Book Description
A taut, dramatic literary thriller that examines betrayal, trust and forgiveness.
Tom "T" Walker, a 57-year-old businessman, knows better than to pick up a beautiful young woman hitchhiking with her dangerous-looking boyfriend, but he stops for them anyway. He's been living alone, his life ruinously off course, in such utter isolation from everyone he has ever loved that he welcomes the company and the excitement. But as T finds himself pulled into the chaos of their world in a way he will barely survive, he comes to see his personal history and experiences in an altered and troubling light.
Edward Falco brings stunning emotional depth and tense action to unforgettable characters as they journey through the mundane world to places where illusions fail and they must face their hidden selves.
Customer Reviews:
A black heart, but all heart, and very fine .......2006-08-19
While I've written about this novel for print, praising not just WOLF POINT but a number of Falco's fictions (in hypertext as well as on the page), I care enough about this author and accomplishment to honor them both again in this medium. Falco's latest novel is superb. It erupts with from its opening sentence's "pulp tableau" (a hot young blonde hitchiking, not quite hiding the greasy thug traveling with her) like a perfectly timed and vividly colored fireworks display against a thoroughly noir night.
The girl is Jenny, a stubborn but tormented creation to stand with the finest femme fatales. Her tough backup, Lester, veers intriguingly between brute and clown. And the man who picks this duo up is the hurting and withdrawn "T," more troubled than either of the others in his way. The process by which the two runaways bring T to a refreshed awareness and vitality, all while merely trying to save their own skins, creates a classic set-piece of a weary mule, a carrot, and a stick.
In other words, WOLF POINT is expertly crafted, its rough trade taking place in ever-smaller spaces -- yet what lingers with you is its emotional depth. I have a few cavils about this book, off in the rarified atmosphere of High Lit. But I must acknowledge, above all, the impact of the wrenching choices this story hammers out, and the key turning points it gives voice. The title may speak of wolves, but the howl is entirely human.
Some very fine writing, and a gripping story.......2006-02-25
I knew, reading the delightfully specific, musical second sentence of Edward Falco's Wolf Point, that the book would be something special:
"On the side of the road a pulp tableau coalesced: a young woman somewhere between eighteen and twenty-one in red leather pants over black boots and a white silk blouse opened three buttons down, with blond hair flying out from her head wild and wind blown and radiant in the horizontal light of late afternoon, put one foot up on a black guitar case and stuck out her arm in hitchhiker pose."
Fifty-seven-year-old Tom "T" Walker pulls over in that horizontal light to pick up the girl--Jenny, her names turns out to be--and the long-haired, hoodlum-looking older man she's traveling with, Lester. Tom knows the hitchhikers are probably trouble, that they may well rob him and leave him for dead a few miles on, but he picks them up anyway: why he does so is the first mystery of this brief, compelling novel.
Falco follows his three characters during the troubled weekend they spend together, first driving through the night in Tom's Land Rover, then at a cabin on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River. As the relationships among his principals evolve and unravel Falco slowly peels back the layers of their characters. Jenny and Lester reveal themselves to Tom in stages, in their behavior and in the stories they tell about themselves, though how much of what they say is deliberate falsehood and how much the product of misguided interpretation is open to debate. Tom, on the other hand, shares nothing of himself with his fellow characters. His back-story is revealed to readers in his memories, while he tries--amid the dramatic events of his present day--to understand for himself just how he came to be where he is, how he turned into the man for whom the prospect of being robbed and beaten by strangers was preferable to its alternative. Falco's book is concerned both with whether Tom will survive his weekend by the river, and perhaps more importantly with whether survival is something he is still interested in.
There is one element of Tom's back-story that struck me as improbable, that his ex-wife would have exacted from him the punishment, so inappropriately severe, that has left him damaged. Otherwise, I have no complaints: Wolf Point is a fine, gripping piece of writing that you'll want to down in a sitting or two.
Debra Hamel -- author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in ancient Greece (Yale University Press, 2003)
Moved and stunned by an incredibly good writer.......2005-12-31
I was moved and stunned by an incredibly good writer. Wow, what a discovery! I hope some of the other reviewers will recommend other authors of this calibre (Franzen, Wolfe, Irving, Chabon) that I may not know of. (Email your suggestions: etaub1@aol.com)
"You're a void. A vacuum, an abyss, a black hole".......2005-11-17
Tom "T" Walker, the fifty-seven year old, disconsolate businessman, gets more than he bargains for when, on a road trip from Salem, Virginia to the Thousand Islands near the Canadian border, he picks up Jenny and Lester, a couple of suspiciously disaffected hitchhikers.
Outwardly the couple appears to be ok, but as Lester broods in the back seat, and Jenny, sits provocatively dressed in the front, beginning a dance of flirtation and seduction, Tom begins to think that he should have known better.
Perhaps Tom is deliberately flirting with danger, trying to jump-start his stalled life. Convicted of possessing child pornography in New York, Tom has been exiled to Salem, and has found himself isolated, trapped in an indolence that manifested itself through addictions to computer games, chess, jazz, and good wine.
Now an emotionally damaged man, Tom is reeling from the failure of his marriage, a separation from his children, and the fall out from the damaging conviction. The memories of his family now seem to come to him from another lifetime, another dimension of existence.
Tom is left to shake off the weight of memory; memories of a once happier time, when he was young, idealistic, and also in love with his much older college teacher, Carolyn. Carolyn, of course, has long since died, and he is old, and her lively world, that he had so desired, is lost to him forever. Perhaps all this emotional baggage and his desire to find love again is what has drawn him to the beautiful, sexy Jenny Cross.
As the trio arrives at the small community of Wolf Point, on the edge of the Saint Lawrence River, the situation inexorably spirals downward. When Tom finally learns the truth about his companions - she's a stripper on the run from Mexican drug dealers and he's an idiot druggie who thinks he's a character in a daytime soap opera - it's all too late, as our embattled hero is already caught up in their delicate and deadly dance of sex, power, and seduction.
Lester, his mind addled with drugs, is the one most living on the edge, and it doesn't take long for him to confront Tom and demand money, seeing the wealthy man as their one last hope of a ticket to freedom. Jenny, for her part, comes across as innocently vulnerable; is she genuine in her affection for Tom, or is she clandestinely in cahoots with Lester?
Jenny certainly makes Tom feel comfortable and at ease, and maybe just more human, something he admits that he hasn't felt in such a long time, but this thought somehow seems dangerous. Tom sees Jenny as a type of Doris day character, simultaneously cute and beautiful, her sexuality obvious but unthreatening, On the other hand, he sees Lester looking like a hometown rebel with his long hair and black boots.
The action plays out amidst the quiet solitude and startling beauty of the cabin by Wolf Point. Lester, fuelled by an excess of drugs, steadily looses control, threatening both Jenny and Tom. For Tom, this journey becomes prophetic, full of anguish, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action; his haunted, yet contented college boy youth returning with a savage intensity. "He had an odd sense of time warping and bending back in on itself, casting him into the 60's again, only in another dimension."
Wolf Point is an elegantly written literary thriller, not a paragraph, sentence, nor a word wasted, each page and every slice of dialogue constantly serving to ratchet up the tension. The prose is graceful, but also shadowed and disturbing, giving us a painful view of those who have lived life less fortunate. Redemption for all three characters finally comes, but at a terrible price.
Tom has tried to feel himself as a "creature alive in the physical world, someone to whom anything might happen." His actions throughout his life had set into effect an infinite sequence and succession of actions, but it is through this final confrontation with a drug-crazed madman on the calm waters of the Saint Lawrence River, that he can finally achieve peace and perhaps find some hope of absolution. Mike Leonard November 05.
A haunting and cautionary tale about punishment and redemption.......2005-10-21
WOLF POINT by Edward Falco is a far larger and deeper novel than its relatively small size --- 234 pages --- would immediately portend. This is no reflection on the narrative, which clips right along at a pace that leaves readers gasping for breath, implicitly daring them to stop reading. The events, which for the most part take place over a couple of fateful days but resonate backward and forward in time, linger long after the last paragraph is read.
Reading WOLF POINT is akin to discovering an unpublished, collaborative manuscript created by John Cheever and Jim Thompson. The narrative opens with Tom Walker ("...my friends and family call me 'T'..."), a 57-year-old businessman, picking up a much younger man and woman who are hitchhiking outside of Syracuse, NY. There is an immediate sense that all is not right; indeed this is communicated to the reader by Walker himself, who knows better than to stop --- which, in the words of the narrative, is precisely why he does. The hitchhikers are Lester and Jenny, who introduce themselves as brother and sister initially but who are far more, and less, than that. In reality Lester and Jenny are on a panicked run, the reason for which may be remedied by the application of a large amount of cash.
And it turns out that Walker has plenty of that. The trio heads for a small community called Thousand Islands, a place that has significant meaning for each of them. One expects the situation to inevitably spiral downward, and it does, almost from the moment that Walker opens his door --- and his life --- to Lester and Jenny. Each and every principal here is carrying baggage. Still recovering from a divorce, Walker is unable to fathom the whys and wherefores of what has happened in his life, or that he is to blame for at least part of what has occurred. Lester is an edgy loser; whatever potential he might have had has been derailed, perhaps permanently, by drugs. Jenny is badly damaged and is ready to do damage in kind, at times without even knowing it. Before the story's conclusion, three lives will be brutally changed in a process of rough catharsis and, in one case, redemption paid with dear coin.
WOLF POINT is a haunting work, a cautionary tale that by turns demonstrates that while no deed --- good or evil --- goes unpunished, absolution and redemption are possible if one is willing to pay the price. This is a work to be savored and, more importantly, reread. Highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
Book Description
The name still sends shivers down the spine and has the power to draw in young readers: Geronimo, the legendary Indian who inspired and fought for his people. But who was this man, really? Here is the riveting tale of the last Apache warrior —told by the author of the bestselling Little Britches. Born in 1829 and steeped in the skills and stoicism valued by his tribe, Geronimo was transformed into a feared and respected renegade after witnessing the brutal slaughter of his family. Ultimately he spent more than 25 years eluding the U.S. Army, which sent 5,000 soldiers to hunt him down.
Average customer rating:
- Had to read it for school
- Wolf by the Ears
- Taking the wolf by the ears and giving it a little shake...
- Escaping the Velvet Trap
- Very thought provoking
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Wolf By The Ears (Point)
Ann Rinaldi
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Cast Two Shadows: The American Revolution in the South (Great Episodes)
ASIN: 0590434128 |
Customer Reviews:
Had to read it for school.......2006-08-03
This book kind of boread me. I had to read it for summer reading. The whole book was about the charcter compelling the whole time. It was really boring the first time.
Wolf by the Ears.......2006-06-26
Wolf by the Ears is an exellent book that identifies and defines predjudice. It is also great if you would like to learn history during the 1800's.
Taking the wolf by the ears and giving it a little shake..........2006-06-08
Told through Harriet Hemings, a slave/servant of Monticello, this story is based on Thomas Jefferson's conflict of slavery by his feelings toward the Hemings and all others living/working at Monticello. Throughout this story, Harriet and her brothers look toward their Master as their father figure with uncertain love, never finding out if he actually is their father. But deep in their hearts they know, or why else would he treat them such respect and kindness, a white man to his slaves?
Promised freedom at 21, Harriet begins to realize that she needs to leave Monticello, instead of her initial reactions to stay there forever. She is prompted by Thomas Jefferson's son-in-law to "pass" into the white world, since years of racial inter-breeding have left her almost entirely white-skinned. But the idea of leaving her beloved Mama (Sally Hemings), Mammy Ursula, and other siblings, like did her eldest brother, brings upon conflicts, and is concluded with some persuasion by all to pass. It is ended with Harriet finally realizing the price and value of freedom.
Having been to Monticello, you can picture everything described by Ann Rinaldi exactly as it is. The only problem I find is that some information seems to be put unnecessarily in the story, just for random facts with no actual point. But, it can be overlooked and they are a nice source of background details that help you know more about that age and day.
I recommend this story to anyone interested in American history and in need of a nice, refreshing story of a woman with strength and courage, to read.
Escaping the Velvet Trap.......2005-10-25
Narrated in the first person by Harriet, daughter of slave
Sally Hemings of Monticello, this story presents serious historical fiction at the YA level. Meticulously researched by author Rinaldi--who excels in this genre, the book was inspired by a quote from the author of the acclaimed Declaration of Independence. Jefferson himself agonized over the institution of Slavery, describing it as a wolf by the ears, which the country could not handle safely, yet without which the South could not survive economically. At no point in this novel does the Master admit to fathering five children by his devoted slave, Sally. Nor does anyone find even a scrap of paper in his extensive library admitting to anything other than Owner status on his part. So why then does 19-year old Harriet feel in her heart that he is-or might be-her father?
Sally has planned, worked and dreamed for years of her daughter's departure from Monticello-the only world the girl has ever known. Still will not leave as a freed slave, who would not be allowed to remain in Virginia, but rather as a privileged white girl. She needs much preparation to PASS into the white world with safety; of course this means turning her back on her home and family-calling for great sacrifice on the part of both proud mother and brave daughter. This is what some light-skinned slaves have attempted, but it requires constant vigilance against slips of behavior, language and tremendous internal fortitude.
How can naïve Harriet deny her own heritage and ignore the degrading conditions of her fellow slaves who are tortured or humiliated in the white world? How can she endure total separation from her beloved mother, Sally, and her dear
old Mammy Ursula--with her good (and bad) voodoo?
No matter where Harriet will find herself in the white world--even with her dear protector who has promised to help her escape and Pass--she will carry intense memories of Jefferson and Monticello. What is the exact price of Freedom? Alas, she will have the rest of her life to ponder this philosophical dilemma in her secret heart. How can she live a lie, even to
save her virtue and to make a good life for her future children? How can she turn her back on those dearest to her? What is the best way she can serve the cause of her enchained people in Virginia? Will the Master let her depart without one private word of paternity, for her ears alone? This book is very interesting, with serious sociological matters for students to ponder, either individually or as a class during Black History Month. Harriet's story will haunt readeres' understanding of the root of the Civil War.
Very thought provoking.......2005-09-11
The subject itself is enough to bring you in. But once you start reading it, the characters are what make you want to read on. She made you feel all the characters emotions,and why they were feeling them. I think you can enjoy Ann Rinaldi no matter what age.
Average customer rating:
- Wolf
- This book is eerie, enthralling and brilliant!
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Wolf (Point)
Gillian Cross
Manufacturer: Point
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Binding: Paperback
Spine-Chilling Horror
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ASIN: 0590456083 |
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Wolf.......2005-03-08
A girl called Cassy lives with her nan and she is called away to see her mother who is always moving house. She finds her mother, but Cassy also comes across two other men who live with her. They make wolf masks and put a type of explosive in them. . . . . .
I would recommend this book to Year 8 or 9 students.
Nick
This book is eerie, enthralling and brilliant!.......1999-11-08
I LOVE this book! It's amazing.
It stars Cassy, a young girl raised by her grandmother who is sent on sudden visits to her mother, Goldie (who is slightly 'away with the faries'). Her gran sends her on one of these vists and she starts having nightmares involving wolves, linked in with Goldie's latest project, a play about wolves. And a plot unwinds...
We read this in class and everyone, even the book haters loved it. The plot is on so many levels and it all come together brilliantly. It was exciting and kept me on the edge of my seat until the end- when I went back and read it five more times!
A must read!
Product Description
Multiple books shipped as one item for your convenience. Save on Shipping/Handling charges.
Product Description
6 massmarket paperback Titles By McKenna - White Wolf - A Man Alone - One Man's War - Point of Departure - Countdown - Chase the Clouds
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Truth and Reconciliation: The Confessional Mode in South African Literature
Susan Vanzanten Gallagher
Manufacturer: Heinemann
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Unconfessed
ASIN: 0325070644 |
Book Description
Confessional literature is a particularly appropriate mode of literary discourse for a society struggling to carve out a new national identity based not on race, but on a shared sense of geographic space and egalitarian and democratic values. Emerging from the Christian tradition of acknowledgment and testimony, and influenced by the complexities of South African religious history, the confessional mode in South African literature appears in texts from both the apartheid and post-apartheid periods. Gallagher first examines the way in which confession originated as a religious practice and then evolved into a distinctive literary mode in recent South African fiction as exemplified in the specific instances of confessional practice and discourse in the works of ten prominent South African writers. Taking issue with philosopher Michel Foucault, who argues that confession is but another form of oppressive discourse, she shows how confessional literature opens up opportunities for reconcil This is a book that is part literary criticism, part social commentary on contemporary conditions in South Africa, and part philosophical treatise. As such it will be of interest to literary scholars eager for a new approach to South African fiction, to readers interested in the social transformations occurring in post-apartheid South Africa, and to individuals concerned with the moral and ethical aspects involved in processes of confession and reconciliation.
Average customer rating:
- A Lutheran Must-Read
- Captivating story-telling worthy of fiction
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Memoirs in Exile: Confessional Hope and Institutional Conflict
John H., Ph.D. Tietjen
Manufacturer: Fortress Pr
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0800624629 |
Customer Reviews:
A Lutheran Must-Read.......2004-02-22
Dr. John Tietjen passed away on February 15, 2004. In his passing, we lost a leader of the Lutheran faith and a strong proponent of open dialogue among all faiths. Anyone wishing to learn how the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became what it is today must read these memoirs. They are fascinating, insightful, and written in a manner easy for the layperson to understand - much like Dr. Tietjen's sermons. No boring theological memoirs here. He regales the reader with recollections of real-life anguish, tests of faith, and an ultimate resolution worthy of a true disciple of Christ.
Captivating story-telling worthy of fiction.......1998-11-16
Since this is a non-fiction account of the events surrounding the split of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from Dr. Tietjen's notes and papers, it could fall into the category of "church history" ... a category known for its dry reading. However, Dr. Tietjen is such a wonderful story teller, I found myself turning page after page thinking "what happens next?" as if I were reading a fictional novel. Being a Lutheran, I already knew the outcome, but the way Dr. Tietjen told the story made it seem competely new.
Anyone who is interested in learning the fascinating details of this important event in Lutheran church history will find this a must-read. You'll learn the facts ... but you'll also be completely captivated by the way the facts are presented. Hard to put it down!
Book Description
Note-for-note transcriptions of Chris Carrabba's 2000 solo acoustic album, including: Again I Go Unnoticed * Age Six Racer * Living in Your Letters * Screaming Infidelities * and more.
Customer Reviews:
Awesome........2007-09-28
This book is awesome. It's got all the standard album songs. If you know how to read chord charts and know what the songs sound like, you can pick up Screaming Infidelities, Turpentine Chaser, or Living in Your Letters very quickly. If you don't, there's a page in the back that explains stuff. Some of the other songs are more difficult, but the book makes it as easy as possible. It sounds just like the album, if you get the tuning right - at least four songs use a tuning that sounds like a D5 chord with all strings open (which is why those songs are pretty easy). You can play along and won't be able to tell the difference. If it's just you and your acoustic guitar and you wanna play something, pick this book up. You won't be disappointed.
Great Ideas!.......2007-05-29
I play and write a lot so seeing how Chris Carrabba uses different tunings in his songs made me think of some new ideas. So far all the transcriptions have been accurate and helpful. Good stuff.
Very Goood!.......2007-01-28
The song book was very comprehensive. Just the tool I was looking for.
Customer Reviews:
What a spy novel should be.......2006-08-23
It's been quite a while since I've read a Jack Higgins book, though his were the first action/adventure, spy novels I ever read. Now I remember why I enjoyed them so much.
A Soviet spy, a very talented actor, code name Cuchulain, has been living in Ireland for 20 years. His task: to foster unrest. To this end, he's been part of the IRA, but he also works for the other side--whichever will make the situation in Ireland worse.
British Intelligence learns of this from a defector, and has to work in conjunction with the IRA and the only two people who can identify him: the defector and the foster daughter of a high-ranking Soviet official, a concert pianist who was just a child when Cuchulain killed her father.
The story has several twists, as our heroes try one avenue after another to find and stop the elusive and deadly Cuchulain. By the end of the story, the Soviets are after him as well.
The Good:
Jack Higgins's writing style. It's so transparent, there's nothing between the reader and the story.
The premise. It's intriguing and chilling to think that one man, in the right place, at the right time, with the right training, could cause so much havoc.
The plot and pacing. Every time one avenue of investigation or attack is closed off, we veer down another, always increasing the tension.
The characters. While this isn't by any means an in-depth character study, the characters are well-rounded and understandable individuals the reader can care about.
The Bad:
It's quite obviously an older book, with dated references, particularly those to the Soviet Union.
Cuchulain's cover identity was fairly obvious early on.
The Verdict:
This is what a spy novel should be: exciting, edge-of-your-seat suspense and action, plenty of twists and turns, and characters and consequences you can care about.
A great read.......2006-02-23
A typical Jack Higgins story, but told wonderfully. Believable characters, plausible plot and writing that has always made me read him. A throughly good read.
Good for Higgins fans........2000-10-20
This book is another in Higgins' Liam Devlin series. Devlin is the former IRA gunman, German intelligence operative and all around charming rogue from such other Higgins works as "The Eagle has Landed" and "Touch the Devil."
This time, Devlin is semi-retired from the IRA and working as a professor of English literature at Trinity College in Dublin. The KGB has placed a deep-cover operative in Ireland, where he's killed both Protestants and Catholics at key times, in order to maintain the state of strife and distrust that exists in Northern Ireland.
But when a Soviet engineer defects to Britain, he has a story to tell. The KGB had set up a town called Drumore in the Ukraine, but it's an exact replica of a market town in Northern Ireland. There, a young man named Mikhail Kelly, son of a Russian mother and Irish revolutionary Sean Kelly, is trained to act as a normal Irishman, and a member of the IRA. Kelly has been in Ireland for twenty years, acting on Moscow's orders to derail any peace initiatives.
Now, the jig is up. But the KGB attempts to put Kelly, his usefulness over, out of commission. They fail, and now Kelly has no where to run and nowhere to hide. In a last act of desperation, he sets his sights on the Pope, who'll soon be visiting England.
Devlin, working in conjunction with the IRA and Brigadier Charles Ferguson, must stop him.
This is a good book for Higgins fans. The beginning of the book seems sort of slow, and never quite builds the tension it intends to. The action picks up near the end, when Mikhail Kelly is unmasked in his assumed identity. Kelly's romp through Great Britain, one step ahead of Devlin and Ferguson, is the best part of the book.
If you like Higgins, and especially Devlin, this one's worth picking up. If you're new to Higgins, don't start here. Start with "Eye of the Storm."
Higgins has told this tale before.......2000-05-16
A mysterious assassin is out to kill a world figure and must be stopped. The story moves along well, but we seen this tale before. I wouldn't mind, but Higgins has worked this plot before with better results. See Eye of the Storm or The Eagle Has Landed
Suspense and unpredictable.......1999-08-17
Jack Higgins did it again. Once you start this novel, it is hard to put it down!
Book Description
`His figure was striking, but not so from grace ... and as he stalked along, wrapt in the black garments of his order, there was something terrible in its air; something almost super-human.' First published in 1797, The Italian is one of the finest examples of Gothic romance. The fast-paced, narrative centres on Ann Radcliffe's most brilliant creation, the sinister monk Schedoni, whose past is shrouded in mystery. From the novel's opening chapters the reader is ushered into a shadowy world in which crime and religion are mingled. In the church of Santa Maria del Pianto in Naples, Ellena Rosalba and Vincentio di Vivaldi first meet; but their love is ill-omened. Leagued against them are the proud and ambitious Marchese di Vivaldi and her confessor Father Schedoni. When Ellena vanishes on the death of her guardian, Vivaldi sets out in pursuit of her across the mountainous regions of southern Italy before himself falling prey to the Holy Inquisition. This revised and expanded edition explores the novel in the context of British attitudes to Italy and Roman Catholicism in the late eighteenth century with close attention to the novel's style and form.
Download Description
Vincentio di Vivaldi was the only son of the Marchese di Vivaldi, a nobleman of one of the most ancient families of the kingdom of Naples, a favourite possessing an uncommon share of influence at Court, and a man still higher in power than in rank. His pride of birth was equal to either, but it was mingled with the justifiable pride of a principled mind; it governed his conduct in morals as well as in the jealousy of ceremonial distinctions, and elevated his practice as well as his claims. His pride was at once his vice and his virtue, his safeguard and his weakness.
Customer Reviews:
This Italian, by Ann Radcliffe.......2007-01-03
This book is a very intelligent and well written book.
So Many Turns of Events!.......2002-08-06
The Italian was Radcliffe's last novel. It is about a nobleman who falls in love with a woman whose identity is unknown to herself and the reader throughout her sufferings. She is oppressed by many people in whose hands she falls as she is snatched away from the nobleman Vivaldi to prevent their marriage. Like all of Radcliffe's heroines, her character is marked by an amazing fortitude despite the horrifying things to which she is frequently subjected. Vivaldi faces the powers of the Inquisition and Radcliffe gives the reader some idea of their dealings with offenders and their ways of making prisoners "confess." There are many turns of events which are delightful until another perilous event disappoints and grieves the reader. This is certainly what most reviewers call a page-turner. The sentiments are by no means modern. For a reader who is looking for modern unrestrained "romance," none of Radcliffe's novels is a good choice. Her stories are for true romantics.
A Difficult Read.......2001-08-02
I found "The Italian" to be less satisfying, more lurid, more obscure, and harder going than "Romance of the Forest." The plot moves slowly and the punctuation of this edition was a definite impediment for me. The decadent qualities, atmosphere of depravity, and character style were intentional, I realize, but I found this book to be mired in its genre, cardboard in character development, and unrewarding. I enjoyed the similar "Uncle Silas" far more.
Gothic Romance at its Best.......2000-07-14
Let it first be said that Lewis's "The Monk" is heavily influenced by Radcliffe. Reading "The Monk" first would throw the reader off the track. This novel is an excellent selection from the genre of Gothic novel, and is indeed a masterpiece. The Gothic novel had a great impact on Romanticism, and on the literature of the absurd. Overall, an enjoyable read!
The "Queen of the Gothic Novel".......1998-10-26
This is one of Radcliffe's two best novels, the other being "The Mysteries of Udolpho". A little excursion into literary history will clear up the confusion of the reviewer who feels that Radcliffe copied Lewis' "The Monk". If any copying was done, it was the other way around. At the time Lewis began writing, Radcliffe was the top Gothic novelist, and one of the most popular authors of any genre. Lewis, himself, stated that he was inspired to write "The Monk" after reading "Udolpho". (In fact, Radcliffe's mastery of the gothic influenced such poets as Byron and Keats, who called her "mother Radcliffe" for her legacy, and many other writers of her day and far beyond.) Among her major influences were Shakespeare, Milton, and Walpole, who basically founded the gothic novel. But Radcliffe took it to a new and higher level than Walpole, and Lewis took off from Radcliffe's new elevation, and went in another, though not necessarily higher, direction. Having read both "The Italian" and "The Monk" (my copies rest amiably next to one another on the shelf), I would say they are BOTH very much worth reading (as is "Udolpho"). Reading "Udolpho" first, and then "The Monk", will demonstrate how much Lewis drew his inspiration from the master. Reading "The Italian" will show that master at once at the peak and, unfortunately, the close of her literary career.
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Book on the Lutheran teaching of Church and Ministry.......2005-11-27
"The Church and Her Fellowship, Ministry and Governance" by Kurt E. Marquart is first rate because it is theologically balanced and extremely clear. Kurt Marquart is an excellent conservative and confessional Lutheran Church Missouri Synod theologian. Marquart does well at staying out of the trappings of Lohe's episcopal view of church government, WELS functional view of the ministry, and the hyper-Waltheran view of church and ministry. This book is foundational for any Lutheran pastor's library. If your pastor does not own this book, do him a favor and buy it for him. I would give this book six stars if I could. Some of the helpful extras are a Scripture Index, Lutheran Confessions Index, Name Index, and Subject Index.
The four main parts of the book are:
1. The Church
2. Church Fellowship
3. The Ministry
4. Church Governance
The chapters in this book are:
1. Sketching the Counters
2. The Church and Christ
3. Four Basic "Models" of Ecclesiology
4. The Church and Her Marks of Identification
5. "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic"
6. The Nature of Church Fellowship
7. The Basis and Criteria for Church Fellowship
8. The Ecumenical Movement: Charms and Challenges
9. Priesthood and Ministry
10. The One Gospel Ministry [Predigtamt] and Auxiliary Offices
11. Call and Ordination
12. The Two Kingdoms or Two Realms
13. Local Church, Large Church, and Polity
Excursus: "Missouri" and "Wisconsin" on Church and Ministry
This book is recommended for:
1. LC-MS Pastors
2. Lutheran Pastors of other Lutheran Synods
3. Interested Laypeople
4. Non-Lutherans who are interested in the conservative Lutheran viewpoint of the material covered in the book.
Some other books that I would recommend on this subject are:
1. "Church and Ministry: The Role of Church, Pastor, and People from Luther to Walther" by Eugene F. A. Klug.
2. "Church and Ministry" by Dr. C.F.W. Walther.
3. "The True Visible Church" by Dr. C.F.W. Walther.
4. "The Form of a Christian Congregation" by Dr. C.F.W. Walther.
Easily worth the effort and reading, rereading and believing.......1998-11-10
I felt in reading this Biblical based book the feeling expressed in Luke 24:32: Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us . . . ? My heart did burn with God's Spirit as I read Prof. Marquart's wonderful dogma on the church and its fellowship. Since fellowship in this era of ecumenism is so widely discussed, this book is vital in the church's consideration of moving to the oneness the Bible admonishes us towards strongly. As Marquart shows, it is Christ's body built and founded on His Word and it will always be! What is disagreed on is what is and is not God's Holy Word. Thus, this unforutnate presupposition is critical to answering the questions this dogma teaches. Marquart eloquently and clearly shows that the Bible puts forth the truth of the pure Gospel and Sacraments of the Lord which deliver the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ crucified is the heart and core of the church and its fellowship.
Refutation of this on the basis of Scriptures would be difficult. I haven't seen anything which even addresses this as well.
Book Description
Faren Lonsdale is an ambitious young reporter, always searching for the scoop that will rocket her to journalistic success. Her fascination with celibacy in the priesthood leads her to infiltrate St. Peter's, a seminary for young men who are about to sacrifice earthly pleasures for a life of devotion and abstinence. But do they?
Customer Reviews:
Not the best..but not bad either.......2000-11-11
If you suffer from Catholic guilt, this may be good therapy. Great sacrilige ! Sadly, the story wanders and doesn't make too much sense, but there are definately a few scenes that I've earmarked for future reference. Worth a look, but only on sale.
Confessional.......2000-04-02
Completely scandalous. Judith Roycott has painted a very decadent picture of the Church and its Priest. It explores the sexuality of priests whose soul purpose should be that of purity and abstinence. Faren Lonsdale, the heroine, is a reporter that infiltrates a seminary for young men who are supposes to be learning to forsake earthly pleasures. She has to decide whether or not she is going to tell all or stay and enjoy the seminary's sexual intrigues. This book was beautifully written but not for those who make think this type of work sacrilege.
Customer Reviews:
Simenon at his best.......2004-02-27
Simenon is known for his mystery novels, but this book, one of his best, isn't a mystery at all. It's the story of André Bar, sixteen years old, living what should be a charmed life in the Côte d'Azur in France. His father is rich, his mother is beautiful, he gets top grades in school and he has a pretty, sympathetic girlfriend. So what's his problem? His problem is his parents, who use him as a sounding board to vent their grievances against each other. Although they dote on him, they loathe each other, and lacking confidants among their acquaintance, they turn André into their confessional, forcing him to listen to what he doesn't want to hear and doesn't want to know. The only one André can turn to for understanding is his girlfriend, whose own parents are everything he wishes his parents were and aren't.
There is no mystery here and very little action; "The Confessional" is simply a keen and poignant exploration of the death of childhood illusions. It's an exquisite little gem of a novel about the loneliness of adolescence and a boy who must find for himself the love and understanding he can't find at home. André comes to realize that, whatever his parents problems are, he can't let them make their problems his own; and the story ends with him developing the beginning of the hard shell of adulthood that will allow him to focus on making his own way in the world. For now, he will concentrate on passing his end-term exams. There will be time, after that, for his adult life to begin.
Books:
- Zabelle
- A CORNER OF THE VEIL: A Novel
- A Few Short Notes on Tropical Butterflies: Stories
- A Gesture Life: A Novel
- A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister
- A Patchwork Planet
- A Stranger in the Family: A True Story of Murder, Madness, and Unconditional Love
- Adventures from the Technology Underground: Catapults, Pulsejets, Rail Guns, Flamethrowers, Tesla Coils, Air Cannons, and the Garage Warriors Who Love Them
- Adverbs: A Novel
- Along Came Mary : A Bad Girl Creek Novel
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- To the Best of My Recollection
- The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11
- Me & Emma
- Morson and Dawson's Gastrointestinal Pathology
- Mapplethorpe: The Complete Flowers
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
- Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life
- Sacred Realm: The Emergence of the Synagogue in the Ancient World
- Glaciers and Landscape: A Geomorphological Approach
- MacArthur
Sabbath Night in the Church of the Piranha: New and Selected Stories
Once Upon a Day
Nightlife: A Novel
Veronica: A Novel
The Sea (Man Booker Prize)
