4 comments about The King: Chess Pieces.

1. Donner was Denmark's strongest player since Euwe and a prolific chess journalist. In this collection of essays about chess, Donner claims (among other things) that "the fact is, women are much stupider than men", that "no Dutch can achieve anything worthwhile", and Ree is such a weak chess player he bet he would win the match with him at 150-to-1 odds. Of course, that doesn't for one minute stop him from praises Nona Gaprindashvili's victory in Lone Pine, 1977, worshipping Euwe, and being on friendly terms with Ree-including praising him honestly when he (Ree) won the match.
   
   Donner's "hatereds" are not to be taken too seriously: he is not a megalomaniacal bigot, he merely plays one in his columns (e.g., when he pretends to be deeply insulted that Fischer's famous "10 best players of all time" list somehow didn't mention him.) But *pretending* to be a bigoted know-it-all is wonderful literary excuse for Donner to write about all the "really important" things about tournament X or grandmaster Y--that is, whatever *he* felt like writing about them--and to hell with convention, or with what his employers wanted. After all, if all those inferior people (such as his bosses at the paper, who might even be Dutch and/or women) complain that his reporting is obscure or odd, what's that to Donner?
   
   The result is that Donner's chess essays were like nobody else's--a flight of fancy that takes one to totally unexpected placed. For example, when reporting about a Cuban tournament he participated in, it's much better, in Donner's view, to report, how a bridge hand he played with a few other chess players turned out (while insulting the other players as hopeless bridge bumblers) than to bother with boring stuff, like the tournament's results or other unimportant trivia. While driving his editors in the paper to distraction, Donner's journey is so much fun you simply don't mind that you don't get the crosstable. It is a guided tour of chess as seen by a fanatical, but very funny, eccentric who loves the game waaaaaaaaay too much. They have a sense of tragic dignity to them: those of a man well aware of the absurdity of grown men trying to make a living at what is, essentially, a game--and failing, often due to the petty actions of organizers who cannot play the game themselves.
   
   There is nothing quite like this book. You'll probably love it; you may hate it; but it won't leave you unmoved.



2. This book stands out of competition. I have read many chess books, but this one is certainly the most entertaining book of all. It is a combination of chess and literature. This compilation of chess articles Donner wrote for several magazines, is full of witty chess anecdotes. Donner writes in his incomparable style, and I am sure that the English translation cannot render the exact content of the Dutch text (I have read in Dutch and it is beautiful Dutch). But since this book in Dutch is worth at least six stars, in English it deserves beyond any doubt five stars.



3. J.H. Donner was a chess journalist and Grandmaster from the Netherlands. This book assembles some of his best articles from his 30 year writing career. From the standpoint of reporting and history, you will get accounts of the author's contacts with Fischer, Spassky, Botvinnik, Petrosian, Bronstein, and other greats from that generation --that alone would have been worth the price. But in addition, what emerges is not only a portrait of Donner the man (and he was a character!), but also his fascinating commentary on the human condition. His provocative article on why women can't play chess seems at first to be the rantings of some benighted chauvinist pig, then you see that it is really a tongue-in-cheek tribute to women, and by the end you realize it is something else altogether. Donner has a great feel for irony, a gift for constructing delicious insults, and a sideways approach to his subjects that simply confounds expectations. You won't learn any opening theory, or build your tactical skills, but you will laugh and be entertained. Send more stars!



4. This is a fun book to read about chess and some of the stories of the lives of grandmasters. A good read.

1 comments about A Game Of Golf.

1. I found the book very interesting overall. There are some parts that drag on but all in all a neat book. It tells the details of a great golfer Francis Ouimet. It was written in the 1930s and I am sure some of the details have been sugar coated but if a person like history and likes golf you will like this book!

1 comments about The Honey Jar.

1. Written by Noble Peace Prize winner and Mayan activist Rigoberta Menchu with the assistance Dante Liano and enhanced with full color artwork by Domi, The Honey Jar is an entertaining collection of short stories and encouraging tales drawn from the author's childhood growing up in a Mayan culture. These are tales and stories her grandparents told during her childhood, collected under one cover and offering a new generation of children a special insights into a Native American culture's captivating and imaginative folklore offering explanations of certain natural phenomena, magical twins, the sky, the sun and the moon, animals, plants, and the gods. Especially suitable for school and community library Folklore/Mythology collections for children, The Honey Jar is a very highly recommended read as a high interest for any young reader for its entertaining, imaginative, and vibrant tales, fables, and mysteries.

5 comments about The Boy with the Thorn in His Side: A Memoir.

1. Keith Fleming is a pretty good storyteller. He really makes you picture the times, places and characters in his life. Especially strong is the evil Doctor at the hospital and his wonderful uncle in New York City. (Edmund White) These characters and moments really stand out.

   However most of this book just rambles about and then ends with no purpose whatsoever. At the end I wondered "why did he write it" and "why did I read it?". I would not recommend this book because it just meanders and ends with no explanation. I need more of a story arc even from a biography.

   The other thing that puzzled me was why he would paint such a wonderful loving tribute to his uncle and then ruin it by mentioning an offhand sexual advance by his uncle. It seemed out of place never explored his feelings behind it or why it was even mentioned. It was kind of unsavory without a reason for it.

   Keith needed a good editor on this book and some guidance.




2. This is one of the many memoirs / autobiographies, relating to the ubiquitous stories of 'troubled youth'. Flemmings emotional maturity and consistently strong writing has aloud him to tell the story of a turbulent adolescence akin to "Girl Interrupted", "Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius", etc. I was not drawn to this novel for Ed White, but rather found it in the bookstore Biography section by chance. I have seen criticisms of Flemming's dupe on the public as advertising this to be a memoir of Ed White, but it this really the case? At face value, this is a remarkable memoir of a troubled journey through adolescence devoid of all "poor me" sentiments that the other above-mentioned memoirs seem to convey. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone - it is a gem!



3. I was going to buy this book as an anniversary present, but caught myself reading bits and pieces, until I had finished the whole thing. This is a well-written book that is very engaging. You laugh, cry, and wince as Fleming tells his story, and you close the book absolutely exhausted thinking about everything that happened within a relatively short time span. I recommend it for years to come.



4. "Just who is Keith Fleming and why is he tryng to slay me" might be a good subtitle for this short memoir. Frankly I bought the book because of my great admiration for Edmund White (the Uncle Ed of Keith's minor autobiography) and in the end all reasons for liking the book reflect back to that initial response. Yes, this is the life of an unfortunate, acneiform teenage product of yet another dysfunctional family unit whose saving grace is his finding solace with his brilliant writer uncle in New York. Keith Fleming writes well, has some pages when his prose actually begins to sing, but aside from his "growing up" experience with Edmund White, his story - full of despair and cruel circumstances -hardly registers as a precis for a book. But all criticism aside, Fleming does give us more insights into the person of Edmund White and it is refreshing to read passages that demonstrate White's warmth and humanity and caring that often his books fail to suggest. Far from being just a flamboyant social surface person, White, as drawn by his nephew, has more than a modicum of compassion for family, for adolescence, for the sticks and stones that make us falter as we mature. So, I think this young writer bears watching. Maybe next time his misery will not be too much with us.......



5. I found this memoir of Mr. Fleming's youth fascinating. It was extremely well written, vividly descriptive of his family and experiences with mother, father, psychiatrist, fellow patients, and finally, his loving uncle who rescued him from an ununderstanding world. I do not regard it as a "gay" book, but a moving description of a young man's journey through his youth, schooling, family, hospitalizations, love relationships. Anyone interested in young people especially, should find this as interesting as I did. I do recommend it.

2 comments about Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir (Sun Tracks).

1. This gorgeous and unusual book should be required reading for both lovers of memoir and anyone who lives in "Indian Country" (which, really, is most of us.) Hayes layers narratives of self, land, history and tribe in an unusual way that feels utterly organic. She also offers real insight into both the brokenheartedness and the joy that characterize modern Native people's experience. Though it is not without minor flaws, I give this book 5 stars because it is amazing and unique.



2. Ernestine Hayes has captured what it means to grow up with one foot in white culture, the other in a native way of life she must struggle to keep alive and burning in her heart. I loved the way native stories wove in and out of her experiences. I hope she has another book in the works because I want to read more of what she has to say.

5 comments about Margaret Fuller, Wandering Pilgrim.

1. As acknowledged by the author, I was involved in the early going, but years later, now that I can sit down with Meg Murray's Fuller biography, I am thrilled. Very few books about literary giants do justice to the narrative. It either seems cooked or perhaps worse lumpy and raw. Murry's story is riveting. I recently needed stories about the Tiber Island hospital where Fuller served as a nurse during the Roman seige and found Murray's account very worth quoting. This is a superb work of scholarship AND a compelling story about one of America's most neglected giants.



2. Wandering Pilgrim is an excellent study of one of America's most important and neglected literary figures. Murray writes of Margaret Fuller with compassion, complexity and professionalism. Her account of Fuller -- a bold and brilliant woman who enthralled both Emerson and Hawthorne, who used her as a model for Hester Prynne - is a lively and original reading of this memorable woman.



3. Margaret Fuller for Everyone
   
   Margaret Fuller, Wandering Pilgrim manages to be both a page-turning
   read and a richly dense one. The clear narrative will please and
   inform readers who know little about Fuller, a fascinating nineteenth-
   century author and thinker; at the same time, Murray's extensive
   research and careful analysis will be invaluable to scholars of both
   American literature and women's studies. The book balances
   psychological, historical, and literary background in a wonderfully
   successful attempt to explain the life and achievements of the complex
   woman who made a pioneering case for American women in her classic
   Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845). Even as Murray astutely
   prepares us for the ending of Fuller's life, we keep reading to find
   out both what will happen, and why.



4. Murray's study of the 19th century American feminist author and intellectual Margaret Fuller ,a creative,richly talented,conflicted, even bedeviled New England Romantic, is nothing short of brilliant. Murray weaves into the warp and woof of her complex Fuller tapestry a blend of criticism, history, literature, psychology, religion and theology, which together yield a finely nuanced picture of a brilliant but profoundly troubled woman who struggled valiantly though unsuccessfully to break free from the constaints of her strict puritanical upbringing and the oppression of a domineering father. Some may wonder whether anything worthwhile can be added to our understanding of Margaret Fuller after the publication of Prof. Capper's second volume. The answer: an emphatic "Yes". Murray's "Wandering Pilgrim" deserves a distinguished place alongside Capper's and the best of the other scholarly volumes on Fuller. A long time birthing, it should stand well the test of time. Murray's controversial interpretation of Fuller will not win acceptance by all Fuller scholars, but they can ill afford to ignore her. Her provocative biography is a must-read .



5. Murray analyzes Margaret Fuller's achievements as "America's first full-fledged intellectual woman," from child prodigy to crusading journalist to revolutionary agent in Italy, always struggling to make sense of the world around her and her own divided nature. Careful consideration of this Romantic woman writer's "gender / sex identity crisis" makes the book an original contribution to Fuller scholarship and brings us as readers face to face with a conflicted soul, never able to resolve all the contradictions of her mind and body. I recommend this biography to anyone with a serious interest in women's and gender studies.

5 comments about Learning Joy from Dogs without Collars: A Memoir.

1. Bravo! a well written memoir. Thank you for taking the time to write about your life. I enjoyed the progressive chapters ---Lauralee's unique dance of life. I am sure it wasn't easy. You held my interest and my heart, Bravo to your mom--cause she was the backbone to your success.
   A very interesting novel, especially if you have a teeenager involved in wrestling. Imagine! the only female on the wrestling team at Harvard. Again, thank you for writing your story.
   t



2. I thought this book was enjoyable to read. Say, a decent book to read in the park on a nice afternoon. Nothing too intense. It was a little slow in the middle, but still had enough interesting stories to keep the reader going and find out what happened to this young woman. It picked up the pace toward the end, almost putting off too much for the end; the intense reunion with her father, graduating Harvard, and plenty of wrestling team metaphors for her growing self-realizations -- all within the last few chapters. Compared to other books I've read, it wouldn't be a 5-star because it wasn't particularly life-altering, funny, witty or original. A well-rounded 1st novel for Summer though.



3. This is one of those books that was hard for me to put down. I think I read it over a period of 1 1/2 days. However, I felt that Lauralee skipped over a lot of things. I hope that she writes more about her life. I can't help but wonder what life has in store for her!?!



4. Lauralee Summer's memoir moved me beyond words. It is so uplifting to read stories like hers that show the resilience of the human spirit.

   Despite her very unconventional childhood, Lauralee's mother was very loving and supportive within her capacity to provide for her brilliant daughter.

   An earlier reviewer mentioned her father. This chapter moved me more than almost any other. If there was ever a person who regretted his earlier behavior and genuinely tried to make it up, then her father would get my vote.

   Inspiring, moving, beautifully written in the same vein as ANGELA'S ASHES and FINDING FISH




5. Seeing is believing, or in this case---reading, as the adage goes that relates to the remarkable story of one such lady who in my opinion beats Frank McCourt's 'Angela's Ashes.' Don't get me wrong about McCourt's memoir of the Irish poor, but Lauralee Summer's oddly titled 'Learning Joy from Dogs Without Collars' has an extraordinary flair all it's own. When Lauralee Summer was at the age to enter college she never knew her life would make the newpapers and make radio airwaves nationwide. The headlines would read "Homeless to Harvard" and she even got interviews with the Boston Globe and other prestigious newspapers. When she was asked to make a network TV appearance, during the interview she was pressed for time, the host gave her only less than a minute to reply to the question: What was it like to be homeless? The short-moment media experience of her life in a nutshell prompted her to write the memoir.
   

   
   Summer's reveals in her memoir of a fatherless, nomadic-type life who lived with her mother who was known very little of being employed, eccentric---but loving and protective of her daughter. Summer and her mom were always on the move to one state or another. Life was far from easy of living in dreary, and even dangerous homeless shelters and delapidated welfare houses. They didn't own a car or a bank account and what little money they had wasn't enough for food or clothing. The sort of schooling Summer had she obtained here and there. And her joy came from learning to read and her love of books when she was a small child. It wasn't until she reached high school when she found the mentors she needed and a love for wrestling where she was accepted on the competitive all-male team! This was the time in life, Summer was able to move into her own acceptance. This would later build her foundation into the priviledged walls of Harvard. It was when Summer won a wrestling scholarship to Harvard, she was in the limelight of the press media of her unique story. Summer had come a long way from poverty and neglect, but everything paid off in the end. For everyone it always does in some way. Summer found her place in the world and made her own home. By constructing her life from the life of the streets and her Harvard education she is a mentor who paints a window of the dark, isolated and discriminating world of women and children in poverty. The house that Summer built was the one of a honest, courageous and compassionate heart who has found joy from dogs without collars.

5 comments about X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography.

1. If you are a Kinks fan, as I am, then you should read this book. It chronicles the early years of the Kinks in some detail, and addresses in much less detail some later years. Ray Davies' biographical writing is much like his song writing, which will please those who like his songs. I gave it a 4 star rating rather than higher because there are places where the book seems to be too detailed, and other places where it seems to wander. X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography



2. That was hands down the best autobiography I've read. So, what can I say about the book, well, going in I thought it would be fun and weird thanks to the off-beat style that it was chosen to be written in, then I realized pretty quickly, and was completely reaffirmed by the end, that the weird Citizen Kane meets 1984 3rd person thing was actually a fabulously well realized writing tool that enabled Mr. Davies to actually succeed at what all autobiographies attempt, but ultimately fail at. The way I figure it an autobiography, when done for the right reasons, is generally a way for someone to bare their soul and at the same time set the record straight about any misconceptions that the public may have had about them. For someone who wears their heart on their sleeve as much as Ray does, he doesn't seem to care too much about the latter, but instead has opted for a literary trick that allows him to express his introspection and the parts of his past and thoughts that wouldn't normally be able to be expressed fully outside of one's own mind and abandons the more straight memoirs approach that most autobiographers take. He goes as far as to keep the reader guessing at whether or not he's even telling the truth in his own autobiography. The interviewer calls him a liar in dialog and Ray gives alternate accounts of some situations and repeatedly reminds us that it's all about perception. I've gotten ahead of myself though. the basic premise of the book is that a giant media conglomerate known only as 'The Corporation' has pretty much taken over everything in the not so distant future. The government basically tries to keep the masses sedated and content, but they don't get too into this aside from Ray pointing out how things had been going toward this final destination since the sixties and that the whole rebellion thing of the time was an allowable annoyance; as while the kids preached free love and peace, the governments waged wars and carried on the same old crap they always had. Anyway, the Corporation sends one of their orphans who's been raised as a child of the Corporation to interview Davies in order to give them a full report on the Kinks lead singer, apparently with less than benevolent intentions. This 1984 backdrop is then thrown into a kind of Citizen Kane thing, accept the only interviewee is Ray Davies, rather than as in Citizen Kane, his acquaintances. Then again, Davies changes his persona repeatedly with the subject matter, even talking through a diary of his ex-wife's for awhile which then somehow becomes his own. The octogenarian Davies of the fiction world is written as an old somewhat unlikeable codger who's purposefully unrealistic at times, oddly magical, and an admitted liar. Not until the end of the novel/autobiography does he seem completely real and finally blend with his non-fiction counterpart. The most interesting moments occur when R.D. (as he likes to call him self in the fiction world) interacts in a personal manner with the interviewer; and the most insightful moments occur not when Ray retells interesting tidbits about the history of the Kinks, but when the interviewer learns about his own life, what to do with it, and his place in the world through Ray Davies. These moments offer a direct window into Ray Davies' thoughts, emotions, and motives. Basically, Ray is a naturally paranoid person and with that, as with all cases of paranoia, comes a hint of 'delusion of grandeur', but this is primarily a side effect to and completely inseperable from the paranoia. I'm not completely sure if Ray is incredibly sensitive, yet open, or just completely self-aware and obviously someone who's done a LOT of introspection. A few things are for sure, he's very insecure, very intelligent, and very capable of examining himself, but sometimes has trouble identifying with others, even though through his songs people seem to be able to identify with him quite well. Pretty much, without music he would probably have a great deal of difficulty really connecting with people (that's my own impression, not something the book really dwells on very much). The only thing I can really say against this book is that it is ultimately an autobiography, which is not my favorite genre, and in all honesty, some of the bits where the book is pretty much straight autobiography are a bit trying. It's good at these parts, but I find myself wanting him to intersperse more of the fiction, since in the beginning and ending of the book, this back and forth thing makes the whole story more interesting as you get a taste of the autobiography and then a fictitious part that helps explain the emotion, psyche, personal short-comings, etc. of the author. The other down note is that it only goes through to the Village Green Preservation Society album in great detail. After that the subsequent albums become more of a backdrop and nothing is mentioned after Preservation Act II. There is a good reason for this though, as by this point the whole revealing introspection and explaining the emotional and psychological journey of the Kinks front-man has been complete, so why spoil a perfectly good ending to the story by drudging up subsequent history? All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I'm not positive if others would enjoy it quite as much as I did.



3. X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Ray Davies is exactly what you would expect from the leader of the 60s band The Kinks. One only has to listen to a few of the songs he has authored - "Dandy," "Dedicated Follower of Fashion," "Muswell Hillbillies" to name three - to know that Ray Davies wears his heart on his sleeve. Whether expressing jealousy at those more attractive than he (the first two listed songs - probably about brother David) or fear and scorn at those "nameless men in gray" (the third song about government-managed social experimentation), Davies has already been ready to address issues that are not often addressed in rock `n' roll, and to do so in the most convoluted manner possible.
   
   In writing his autobiography through roughly the end of the 70s, Davies could have simply told the story. But, you have to know that this is way too easy and conventional. Instead, X-ray is a story within a story. An unnamed minor clerk in a more-or-less unnamed department of the British government that maintains records about entertainment and entertainers is charged with "updating the file" on a certain Raymond Douglas Davies. In his effort to fulfill this objective, he meets with a reclusive, eccentric, almost Faginesque character who weaves a rambling story about himself, the band and the English music scene in general. Amidst the mass of narrative, the story of The Kinks unfolds with some remarkable clarity and candor about the band and its interaction with its management and record companies.
   
   It is in these stretches of story-telling that the book nears conventionality. We learn of the early management team, Robert, Grenville and Larry, who got the band the contracts that made them successes but also virtually robbed them of the ownership of intellectual property; David was 16 when he signed. We learn of Ray's first wife: the result of "doing the right thing" upon learning of her pregnancy.
   
   This conventional approach to autobiography is, however, pushed into the background by Davies' desire for political rhetoric. This is not the first time this has appeared in his work. One only has to think of the "Lola versus Powerman and the Money-go-round" for evidence of his distaste for the business side of things and his loathing thereof.
   
   Like many Brits, Ray Davies has an internalized conflict between the desire for a quasi-socialist solution to major socio-economic issues and the distaste for the inevitable bureaucracy that must accompany it. This is the stage and background on which our hero - not Davies - is sent on a voyage of discovery through his relationship with Ray Davies. The end of the book is certainly not supposed to be the end of the story, although the last few pages see the apparent death of Davies and a notional redemption of the hero.
   
   If you are interested in Ray Davies - not because of the Kinks, per se - because of a deep love and respect for who he is and his remarkable ability to be the most human of any major rock `n' roller and you have not read this book: DO IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! You won't be disappointed.
   
   There has been talk for years that Ray Davies would return to this genre and bring it up to date. While possible, it becomes less likely as time passes. In fact, it would be my contention that the CDs "The Storyteller" and "Other Peoples' Lives" are the logical extensions of X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography



4. Ray Davies's "unauthorized" autobiography gives us a tantalizing peek into the private world of the singer/composer/musician/rock pioneer. The method Ray chose to tell his tale - through the eyes of a reporter - might be creative, but I found myself skipping over much of the fictitious narrative and seeking out the parts where Ray speaks in the first person. There are interesting stories of the early days of the Kinks and their unscrupulous management; and tales from inside recording studios, hotel rooms, and the author's mind. For readers interested in 1960s London and the early British pop music scene, "X-Ray" provides invaluable insight into the times, the players, and the action. Kudos to the reclusive Ray for revealing more details about his personal tragedies than expected, and for exercising restraint and class when writing about his brother Dave, with whom he's had a tumultuous relationship over the years. Yet, in spite of all that is revealed, the book felt like merely a trailer for what could have been a big-screen epic. I was gratified by the glimpse, but it left me wanting more.



5. I'm sorely disappointed in this one. Much as I enjoy reading this kind of book, I couldn't make heads or tails of this. Ray has insisted to be "arty" and turn his story into a novel. Problem is, it doesn't come off as all that "arty", but confused. It's sad to see a pair of brothers who dislike each other as much as Ray and Dave, but I think it was inevitable. They're both kind of on the creepy side. Is there a coherent Kinks bio out there, because neither X-Ray or Kink fit the bill. Just this side of unreadable.

5 comments about Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience.

1. This book, "Death Blossoms," is outstanding in many ways. The simplicity, power and beauty of Mumia's words here touch the heart and mind so directly and with such tremendous way that I really see it as being in a class of it's own. I can only think of one book that has held such stunning energy. That is Adrienne Rich's "Diving into the Wreck." Rich's book affecting me on a very similar level. Her book, which is poetry, inspired me to be a poet. Mumia's "Death Blossoms" inspired my writing to blossom 15 years later. While his book is a collection of very short thoughts and memories, it is poetic to me. It has such integrity and craft. It reveals the honest power of the written word, at least it does for me. It really did allow me to, in a sense, harness my own poetic skills. There is also a tenderness in this book that I cannot think of experiencing in any other book. It is very powerful, yet almost in a casual way. Highly recommended!
   
   Let's hope this brilliant writer is freed from Pennsylvania's prison system very soon. He has so much to give.



2. 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.



3. 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.



4. 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.




5. 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.

5 comments about Twitch and Shout: A Touretter's Tale.

1. Taken from the perspective of an author who lives with Tourette's Syndrome, Lowell Handler provides one of the most vivid everyday observances to a most uncontrollable disorder. What most people have little grasp on, Handler often uses humility and humor to set examples of how only one living with this handicap can describe.
   
   Tourette's Syndrome is usually spotted early before the age of eighteen, found to impair males more than females (almost three to one). Tourette's creates involuntary movements and tics that usually cannot be controlled by the person. Vocally, inappropriate language and animal sounds is the most common dysfunction towards the disorder's spontaneous combustion.
   
   Twitch & Shout gives an inspirational account of a man that survives triumphantly, documenting the good and the bad as an author, photographer and moviemaker, on top of personal and love interest. People with Tourette's lead normal and healthy lives, but the journey sometimes is not. Feeling comfortable means comprehending the diagnoses. Handler evokes a great deal of self into the findings of this book.
   
   SIDENOTE
   Handler filmed a documentary also called Twitch & Shout before the book was published. This can be found at select local libraries on a VHS format. The video shows some different perspectives that the book cannot illustrate. VERY RECOMMENDED.



2. Many Touretters will say that Tourette's gives rhythm to not only movement and speech, but thought and life as well. This book, with its energetic, pulsing, and sometimes explosive rhythm, certainly seems to bear that out.

   The author, who has Tourette's syndrome himself, describes the way Tourette's interplays with and shapes his life, in an integrated way even when he sees it as an interference. He meets people with varying kinds and degrees of Tourette's, along with Oliver Sacks, a famous neurologist who studies people with Tourette's.

   As a person whose tics are too mild for me to really consider them a part of me, I found it interesting to see what life is like with tics that integrate themselves into every part of a person's life. I noticed parallels between the attitudes of some Touretters toward Tourette's and the attitude of many autistic people toward autism, where there's not as much of a line to be drawn between a condition and a person's personality as a purely medical/disease model would make it sound. This book was both interesting and genuinely enjoyable to read.




3. Twitch and Shout is a fascinating, moving, and informative account of an artistic young man (the author) who confronts his Tourette Syndrome head on, deliberately living at full tilt in defiance of the much misunderstood disorder.

   Moments of transcendent prose alternate with hilarious and sometimes sad memoir.

   As an artist and advocate of mastery, I appreciated how the author's challenges shaped his journey, bringing him numerous triumphs, as photographer, author, friend and lover. With objectivity and grace, he discovered that Tourette informed part of who he was, and acted almost as a language or culture, at times a heightened state.

   I was moved by this perspective, and aspire to its message, that we should not only accept our rough edges, but see them as the parameters of our genius.




4. I was so impressed with the frankness and openess of this book. Handler allows its reader into a world that there are not many doors for those without TS. He helps the reader explore the humor of TS, the complexity of TS and the comradery between Touretters. This book is profoundly honest. It is a must read for those readers interested in Tourette Syndrome.



5. I was very disappointed that the author spent so much time using TS as an excuse for his immoral lifestyle. I'd rather not have read about his sex life & drug use.

   The book almost seemed to give the impression that all of us who have TS (yes, that means me too) go around living this way.

   The book actually did have a few pages that were worth reading so I gave it two stars rather than one.