. He gives details of each song, and in many cases, interviews with the artists behind the music. They discuss how their music ties in with Lovecraft, how they were introduced to his writing, and even their favorite Lovecraft tale.
Though the idea of seeing the music described in words may sound dull to some, Joshi was correct in the forward when he said, "Gary has that rarest of skills among music critics: the ability to describe a song, whether vocal or instrumental, in such a way that readers seem to hear it running through their heads."
Though Hill claims that the book is in no way exhaustive on the subject, it is as close to being exhaustive as it can get. It is designed to snare the readers that are there for the music to start reading Lovecraft, and the readers there for Lovecraft to look out for the music. I found myself getting out my old music to listen for what Hill describes.
Average customer rating:
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Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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Roth, Philip
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ASIN: 0099582015 |
Average customer rating:
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Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
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ASIN: 0224041576 |
Average customer rating:
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Sabbath's Theater
Philip ROTH
Manufacturer: Vintage Books/Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000G9TS4Y |
Average customer rating:
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Sabbath's Theater
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKLV3Q |
Average customer rating:
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Sabbaths Theater
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: MCCLELLAND & STEWART+INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PUVDW4 |
Average customer rating:
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Sabbaths Theater
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: HOUGHTON MIFFLIN CO@
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VF6Y36 |
Book Description
Anyone who has fallen under the spell of the hummingbird will treasure this lovable true story of a young ruby-throated hummingbird who becomes part of someone's household and life.
57 full-color photographs; 10 black-and-white drawings.
Customer Reviews:
A Humming Bird in My House: The Story of Squeak.......2007-09-30
We were given this book that is filled with wonderful close up observations about one hummingbird. The author shares how she learned so much when a hummingbird over stayed his summer visit and how she helped "Squeak" until the following spring. The book was very enjoyable. We are hummingbird lovers and feed them.
Enjoyable and heartwarming........2007-08-04
A heart warming story and a great read. If you enjoy birds or wildlife you will like reading this book. The quick thinking and commitment by the author
saved this little hummers life.
THIS IS A VERY SPECIAL JOURNEY.......2007-06-19
which the talented and admirable writer, Arnette Heidcamp, leads the reader through - namely, the first months of a Hummingbird's life, from the beginning of winter to the advent of spring.
Ms. Heidcamp has amazing expertise in both bird and plant life, and what one appreciates also is her great love of them both. One wants to thank her for this lovely book and for the precious photographs which accompany it.
Throughout the book, the reader gets to know Squeak more and more, to understand the habits and traits of this darling hummingbird, and to realize what an intelligence it has. Ms. Heidcamp is dedicated and devoted and, yes, the ending is sad. I have to admit I shed a tear or two as a reader saying goodby. I can only imagine what an emotional time Ms. Heidcamp had to go through, after fostering this hummingbird so carefully and intimately, when the time came to set Squeak free.
I have alredy got several of Ms. Heidcamp's other books lined up to read, and even signed up with Random House to get an e-mail notice when she has a new book published.
I can't praise this wonderful literary and photographic pursuit highly enough. Reading this book was a true joy!
Absolutely beautiful photography and lovely story.......2007-02-24
Very beautiful photography and a touching story of how the author was able to create a relationship with a very tiny and fragile creature who otherwise would not have survived the winter.
Well worth buying.......2006-11-05
If you have any interest in hummingbirds at all, you should read this book. It is a quick read, heart-warming, heart-breaking, packed full of beautiful photos and tons of information about hummingbird behavior.
Amazon.com
Kate Banner, an American midwife, heads to Mexico for a three-week visit in the mid-1980s and ends up staying south of the border for eight years. From Mexico she travels first to Nicaragua and then to Guatemala, two nations torn by revolution and sunk in horrific poverty and violence. Along the way, she delivers babies, administers what first aid she can, and becomes involved with a group of activists, most of them from North America. The novel opens in the midst of a hurricane, during which a young pregnant woman goes into labor in a rowboat. Kate successfully delivers the child, but the mother dies soon afterwards. It is this event that starts the wandering midwife thinking about going home at last. When a longtime love affair with an American arms supplier to the Sandinistas goes south, Kate heads to Guatemala where friends have a house for a little rest and some thinking time. All thoughts of Indiana are banished, however, when she meets her fellow lodger, Father Dixie Ryan, a priest who is struggling with his vocation. The two become lovers and decide to open Hummingbird House, a clinic and school for Guatemalan children. Unfortunately, even the best intentions can go disastrously awry, and Kate must experience terrible loss before she can find eventual salvation.
Patricia Henley spent many months traveling the roads her fictional heroine treads, gathering firsthand accounts from refugees, activists, and indigenous people. Though her novel never feels researched, every page bristles with quiet indignation at the political and military atrocities visited upon the innocent. "The maps do not tell you that the forests of Belize and Honduras were cut down to rebuild London after the Great Fires of 1666," Kate muses, sitting in her kitchen in the Guatemalan highlands.
They do not show you the scars of Nicaraguan children who lost their arms and legs when their school bus struck a Contra mine buried in the road. Nor do the maps delineate the precise number of Mayan cornfields soaked in gasoline and set afire by Guatemalan government soldiers. And they cannot tell you the exact words of the sermon given by Oscar Arnulfo Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, before his murder at his own altar.
Political novels run the risk of becoming polemical; Henley largely avoids this pitfall by concentrating on her characters' personal lives within the context of the extreme circumstances in which they find themselves. Some of her stylistic choices can prove, at times, confusing, such as her liberal use of flashback to flesh out her characters' pasts, and the occasional switch in voice from third person to first. Still, her dark tale is compelling enough to overcome such minor defects, and Hummingbird House, in the end, is an impressive first novel. --Margaret Prior
Book Description
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 1999
When Kate Banner, an American midwife in Nicaragua, loses another patient - a young Nicaraguan woman who had given birth only the night before - she knows it is time to go home. Travelling home leads her to Guatemala, where she becomes involved with the innocent victims of war. Through her experiences and encounters, Kate finds a place she can connect with and call home far away from her American birthplace.
Patricia Henley's Hummingbird House is a devastatingly powerful and emotional story of a human heart unbinding itself in the most unjust of worlds.
Customer Reviews:
Witness to Tragedy.......2007-09-18
"Hummingbird House" is the story of Kate, a 40-something midwife who travels to Mexico for a few weeks in the 1980s, and ends up staying in Central America (Guatemala and Nicaragua) for eight years. Although this is a novel, the descriptions of poverty and political turmoil feel very, very real. However, the novel never gets preachy, instead presenting the story from Kate's and others' points-of-view of their own circumstances.
Kate Banner is not a saint, she is a medical professional with her own troubles and upset life, trying to provide whatever care she can in trying circumstances. She struggles with a failed love life and a desire to help those she can. When she finds herself sharing a house with Father Dixie Ryan, it soon leads to creation of Hummingbird House, a school and clinic for Guatemalan children. The individual lives portrayed in the story are indeed compelling, and Kate's desire to create something useful, not merely to shake one's head and look away, is admirable, even if it doesn't solve all of the personal problems she faces.
This was a first novel for Patricia Henley, and it is an amazing one. I would compare this novel to "Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett for its gritty realism and interesting way of telling the story of life south of our border. In addition to being a great book, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book are being donated by Henley to human rights groups; she is certainly an author who has aligned her actions with her words, and in the case of "Hummingbird House," the words she uses to share this story are fascinating ones indeed.
I found it beautiful.......2006-07-01
This book was so delicious for someone who has traveled through south america... i found myself back in the streets, back on the bus,and back amoung these countries rich with culture and pain. I thought Kate Banner was a well developed and accessible character, and her story was crafted in such a way that each moment had signifigance. It broke my heart. I would read it again and recommend it to others.
Fabulous!.......2005-10-03
Having lived in Antigua, I was very excited to read this novel. The author did not disappoint! Beautifully written!
A Brilliant And Moving Novel.......2005-04-23
Central America was rife with revolutionary upheavals and repressive violence during the 1970s and 1980s. Popular demand for social justice collided with traditional agrarian, almost feudal, societies. The rapid expansion of commercial agriculture drove small peasants off the land and into urban areas where they did not have the skills to make a living, and lost their pride in indigenous traditions and their positions of worth in their local communities. Industrial development fostered the growth of the urban working class and middle class, creating professional and blue collar jobs, but the poor and uneducated remained disenfranchised, with extremely high infant mortality rates, and almost no healthcare. The usually conservative Catholic Church became an agent for justice, popular mobilization and change. People demanded democratic reforms in the authoritarian political system, long dominated by landed elites and protected by vicious dictators and their military. In Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, the reformist wave was broken by more repression and the mass murder of local populations.
Kate Banner, a trained midwife, travels to Chiapas, Mexico in 1981, to visit her best friend, Maggie. She meets a man, Mark Deaver, the son of a wealthy American woman who has settled there. Mark is an adventurer of sorts, who will eventually run guns for the Sandinistas. Kate believes they will return to the United States one day, or somewhere away from the violence in Central America, and make a life together. In the meantime, she works with some of the 100,000 Guatemalan refugees who fled over the border to Chiapas for asylum, to escape the violence in their homeland. She delivers babies, administers first aid, and assists doctors, whenever one happens to appear. While Kate had never thought of herself as a revolutionary, she was strongly impacted, as a young girl, by the Civil Rights Movement, the bombing of the Baptist Church in Birmingham, the murders of innocent students at Kent State University, the protests against the War in Vietnam, photographs of Vietnamese children screaming with napalm burning their backs. She remembers the nuns telling her to "remember that you have been called to live in freedom." "You shall love they neighbor as thyself." Although she never believed in armed struggle, like Mark - she did want to help the victims of the violence.
Eight years after her arrival in Mexico, Kate is living in Sandinista held Nicaragua, working in a clinic for women and children. She and Maggie are members of a community of activists, dedicated to helping the people of war-torn Nicaragua. Unfortunately, her relationship with Mark has been on the wane for some time, which causes her a great deal of anguish. While she still loves him, he has never really met her needs, or even knows what they are. She has finally come to grips with the futility of their relationship, and acknowledges the pivotal moment she has arrived at in her life. It is time to move on. After a hurricane hits, Kate delivers a baby in the bottom of a swamped boat. When the mother dies, Kate packs the few possessions she has. After years of service, she is physically and emotionally exhausted, and very sad. It is time to leave for the US. She wants Maggie to accompany her to Antigua, Guatemala, and stay with some close friends they haven't seen in a while. Then - on to Michigan. Maggie, however, has ideas of her own. She wants to travel into the countryside with Bob, the new man in her life, and will meet up with Kate in Antigua.
Kate's journey north, into the seething politics and secret wars of Guatemala, will provide the most difficult challenges she has ever faced. She will also meet people who will change her life forever, and find grace and love where she never thought to.
This is a story as powerful and compelling as you will ever read. Patricia Henley's masterful narrative and elegant prose illuminate the characters she brings to life on the page - people determined to stand-up for their rights to live free. She infuses "Hummingbird House" with passion, beauty, outrage, despair and hope. The novel concludes with these moving lines, "We see with quite clear eyes the war beneath the wars. If you pass this story along, make sure you get it straight. What little balm we have, we have against all odds. Do not walk away in sorrow. Do not be consoled."
JANA
A rich and tersely cogent novel for real readers.......2003-01-30
I believe this novel would impress anyone, especially those who have intimate awareness of the political chaos of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico. However, as discussed in other interviews, it does little to politically penetrate these disturbances. I felt this omission was the genius behind the novel.
It is a very dense book, with subject matter quite complicated and diverse. It was, as other reviewers have noted, somewhat challenging to get into. It was difficult to feel just where the protagonist (Kate Banner, midwife) was going and what exactly motivated her anxiety. But, in the end, I find that given the situation, it is a perfect reflection of where and what was going on. How can plans be made when everything can change overnight?
Meet Kate Banner, in the first chapter delivering a newborn in a boat during the aftermath of a hurricane. The infant lives and the mother unexpectantly dies. After years of giving medical care to the poor, managing women's clinics, daubing in dangerous activist circles, exhausted, unsatisfied in love and mentally bereft, she seriously flirts with going back home to the United States.
It is not a surprise to see her attempts thwarted in just about every way. Friends from the past unveil their secret lives, placing all contacts in peril. The horrors of the Sandinistas and Contras become increasingly obvious to her, and unexpectantly, a helpless orphan toddler latches on to her hand and never lets go. The more she tries to pull away from Central America, the more the people, the history and the turmoil itself hold her fast.
There is joy for Kate, though. In stark contrast to the political environs, there is joy in a new love, joy in the nurturing of her adopted orphan girl, joy in the beautifully described region, fauna and people. There is joy in making plans to open Hummingbird House, offering a clinic and school to a small pocket of Guatemalan mountain villagers. and the vision sustains and nourishes her. It is a story of hope and survival.
This is an extremely sensitive novel, and the restraint that the author maintained placed the emphasis just where it belonged.
Book Description
If you love the sight of birds and butterflies or want to help restore wildlife habitat, The Wildlife Habitat Journal is for you! Instruction manual, workbook, and journal, this delightful little book suggests steps to attract garden wildlife and pages to record your progress. Plant lists are provided for birds, butterflies and hummingbirds with suggestions for further research. If you have already discovered the joys of sharing your property with wildlife, this journal will help you become more proficient. By recording the events that occur in your yard, you will learn which plants are most favored. You will know when to expect butterflies if you record the dates that you first see a chrysalis. You will know when to re-hang feeders if you record when the hummingbirds first appear. We are all still in the learning stage when it comes to sharing our landscapes with wildlife. As we learn what works, this journal provides the opportunity to record what we learn and to share it with others.
Customer Reviews:
Great workbook for wildlife garden newbies.......2006-10-09
Somebody in our garden club found this journal and now we all have one! The journal format makes it perfect for us to learn about creating butterfly and wildlife gardens. It is so easy for us to get together and compare notes about what is working to bring the birds, butterflies and hummers to our gardens! We even plan to start using our journals to teach other people about the fun of gardening for wildlife!
Product Description
hardcover
Average customer rating:
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Hummingbirds and Hyenas
Edward Pearce
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Systems Of Government | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books | General | Islamic Government | Monarchy | Representative Government
ASIN: 0571136273 |
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