Into That Darkness: An Examination of Conscience

Book Description

Based on 70 hours of interviews with Franz Stangl, commandant of Treblinka (the largest of the extermination camps), this book bares the soul of a man who continually found ways to rationalize his role in Hitler's final soulution.

Customer Reviews:

Franz Stangl (Sobibor and Treblinka Kommandant); Jew and Slav Extermination; "Polish" Killings of Fugitive Jews, etc. .......2007-06-02

Sereny interviews Franz Stangl and other Nazis such as Franz Suchomel, Jewish escapees from Treblinka, and a member of the Polish Underground. There are many contradictions between different accounts, which she explains as follows: "This is less the result of failing memories or deliberate manipulation, than because most people now represent these events and their part in them with a view to seeming--to themselves even more than to others--what they would have liked to have been, rather than what they were. And this applies to Germans as well as Poles, Christians as well as Jews, West as well as East Europeans." (p. 171).

Polish authors have commonly been criticized for not portraying Polish Jews as Poles. But the shoe is also on the other foot. Sereny comments: "Polish Jews always refer to non-Jewish Poles as `Poles' and to themselves as `we' or `Jews'." (p. 121; see also p. 199).

To her credit, Sereny recognizes the fact that Poles had nothing to do with the German death camps built on their soil (p. 100), and that Poles faced the death penalty for the slightest form of aid to Jews (p. 117).

There were no windows in the Sobibor-bound trains (p. 122). This helps refute the myth of doomed Jews looking out and beholding throngs of indifferent or hostile Polish onlookers.

There is a fascinating interview (pp. 149-156) with Franciszek Zabecki, a member of the Polish Underground who was also the traffic superintendent at the Treblinka railroad station. He points out that there was limited Underground communication between different regions of German-occupied Poland (p. 151). Consequently, the events unfolding at Treblinka were not immediately related to those at Belzec and Sobibor. (This may address David Engel's accusation of the Polish Government in exile's "tardy" report on Jewish deaths). Zabecki kept a tally of all the trains arriving at Treblinka along with the numbers written on each train. From this, he arrived at a death toll of 1.2 million (p. 250) which, if correct, would cause Treblinka to surpass Auschwitz-Birkenau as the world's largest Jewish cemetery.

Ukrainian collaborators played a central role in the operation of Sobibor (p. 122, 124) and Treblinka (e. g., p. 148, 166; see especially p. 224). Lithuanians (p. 155) and Russians (p. 164) were also involved. So were Jewish Kapos (p. 123, 158-159)--the depravity of some of whom rivaled that of the Germans and Ukrainians (p. 188).

Treblinka-escapee Berek Rojzman commented: "We got to know from people around that the Germans were sending Ukrainians who pretended to be partisans, into the woods to look for Jews." (p. 243). How often was the "Polish" participation in German posses, "Polish" killings of fugitive Jews in forests, etc., actually the work of Polish-speaking Ukrainian collaborators (not only around Treblinka, but also elsewhere in otherwise Ukrainian-free regions of Poland)?

Stangl rebuts Holocaust-uniqueness arguments (that posit that ALL Jews were targeted for extermination) when he alludes to certain deliberately-protected Mischlinge and full-blooded German Jews: "That racial business," said Stangl, "was just secondary. Otherwise, how could they have had all those `honorary Aryans'? They used to say that General Milch was a Jew, you know." (p. 232).

To the extent that the Vatican had been "silent" on Jews, it had also been "ineffectual" in its occasional statements on murdered Poles (pp. 278-279).

Not content with maintaining an exclusively Judeocentric focus, Sereny examines the planned extermination of Slavs: "Historical records in the public domain prove beyond any doubt that the Nazi extermination of the Jews, and concurrently of large numbers of Gypsies, was intended as only the first step in a gigantic programme of genocide of all so-called `inferior races' of Europe. A beginning was made both in Russia...and in Poland..." (p. 93). Treblinka-escapee Richard Glazer adds: "This is something, you know, the world has never understood; how perfect the machine was. It was only lack of transport because of the Germans' war requirements that prevented them from dealing with far vaster numbers than they did; Treblinka alone could have dealt with the 6,000,000 Jews and more besides. Given adequate rail transport, the German extermination camps in Poland could have killed all the Poles, Russians, and other East Europeans the Nazis planned eventually to kill." (p. 214).

Finally, Sereny discusses Stangl's flight to Brazil. She contends that few Nazis escaping from postwar Europe benefited from the aid of conspiratorial organizations such as Odessa, whose effectiveness had been greatly exaggerated to begin with (p. 276). And, against the blanket condemnation of the Catholic Church, Sereny shows that aid to fleeing Nazis was given almost exclusively by German and Austrian clergy (pp. 285-286).

Powerfully understated.......2007-04-11

Gitta Sereny's book is as powerful now as it must have been when if first came out. She manages to give the reader a real sense of one of the men who was a key part of the Nazi killing machine - Franz Stangl supervised the killing of at least 750,000 men, women and children but the total is very probably more like a million. What is clear is that he was a perfectly sane, happily married man who allowed himself to be drawn 'into the darkness' and then felt unable to escape when he was eventually asked to supervise mass murder (and historical research confirms that people in his situation were not actually threatened with their lives if they decided to change roles). This shows how easy it is for those in authority to bend others to serve their purposes, especially if their true motivations are dressed up in pseudo-science and a veneer of legality (as was the case with the Nazis). He isn't a monster which makes his story all the more chilling as it shows that it is possible for any one of us to end up doing what he did.

The only problem with this book (which makes it 4 rather than 5 stars) is that Sereny allows herself multiple digressions, some of which do help to better explain background context, but some of which simply distract from her narrative of Stangl's struggle to acknowledge his guilt.

Thought-provoking and Thorough Investigation.......2006-06-07

I want to clear something up ~~ I don't "love" this book (that is what 5 stars stand for) but I do appreciate this book and it is definitely one of the best books I have read on the Holocaust. That is why I gave it a five star rating. It really is a thought-provoking book and very insightful. The author did a great job of following through with loose ends and she writes in a very detailed way that is not dry. History came alive in these pages.

I also appreciate the fact that while she didn't gloss over the horrors of the extermination camps, she also didn't dwell on them. Yes, it happened. Yes, it is horrorifying and too awful to think on, but it didn't need to be a sensationalized case where every single detail had to be graphic. She left it to the imagination of just how horrible this was. She was tasteful and respectful of the dead's dignity.

Sereny detailed everything. She wrote about Stangl's childhood, his demeanor while being interviewed especially when he had to answer questions that he was not comfortable about. She made sure that if anyone contacted her later with a clarification of something, she added it in the book. She interviewed the witnesses and toured the camp. She never stopped asking questions. She covered the Euthansia program that was in effect during the 30s when Hitler first came to power. She queried the clerics in the Catholic Church and Stangl's family members. I don't know how else to describe this other than Sereny really did a thorough investigation to the best of her abilities to produce this book. She brought up issues that I had never thought about. She covered it all.

When I have read about the extermination camps before, I usually got them confused with the concentration camps. I never realized that all of the extermination camps were in Poland. I also never really realized that there were such an Anti-Semitic viewpoint in Poland. Things that I never really understood before was clarified in this book. Not only was this book a historical investigation of the Nazi regime and the extermination camp, it was also insights into different personalities throughout the period, other than Franz Stangl and his wife. There were survivors of the camp and how did they manage to survive. There were underground freedom fighters who witnessed these horrors with their own eyes. A common question among my generation is, why didn't they just get out? This book goes a long way into explaining that.

It is definitely an interesting book. While the main focus was on Franz Stangl, the Kommandant of Treblinka, the largest of the extermination camps, it covered a whole range of issues. It definitely did show the way into the darkness, the darkness of every human soul. While Sereny did her best in answering the question of why he stayed on, it is still unfathomable in its entirety.

6-06-06

An objective look at one man's crimes.......2005-07-13

I used to think anyone who was stupid enough to wear a swastika and call themselves a Nazi, regardless of their actions, deserved nothing less than the most heinous punishments the human mind could ever conceive. While I still believe this is true in many cases, reading the story of Franz Stangl, as revealed though Gitta Sereny's amazingly meticulous journalism, has made me think twice about it.
I dock her one star because of an error she made in reference to Jean François Steiner's astonishing masterwork, Treblinka, which she speaks of with undue contempt. Gitta says that Steiner had written in his book that SS man Max Bleias had a harem of Jewish boys liquidated on a whim one day when he became bored with them. This is not the case at all. In Steiner's Treblinka, the harem was liquidated by order of Kurt Franz only after Blieas' assassination by a prisoner.
Despite my deep and utter hatred of the Nazis I still found myself, as a man, and more importantly, as a human, able to sympathize with Franz Stangl. One asks themselves, "What would I have done in his place?" That should speak volumes about the quality of this book of incredible journalistic merit.

Why Do People Do What They Do?...remains unanswered........2003-10-21

Gitta Sereny was a British journo who had attended Franz Stangl's trial in 1970, and she had interviewed him in prison in Duesseldorf in 1971. She had also interviewed others, including survivors and keepers of Treblinka, as well as his wife and one of his daughters in Brazil. He was caught in 1967.

But just to be sure that the author's intense interest in this horrible subject left no doubt about her own conscience, she had made it clear to Stangl (and to her readers)...that she... "abhorred everything the Nazis had stood for and done."

It's a well written account of this SS Colonel's life and job, beginning with his involvement of the Nazi's euthanatia program, his first posting to Sobibor, his subsequent assignment as commandant of Treblinka, and his post war escape to Brazil via Italy and Syria. But the author digresses when she devotes 20 pages about the Vatican's probable Nazi sympathies.

We learn that Stangl was clever and practical in getting train-loads of people to shed their clothes and possessions and to walk into large "bath houses," complete with simulated sprinkler heads; and low volume ceilings to minimize the time of suffocation from the exhaust of the camp's 250hp diesel generator engine.

Curiously, we also learn that it took only a handful of real (home country) Germans to make Treblinka tick. The clever Germans in fact had delegated this killing business to this Austrian Stangl. And he in turn had recruited hundreds of Chekoslovaks and Ukrainians. Employed as guards, they would do all the dirty work. But they in turn would select healthy and strong arriving prisoners, called worker jews, and put them to work carrying the asphyxiated dead from the "baths" unto the open pit ovens, and then to shovel their ashes into holes dug into the earth.

The author is obsessed in finding out how and why an otherwise ordinary family man like this Stangl (and maybe all the other living Stangls in the rest of the World, and those yet to be born) could legitimize his conscience in being responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of people and continue to live a relatively normal life. But it's an age old question and it doesn't get answered. Not here and probably not ever. Largely, because it's impossible to get into people's minds.

And for that matter, the author could as well have asked the Colonel of the Enola Gay why and how on August 6th, 1945 he was able to overcome his conscience and nuke Hiroshima, knowingly killing 50,000 mostly innocent men, women and children in 2 seconds.

Book Description

Charles Yeats, ordained priest and former Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience, has lived much of his life on the frontline. Raised in privilege, his life changed forever when he was called for military service in apartheid South Africa. As a conscientious objector, Yeats faced inevitable arrest. His experiences in jail make for compelling reading, as do his comments on Western imperialism and his insights on how we might create a lasting world peace.

Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience

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Dull Blossoms
Must read
A fascinating record of a spiritual journey
Unfortunate, the world is out to get him.
one step closer

Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Manufacturer: Plough Publishing House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0874860865

Book Description

When Mumia Abu-Jamal's first book, Live from Death Row, appeared in 1995, its searing indictment of racism and political bias in our judicial system fueled nationwide controversy. Now in this new collection of short vignettes and reflections, he examines the deeper dimensions of existence. The result is a powerful testament to the invincibility of the human spirit.

Customer Reviews:

Dull Blossoms.......2005-08-18

Apparently, the fact that the author/former journalist has spent many years in prison for killing a policeman, gives this book a pass, for the author's many supporters. Basically it's a thinly veiled manipulation to garner support for his appeals of his sentence. Some of the writing, such as a excrucriatingly long analogy of children and acorns, wouldn't ever see print without the author's notoriety, and ability for self-publicizing.

Must read.......2002-12-13

Death Bloosoms" picks up where "Live From Death Row" leaves off. Mumia's reflections from family to the system make the reader stop and think about what is really going on. Even after almost 15 years on death row, Mumia has not lost hope or has his will been broken but prison life. This book is not for his supportors only, but for anyone that has any type of social conscience. In some ways this book is a little more heart-drenched than his first, but that is to be expected. When you can actually feel the emotion that the writer is trying to convey, then the writer has succeded in making his point. Now I know that there are many people who think Mumia is guilty, but how can we keep a man a death row when some other man has come forward and confessed to the murder. If anything, Mumia deseves to be freed while an investigation is conducted. This leads you to wonder how fair our judicial system really is if a man cant be freed after someone else has confessed. This book will take you into the depths of hell and give you a first hand look at what life really is like on death row. If this book cant make you re-think you position on capitol punishment, than I dont know what can.

A fascinating record of a spiritual journey.......2002-08-13

I found "Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience," by Mumia Abu-Jamal, to be an engrossing book. A collection of short pieces, it is written by a death row inmate who was convicted of murdering a police officer, but who many supporters believe to be innocent. The book contains a foreword by Cornel West and an introduction by Julia Wright. Also included is a prison interview with the author.

From a literary standpoint, West really hypes up the author in his foreword; he compares Abu-Jamal to Herman Melville, Theodore Dreiser, Toni Morrison, Eugene O'Neill, and other great American authors. Wright contributes further to this theme, comparing "Death Blossoms" to works by Baudelaire and Oscar Wilde. So is Mumia all that? I don't know, but "Death Blossoms" is good stuff.

Although there is the expected sociopolitical critique, "Death Blossoms" is, at its core, the record of the author's spiritual journey. Abu-Jamal reflects on his mother's Baptist heritage and his father's Episcopalianism; he also details his explorations of other spiritual paths: Judaism, Catholicism, and the Black Muslim movement. His writings in these sections are powerful and evocative. Ultimately, he pays tribute to the guru known as John Africa and discusses at some length the path founded by this man.

Abu-Jamal also writes about prison life, the media, and United States history. Along the way he cites such diverse sources as Salman Rushdie, Ray Bradbury, the Qu'ran, Nietsche, and Ghanaian folklore.

Overall, this is a fascinating book. I did feel that some of the supplemental material by other authors reads too much like a hagiography of Mumia; it's like the publishers are trying to market him as some kind of modern saint. I also felt that this supplemental material was insensitive to the victim of the crime for which Abu-Jamal was convicted.

Is Abu-Jamal really guilty of murder, or is he an innocent man who was wrongly convicted under a fatally flawed system? I don't know. But I can say that "Death Blossoms" is a compelling piece of contemporary literature.

Unfortunate, the world is out to get him........2001-12-29

The only thing that this book states to me is that there are too many opportunities for criminals to appeal a just sentence. He needs to except the fate he chose for himself.

one step closer.......2001-12-20

First of all, let me say congratulations to mumia and every one who fought to get his sentence overturned. Let's hope it stays that way. Second, if you are just now hearing of mumia abu-jamal buy this book. It will blow your mind.

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Comment from a HORROR fan
What is this? How did this get published?
Imagine American MPs in Iraq
Steppenwolf
SF or SM? Either way it is great writing

Prisoner of Conscience
Susan R. Matthews
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0380789140

Book Description

Andrei Koscuisko is an Inquisitor for the Bench federation of worlds. It is his duty to root out -- quickly, efficiently, quietly -- anyone who would threaten the ruling order.

Andrei has been posted to the penal facility at Port Rudistal. Here hundreds of prisoners -- traitors who dared dream of freedom and self-rule -- await interrogation. They know an Inquisitor's judgment is firm and unassailable. Yet there is a line that even he may not cross.

Although an Inquisitor is not supposed to feel outrage, weakness or pity, Andrei is, above all, a man of honor. And now he must risk his career -- and perhaps his life -- exposing the truth that lies behind the black walls of Domitt Prison.

A riveting novel of one man's courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, Prisoner of Conscience again showcases one of the most promising voices in contemporary science fiction.

Customer Reviews:

Comment from a HORROR fan.......2007-05-10

As a kid I read lots of SF. Now my read of choice is horror. I read this book based on reviews here at Amazon. I was not disappointed. The book is well written and quiet different from what SF I have read in the past. I'm not going to summarize the plot, in that it has already been well done previously on these pages. I would have liked more detailed descriptions of the main characters. There are many of them with names that are less than memorable and a mental picture would have helped. What about the fish and ocean metaphors in regards to sex? Am I missing the symbolism intended? Was Ms. Matthews being shy or am I just to used to Laymon and Ketchum? Enough of the questions. Prisoner of Conscience is an outstanding book by a gifted writer. Without graphic descriptions of the cruelty meted out by the captors and inquisitor I was left with my own thoughts about the horribleness of the Nurail imprisonment. This is a book for thinkers have no doubts about it. Not a monster(non hominid) around and it was still horrific.

What is this? How did this get published?.......2006-10-25

My objections with this book have nothing to do with graphic depictions of torture or lack thereof, and everything to do with the writing style, which is distractingly awful. She throws out a ton of names without clear explanation of who these people are, her third-person omniscient narration is difficult to follow as it shifts without warning through various POVs, and is riddled with pointless, annoying, and often contradictory asides. She also has a tendency to. Break up. Her sentences. In stupid ways. No joke.

That aside, it's not too bad, but her horrible prose really overshadows any of the book's redeeming factors.

Imagine American MPs in Iraq.......2004-05-27

But wait. We don't need to imagine, do we?

It's terrifying how topical this book about an officer struggling over blowing the whistle on prison abuse has become.

Does he risk further alienating his chain of command? Will they shuffle him off before the truth gets out?

Or will he remain loyal to his superiors, and his own lust for domination?

It's another book Under Jurisdiction, bring tissues.

Steppenwolf.......2002-04-30

...This book is about the trauma of reconciling all that you are with all that you wish you were...not pleasant endeavor at best and avoided by the stupid and unnecessary for the extremely healthy...but certainly a type of art and path toward beauty. The author's study of relationships under stress, and horror, and loyalty, and sexual need, and...everything else is extrodinary and worthy of sharing a portion of your life with. If you would like the perfect foil for this excellent book read The Immortals, among the worst books I've ever read, by Hickman I believe. After reading this pollyanic, cotton candy version of a death camp you will appreciate what the author of Prisoner of Conscience has woven for you. Kudos.

SF or SM? Either way it is great writing.......2001-03-20

What would you do if you had the power of life and death over people every day? What if you felt guilty because you loved having that power?

This is the dilemma that faces the protagonist in Susan Matthew's "Prisoner of Conscience". Set in a universe where independent planets face conquest and suppression by a theocratic government and punitive slavery is enforced by biomechanical devices, Ms. Matthews relies on interesting moral conflicts and well written characters rather than complex scientific gadgetry to tell her story.

Given the strong psychological suspense and not so subtle sexual undertones, this book seems more like a BDSM novel than straight science fiction. Either way, this book makes an engrossing read and I would recommend it quite strongly.

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Prisoner for Conscience' Sake: The Life of George Reynolds
Bruce A. Van Orden
Manufacturer: Deseret Book Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Mormonism | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Other Denominations & Sects | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0875795951

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Conspiring Against Joseph: Reflections of a Prisoner of Conscience in a Federal Penitentiary

Manufacturer: National Liberty Fund
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1882669258

Product Description

Offering an inside look into life in a federal penitentiary, "Conspiring Against Joseph" is a collection of 62 poems written by Professor Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian-American political prisoner. His use of vivid imagery to describe day-to-day life in the suffocating prison will both astound and enrage readers who have never pictured such abuses. This beautiful anthology offers insightful commentary on subjects as diverse as the 56-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the American dream before and after 9/11. Al-Arian's unique, evocative style places the reader in the heart of the poem, whether set in 1948 Palestine or America during the Revolutionary War. At once, the writer displays wit, wisdom, imagination, deep spirituality and awe-inspiring perseverance. Al-Arian, who began writing poetry at the age of fifteen while a refugee in Egypt, composed this latest collection over a period of six months, while awaiting trial in the solitary confinement wing of Coleman Federal Penitentiary in Florida. Above all, his writing demonstrates survival in the face of oppression. Long after this struggle for freedom and justice is over, these words will serve as a haunting reminder of the oppression suffered by one advocate of freedom who spoke truth to power.

Conscience Be My Guide: An Anthology of Prison Writings

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Conscience Be My Guide: An Anthology of Prison Writings

Manufacturer: Zed Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Archbishop Richard Creagh of Armagh, 1523-1586: An Irish Prisoner 0F Conscience of the Tudor Era

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Archbishop Richard Creagh of Armagh, 1523-1586: An Irish Prisoner 0F Conscience of the Tudor Era
Colm Lennon
Manufacturer: Four Courts Pr Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1851824731

China, violations of human rights: Prisoners of conscience and the death penalty in the People's Republic of China

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China, violations of human rights: Prisoners of conscience and the death penalty in the People's Republic of China

Manufacturer: Amnesty International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

China: Violations of Human Rights, Prisoners of Conscience & the Death Penalty in the People's Republic of China

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China: Violations of Human Rights, Prisoners of Conscience & the Death Penalty in the People's Republic of China

Manufacturer: Amnesty International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0862100739

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fantastic!

EXCITED FOR SUMMER!

Fantastic Book

LOVE the Williams-Sonoma Series!

A MUST for the "grilling-lover" in you....

The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Grilling
Denis Kelly
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Barbecuing & Grilling | Outdoor Cooking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Chicken

The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Roasting

The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Pasta (Williams-Sonoma Collection)

The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Fish

The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Salad

ASIN: 0743226429

Book Description

The tantalizing smoky aroma of food cooking on a hot grill can draw a hungry crowd in a matter of minutes. Who can resist chicken or baby back ribs brushed with a sweet and spicy marinade? Whether you have a charcoal or gas grill in your backyard, an array of delicious grilling recipes awaits you in this cookbook.

Williams-Sonoma Collection Grilling offers more than 40 recipes, including updated classic fare and exciting new ideas. Tempt guests with an elegant grilled entrée of scallops brushed with spicy wasabi or perhaps savory portobello mushrooms dressed with herb-infused olive oil. If you're craving a juicy steak or seared tuna, a recipe from the meat or seafood chapters is sure to please. A selection of vegetable recipes provides plenty of ideas, both for healthful accompaniments or stand-alone meals. And, for something a little more unusual, try grilling pears for dessert.

Full-color photographs make it easy to decide what to grill, and each dish is accompanied by a photographic side note that highlights a key ingredient or technique, making Grilling much more than just a collection of recipes. An informative basics section and glossary fill in all you need to know to make grilling a favorite way of cooking for every occasion.

Mastering the art of grilling is one of the most satisfying ways to share a good meal with family and friends. Whether it's a T-bone steak, a salmon fillet, corn on the cob, or even pizza, virtually any food can be adapted to this versatile cooking technique and grilled with success.

Williams-Sonoma Collection Grilling offers more than 40 delicious recipes, including both beloved classics and inspiring new ideas. In these pages, you'll find grilling recipes for any occasion -- from a casual backyard barbecue to a more elegant dinner with friends. This vividly photographed, full-color recipe collection will become an essential addition to your kitchen bookshelf.

Customer Reviews:

fantastic!.......2007-06-05

Thius cookbook has so many great recipes even my boyfriend has started enjoying cooking!!!

EXCITED FOR SUMMER!.......2006-03-24

This book makes me pumped for summer! The recipes for the marinades and sauces look and sound really good. They are also explained very easily. One thing that I really liked about this cookbook, among others, is that the variety of meats, vegetables and all that good stuff is pretty big. It's not your 'regular old down home grillin' guide'. It's got pizazz, and I like that. I would recommend this cook book to anyone who likes grilling. Or, if you don't like grilling, get it for someone who does.

Fantastic Book.......2006-02-24

Wow. what a find. I was hesitant to buy the Williams and Sonoma book because I thought that the recipes would be too complicated and require expensive ingredients and be too fancy for the way I like to cook, but the dishes are easy to prepare and extremely elegant - without being too time consuming. I love this book. Got this book in the mail two weeks ago and have used it half a dozen times so far.

LOVE the Williams-Sonoma Series!.......2005-05-23

This is a truely wonderful addition to any cookbook collection. Unlike most cookbooks that require you to spend a lot of money buying ingredients you most probably will only use once, these recipes mostly require olive oil, garlic, onions, peppers, the basic seasonings (e.g., oregano, salt, black or lemon pepper, etc.), and occasionally one more fancy addition (making the dishes MUCH less expensive, and allowing the true delicious taste of the meats and vegetables to come through). The book also offers a nice variety of dishes. It includes recipes for grilling chicken, fish, meat, mushrooms, AND deserts! (Did you know you can make a desert on the grill?) As a last point, these simple dishes can look fancy enough to impress anyone. I made a whole dinner for my husband on our two year wedding anniversary. I served the Shrimp with Lemon-Garlic Butter and Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with Basil Oil over rice, the Grilled Red Pepper, Sweet Onion, and Tomato Salad on the side, and the Grilled Pears with Rasberry-Grand Manier Sauce for desert. It took me about 45 minutes to prepare all the rubs and sauces (just because it was my first time putting it all together), but about 10 minutes to cook everything at the same time, and 3 minutes to serve. The meal was such a hit that my husband wants to make a new grilling dish every Wednesday night! By the way, for the novice grillers, the book also offers a glossary and an instructional section discussing types of grills, preparing the grill, checking for doneness, etc. I hope you enjoy the book as much as we do!

A MUST for the "grilling-lover" in you...........2005-03-15

This collection of cookbooks from Williams-Sonoma rocks! With over 40 recipes in this one book alone you're set for the casual backyard BBQ with friends or a more intimate dinner with the one you love! The pictures alone are reason enough to buy this book. From grilling vegetables to pears with raspberry-Grand Marnier sauce this book covers a wide spectrum of mouth-watering recipes. **The baby back ribs with honey-jalapeno marinade are to die for***.

Be sure to add this to your cookbook collection -- and don't stop here... there's nine more on this website and even more at Williams-Sonoma stores to make your collection complete!

Happy Grilling!!!!

The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Vegetables, Fish, Grilling, Dessert - 4 Volume Set in Slipcase

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The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Vegetables, Fish, Grilling, Dessert - 4 Volume Set in Slipcase
Unknown
Manufacturer: Williams-Sonoma
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OYQ02O

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