Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

Amazon.com's Best of 2001

In retrospect, it seems as if the American Revolution was inevitable. But was it? In Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis reveals that many of those truths we hold to be self-evident were actually fiercely contested in the early days of the republic.

Ellis focuses on six crucial moments in the life of the new nation, including a secret dinner at which the seat of the nation's capital was determined--in exchange for support of Hamilton's financial plan; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address; and the Hamilton and Burr duel. Most interesting, perhaps, is the debate (still dividing scholars today) over the meaning of the Revolution. In a fascinating chapter on the renewed friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the end of their lives, Ellis points out the fundamental differences between the Republicans, who saw the Revolution as a liberating act and hold the Declaration of Independence most sacred, and the Federalists, who saw the revolution as a step in the building of American nationhood and hold the Constitution most dear. Throughout the text, Ellis explains the personal, face-to-face nature of early American politics--and notes that the members of the revolutionary generation were conscious of the fact that they were establishing precedents on which future generations would rely.

In Founding Brothers, Ellis (whose American Sphinx won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1997) has written an elegant and engaging narrative, sure to become a classic. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney

Book Description

In this landmark work of history, the National Book Award—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals–Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation.

The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers–re-examined here as Founding Brothers–combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Through an analysis of six fascinating episodes–Hamilton and Burr’s deadly duel, Washington’s precedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams’ administration and political partnership with his wife, the debate about where to place the capital, Franklin’s attempt to force Congress to confront the issue of slavery and Madison’s attempts to block him, and Jefferson and Adams’ famous correspondence– Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation’s history.

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In this landmark work of history, the National Book Award-winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals -- Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison -- confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation.

The United States was more a fragile hope than a reality in 1790. During the decade that followed, the Founding Fathers -- re-examined here as Founding Brothers -- combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Through an analysis of six fascinating episodes -- Hamilton and Burr's deadly duel, Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address, Adams' administration and political partnership with his wife, the debate about where to place the capital, Franklin's attempt to force Congress to confront the issue of slavery and Madison's attempts to block him, and Jefferson and Adams' famous correspondence -- Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation's history.

"A splendid book -- humane, learned, written with flair and radiant with a calm intelligence and wit."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Lively and illuminating... leaves the reader with a visceral sense of a formative era in American life."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Masterful.... Fascinating.... Ellis is an elegant stylist.... [He] captures the passion the founders brought to the revolutionary project.... [A] very fine book."
   CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"Learned, exceedingly well-written, and perceptive."
   THE OREGONIAN

Customer Reviews:

Excellent look into the formation of a republic.......2007-10-05

This was a very good read for me. I found it interesting and enlightening. What jumped out most to me were the differing personalities and philosophies of America's early leaders. It was intriguing to read about the Virginia Dynasty and connection between Madison and Jefferson. It was also interesting to read about the various rivalries.

However, there are three things that really made and impression on me from this book.

First, was the reality that the United States of America as a unified, sovereign nation barely happened. Sometimes there is this illusion that America's emergence was divine and undeniable. This book really shoots that illusion down. There were so many differing positions and rival parties. Many were still loyal to the British crown. And even after independence was won the states themselves could barely find consensus. There were so many points of contention. There were so much division among the newly independent American statesmen. The fact there was enough consensus to forge a republic is nothihg short of amazing.

Second, was Washington's decision not to be president for life. His stepping down and allowing someone else to run and take office while he was still alive was very significant. It provided a great degree of credibility to a tenuous political framework that very well could have collapsed once he died. Many leaders, only thinking of themselves, want to remain in position for the rest of their lives at the expense of the organization. Leaders with vision understand the organization has to last long after they are gone. Washington showed great vision with this move.

Lastly, of all of the historical figures that make an impact in this read none do so quite like Alexander Hamilton. After reading this work I feel Hamilton may be the most overlooked founding American of them all. His push for a strong central government made him a mortal political enemy of Jefferson and Madison. As I read the book Hamilton's position for a strong central government and his persona really struck a cord. While Jefferson's dreams of pure libertarianism made for good theory, Hamilton's insistence on a strong central government to regulate commerce made good sense. This book gave me a new interest in Hamilton. I plan to read one of his biographies.

In all, it is a great account of a collection of extraordinary events and people. If you like history and politics (as I do) check this one out.

Not great.......2007-09-29

Pretty much the most boring book I have ever read. (I had to for school)

An excellent capsule view.............2007-09-12

...of the founding of our country. The founders were NOT a homogenous "band of brothers"; there were profound personal, political, philosophical and sectional differences, which somehow got worked out. This superb book looks at incidents and relationships, and how they affected the final product.

[1] The Duel...Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. This was an anti-climax for Hamilton; his useful life was already over...he had betrayed George Washington politically, and had experienced too many scandals in his personal life. The apostle of centralized government had become irrelevent, and, as for Aaron Burr, he had way too many enemies. In fact, Jefferson and Adams, who were then estranged, both hated both Burr and Hamilton. Anyway, Hamilton died, and Burr might as well have....he went on to try to become Emperor Aaron I, ran afoul of Mr. Jefferson....but that's another story. Dueling was already illegal, and this about finished it, though isolated incidents would occur until the Civil War.

[2] The Dinner Table Bargain. How did Washington, DC, get to be our capital? Here's how....Southerners wanted the new capital in the South...Alexander Hamilton wanted the new Federal Government to assume state debts. Assumption and Location. Enter Thomas Jefferson...he invited Madison and Hamilton to dinner at his rented house in New York. Hamilton, who could have cared less where the capital got located, agreed to back Madison's choice of the malarial swamp where our capital is today. Madison agreed not to fight assumption, though he still wouldn't vote for it. Compromise....

[3] The Silence....over slavery. Many, especially Benjamin Franklin, wanted to end slvery with the ratification of The Constitution...the Southerners wouldn't go along, and the resultant compromise put the problem off for another 20 years, by which time the cotton gin had been invented...Shiloh...Sharpsburg...Chickamauga... I know, there was a LOT more that went into causing the Civil War, but....

[4] The Farewell....to George Washington. Washington retired at the end of his second term. He had profound problems [mainly with Congress] in the second term, and God knows that he had done his share, and more. Maybe he knew that he wouldn't survive a third term. The Farewell Address is one of the masterpieces of the English language; how much of it was Washington's work, and how much Alexander Hamilton's, remains a matter of conjecture....

[5] and [6]...Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. Friends, collaborators in the invention of a nation...estranged over differences in politics...then, a final decision "not to die till we have explained ourselves to each other", which resulted in a wealth of letters that will be studied forever. Only God would have dared write the end...both died July 4, 1826, the 50th. anniversary of The Declaration of Independence. A writer of fiction would be dismissed as insane for such a thing...

Joseph Ellis is a treasure...biographies of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson [not written in that order] that are substantive enough for a historian, and short enough that any intelligent person can read them easily. Yes, others have gone deeper...but Douglas Southall Freeman needed seven long volumes for Washington, and Dumas Malone six for Jefferson. Ellis writes history that is "available"....and this MAY be his best work. I can't recommend it strongly enough....

Wonderful book.......2007-08-26

I have developed a fascination with some of the nations great men, and been reading books on them, curious to what makes them 'tick'. This book is really unique in that it gives a really interesting perspective not only on the men, but the dynamic between them. It has been some of my favorite reading. This book is very well written, and thoughts flow logically and cohesively. I think the author has done a splendid job.

The Perfect Introduction to the History of the Revolutionary Period.......2007-08-09

Bottom Line: A very enjoyable and easy read. Before taking on the huge biographies on Adams, Hamilton, Washington, and Jefferson read this book.

What You Will Learn: This book is sort of a greatest hits of revolutionary history. My favorite section is on the run-up to the duel between Hamilton and Burr - something I had read about in High School, but never with so much detail and drama. The description of the complicated relationship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson is also very interesting and well written.

Parting Shot: Joseph Ellis does a great job in making history exciting - this book would serve as a great gift for a young person without much previous reading in American History.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

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WOW, can't wait to pick up all of Roth's other novels
Roth takes on the American Dream
American Patoral
A Tiresome Read
an essential novelist

American Pastoral
Philip Roth
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375701427
Release Date: 1998-02-03

Amazon.com

Philip Roth's 22nd book takes a life-long view of the American experience in this thoughtful investigation of the century's most divisive and explosive of decades, the '60s. Returning again to the voice of his literary alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, Roth is at the top of his form. His prose is carefully controlled yet always fresh and intellectually subtle as he reconstructs the halcyon days, circa World War II, of Seymour "the Swede" Levov, a high school sports hero and all-around Great Guy who wants nothing more than to live in tranquillity. But as the Swede grows older and America crazier, history sweeps his family inexorably into its grip: His own daughter, Merry, commits an unpardonable act of "protest" against the Vietnam war that ultimately severs the Swede from any hope of happiness, family, or spiritual coherence.

Book Description

As the American century draws to an uneasy close, Philip Roth gives us a novel of unqualified greatness that is an elegy for all our century's promises of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. Roth's protagonist is Swede Levov, a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father's glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede's beautiful American luck deserts him.

For Swede's adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager—a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longer-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk. Compulsively readable, propelled by sorrow, rage, and a deep compassion for its characters, this is Roth's masterpiece.

Customer Reviews:

WOW, can't wait to pick up all of Roth's other novels.......2007-10-11

Until recently I have stayed away from Philip Roth and his well known alter ego, Nathan Zuckerman due to my perception of his writing as being the typical east-coast intellectually superior ramblings of a middle aged baby boomer liberal. Well, once again I have been proven an idiot.

First of all, after reading this absolutely wonderful novel (I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if that was possible) I have concluded that Mr Roth is intellectually superior, so he can write from that perspective if he wishes; but of course he never does.

The story here is complex, and Roth's dense writing style is magnetic. I usually blow through books, but this novel merited a slower more contemplative reading. So much is going on, the inner workings of the charecters and the 2nd and 3rd order effects of the actions taken by them is perfect in it's execution. It's really a joy to read, brilliantly written.

I am now planning to purchase some of Roth's other works, this book has made me a fan.

BTW - in a previous unflaterring review of The Corrections by Nathan Frazan, I mentioned that I liked a well written tragedy, and to my point this is it. A superior book, in all ways.

Roth takes on the American Dream.......2007-09-21

I read Philip Roth's, "The Plot Against America" and "Goodbye, Columbus." With these books in mind, I started "American Pastoral" expecting Roth's prolixity, as well as such themes as American Jewish identity, factious race and class relations, sex, and Newark, NJ. American Pastoral, in many beautiful sentences and passages, has this and much more.

Roth skillfully guides the reader through Seymour "the Swede" Levov's life. The Swede has everything: a beautiful wife and endearing daughter, an idyllic home in the country and a prosperous company, not to mention good looks. He is the epitome of the American dream. Then his gentle daughter, Merry, turns into a revolutionary fanatic and blows his pastoral life up with a bomb.

Such a tragedy is needed to reveal that the American dream is just a dream. Many Americans live under the conception that anything is possible, dreams do come true, and hard work pays off. The founding fathers encouraged such thinking and it has helped our country greatly. Such thinking is ideal but isn't always realistic.

Things go wrong. People go crazy. Some, like Merry, bomb a local post office to protest the Vietnam War. Viewing America only in the pastoral light is willfully ignoring the bad stuff. Many people wish to see their country as an Eden-like place, a pasture (I admit, I do at times). But by doing this they are closing their eyes, covering their ears, and keeping out any negative, perverse reality that actually exists. Life isn't carefree nor has it ever been. In American Pastoral, Roth forces his reader to take in all the craziness of the world and deal with it.

Read American Pastoral.

American Patoral.......2007-09-08

Roth is one of America's greatest writers. This book is one of my favorites. A fascinating read.

A Tiresome Read.......2007-09-08

This book was quite impossible for me to finish. I found the writing unbelievably self-indulgent, muddy and abstruse. In a vain effort to be poetic, Philip Roth's style becomes overblown and ego-centric. Many times he expresses a thought in 3 or 4 pages that could have been articulated in a couple of paragraphs. It's like scratching an itch on your right ear with your left hand. I grew up in a neighborhood similar to his setting so I appreciated this but there wasn't enough clarity or dramatic reality to make me continue reading. His characters are cardboard and uninteresting. They didn't mak me care about them.

an essential novelist.......2007-08-18

Few US writers nowadays take on the subject of America in their writing and make it work. Roth is clearly at the tail end of the generation of the Great American Novelist, a writer who writes as much about the character of the United States of America as he writes about the characters in his books. Don DeLillo (Falling Man: A Novel, Underworld: A Novel and White Noise) is something of this, but DeLillo's concerns are more of the intellectual background of the US rather than its character.

But this book takes on the evolution of America full force--Swede seemed to be an idyllic American. The son of a glovemaker, he was a Varsity letterman and an idol in high school who married Miss New Jersey and seemed destined to be the center of idolatry.

But of course, Swede has to fall, and his fall is as much about the evolution of America as it is the exploitation of his fall. His daughter goes from daddy's little girl to a terrorist/activist responsible for four murders. And from there, Swede's life starts to fall apart, and I mean in every way imaginable. This seems almost expected, but Roth takes this crumbling to some of its deepest psychological and emotional levels. Unlike Yates' Revolutionary Road, Roth makes you care about Swede not only through the explosion of the storybook Middle America into the Turbulent with Knowledge of Inequality 60's and onward, but because his fall is so hard. Emotionally, he is to be left with nothing, and Roth takes us there with immediate prose that grounds like broken glass into the pores of every moment. He is challenging and disturbing and spares no detail, but Roth's work is worth the wait for the depth of pathos and character he conveys. The book seems to end a little lopsidedly, and I found the main drive of The Human Stain a little more compelling than this one, but Roth is certainly a writer we cannot live without. If we want to know what America has become, don't listen to the idiotic pundits on the air (on either side of the fence) think (if you can call it that)--instead, read Roth, and you will see what we have become and who we need to be. While we have entered the era of Controversial Nonfiction, Roth reminds us that the REAL news is in fiction.

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War

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Confederate in the Attic
"Stonewall" Jackson's arm and other Civil War minutia
yet another batch of anti-southern stereotypes rehashed
New South and Old South
Well, the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression/War for State's Rights/Whatever Is Still Being Fought!

Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
Tony Horwitz
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 067975833X
Release Date: 1999-02-22

Amazon.com

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from years of traipsing through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War had caught up with him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter people who reenact the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued, he wound up having some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping to get what they lovingly term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways in which it resonates today. In the course of his work, he made a sobering side trip to cover a murder that was provoked by the display of the Confederate flag, and he spoke to a number of people seeking to honor their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Horwitz has a flair for odd details that spark insights, and Confederates in the Attic is a thoughtful and entertaining book that does much to explain America's continuing obsession with the Civil War.

Book Description

When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.

Propelled by his boyhood passion for the Civil War, Horwitz embarks on a search for places and people still held in thrall by America's greatest conflict. The result is an adventure into the soul of the unvanquished South, where the ghosts of the Lost Cause are resurrected through ritual and remembrance.

In Virginia, Horwitz joins a band of 'hardcore' reenactors who crash-diet to achieve the hollow-eyed look of starved Confederates; in Kentucky, he witnesses Klan rallies and calls for race war sparked by the killing of a white man who brandishes a rebel flag; at Andersonville, he finds that the prison's commander, executed as a war criminal, is now exalted as a martyr and hero; and in the book's climax, Horwitz takes a marathon trek from Antietam to Gettysburg to Appomattox in the company of Robert Lee Hodge, an eccentric pilgrim who dubs their odyssey the 'Civil Wargasm.'

Written with Horwitz's signature blend of humor, history, and hard-nosed journalism, Confederates in the Attic brings alive old battlefields and new ones 'classrooms, courts, country bars' where the past and the present collide, often in explosive ways. Poignant and picaresque, haunting and hilarious, it speaks to anyone who has ever felt drawn to the mythic South and to the dark romance of the Civil War.

Customer Reviews:

Confederate in the Attic.......2007-10-15

Just started reading the book thus far it is entertaining and delightful. I look forward to my quiet evening reading time everyday. It amazes me how
we continue to get Civil War info. from these wonderful writers.

"Stonewall" Jackson's arm and other Civil War minutia.......2007-09-21

Simply a fun read. If you are a civil war buff like me you will enjoy reading this John Stosselesque investigative book of Civil War facts, minutia, and why Confederate esprit de corps lives on 142 years after Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Mr. Horwitz writes his book as a travelogue through the Civil War South. He recounts his travels as he meets new and interesting people and places, and how they still view the War between the States, as the Civil War is known in the South, as an ongoing struggle. He breaks down the book in chapters pertaining to the Southern states he visited.
The book is full of funny, sad, and informative facts like where and when was the first shot of the Civil War actually fired? And No, it was NOT Fort Sumter. But most important was his analysis of the continuing, living spirit of the Civil War South of 1861-1865. It lives today in a variety of ways that Mr. Horowitz points out and discusses.
All in all a must book for Civil War buffs of all kind. A good solid read, well written and factual. Not a tactics or war strategy manual of unit names and engagements, but rather a human interest book of who and what modern day Dixie is and why it lives on today in Southern people, places and things. I recommend it highly.

yet another batch of anti-southern stereotypes rehashed.......2007-07-17

I bought this book on the reccomendation of a fellow civil war buff. I was hoping for some fresh insights on the subject of the lost cause and it's continued effect on our (southern) lives. Instead it is a collection of overblown, trite, highly condescending, negative, hateful fiction. I have lived in the south/southwest my entire life (44 yrs) and I have never encountered anyone remotely resembling the ignorant, racist, borderline psychopaths that the author claims to have found on almost every street corner south of Mason-Dixon. This book is not what I expected. I will avoid further works of fiction by Mr. Horwitz.

New South and Old South.......2007-07-08

Tony Horwitz inadvertently sees Confederate Civil War reenactors near his Virginia home which launches him into an adventure across the South, attending reenactments but also comparing the New South to the Old South. He found out that some things have really changed, and some things have hardly changed at all. He looks into race relations, modern Confederate sympathizers, the Confederate flag controversy, and also gives a great history lesson on many parts of the Civil War, throwing in a lot of trivia that I had not read before. The Civil War continues to be a part of a lot of people's daily lives in the Deep Deep South and Horwitz writes with depth, understanding, and a welcome sense of humor. Recommended.

Well, the Civil War/War of Northern Aggression/War for State's Rights/Whatever Is Still Being Fought!.......2007-03-27

As a Southerner and lifelong American Civil War buff, I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Tony Horwitz' account of traveling the various Southern states and to get an account of the war from mainly the Southern view. While not an advocate of the South's position, he did seem to be respectful of how some Southerners viewed the war over 140 years later after the war ended.

Horwitz traveled Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas to various Civil War sites and to talk with people on their thoughts of what the war meant to them. While he finds pockets of people who still fight the war, he is appalled that most people do not know or really care to know what happened during 1861-1865.

Among the highlights:

1. How he became interested in the war.
2. His trip to Montgomery, Alabama and the irony of the exhibits on the Civil Rights and the First Capital of the Confederacy.
3. His "Wargasm" trip with Robert Hodge (the character in the absolutely hilarious photo on the book's cover) through several Virginia sites in a matter of a few days.
4. Watching Civil War reenactments at Gettysburg and other battlefields.
5. Touring the Civil War prison in Salisbury NC.

The narrative is smooth, interesting, and flows freely from chapter to chapter. As mentioned earlier, I am a lifelong Civil War buff and was able to visualize several of the battlefields I had visited that Horwitz mentioned in his book. I also enjoyed his insights as a Jew.

A great book to read about how some people still fight and view the war. My only complaint was some of the saucy language. Still, a great read.

Highly recommended. Read and enjoy!

Average customer rating:

A very creative undertaking....
When will it end? Where will it end?
A Unique Read
Read it twice to love it
Lovely book

The History of Love: A Novel
Nicole Krauss
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0393060349

Amazon.com

Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book.

The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed.

The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg

Book Description

A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that very book. And although she has her hands full—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in the Wild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Krauss gradually draws together their stories.

This extraordinary book was inspired by the author's four grandparents and by a pantheon of authors whose work is haunted by loss—Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, and more. It is truly a history of love: a tale brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power.

Customer Reviews:

A very creative undertaking...........2007-10-12

I won't rehash the plot of this novel which has been done here over and over. I'll merely say that it's not written in a conventional way but that's what is so special about it. The book can be confusing and challenging to read but at the end, you'll be glad you did because it's a work of art in the best sense. It's different, creative and thought-provoking. So what if it's not easy to read? You will find yourself, like I did, flipping the pages quickly at the end to find out what happens. It's a love story with a great ending. Make up your own mind.

When will it end? Where will it end?.......2007-09-29

This book was so well reviewed by the majority of readers that I feel I have to weigh in since my thoughts on the book are not as appeciative. Krauss can turn a phrase deftly and beautifully at times and there were some passages in the book worth writing down and saving but the story, essentially one of plagiarism, ill-fated love and missed opportunities becomes a slog. In fact, whenever the narration leaves Leo's first person and switches to Alma, or Bird near the end (why Bird!?), it loses strength. The story, convoluted as it is, doesn't sustain itself and in the end you just want it all to get wrapped up. It does but in a sketchy kind of way that still leaves lots of questions (but not in an interesting literary kind of way; more a "Oh please get on with it" kind of way). I started not to care about any of the characters except Leo who I just wanted to win one at last. Even his second book is-- unwittingly-- plagiarized by being pubished under his dead son's name. The fixation on Alma is obviously an Alma of the past because the Alma Leo meets once he arrives in America basically sends him on his way. Leo's story is the most compelling and the whole book, as far as I'm concerned, could have been about him and then might have been a great book. The book suffers from the hype of being fashionable but I don't think will stand the test of time.

A Unique Read.......2007-09-24

This book about the history of a book called the History of Love was a joy to read. Intelligently written, unique characters, and out and out funny at times. Wish there were more of these out there.

Read it twice to love it.......2007-09-23

This is a book you will love or hate. It takes time and rereading to understand it. If you put in the love and the time, just as in life, it will bring you understanding.

Lovely book.......2007-09-08

"History of Love" is compelling story, told in a non-linear fashion, so the experience of reading the book resembles the experience of being in love. This author is quite wise for someone her age -- she depicts an old man, young teenage girl, and other characters with depth and interest.

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls

Average customer rating:

Understanding a Cultural Obsession
Fabulous
Fair Attempt to Explain a Growing Problem
Why "beautiful on the inside" doesn't seem to matter anymore
Unworthy of "American" in its title

The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls
Joan Jacobs Brumberg
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Teenagers | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679735291
Release Date: 1998-09-01

Amazon.com

Adolescent girls today face the issues girls have always faced: "Who am I?" and "Who do I want to be?" Unfortunately their answers, now more than ever before, revolve around the body rather than the mind, heart, or soul. "The body is at the heart of the crisis that [Carol] Gilligan, [Mary] Pipher, and others describe.... The fact that American girls now make the body their central project is not an accident or a curiosity," writes Brumberg, "it is a symptom of historical changes that are only now beginning to be understood." The historical photos, thorough research, and political even-handedness make this a book of worth and sincerity. The Body Project is also comforting for women, adolescents, parents, lesbians, and male lovers of women--helping us sort out the roots of female insecurities, obsessions, and angst.

Book Description

"Timely and sympathetic . . . a work of impassioned advocacy." -- People

A hundred years ago, women were lacing themselves into corsets and teaching their daughters to do the same. The ideal of the day, however, was inner beauty: a focus on good deeds and a pure heart. Today American women have more social choices and personal freedom than ever before. But fifty-three percent of our girls are dissatisfied with their bodies by the age of thirteen, and many begin a pattern of weight obsession and dieting as early as eight or nine. Why?

In The Body Project, historian Joan Jacobs Brumberg answers this question, drawing on diary excerpts and media images from 1830 to the present. Tracing girls' attitudes toward topics ranging from breast size and menstruation to hair, clothing, and cosmetics, she exposes the shift from the Victorian concern with inner beauty to our modern focus on outward appearance--in particular, the desire to be model-thin and sexy. Compassionate, insightful, and gracefully written, The Body Project explores the gains and losses adolescent girls have inherited since they shed the corset and the ideal of virginity for a new world of sexual freedom and consumerism--a world in which the body is their primary project.

"Joan Brumberg's book offers us an insightful and entertaining history behind the destructive mantra of the '90s--'I hate my body!'" --Katie Couric

Customer Reviews:

Understanding a Cultural Obsession.......2007-04-23

Topic: - The book is the author's historical perspective, suggesting there are ever increasing visual evaluations and body standards being placed on American Girls.

Commentary: - The book does an excellent job of bringing attention to the messages girls are constantly bombarded with from all forms of media, advertising and cultural rules, messages that try to persuade them their body should have certain attributes and not have other attributes. It outlines how with each new generation, new social visual ideals are added. From shaving legs, to waxing, to eyebrow control, to hairstyles, to overall weight, to muscle tone, to bad breath, to body odor, to feminine hygeine, to piercings, to tattoos, to teeth straightening, to belly button length, to breast shape, to teeth whitening, and on and on.

Writing Style: - I thought the premise and supporting facts of this book were excellent, but if I have to fault one aspect of the book, it is that the writing sometimes lost my attention - this occurred even though I greatly care about the issues discussed in the book.

What would have made this book better?: - There is an inherent conflict in these issues: How do you make "not being a pawn to these social pressures" interesting and sexually attractive? One of the main draws that advertisers and social forces use is: IF you perfectly control your body and develop these many attributes, THEN you'll be more well liked, treated better, more in control, or more sexually attractive. For the book to have been even better, it needed to spend more time promoting non-conformist beauty ideals and conceptual frameworks.

In other words, it needed to do more to show how NOT persuing a "body perfect" can lead to better social relationships, understanding, attractiveness, etc. It's not enough to tell a person, "Don't do that." It's better to show them how alternative paths can produce more fulfilling and better outcomes. This is because women are constantly bombarded with the opposing messages of: "Make your body perfect" and you will receive _____ (fill in the blank).

Why did I write this review?: - I read this book about a year ago, and I didn't feel compelled to write a review. But one of the attributes of a great idea or a great book of ideas is the longer the ideas are considered in your brain (the more evidence and scenarios you evaluate using those ideas), the more those ideas resonate with 'truth' or significance.

Like most people, I use the internet often. I'm just sickened by the frequency of visual beauty ads. From wrinkle creams, to Stry-Vectyn, to Bo-Tox, to acne-fighters, and every other blemish or age-fighting cream, lotion, or potion. The same messages are coming from T.V.

Dove has launched a "Real Beauty" campaign, where they show women with "non-ideal" body types and weight ranges. And while I can admire some of the premise, which is: "Beauty is broader than the narrow definitions of supemodel advertising," I am also saddened as Dove, a cosmetic company, has also introduced the suggestion: Older women and non-ideal women need to spend more money on our beauty products. Olay's campaign of "Fight crows feet . . . on your elbows and your legs" is creating additional Body Projects for women to be concerned about.

Given the constant messages and pressures American women receive, I expect most women have dealt with an eating disorder or OCD mindset about their physical appearance. After reading this book, I admire every woman who has managed to overcome our culture's body obsession and who has found a way to moderate their eating habits and perceptions of their body.

I recommend at least scanning this book to find any topics of interest. Hopefully, young women who have read this book will be more able to recognize the unnecessary demands and often unreachable standards being asked of them. Hopefully they will learn to define their beauty, and the beauty of the women around them, using more non-body-defined benchmarks.

Fabulous.......2007-04-04

This book was the best non-fiction I have ever read. It details the changing attitudes towards girls' bodies from the Victorian era to now. It's a sad, hard truth, but opens readers' eyes to the stark reality of girls' bodies going from prime real estate -joint owners being parents and the future husband- to nothing but over-sexed, under nourished, under appreciated, and under protected citizens of society.

This book is a wonderful chronicle of the changes in physical appearance, as well as mental status, in the ever-changing world of girls in society.

Fair Attempt to Explain a Growing Problem.......2006-06-10

I bought this book because I see how girls/young women stuggle to achieve a very unrealistic ideal of beauty and how middle aged women stuggle to hang on to what they had as young women. As I approach 50, I know I am expected to stay trim, fit and muscular in spite of the fact that my body struggles mightly against it, especially since pregnancy and child birth.

As for the book, it is heavily researched and some of that research does involve journals from the 19th century and beyond. The first chapter is about how girls' bodies are maturing at a much faster rate than those of their fore sisters and the implications of this. Interesting.

The second chapter covers menstruation and menarche in detail. It is really too long. The basic premise of the chapter is how menarche has become consumerized. Mothers provide their daughters with all the mass manufactured equipment and not much else. The author wants menarche to be explained to girls as the time they enter womanhood, but I have a problem with this for two reasons. #1 Most girls are entering menarche at a time when they are not even remotely ready to be women. #2 When I enter menopause, am I exiting womanhood?

The third chapter covers the quest for perfect skin. It is page after page covering the subject of acne and how it has been dealt with over the past century. This, also, the author feels has been very much consumerized, as mothers take their daughters to the doctors and buy any and every cream and potion to relieve their daughters' agony.

The fourth chapter deals with the history of girls trying to achieve the perfect body and the fifth with the disappearance of virginity and how women have gained sexual freedom, but this has also filtered down to girls in middle school and high school and most of these girls and young women are ill equipped mentally and emotionally to deal with the ramifications of their sexuality.

The overall ideals in the book are excellent. The fact that girls have lost their closeness with mothers, aunts, teachers and other female role models. The fact that most of their learning comes from the media and girls their own ages. The fact that outward beauty is what females are judged by rather than beauty that comes from inside. The fact that girls are no longer protected through the family unit. They are sexually active earlier and earlier and often with older men and not boys of their own age. They have been sold the goods of freedom and independence when they are really not ready for them, etc.

Unfortunately, the book did not so much back up these ideas, but more harped on consumerism...the buying of feminine products, make up, clothes, etc. I am pretty sure this is but I small part of the problem.

Why "beautiful on the inside" doesn't seem to matter anymore.......2006-01-19

What happened to American girls, to women, over the past hundred years, that caused a quantum shift in how they present themselves to the world?

Intelligence, spirituality, charity and volunteerism, and skills for all things domestic were once revered. The most popular girl in her class wasn't the prettiest girl. The girl considered best for marriage had the qualities desired for a wife and mother and not what she looked like on her husband's arm.

We are all victims of this shift.

I admit I first noticed this book on a shelf in a train-station bookstore because of the flat, tanned belly on the cover. We've become a society obsessed with pieces and parts and appearances of the pieces and parts rather than the beauty of the whole person. Our self-esteem is measured by the numbers on the scale or the size of our jeans or the clarity of our skin.

Over the past six years, I've reread this book a few times, and always find a new point that rings true.

In her revealing (yet not surprising) sociological history Blumberg uses the best and most frank sources to illustrate her case: the private diaries of young women, from the Victorian era to present day (the late 90's). Blumberg theorizes that it's the media and consumerism that are the biggest contributors to the shift and uses excerpts from the diaries to make her point.

Blumberg focuses on middle-class Caucasian girls circa 1998, and perhaps the book needs an update to focus on a broader demographic as well as address the influence of the internet which has since become an increasingly important factor in the socialization and self-awareness of young women.

I think this is a decent book for a teenage girl, but I'm not sure it will have much of a positive influence. Girls are constantly being fed about how they should look and what products they should buy to achieve beauty.

It's a better book for a woman in her 20's or 30's who might want a better understanding of why we've become the way we are.

Unworthy of "American" in its title.......2005-10-02

The Body Project provides very selective leeway into the societal effects of African-American adolescent girls and their personal body projects. The main focus of this book is on the evolution of the white middle-class adolescent girl throughout American history. African-American and Jewish girls are mentioned briefly in a few chapters, while other ethnic groups are simply never discussed. Are these other various ethnic groups not worthy of their equal place in Brumberg's book?
Brumberg focuses on the evolution of the white middle-class female adolescent starting in the early 1800s and ending in the late 1990s. An evolution of the African American adolescent also took place during these times, but differently than that of their white female counterparts.
In order to understand black American adolescents today, foundation for cultural practices must first be established. Brumberg never mentions the coexistence of enslaved blacks, in America during the 18th or 19th centuries.
Though all women have the same biological anatomy, our genes vary, our cultures vary, so we should dispel the idea that when certain groups of women who menstruate earlier than others are abnormal or inferior. Brumberg reveals that this type of thought was well circulated throughout the medical community remained true during the Victorian period. The notion that black health was considered an expendable asset in the American medical community well through the early 1970s.

One major issue that Brumberg avoids is the abuse of children and adolescents. There is probably a close connection between the body projects that adolescents undertake and their harsh self-image.

Brumberg fails to expand on the greater idea that people exist who can never truly choose their identity before it first chooses them. Many girls are intrinsically bound to a stereotype, despite self-image. Possibly everyone has small things that they would like to alter about their physical appearances; however Americans also fail to see these "body projects" as a form a western female mutilation, of which millions of women have fallen victim. Plastic surgery is an ever-growing project that young girls obsess about. This standard idea of beauty that girls manipulate themselves on must disappear, before our individuality as women disappears.

Average customer rating:

A Moveable Feast
beautiful!
Beautifully Accomplished.
A remarkable achievement
Not as good as the real thing!

The Camel Bookmobile
Masha Hamilton
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0061173487
Release Date: 2007-04-03

Book Description

THE CAMEL BOOKMOBILE is a fictional tale of an American librarian who leaves Brooklyn to work for a relief organization in Africa that sends books on the backs of camels to forgotten villages. Her intentions are entirely pure but, when the bookmobile causes a feud among the nomadic tribe it aims to help, she realizes her good deeds may come with a high price.

The actual Camel Bookmobile made its first run almost a decade ago. Three dromedaries trudged through arid northeastern Kenya to bring a library to settlements so remote they had become nearly invisible. Lacking roads, clean water, and food, those who inhabited these villiages had never been to school much less held a book in their hands. The books that came to them were rare and precious gifts, allowing them to briefly escape the reality of squalor and destitution.

Appealing to the fans of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Bookseller of Kabul, The Camel Bookmobile captures a time and place that is unknown to many but relevant to all.

Customer Reviews:

A Moveable Feast.......2007-09-22

This book succeeds on a variety of levels. It is first of all enjoyable fiction. The factual quotes before chapters lend a bleak reality to the stark conditions of the environment wherein the story transpires. It is, however, the richness of the characterization that makes the novel soar. Each character sings in a proud triumphant voice, as the bookmobile enters, leaves and then returns to the complexity of African life.

beautiful!.......2007-07-02

It's been a long time since the characters in a story have continued to live on for me after I've finished the book. This is one of those stories. As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, I could both identify with Fi Sweeney and ponder the larger questions of what happens when one tries to bring progress to another culture. No easy answers, but lots to think about, long after you've finished reading.

Beautifully Accomplished........2007-06-09

I bought this book as a recommendation from a friend as he knew my interests and thought this would be perfect. I wasn't in the least bit disappointed. Hamilton unravels the tale of Fiona Sweeney, a modern librarian from the states, who has a mission and a goal: bringing education to the tribal peoples of Africa.

With multiple twists and turns to the plot that I didn't foresee when I first picked up the book, I was pleasantly surprised. Hamilton's writing is not only beautiful and captivating, but also brings forth a sense of importance. It's a book with awareness and a deep spiritual connection that left me with a 'united' feeling. I was both enamored and amused by the supporting cast, but also left with a feeling of kinship with Fi who has a strong belief in what she does. She's the type of woman who wont go down without a fight, strong but still emotional. She has a certain need to fulfill this mission and even when turned away, she is assertive and determined in her belief.

From the dusky, romantic setting of Africa to the sense of balance in Fi Sweeney's heart, this book was a delight. The awareness of the subject matter is brought into strong focus, yet still maintains a balance of wonderful writing. A true success.

A remarkable achievement.......2007-06-05

In The Camel Bookmobile, Masha Hamilton tackles important philosophical and cultural questions with sensitivity and grace. This book is anything but abstract, though. Librarian Fiona Sweeney; her Kenyan counterpart, Mr. Abasi; and especially the members of the Mididima tribe are complex, intelligent, passionate individuals whom we come to care about and root for, and whose fragile future assumes heartbreaking importance.

Not as good as the real thing!.......2007-05-31

Although the real Camel Book Drive that is a new and wonderful charity organization now going on in Africa is an exciting event that brings books to the people of that country, the novelization of the story is not as riveting. I struggle to see why other reviewers are raving about this boring and disastrous tale. Perhaps they feel the actual real story of the bookmobile merits giving the book flying colors. I was expecting so much more from this promising title and felt very misled by the descriptive blurb on the front inside jacket flap. I was expecting to hear how these books and authors were going to change the lives of these people, I was waiting to see how the people would react and wonder about the various stories that are brought to them across the dry dusty desert by a caravan of camels. Not so. We have one trip, the first trip, into one village, that soon causes trouble and disaster to the future of the camel book mobile. The entire rest of the book is one long affair with our heroine the librarian to straighten out the problem one villager has caused. The reader then has to suffer through the rest of the novel hearing about the trials and tribulations and petty social and family ordeals of the locals, instead of the promised literary input the books are supposedly suppose to create for these villages. I truly struggled to finish it and when I finally turned the last page I felt I had wasted the entire day that it took to read this slow and disappointing story.

Average customer rating:

Brilliant, idiosyncratic.
Such promise, such disappointment
A couldn't-put-it-down book of criticism!
Three studies within one cover
A lterary tour

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
Jane Smiley
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1400040590
Release Date: 2005-09-13

Book Description

Over an extraordinary twenty-year career, Jane Smiley has written all kinds of novels: mystery, comedy, historical fiction, epic. “Is there anything Jane Smiley cannot do?” raves Time magazine. But in the wake of 9/11, Smiley faltered in her hitherto unflagging impulse to write and decided to approach novels from a different angle: she read one hundred of them, from classics such as the thousand-year-old Tale of Genji to recent fiction by Zadie Smith, Nicholson Baker, and Alice Munro.

Smiley explores–as no novelist has before her–the unparalleled intimacy of reading, why a novel succeeds (or doesn’t), and how the novel has changed over time. She describes a novelist as “right on the cusp between someone who knows everything and someone who knows nothing,” yet whose “job and ambition is to develop a theory of how it feels to be alive.”

In her inimitable style–exuberant, candid, opinionated–Smiley invites us behind the scenes of novel-writing, sharing her own habits and spilling the secrets of her craft. She walks us step-by-step through the publication of her most recent novel, Good Faith, and, in two vital chapters on how to write “a novel of your own,” offers priceless advice to aspiring authors.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel may amount to a peculiar form of autobiography. We see Smiley reading in bed with a chocolate bar; mulling over plot twists while cooking dinner for her family; even, at the age of twelve, devouring Sherlock Holmes mysteries, which she later realized were among her earliest literary models for plot and character.

And in an exhilarating conclusion, Smiley considers individually the one hundred books she read, from Don Quixote to Lolita to Atonement, presenting her own insights and often controversial opinions. In its scope and gleeful eclecticism, her reading list is one of the most compelling–and surprising–ever assembled.

Engaging, wise, sometimes irreverent, Thirteen Ways is essential reading for anyone who has ever escaped into the pages of a novel or, for that matter, wanted to write one. In Smiley’s own words, ones she found herself turning to over the course of her journey: “Read this. I bet you’ll like it.”

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant, idiosyncratic........2007-07-04

This book is excellent and will repay close reading, but I am of two minds. On one hand, Smiley has examined the development and significance of the novel as only a practicing novelist of depth and talent could. On the strength of her treatment I've resolved to try her novels. Any description I might give of her discussion would not do it justice.

On the other hand, she clearly has a political axe to grind and this comes out most one-sidedly in her descriptions of novels. First, her history of the novel begins with Murasaki Shikibu's "Tale of Genji," leaps to Bocaccio's "Decameron" as a precursor to the novel in its western form, and then holds a steady course through Cervantes, Defoe, Austen, Dickens, and James into the twentieth century. Perhaps because she has identified as a major concern of the novel the question of "what a woman is for" (her words), Smiley ignores Twain, Hemingway, and modern novelists whose work is not animated by that question. She does not claim completeness for her 100 novels and writes more than once that she is not trying to compile a `Best 100' list, but she does claim a certain disinterestedness that is belied by her choices. She (usually) likes European novelists (nothing wrong with that) and woman novelists (ditto) who pursue her favorite question. Novelists who have nothing to say on the question either leave her cold or don't make the list at all. Hence, she claims not to be able to remember her experience of "Moby Dick" and Joyce's "Ulysses" strikes her as a lot of art devoted to a not very interesting premise. About her contemporaries Pynchon, Delillo, and Wolfe she has nothing to say at all.

Second, the idea that failure to read novels caused the badness of our politicians is nonsense. Lincoln wasn't a great reader of novels, nor was Washington. I don't deny that people well-read in good novels might as a result develop empathy but Smiley seems not to believe there are other routes to the same destination. Furthermore, plenty of very good leaders, not to mention good people in general, claim that daily contact with the Bible helps them to love their neighbors as themselves. GWB's treatment of Iraq doesn't strike Smiley as loving enough (one might say "Christian enough"): fine, but this is not grounds for blaming the Bible and Bush's poor education. Where should we believe Mother Theresa or Dietrich Boenhoeffer learned their love of humanity?

Third, J.S.'s history of the novel, though accurate as far as it goes, doesn't make sense given her concerns. She includes "The Tale of Genji," which had zero influence on the novel's early development in the West, but excludes medieval saints' lives, which I expect influenced the "Decameron" and are sources for the reader's experience of interior truth she believes is a defining characteristic of the novel. She will claim she had to start somewhere but why not consider the source of the novel's interiority, since she places so much emphasis on that quality? The primary source of western interiority is the idea that the soul has to answer to God in conscience. This fearful relationship between self and deity was illustrated in hundreds of saints lives. A frequent element in the stories of female saints is the refusal to do the socially expected thing--marry a man--in favor of maintaining chastity. Tales like this dramatize the sense of self against other that grew as Christianity spread. This crisis deepened during the Protestant Reformation and it should not surprise us that the novel's development began as Luther and Calvin were claiming that the soul's isolation was even more absolute than Christians had previously believed.

Finally, had she looked she would have found several long, plotted, prose works that predate "The Tale of Genji" by several centuries: the novel has perfectly fine ancient roots in the Greek romance and other long prose works of antiquity, such as Apuleius' "Metamorphosis" and Petronius' "Satyricon."

So, brilliant and idiosyncratic, just as I believe Smiley wanted it. Buy the book.

Such promise, such disappointment.......2007-03-21

I read the first few chapters and thought this was not a bad book. The author often has to stretch to tie her point to her examples but was keeping my interest. And then it happened! What so many of today's "accomplished" writers can't avoid.
A completely useless and bombastic attack on the Bush administration stuck in the middle of the book. Whatever your political views, these pages are confused and embarassing. A nice 3-4 star book of criticism and advice destroyed because our author could not contain her hatred and bile. My reading group (2 conservatives, 2 moderates and 3 liberals) voted 7-0 to stop discussing this book after hitting this passage. Leave political commentary to the hundreds of hacks across the spectrum.

A couldn't-put-it-down book of criticism!.......2007-03-02

I guess it is well known that Smiley is a witty, intelligent, and congenial writer but this book nevertheless surprised me. I didn't want it to end! I found myself hoarding the pages of the penultimate essay the same way I do with the closing chapters of a novel I am enjoying. I will now have to re-read to figure out how she accomplished this (can it be simply a matter of voice?), but in the meantime want to recommend it to all comers. Just delightful.

Three studies within one cover.......2006-02-26

This compendium falls into three parts, more or less. The first section offers Smiley's survey of how the novel evolved. Here, she emphasizes the importance of Bocaccio's Decameron and Marguerite de Naverre's Heptameron, two collections of stories grouped around a tale-telling symposium, more or less. The first stresses the humanism and the joy of human relationships; the second cautions humans about the danger of such relationships. Here, Smiley finds the tension that characterizes the subsequent four centuries of what becomes, with the rise of literacy and the spread of affordable books, the novel as we know it.

Her 22 years spent teaching university in Iowa show in her analysis. Some readers may be lulled off to sleep by her rather academic considerations; as a literature lecturer myself for about the same amount of time that she taught, I found these introductory chapters a bit too longwinded--she continues as the pages pile up to elaborate points already made, and at times I felt like she had to stretch her material to fit, well, 13 chapters no matter what. Still, it taught me a lot that I had not learned in the classroom myself, and it's useful for any reader as an overview or summation. Despite the rather too-professorial pace, she does come up with a few memorable remarks in these first 200 pages.

For instance, that Don Quixote, shown to conveniently nod off whenever the talk turned to amours, began a tendency for the novel (for much of its evolution) to avoid explicit depictions of sex. That the English novel tends to lead up to marriage, while the French equivalent starts off with marriage--or its stagnation after the honeymoon's faded. How drama inflates its protagonist while novels deflate their main character's pretensions or aspirations. Or, in her opinion with which I disagree, why Ulysses and what she critiques as too-mannered a fictional rendering distances fatally the novel from its natural milieu where the reader--and the writer--belong.

I never have read a Smiley novel, so that puts me in either an uninformed or fresh reception for her next section. She takes the making of her novel "Good Faith," and shows how she took an anecdote told her from real life and worked it into a novel. I admit that while I have no interest in reading GF after encountering her account of its construction, the process described was told--being from the inside rather than via a critic after the fact--in an informative and insightful manner. But it's still a bit clumsy; if you have not read GF, then the coyness with which she gives some details and withholds others (so as not to spoil the plot) does prove awkward, as this novel's not exactly as familiar for most of us as many of the others she peruses in the 101 listed in the final section. I did find her reactions to reviews, her book tour experiences, and her struggles with knowing when to stop writing informative, however. This led into a chapter in which she addresses the reader as if he/she seeks advice on how to write a novel, too. This chapter felt as if imported from a previous article; it aroused for me absolutely no interest in writing one, and its place in this otherwise reader-oriented collection seemed precarious. But others will no doubt be invigorated by it.

For the final section, the second half roughly in length of the book, the 101 novels she lists and summarizes rather briskly--as she points out, often overlapping with the previous chapters that were written after she had drafted the notes on the 101 novels as she read them, offers far less enticement than I'd have expected. I thought I'd find many novels that I'd never heard of, or always had wondered if I should read but hadn't known enough about to sample. She did get me to search out Gogol's novella "Taras Bulba," one I'd never encountered. But many of her titles are already familiar, standard-issue for reading groups, English majors, or the "common reader" that Virginia Woolf could once expect to find out in the educated public. This is not meant as a put-down, but there were fewer rare and previously hidden or neglected finds in her list than I'd have liked.

Contrast this to the increasingly middlebrow types of novels that populate her list as it moves into the latter 20c. This on the one hand is unsurprising; this is the same category that Smiley herself writes for--the respectable popular "trade paperback" by the classier imprints from usually mass-market publishers. But I found really no new books in the more recent decades to seek out after reading her reviews. She too often does not show the faults of what she reads--such as Ian McEwan's "Atonement" being a refreshing and too rare inclusion of why she did not think a novel "worked"--and her generally sunny acceptance of the stack she plowed through does speak for her optimism and good-natured encouragement of her fellow writers. Again, I tend towards the more difficult novel than most of the people reading this book would, so I admit my snobbish prejudice!

Smiley does enhoy the benefits of much more leisure than most of us, riding horses in Carmel Valley, reading to her heart's delight, and taking the Course in Miracles--a paragraph early on praising this for her own recent transformation still seems baffling to me, alas. For we busier folk, her own foray through a few years of reading her way through the big bedside stack we bibliophiles all dream of having does show her commonsense and accessible approach to explicating how novels are made, why they work, and which ones worked best for her. While each of our stacks would differ from hers, she does provide in this hefty volume (a good value for the price) enough for any reader to learn and debate with her from the comfort of our own armchair or pillow.

A lterary tour.......2006-01-30

A great tour of the novel landscape, with Smiley's typical insight and deft use of language. And a nice list of novels everyone should read with thumbnail summaries.

American Environmentalism: Readings In Conservation History

Average customer rating:

A worthy addition to the tree-hugger's bookshelf
A good reader

American Environmentalism: Readings In Conservation History
Roderick F Nash
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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