2 comments about Scrounging the Islands with the Legendary Don the Beachcomber: Host to Diplomat, Beachcomber, Prince and Pirate.

1. An interesting and entertaining little book, though it would be nice if, with the alleged statements from Donn himself, the author included some information as to where he gathered them. As it is, I'd have to take a LOT of salt with some of this stuff. The outragous claim that Donn the Beachcomber rather than Trader Vic had invented the Mai Tai, based upon some unsupported hearsay in a gossip column published long after both were long gone, is hardly convincing. Especially after Vic had won a court case on just that same claim against a company trying to cash in on their own brand of "Mai Tai Mix" packaged under Donn's name! While this is a nice book to read, keep an open mind & read the appropriate chapters of "The Book of Tiki" first.



2. Well written, in biographical form.
   
   I have read "Sippin' Safari: In Search of the Great "Lost" Tropical Drink Recipes...and the People Behind Them" (another book I highly recommend) by Jeff "Beachbum" Berry...and many of the stories are nearly identical, word for word. I wonder which one is the chicken and which one is the egg? But it's truly an amazing life story of the man who lived the escapist's dream, and deserves all the credit.
   Don the Beachcomber, your story lives on!

No comments about Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon, 1715-1723: Fatal Weakness.

5 comments about The Unexpected George Washington: His Private Life.

1. I loved this book. I have always liked Washington, but after reading this biography, I can honestly say he is one of my favorite people. I can hardly wait to visit Mt. Vernon.



2. I purchased this book as a birthday gift for a friend who is a major George Washington fan, since I had previously read it and found it to be absolutely fascinating. Most books about him ignore the personal aspects of his life which are featured here and help understand him as a man rather than as a painting or a statue.



3. This is truly a geat book. The title tells so little about what is in store for the reader. These are the kind of stories that should be told to children so that they would REALLY get to know who this great man was. I am glad that I saw this author on C-Span 2.



4. I was anticipating this book as a great summary of the little-known George Washington. As an arm-chair Washington historian I try to read everything I can find to hopefully discover new information, but I've heard many of the things in this book. This book said it was going to discuss the personal and private Washington, yet it was disappointing in that it did not address both slavery and religion in depth; these were only mentioned. What I did discover is some information about the many neices and nephews Washington took care of, and I liked the way the author included many excerpts from letters. I felt like I got to know a little more about the Lafayette/Washington friendship too. Overall, this is a good review and would be a good introduction to the private man for new Washington admirers. ***/*****



5. Disappointing summary of already-known Washingtoniana. Nothing "unexpected" here at all. Not a full-fledged biography, so of little use to someone looking for an introduction or overview, and nothing to contribute for someone who is already fairly well-versed in GW's life and times.

1 comments about Great American Statesmen and Heroes.

1. The best part of this book is its documented proof of Captain John Smith's Christianity and love for the Indians. It seems to be a countering view to Peter Marshall's criticism of the action of the JamesTown Settlers.

   Also, its Chapter on Christopher Columbus is excellent. It is a perfect countering view to Peter Marshall's description of Columbus being money grabbing.

3 comments about The Memoirs of Jean Laffite.

1. If you are a Lafitte scholar, researcher or a historical buff you probably own this work. If you are a casual reader, don't be mislead by the title. This is a scholarly translation of a 150 year old codex that was originally believed to be written by Jean Lafitte, in French. Researchers now believe it was written by a contemporary. It is a puzzling dicument. The original consists of 257 pages. The Gene Marshall translation runs 193 pages with a comprehensive preliminary analysis and explamatory end-notes. It is not a fake or a forgery, but the authorship is still a subject of controversy and investigation. This translation replaces an older (1958) translation that was inferior. Be sure to read the explanatory introduction first.



2. Assuming that the text is authentically the work of Jean Laffite, then this is a great case study of how people resort to denial and self-delusion on a fantastic scale if they are engaged in crime. I understand the criticisms of the text based on handwriting analyses and so forth, but handwriting samples of a given person can change at different times over a person's life and to me the criticism voiced in other reviews here of this text are inconclusive.

   The thing that makes the text ring true as the voice of Jean Laffite here is the identification of the pirates' brother Pierre as the illustrious Dominique You. This has never been corroborated, but the claim makes sense.

   So, if this is Jean Laffite, then the fellow was a certifiable, vainglorious crackpot of a headcase. The author expresses throughout an irrational condemnation of the British and Spanish, whom he lumps together and condemns as the neferious villains he fought against all his life, as a "privateer" first in the service of revolutionary France and then the adolescent United States. He seems blissfully unaware that when he claims he began attacking and robbing Spanish ships in 1801 the French government he claimed then to be in the service of was at that time an ally of Spain! He denigrates the Spanish nation further throughout the book, villafying them as the arch enemy of freedom and liberty, but seems oblivious to the fact the from 1820 to 1823 Spain founded, and attempted to make a go of it as a republic. Laffite's (or the author's) ignorance is even more astonishing when one considers that this "First Spanish Republic" of the 1820s was destroyed by a military invasion from Laffite's beloved holy-land: France!

   Laffite, (or the author makes the claim for him) also seems to take credit for saving the United States (from which he claims bitter dishonor due to lack of compensation from said government) from British aggression at the Battle of New Orleans. Yes, we are given to understand ol' Jean and Pierre (as Dominique You) and their band of "privateers" saved the fate of the U.S. from destruction at the hands of the British at N.O. that day in January 1815! Never mind that what the Laffite's actually contributed was but a minor fraction of the total manpower and arms supply of Jackson's forces! Laffite saved the day, and the U.S. has him to thank for it, and according to him that thanks never came (at least not in the form he wanted it in, cold hard cash or silver or gold or, yes indeed - slaves!)

   That brings me to the next thing- while Laffite cries melodramatically throughout on the oppression of poor peoples everywhere by evil powers like Britain and Spain, he casually admits, as if all about it were normal and acceptable, that he often stole slaves- Africans- from British and Spanish slave ships and sold said slaves to customers of his own choosing and pocketed the cash! LAffite exhibits no problem of conscience whatsoever when he says this.

   Laffite also denies vehemantly that he was a "pirate." He insists on calling himself "privateer." He claims he always carried registration papers from the French government or some lesser organization of doubtfull validity varifying his status as a professional privateer. Never mind that his claim of privateer in the service of France while he was attacking Spain, an ally of France by Treaty of San Ildefonso in the early 1800s would seem to suggest he, at the very least, tended to abuse his privateer status.

   Whether the text is authentic or not, it is a fascinating confession (or conscienable evasion) of a scoundrel!

   Also, be aware, the syntax of this translation is atrocious. Given that it was translated from the French by a university professor (who himself, in a disclaimer at the front of the book, acknowledges the constant non-sequiturs and general non-sensicals of many passages in the original) an added conclusion can be made: that Laffite (or his hoaxer) was an illiterate!




3. I first read this piece of rubbish at a local library several years ago. It was purported to be the "real diary" of the notorious pirate Jean Laffite. But, several experts in handwriting and historical documents pronounced it a fake. (I too had examined the "real diary" first hand.) Back many years ago, John Laflin was passing himself off as a direct descendant of the "Terror of the Gulf" but it turns out he was a notorious forger. He forged this item and a handful of photographs as well. He managed to make a nice sum selling this trash. What's even more amusing is how Price Daniel Sr. the former governor and a collector of Texana was duped into buying this hoax. Now my dear reader, I just hope YOU won't be duped into buying this nonsense.

1 comments about Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground.

1. Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground, Glenn W. LaFantasie, Indiana University Press, 2008, 279 pp., index, endnotes, $24.95.
   
   "Perfect heroes were conspicuously absent from the field of Gettysburg, as they are from every battlefield, every war. Every soldier, nevertheless, likes to think his is perfect," LaFantasie states that the subtitle of his work is meant to be ironic. The author reviews the passing of certain soldiers through the battle of Gettysburg and the history of their interpretations. Longstreet, Chamberlain, Haskell, Oates, Lincoln, Eisenhower, Montgomery, as well as LaFanatasie and his daughter Sarah, have each passed through a Gettysburg experience and some have encountered it several times.
   
   "By and by, out of the chaos of trash and falsehood that newspapers hold, out of the disjointed mass of reports, out of the traditions and tales that come down from the field, some eye that never saw the battle will select[,] and some will write[,] what will be named the history. With that the world will be --and if we are alive we must be--content." Haskell, recognized as one of the finest soldier-writers of Gettysburg primary sources, is quoted by LaFantasie to explain the business of sorting the various interpretations of the battle. The 145 year construction effort by participants and historians to describe and explain the battle has produced a plethora of writing. Personally, CWL shied away from this book for that reason, but after reading the first chapter LaFantasie won this reader over. CWL also had a similar experience with Twilight at Little Round Top: avoidance until reading the book and then a regret when it was over.
   
   On Longstreet, LaFantasie reconciles Lee's 'Old Warhorse' with McLaw's 'A Humbug' sieves the man and his reputations. Evaluating Longstreet during his Mexican War, his Civil War and and his post-war careers, the author understands Longstreet to be a natural warrior whose finest moments occurred in combat as a steady and dependable soldier who had unpolished manners and a high degree of ambition. At times, he would be viewed as disrespectful to authority and abusive to his subordinates, especially in the eyes and by the pen of Jubal Early, a Lee defender and a writer of the 'Lost Cause' interpretation of the war.
   
   Among the highlights in Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Groundis the chapter on Frank Haskell and the creation of his Gettysburg memoir which was actually a consciously drafted long letter home. Several chapters describe the several war time and post-war collisions between Joshua Chamberlain, 20th Maine, and William Oates, 15th Alabama; and in several more chapters, William Oates, as a fugitive from the law, as a Confederate captain and colonel, as a lawyer and politician, and as an historian is revealed to be quite similar to Longstreet. Both Confederates were warriors, who at times were ill-mannered, abrasive sentimentalists and as soldier-writers hda selective and creative memories. In particular LaFantasie explains Oates creation, distribution and further enhancement of the false story of Union Brigadier General Farnsworth's suicide on July 3rd during a cavalry charge between Bushman's Hill and the Slyder Farm. In this eighth chapter, LaFantasie reveals subtle themes that appear tangential throughout this book: how successful were soldier-writers when they wrote history? How is evidence created and how is it handled and mishandled? The misreporting by an eye-witness of a battlefield death, the addition of details to this report, the telling, re-telling and finally being offered as history is thread throughout the book. These themes appear tangential but at the close of the book they are fully set before the reader.
   
   The battlefield and the park have their histories created by warriors, veterans, and the national park service. LaFantasie lays before the reader "the number of egregious errors" the NPS has made, including the building of the visitors center ('a drum on its side') on the Pickett-Pettigrew-Trimble Charge site, granting permission the National Tower to be built in the midst of the battlefield, and giving to Gettysburg College a portion of the battlefield and then watching the portion bulldozed.
   
   In the last chapter, LaFantasie places in context Chamberlain's, now famous "'In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays.' paragraph. For author Bruce Catton 'echoes are felt' and not heard LaFantasie remarks. LaFantasie and his daughter walk the ground of the battlefield and written wartime reports are examined against the terrain. On the rocks contested by the Maine soldiers and the Alabamians, the author, as a young man, became reconciled to the early death of his father. Near the same location, LaFantasie's daughter Sarah asks him, "Did you feel it?" and he has no idea what she is talking about. She says "I feel something." Something nameless, something intangible, some emotional fog or shadow that made her feel sad. Later the author recalls that it was there, on the southeast slope of Little Round Top and near the 20th Maine monument, that he had released his own sadness over his father's death.
   
   "Our pasts are locked inside us" and the past is not always tangible and knowable. "But sometimes it can be seen and sometimes it can be felt. . . . . On a misty spring day, across the lush fields and hills of Gettysburg, my daughter and I felt the far-reaching echoes of our past." LaFantasie's conclusion underscores Chamberlain's remarks concerning how spirits linger at Gettysburg and consecrate the ground as an oracle, a vision-place, for souls of flawed heroes.
   
   Glenn LaFantasie continues to draw readers into the story of Gettysburg. By turns very direct and very subtle, Gettysburg Heroes offers concise and clear stories of soldiers, civilians, generals and presidents. Those who lived through the battle and returned, or came to Gettysburg after the battle, found that their personal pasts were locked both within the battlefield and within themselves. The Gettysburg battlefield both wounds and heals us, and at times allows us to hide within its story and then reveals us to ourselves. As William Faulkner said, "The past is not dead. It has not even passed." The truth make us transparent to others and ourselves. Well written history does the same. LaFantasie's writing brings us a little closer to the truth about the battle of Gettysburg and how it has become an oracle for this nation.

5 comments about Rebel Heart: The Scandalous Life of Jane Digby.

1. While I enjoyed the book, it wasn't very original. I was hoping to find out additional information that wasn't already contained in Passions Child: The Extraordinary Life of Jane Digby by Margaret F. Schmidt, published in 1976, Charles River Books. This book didn't provide any additional information, despite the author's claims.



2. When the then Pamela Digby Churchill (later to be Pamela Churchill Harriman) shocked British and European society with her string of marriages and romantic alliances, she was actually following more in the footsteps of an ancestor than blazing new ground. Over a hundred years before Pamela romped her way through Europe and America, the Honorable Jane Digby, Lady Ellenborough was embarkening on a series of affairs that drove her from England and eventually to the desert where she spent her final years.

   Mary S. Lovell could have potrayed Jane Digby as a heartless tramp or made her a cartoon maneater that wouldn't be out of place in a Jackie Collins novel. At times, Jane Digby's life does seem larger than life and more like a daytime soap opera. Her lovers included crowned heads of states and even her own beloved cousin. Her final years were spent as the wife of a Beduoin chief, performing the traditional female duties while the tribe was traveling. Luckily, Mary S. Lovell is a carefully biographer who sorted through masses of documents to find the truth behind the rumors and legends.

   Along with the legacy of her scandals, Jane become a mother several times. Her children, mostly seen as more annoyance than objects of affection, where left with their fathers when Jane moved onto her next adventure. Tragically, one of her daughters succumbed to madness and two of her sons died in childhood.

   If you adore biographies or have come across the name Jane Digby in your reading, "Rebel Heart: The Scandalous Life of Jane Digby" is must read.




3. I adore biography - especially those of the great characters of the second half of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. I knew of Jane Digby el Mezrab from Irving Wallace's Nymphos and Other Maniacs which I read many years ago and also via several biographies of Sir Richard Burton. This is a well written, carefully and extensively researched book which benefited enormously from the author's good luck in uncovering much new, previously unseen and unpublished family material in Dorset and New Zealand. This, the author says in her acknowledgements, is more satisfying than the publication of the book itself. I agree, for this sort of discovery is palpably thrilling and the author's excitement shines through her narrative.

   This biography reads like fiction and Jane Digby, firstly Lady Ellenborough, was one of those larger than life people who followed their own path, irrespective of the mores of their own time. Following Jane's life is a tour through the drawing rooms of Regency England, several European and Balkan courts to the deserts of Syria and Arabia. It is the story of a woman (thrice divorced) who eventually found happiness and fulfilment with a man of great nobility from an entirely different race, culture and religion. Jane's interest in the minutiae of life in Damascus in the mid 19th century makes fascinating reading and her wit and fondness for her adopted "tribe" in the desert is moving.

   Highly recommended!




4. An excellent and accurate account of Jane Digby - A woman ahead of her time. Several surprises and facts are in store and would be great interest to students of the Middle Eastern culture, in particular the Bedouin tribes, the Arabian horse, falconing, Salukis and the social customs and manners of this golden era of history. Couldn't put it down. Very highly recommended!



5. Jane Digby led a life of glamorous scandal - mostly played out during the reign of that most prudish of rulers, Queen Victoria. Biographies of her in the past have not been too successful as her story is obscured beneath layers of misinformation generated from the tabloid press of the time, and from well-meaning interference by such people as Richard Burton's wife.

   Lovell has done a stunning job in digging through all the sources and turning up a great deal of new information on Digby which finally exposes her life in all its strengths and weaknesses. It is interesting how much you can dislike a subject and still like a story and that is what happened for me with Jane Digby. I found her as a person to be rather flirtatious and passionate and not very sensible. She did so much for 'love' and was so disappointed by in it. She married four times and had an equal number of well-known lovers as well. There is a litte on her childhood but the story really begins from her first fatally flawed marriage to Lord Ellenborough. As Digby's life progressed I felt Lovell managed to capture her increasing commonsense and growth as a person. The story of Digby is so amazing - she travelled all round Europe creating scandal as she went until finally settling in Palmyra with her last husband, an Sheikh.

   Her life is part a travel-logue of Europe in the mid Nineteenth century part brilliantly readable scandal. A truly flawed subject, she makes great reading and Lovell has done a great job in presenting her.

No comments about Kings & Queens: The Concise Guide.

5 comments about A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House.

1. Arthur M. Schlesinger wrote in 1965 a detailed account of the Kennedy presidency, 'A Thousand Days'. During this administration Arthur M. Schlesinger was special assistant to President Kennedy. It is quite an achievement. In more than thousand pages Schlesinger gives an inside view of the difficult decisions and complicated discussions within the administration. In his account he expresses his profound admiration for John F. Kennedy. It is this uncritical acclaim of the President that raises some doubts about the judgment of Schlesinger. On the other hand his historian broad view makes the book immensely readable. It is exhilarating to read about the way Kennedy reaches decisions in the Cuban Bay of Pigs incident. It illuminates the restrictions in presidential decision making. Kennedy was not at all amused by the military preparations and conspiracies with Cuban exiles. But he decided to go along because of the damage being afflicted by pulling back. So, I recommend this account of the famous Kennedy presidency, but keep a sceptical eye on the judgments of Schlesinger. Arthur M. Schlesinger died in 2007.
   
   Luuk Oost



2. The value of A Thousand Days is self-apparent to anyone who has ever attempted to seriously examine the policies of the Kennedy administration.
   
   Arthur Schlesinger Jr., with an undeniably skilled pen and an exhaustive eye for detail, compiled one of the most thorough accounts of the Kennedy administration. I don't see how it could be that surprising, at this point in time, that participants in an administration generally tend to write books that view their president in a favorable light. Is anyone really that shocked?
   
   Did he take an interest in JFK's love life or other prurient topics? No. Did he seek to write a definitive evaluation of the president? No. Schlesinger is honest - he is writing by and large as a participant and an observer and the value of this account is that it captures the outlook and motivations of the administration. He left it to other authors to write more critical accounts - the value his book holds comes from the personal observations he makes throughout it.
   
   You don't have to like Kennedy to find this book valuable. Plenty of people critical of the Kennedy administration have studied this book carefully. Its value as a firsthand account of the administration is self-apparent. If it happens to challenge the Limbaugh right's view of JFK . . . well, oh well. The rest of us can approach this book with care and real interest, allow for natural instances of human bias, and still come away better informed for the effort.



3. Schlesinger starts out by stating in the forward, "This work is not a comprehensive history of the Kennedy Presidency. It is a personal memoir by one who served in the White House during the Kennedy years." In the first two sentences, Schlesinger tells his first two lies.
   
   There is no way that this can be considered a memoir, especially when on countless occasions Schlesinger himself admits that he was not involved nor really informed about issues. How can it be considered a memoir when he is basing his statements at times purely on documents? That is a "comprehensive history" and not a "personal memoir."
   
   Despite Schlesinger's failure in his initial task, he does tell the history of the administration in great, albeit bias, depth. It is tough to avoid repetition over 1031 pages, but Schlesinger does a good job avoiding informing me of the same thing in three different ways. As well, he interlocks the history from chapter to chapter and explains its interconnectedness to defend Kennedy. Schlesinger attempts to tie the domestic problems such as the U.S. Steel company raising its prices into foreign policy. It is doubtful that his foreign successes and failures would have been any different without the U.S. Steel controversy, except to Schlesinger.
   
   As Schlesinger admits, he overstates the importance of the advisors, especially himself. Regardless of what he did, he manages to mention himself in every chapter in a last ditch attempt to memoirize this history. Sometimes he did something, other times he just had a conversation with the president. On another occasion, to include himself in the chapter he writes about how he jumped in a swimming pool when Mrs. Ethel Kennedy fell in. For the first time and only time on that one page, it is a memoir.
   
   Despite the excessively pro-Kennedy attitude, Schlesinger does manage to vividly describe the administration. He takes us around the world from Southeast Asia with Vietnam and Laos to Africa with the dealing with Sekou Toure and other Moscow-leaning leaders to Europe and troubles pleasing De Gaulle and keeping control of the Americas despite Castro. The foreign policy of the administration is explored, if not fairly criticized, for most of the book. He is less in depth on domestic policy, however he devotes a good 150 pages to the Civil Rights Movement and the budget and congressional legislation. He also attempts quite successfully to argue the point that Kennedy failed to keep the people up to date on what was going on in the world. He even elevated Kennedy above his even more beloved Roosevelt by stating that FDR addressed the nation "no more than two (times) a year" before the war compared to Kennedy averaging three a year. Kennedy also frequently made speeches at colleges such as American and Yale.
   
   Almost as common as the Kennedy praising was the Eisenhower bashing. He over-generalizes the conservatism of the Eisenhower administration and he criticizes some things that Kennedy adopts and praises Kennedy for adopting, such as the large peacetime budget deficit. Conversely, he over-generalizes the liberalism of the Kennedy administration. The changes made were on a large-scale slight. The only major policy change was the change from defeating communism to containing it. And even that change was only a spoken change as proven by the Bay of Pigs and the continued hope for an overthrow of Castro.
   
   Overall, Schlesinger does a good job organizing the book logically. With two exceptions, everything follows with at least a logical flow. Only in the middle when he changes from foreign to domestic policy and a few chapters later when he goes back to foreign policy does the reader need to stop and readjust himself (well, also when he starts talking about the swimming pool incident).
   
   The history is accurate, even if it is bias, and it is an interesting, but long read. If you don't mind the bias or don't want to form your own opinion, it is worth the read. At least you are warned.



4. Simply put, this is one of the books that shattered Schlesinger's credibility as a legitimate historian once and for all. Once he was "Artie," the precocious high-flying historian/prodigy, amazing his peers & elders with his dazzling talents as an author & scholar. Now he is a superannuated peddler of Camelot nostalgia and a defender of a school of thought that has been so thoroughly discredited over the years that it truly is a wonder that anyone takes Schlesinger seriously anymore. Really, the only author/historian that is worse in this field is possibly Manchester.
   
   How can anyone regard this stuff as serious history? It is as though Schlesinger has sustained a sort of man-crush on JFK for all these years and cannot bring himself to be even remotely objective about a rather undistinguished administration. He really contributes nothing to this field of study, so save yourself the effort of reading this tripe.



5. In A Thousand Days Schlesinger offers us a view of the Kennedy White House that few other authors can provide. He is able to give us his unique perspective on the actual inside workings of the Kennedy administration. This book does have its drawbacks. It is certainly not an objective look at the historical Kennedy, this being an issue that many take with the book. It does not pretend to be one however. Rather the book must be read while keeping in mind who the author is. Schlesinger, a life long admirer and defender of Kennedy, certainly puts his spin on the events mentioned in the book. If this book is read with that in mind it is possible to deepen your understanding of who Kennedy was and what he did, making this a book well worth a read.

5 comments about Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould.

1. This is a wonderful biography on one of the world's finest and beloved musicians. The writing is detailed and articulate but never boring. However, if you do not have a background in music, the writings on classical music could be difficult to decipher for the layman. An excellent read!!



2. I can't exactly put a nail on why I have read so many biographies on Gould, but I dare say the story of his reclusiveness, isolation and his pursuit of his art has always intrigued me. Up to this point my favorite biography on Gould had been the Otto Fredrick "A Life in Variations", so I had a pre-conceived notion that this book may just have been be a re-telling of all the stories and interviews I heard in the past.
   
   Bazzana appears to set himself apart here in that he was not asked to write a biography on Gould as he described in the book. There are many snippits of things I've allready knew about Gould here, but Bazzana also tries to put another angle on some of the eccentricities most have heard or read about prior. He encapsulates many different views of Gould, so much so that I feel that I have a bit more insite here. Also, Bazzana appears to set some of the record straight for other biographical sources such as Andrew Kazdin's work called "Glenn Gould At Work, Creative Lying" which is another book I gained knowledge from and did enjoy. It may not be entirely possible to have a true biographical account of Gould, but I still appreciate this additional account of his life although I am only giving it 4 stars because I feel there will never be a complete biography of an individual due to different sources and views, but this one is generally well researched. It does re-hash some of the other interview material, sources etc, but within the book there does appear to be an attempt here to rationalize his behaviour and give a better look beyond the stereotype.



3. What is it about Glenn Gould? He's been the subject of books, dvds, and one odd movie made up of a mosaic of short films. Gould's life and music has captured the attention and imagination of people who otherwise would not venture anywhere near classical performers.
   
   "Wondrous Strange" doesn't delve deeply into opinions, or really attempt to explain why people were (and are) so affected by Gould--it simply lays out Gould's life in block-like sections, marking his attitudes and approaches to both music and life. The result is a thick book full of Gouldian lore, with many fascinating passages, that doesn't cohere quite as well as it could have. Bazzana develops themes, drops them, and then revisits them a few chapters on. Pages could have been trimmed where Bazzana is busy repeating himself. It's as if the book were trying to envelope Gould, like an octopus settling on a lobster.
   
   Does it succeed? Mostly, yes. With repeated gleanings, Gould emerges to the reader as something of a "mutant"--a person slightly ahead of his time. He was a reclusive person, who came to hate concert limelight, and found great comfort in the controlled technology of the studio. He (probably correctly) discerned that an artist usually communicates better, and certainly more intimately, through recordings than through concerts.
   
   Gould's belief in the classical music performer's right to interpret and reimagine great works of music put him at odds with many critics, as did his tendency to "sing" wordlessly as he played. These things only served to reinforce Gould's singularity, and mark him as a modernist. Like James Dean, or the Beatles, Gould transcended his time. He was a dreamer who continues to captivate and to inspire dreams in his legion of followers.



4. This is a very well-balanced, thorough biography of the Canadian pianist/musician/composer Glenn Gould. Very well written, a joy to read (and a lot easier to read then most of the stuff Glenn wrote himself...)
   Having read this book I feel I understand more about Glenn Gould the artist and the person.
   A first-choice-must-buy for all interested to know more about Glenn Gould.



5. This unstoppably heartrending biography of Canadian pianist Glenn Gould unveils the mysteries of a perfect art more cogently and beautifully than has any other artist's biography I've ever come across. Kevin Bazzana has opened up Gould's eccentricities and placed them where finally they must sleep - merely deep in the natural whole of one of the inescapable musicians of the 20th century. Those lucky enough to know the meaning of the art of Glenn Gould will always be grateful for that achievement.
   
   This is a tremendous book. The moments when Bazzana's utterly secure love for Gould's art shines through are the most extraordinary aspect of a completely worthy biography. With deep and glistening writing Bazzana evokes every aspect of looking-at-Gould with the same sound character found in Gould's playing - it's an amazing experience! This is biographical literature extensive and schooled, and even wise; reading is like gliding on glass, so perfect is the author's determination, and Gould lives on every page. What could be better?
   
   Was ever a pianist's art more wonderful? Gould's playing is always extraordinary by every standard, and beyond. And not only the playing, of course; his mind, his understanding of music, his humor - these form the scaffolding of a remarkable artistic vision. For all his reclusion, his is the most giving human art, reaching to infinity. Art of the gods obtains dimensions the proof of which can be heard in everything he played. It's a consuming art, yet so freeing. The wondrous thing about it is how Gould kept so much of himself even as he spent lavishly on Bach and Byrd and Schoenberg. Music never overtook Gould - that task inevitably fell to Gould himself.
   
   By literature of this kind, the sadness that still lingers around Gould's death seems entirely transformed. This is a great book that ends too quickly and lingers too pervasively. Afford yourself the wealth.