5 comments about The Glass Castle: A Memoir.

1. This is the best book I've read in a long time- Jeannette Walls has a moving story to tell, which she does with insight and humor. Her most recent book, "Half Broke Horses", the true story of her grandmother, is also a jewel. I saw Walls at the Miami Book Fair in November- she was quite inspiring, (and funny!), and she received a standing ovation after her presentation.



2. If this were simply a novel, it would be a great read, but knowing that this is a true life memoir takes it over the top. A great read!!



3. Talk about a dysfunctional family! I couldn't believe how unconcerned these otherwise intelligent parents were for the wellbeing of their children. Gotta admire those kids! They helped each other as much as possible, and tried to help their parents. A great book.



4. Could not put this one down. This book tells the story of the human will to survive at all costs. Funny, honest and painful it offers deep insight into the human psyche and spits out some cockeyed wisdom. A must read for any Wounded Child.



5. Thank you for reminding me that my parents gave all that they had and more.

5 comments about A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity.

1. I am almost to the end of this book, whitch I have not been able to put down! It draws you in. Best buy!



2. Bill and I have similar backgrounds if 8 years apart. It was nice to remenisce about the Catholic school system from years ago. I appreciate his style as he explains his reasoning. Many on the left can't or won't. I have only one other man that I hold in higher regard and that is Mr. Charles Krauthammer. I have read his book "The O'Reilly Factor" and am currently reading "The No Spin Zone". You will enjoy this book if you enjoy The Factor.



3. After reading this book you can see how the character of Bill O'Reilly was being developed and molded throughout his growing up producing His no beating around the bush style He exhibits with his guests and opinions today!



4. Listening to Mr. O'Reilly's book was a rela treat. I hope he keeps up the good work.



5. THIS WAS A GREAT BOOK... I LAUGHED AND CRIED AT THE SAME TIME.. IT REMINDED ME OF MY YOUTH, ONLY FROM A GIRLS SIDE OF IT... (WE WERE JUST A FUN LOVING AND DARING AS THE BOYS WERE) I WILL PASS THIS BOOK ON TO MY FAMILY TO READ. NOW I LOOK AT O'REILLY AND CAN SEE THE SAME MISCHIEVE IN HIS EYES, AS I PICTURED HIM GROWING UP IN THE BOOK..... WILL READ THIS AGAIN. SO MUCH WONDERFUL LIFE LESSONS IN IT...I WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE TO HEAR OF HIS LIFE AND FAMILY NOW. HE BARLEY TOUCHED ON THAT.

2 comments about Someone Will Be with You Shortly: Notes from a Perfectly Imperfect Life.

1. This is one of those books you smile your way through. There's the "that was really funny!" smile and the "man, I've been there" smile and the "there's always a saving grace, isn't there?" smile and... well you get it. Lisa Kogan is spot on in her perceptions of life's little moments - from the gratingly annoying to the elevatingly graceful - and always with her unique humor and humility. She has an amazing ability to be cuttingly direct about human foibles without ever being mean-spirited. That's because just when you think you're looking at "the annoying other" with her, you realize you are also looking in the mirror with her - but it's OK, because she is not judging and finds fodder for soulful humor in her own short-comings as much as in those of others. We're all waiting for that someone who will be with us shortly; and at the same time worrying that we are leaving others waiting. Lisa Kogan gets that and celebrates the humanity of that dichotomy. She is amused and edified (and we with her) as much by our own flawed responses to life's challenges as by the challenges themselves This is a book that has you feeling good each time you pick it up - and most importantly - it'll make you smile!



2. I'd read Lisa Kogan before in Oprah Magazine - only a few times, though, whenever i was near a magazine (which isn't that often) and I recently heard her on NPR and she's the BEST thing about the magazine in my opinion. but i didn't know she had a monthly column, and i didn't know how popular she was, or how many fans and i didn't know just how hilarious she could be. which is to say VERY hilarious - like EXTREMELY hilarious. not in a vodka and sex chelsea handler way, more in a funny, poignant, completely fresh way that reminded me of david sedaris if he were a woman living in a horrible apartment building with a small child. I don't think she's like anyone i've read before. she's never nasty but she has a side, a way of looking at things that i can't really remember coming across before - sharp without being snide, and completely charming. The book basically chronicles the life and times of lisa, her boyfriend (who might as well live on the moon for as often as she sees the guy) and her totally irresistible daughter. sure, she lives in new york, but the themes here - being single, being in love, having a child, fighting health problems, getting older - are totally universal. men, if you want to understand women, read this book. women, if you want to see yourself, read this book. I'd heard people tell me how funny and original Lisa Kogan was but until i read this collection (which is kind of a greatest hits thing) i didn't put it all together. anyhow, once you start it you won't be able to put it down. It's THAT good!

5 comments about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.

1. Rarely have I seen a book with so many glowing reviews, so most will disagree with me but here goes. Having read it today, it is mostly a drawn-out description of being high (to the point of near-death), and all the carnage that ensues. I wasn't really offended, but I didn't find it terribly funny or insightful either. I am giving it three stars for being 'colorful.'
   
   What disappointed me was the unfulfilled promise of insight into the American Dream. I am open to questioning it, if I could be convinced that such a thing exists. (The quest for material comfort and meaning isn't it; that's almost universal). But I didn't find much insight into anybody but the two main characters, with whom I didn't identify. Nor do I identify with the straight-laced 50's culture they despised. Granted, Las Vegas seems a soulless place, even today, but didn't we know that already? I'm sure the indictments of Nixon and the Vietnam War were much more prescient in 1971. I do care about those things, but I've heard it all before.
   
   I just don't identify with the characters enough (on either side) to feel either vindicated or indicted. Is it because I'm in Gen-X, and never shared the hope and excitement of 60's counter-culture?



2. I put Hunter S. Thompson on my reading list this month, since I haven't read anything book-length by him before. Sadly, I found Fear and Loathing to be mostly pointless. Undoubtedly, Thompson is a gifted writer; in the hands of a lesser talent, Fear and Loathing would be ridiculous rather than merely pointless.
   
   The plot, such as it is, has been noted in other reviews so I won't attempt to recount it here. Fear and Loating reads like a poor man's Tom Wolfe. Thompson and his lawyer run around Vegas getting outrageously stoned and doing crazy things. Near the end, there's a fairly laughable attempt to make serious sense of the 60's drug scene, with some sort of quasi-justification of Hell's Angels founder Sonny Barger.
   
   Is Fear and Loathing really bad? Not really. There's just not much of a point. It's another hopelessly dated, overhyped drug era entry praised by the same critics who still think Pynchon's relevant.



3. I'd already seen the movie (and couldn't have been happier with the casting of Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro), so I knew approximately what to expect, but as is often the case when books are adapted for the screen, what movies gain in literal representation they lose in flavor of language. And that, I would say, was the best part of this book: Thompson's rollicking, piquant wordplay that both lives up to and brings to life the outrageous escapades described over the course of 200 breathlessly rambling pages.
   
   If Thompson and his nameless attorney consumed even half the drugs he says they did, it must've been a bender of frightening proportions, that much is clear. But amidst the staggering amounts of illegal substances, boorish behavior, and assorted misdemeanors, what comes out through it all is Thompson's keen eye for human nature, mordant wit, and ability to turn one colorful phrase after another. Countless times I wanted to reach for my pencil to make a note or copy down a particularly choice quotation, but instead let myself be carried along by the rushing, post-Kerouackian current of Thompson's prose, figuring that blasting along without stopping was more in the spirit of the thing anyhow.
   
   Kids may not be reading it in school 100 years from now (in fact, I hope they're not!), and anyone looking for character development or serious philosophical reflections is looking in the wrong place, but for sheer joy of language it has lessons that a lot of writers could learn from.



4. I had the seen the movie over 5 times before I decided to read the book, and let me tell you that even though I knew what was about to happen most of the time, I found it exponentially better than the movie. One of my favorites thus far.



5. The Lost Highway of the American Dream.
   
   I love social satire. I don't need my characters to be loveable; I don't even need them to be likeable. I just need them to be what they are, even if it's revolting.
   
   Now, I wasn't old enough to remember much from the late 60's early 70's let alone the political aspects of Nixon's presidency or the drug culture of the time, so this review won't have any profound social or political commentary, except that comparisons can well be made to the drug culture of today, and it's glaringly apparent that not much has changed except for the chemical constituents.
   
   Considering the climate of the time: Nixon's presidency, the war in Vietnam, and the country's young men succumbing to the draft, it was no wonder that an entire generation wanted something more, for this was not the American Dream they had been sold. Sound familiar? And for some, the only way to drown out the hypocrisy gnawing at their brains was to give their brains an escape. Expand your mind, as that might be the only part of you that truly is free. Whatever it takes to get you directly out of your head - the higher the better. This story chronicles a journey utterly devoid of restraint and reason, as these two men, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, and their trunk full of felonies set themselves loose on Las Vegas - to them, the last vestige of the American dream. However, their idea of the American Dream is not how most of us would understand it, but somehow, through the fog of hallucinatory metaphor, we can actually see and feel what the main characters are searching for so desperately.
   
   All that aside, even if the 60's sub-culture is beyond your age group, Thompson's writing is worth the read. It's brilliant, sarcastic, and frighteningly absurd: Bars seething with has-been lounge lizards, tearing the patrons to shreds; blood soaked tacky hotels rooms; police car chases; kidnapping; gambling; excess; and debauchery ... not to mention the Narcotics convention. The dialog is brilliant written, and through the drug haze, we get offered a media-spinless clarity, a clarity that can only be articulated by the truly disenchanted. Harrowing and ludicrous experiences abound: it's amazing that the two main characters manage to make it out of Vegas alive, san the straightjackets.
   
   Definitely a wild ride for all. The movie was quite good as well, but it lacks some of the subtleties that can only found in the written word. Thompson's word.

5 comments about A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

1. A Heartbreaking Work of Shattering Genius certainly is heartbreaking. Dave Eggers has a talent for describing, in excrutiating detail what its like to watch a loved one die. If you have ever gone through such an experience, you will probably find his observations on target, so much so that they make you feel ill. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius begins with Eggers, at twenty-one, taking care of his dying mother. People who die slowly seldom die neatly. Eggers describes his mother's suffering, the things disease does to her body and her brain, the torture of being a young person and having to deal with a parent's demise. There is no dignity in this kind of a death. My heart broke for the children, and also for their mother, who seemed to hate the burden she was placing on her family.
   
   What Eggers does best is to describe not only the tragedy, but the comic side of the situation. If you have ever watched someone you love die from a wasting disease or gone to a funeral with sibblings, you probably will recognise the desperate need for humor. As Eggers says early on, he and his sibblings do their best to find the lighter side of the situation--though there are fewer and fewer lighter sides.
   
   After Eggers' mother dies. he moves to San Francisco with his little brother. Because he is only twenty-one, Eggers still has a lot of growing up to do. He's pretty hard on himself, given his responsibilities. The life of these two is wrenching, but also sometimes funny.
   
   The problem, with the book, in my mind, was its lack of insight into the misery. Why describe this level of misery unless there is a larger point? Eggers is brilliant when recording the small details of life, and he's good at pulling humor from a miserable situation. He is not as good at showing us the reason for telling us this story, which is personal. As I read this book, and things got worse and worse I began to ask myself, "Why am I putting myself through this?" and I did not have a good answer.
   
   Eggers is a talented writer. For what its worth, he did write a "heartbreaking work of staggering genius,' in 2006, called What is the What. In that book Eggers seems to have included many of the lessons he had yet to learn at this point in his life.



2. Bottom line, if you really read this book and don't think it's a 5 out of 5 stars, you just don't get it, and what a pity that is for you. This is truly a literary work of genius.



3. Really?
   I don't usually write reviews, positive or otherwise, but when I scrolled across this book, I had to speak up. This book is on most people's shelves, and every time I see it, I shudder. Why is this book so popular? Why does everyone in this town (San Francisco) love Eggers? I just don't get it. This book was dull at best. It may have been heartbreaking work (more of a heartbreaking waste of good reading time), but genius it is NOT. Never has any book been so misnamed. What a tremendous bore. Skip this read if it's not too late.



4. Written and creatively enhanced by Dave Eggers, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius defies all previously written memoirs by 1) being a memoir and 2) simultaneously making fun of all that memoirs, in general, represent. Eggers informs the reader right from the start that the events in this book are inflated, unconventional, and mostly true. Heartbreaking- yes; Staggering- yes; Genius- hyperbolic word choice. By the title and first few pages alone, a reader can tell right away if this is a book they want to spend their time on. Personally, I am on a teeter-totter with this book; I don't know if I really like it, or really hate it. Written in a style resembling stream of consciousness, Eggers can go on for much too long on things that, honestly, nobody really cares about or even wants to hear about. I fell that the author is slipping into a state of paranoia as the book progresses. Eggers is juggling his "job," finding a place to live, finding some time for himself, raising his little brother, and dealing with the death of his parents who died 5 weeks apart.
   From a reader's standpoint, events in this book are absolutely hilarious and sometimes so out of the ordinary that one can't help but giggle. The best parts of the book, I feel, do not lie in the narrative itself, but hidden on the page where publishers are listed and the ISBN number is. The author finds it necessary to state his rank on the sexual-orientation scale. He also wants the reader to know exactly how much he was paid to write this book and he also takes the liberty of writing out all the book's major themes. There is also a picture of a random stapler... Make of this book what you will, but just know that it is heartbreaking, staggering, and just very shy of genius.



5. I personally enjoyed this book just enough.
   I didnt love it.
   The story is ironic.
   A family tragedy looked at in a comedic way.

5 comments about The Bag Lady Papers: The Priceless Experience of Losing It All.

1. I think it is worth reading if you ever lost money or just afraid of losing money.



2. Unlike some others here, I'm sympathetic to the plight of someone who's worked hard her entire life, only to have her savings wiped out in an instant, at the point in her life whewn she's chosen to pursue her artistic dreams. I'm also fascinated by its potential as a story. Partly as schadenfreude, partly as inspiration, the story has huge potential. Yet, Penney is all too right when she says she's an artist, not a writer. Her recounting of her experience is strangely bloodless, filled with redundancies, freshman-English metaphors, and awkward, truncated phrasings. (Because of her magazine background, I expected a bit more.) The reminiscences are more vivid, but to me, they interfere with the comeback story. I had a hard time with this, although I suspect I would really like this woman if I met her. But, the book reads like a bunch of blog posts slapped together - which I suppose is exactly what it is.



3. I loved this book. It's a quick read straight from the heart. Amazon reviewers are a tough crowd and there's a mean spiritedness to them that I found unnecessarily quarrelsome this time. The Bag Lady Papers is a terrific little read. It's not War and Peace and I'm glad of it. Alexandra Penney is candid and out there. I admire her enormously. JL



4. I have to agree with the others: some really rich person loses some money and freaks out. She isn't worried about putting food on her table; she's worried about cutting her maid's hours back. Her son offers to let her stay in his "guest house"! How will she ever sell her extra house?
   It's a "pity-me" book but the average reader isn't going to care. What, the average American family carries over 10K in credit card debt and is living paycheck-to-paycheck, and we're supposed to care about some excessively rich person who can no longer take numerous luxurious international trips every year? Most of us can't simply give up an well-paying job on a whim to spend more time being an artist.
   In addition, the author is too vain or embarrassed or reserved to let us know facts that actually might lead to empathy. If her son left for college in '87, assume he's 17 at the time and she was 20 when she had him (a conservative estimate), she's probably around 60 or so when this happened. And she never tells the reader how much she lost.
   Here's the book I wish had been written: average person works for Enron, puts all their money in Enron stock, struggles to keep a roof over their head. Or average person's spouse gets cancer, insurance won't cover much or they lose insurance because when you're sick you can't keep working with the only job that has insurance, and they struggle. Or something along those lines. "Nickel and Dimed" was infinitely better.
   Reading a book about how the ultra-rich becomes a "PoRC" is boring. Because for her, being "person of reduced circumstances," she's still better off than the vast majority of her readers, or 99% of the people on the planet.
   
   She also has this really boring part where she asked her friends to make lists of things money can and can't buy. While she could've incorporated these observations into her narrative in a meaningful way, she missed the boat by simply listing them out. The magazine editor needs to realize that this is book and not a one-page spread in a magazine.



5. A lukewarm tale consisting of many pages of "filler," lists of items the author can or cannot bear to live without. With good editing this might have been a good magazine article.

5 comments about Saved by Her Enemy: An Iraqi woman's journey from the heart of war to the heartland of America.

1. Saved by her Enemy is an engaging story that paints a vivid portrait of Iraq and Iraqis. Definitely a must read! Very timely and relevant to critical events taking place today.



2. This was an incredible book with unexpected turns on every page. I couldn't put it down. If it weren't for a busy week last week I would have finished it in a day! I highly recommend this (sometimes too) real picture of an iraqi's perspective on America and the things that we as Americans could never understand!
   
   I'm thankful and enlightened after reading this story. It left me wanting more!
   
   I HIGHLY recommend this book!



3. I am fortunate to know Don and Kiki Teague through our shared church in Dallas. I knew some of Don and Rafraf's story and have been eagerly anticipating this book...but as Ann Curry says in the foreword, I suspect I did not know the depths of Don Teague! This is quite an unforgettable tale.
   
   Mr. Teague's writing style is enjoyable to read...personal, humorous at times, always straightforward and on-target with the emotion of the moment. He is a natural and compelling storyteller and I finished this book as fast as my one year old would let me! I appreciated that although the story occurred in the midst of the Iraq war, he managed to keep his politics hidden and tell a human story (which ironically, is what he hoped to cover in Iraq in the first place...human stories of goodness in the midst of turmoil).
   
   I enjoyed the alternating points of view between Don and Rafraf. It transported me inside the Iraq war to a place I would never have the privilege to see otherwise. They were in danger every day and it gave me a new appreciation for journalists who risk their lives to report stories. There are many roadblocks along the way that seem insurmountable...will she even survive? How will they ever get her to the States? It was wonderful to see God's goodness as Don and his family simply walked in faith that said "we are supposed to help this girl, you've put her on our heart God, so you will work it out". He and his NBC colleagues did some pretty heroic things for this young woman. Where many of us would have stood by and watched, Don took action. It is very touching to witness.
   
   I especially enjoyed seeing the war from the view of an Iraqi woman. To see her sadness as she encounters the internet and learns how Iraq is viewed by the rest of the world. To see her shock that other countries' presidents don't kill people who disagree with them. To see prejudices fall away as she forms friendships with American journalists and fellow students. And just to see her "feistiness"...she is an ordinary twenty-something woman we can relate to, who chases boys and has insecurities. She is clever and thoughtful and I immediately warmed to her.
   
   Although faith is certainly a component of this story, it is so much more than a "Christian" book and I think that people from all walks of life would be amazed by Don and Rafraf's story. Great book!



4. This is an amazing account of events, from a young woman in Iraq, and the counterpoint of Don Teague, a U.S. network news correspondent. They had me at page one where the action starts right away with a school bombing in Iraq. This happened as Don and Rafraf were conducting interviews for NBC. As the authors take you through their stories, you can see God's hand at work, conducting and working out an amazing plan for these two, a plan that would allow Rafraf to indeed by "saved" by her enemy. I recommend checking out their joint interview from "Hannity" which is available on Youtube.
   
   I am heading back for more of my book--I had to stop to come to Amazon and give a shout out! You won't be sorry you picked up this book!



5. I just finished Saved By Her Enemy and found it to be a powerful, impacting story of courageous hearts and transforming truths. The book was an easy read and hard to put down. The timeless message of a loving God that has provided the answer of every heart's longing in a relationship with His Son, Jesus, rings as true today as ever. When we get to the end of ourselves, God's hand is reaching out to rescue us. Thanks, Don and Rafraf, for the pleasure of walking along with you through these past few years and I look forward to hearing 'the rest of the story'.

5 comments about The Year of Magical Thinking.

1. The negative reviews of this book, it seems to me, come from people who seem to completely miss the point of the book. This is ironic, because in such classics as Slouching Toward Bethlehem and the White Album, Joan Didion confronts those whose thinking seems to her to "be completely beside the point."
   
   This book is not entitled the "Year of Magical Feeling." She feels bad, folks. He wasn't just her husband and the father of her daughter, he was her working partner. They disagreed and fought often and had struggles but they were always together and their respect for each other was apparent to all who knew them and some who didn't. (Perhaps that doesn't come through in this work--perhaps I know that from other sources, but I know it.)
   
   Their daughter was adopted, presumably after much struggling to have a biological child. She was their only child and she was loved and indulged. And they were always together -- on the East Coast, and then on the West Coast, and back to the East Coast, they were always together.
   
   She felt really bad, folks.
   
   But we knew that. We could predict that. We would expect that. What kind of a story is that? What insight and surprises does that offer?
   
   Ah, but how did she THINK? That's something else, again. She THOUGHT she couldn't get rid of her husband's shoes. . . That is what we call an INSIGHT. That is the kind of shared insight that some of us can relate to. For five or six or seven years after my grandmother died I still wondered every Christmas what kind of gift I should get her.
   
   And how does she share those thoughts? In gorgeous prose. In terms of pure prose alone -- spare, fluid, rhthymic, spot-on prose--there is noone like her. She is one of the great American prose stylists of the modern era.
   
   And Didion also communicates acute observation--because she is a writer, and writers observe. Everybody FEELS--writers are no better at FEELING than anyone else, but they are supposed to be better at OBSERVING.
   
   Finally, the voyeuristic, cathartic, touchy-feely, outpouring that some of these reviewers seem to crave is not everyone's style. Didion -- as her husband observed countless times, as the doctor who called her "a cool customer" noted, as you can see from her photo -- is a stoic in the best American WASP tradition. (The clash between her California frontier, pioneer WASP demeanor and her husband's more raucous Northeast Irish Catholic style seems to have been a recurring motif in their lives.) The woman wrote an ode to John Wayne, for Pete's sake!
   
   This may not be YOUR style (truthfully, it's not always mine) and it may have faded from favor in this TMI let-it-all-hang-out, keep nothing to yourself era of cheap, trite overemoting, but she represents a strong tradition of tough-minded, clear-eyed American writing. She prefers to show rather than tell.
   
   If you want to see people cry, watch Oprah. If you want an acutely observed and riveting description of how the mind and the perceptions of one very interesting woman were forever altered by the events of a very tragic year, this is the book for you.



2. This book was way over the top with its incessant name dropping and rich lifestyle descriptions.
   
   I've experienced first hand what Joan Didion went through. It's horrible, life altering, and it stays with you forever. Watching my wife, a vibrant, creative person, suddenly die in her prime was a gut-wrenching experience. But Didion's writing did little to connect with me. It read as a largely self indulgent description by a rich, well-connected writer who seemed as interested in detailing the trappings of a luxurious lifestyle as she was in trying to connect with the reader about her grief and loss.
   
   Is this an unfair, callous description of her book? Perhaps. But, as some others have pointed out, this book just doesn't connect.



3. Rarely have a I been so disappointed in a book that others promised to be profound, thoughtful, instructional and moving. It was none of that, but rather a poorly thought-through solipsist rehash of one person's encounter with grief. As best I can tell, she learns the following in one year of processing her husband's death: Her husband isn't coming back. That's it.
   
   To get there, the reader needs to wade through 250 pages of narcissistic ramblings that would have been best dealt with by unburdening it to a therapist behind closed doors and forgotten. For such a recognized intellectual, the insights she does attain are remarkably sophomoric, and the constant name-dropping and attempts to trumpet family status are bizarrely out of place and make me think that the author has stared death in the face and found solace only in the fact that her life with her husband consisted of going to the 'best' schools, living in the hippest places and staying in the finest hotels. Incredibly trite.
   
   How this book won the National Book Award is a sad testament to the nepotistic back-scratching that unfortunately pervades American literary culture. Given its complete lack of insight into much of anything, this book should be gone and forgotten in 5 years.



4. The book was received on time and in the condition I expected it to be in. I would recommend this seller to anyone!!!



5. The words are plain, the sentences crisp, the visuals sharp. This clarity highlights all the more the jumble of Didion's "magical" (read "bedeviled") thinking during the year following her husband's sudden death while their daughter was in intensive care. A lesser artist would resort to jumbled writing to depict jumbled thinking. But clarity has always been Didion's signature virtue, and she was not going to abandon it here.
   
   The most "magical" thought was the recurring conviction that John Gregory Dunne would return, even though she saw him collapse dead in front of her. She keeps his shoes for the day. "I have to tell John", she says to herself when anything notable happens. Her rational mind understands throughout that this is fantasy, but she can`t shake it.
   
   There are two strands to the narrative. The first is a string of flashbacks of her 40 years with Dunne. Even the fog in Boston--a "safe" locale--reminds her of the foggy days at their Palos Verdes home. The second strand follows the tragedy of their daughter Quintana. Hospitalized as a precaution for flu, she contracts pneumonia from hospital bacteria. Treatment causes a stroke, disability, hospitalization, and rehab. Double misfortune. (Acutally, Dunne's death from heart disease at 72 was portended by surgery and a doctor's warning years earlier. Quintana's tragedy was pure happenstance.)
   
   Quintana's story supplies the main drama that keeps us turning the pages. We care, and want to know how it turns out. Maddeningly, Didion cheats us out of closure, leaves us hanging. Only from outside sources do we learn that Quintana eventually died.
   
   How to judge something so personal and subjective as a memoir of grief? We can parse the objective quality of the writing. On that she gets high marks. "I see what she's doing here. That's very good." Ultimately, we judge on how deeply she touches us, and unfortunately this book just doesn't make it.
   
   The central theme is the loss of daily life with her husband, but we get little feel for what that life was like. They go to lots of dinners, edit each other's work, watch BBC dramas. But there is not a flicker of passion here, sexual or any other kind. OK, she didn't want to write one of those gushy reminiscences of which there are so many. She was emotionally numb, so wrote numbly. We can admire the technique, but if she wants us to embrace her memoir she has to churn us up somehow, and she doesn't.

5 comments about The Tender Bar: A Memoir.

1. I really loved The Tender Bar! Any book that can sweep you into a story and its beautifully rendered characters (all the more beautiful, poignant, and powerful because they are real) is worthy of recognition, and I found this memoir to be fascinating and enormously moving. It was also interesting from its snapshot of a slice of American and local history: Manhasset, Long Island, in the 70s and 80s and into the early 21st century. The author, being raised by his mother in her father's dysfunctional home, lived right down the street from the Publicans bar where his uncle worked and where the bar patrons became the author's family. Telling the story cannot do it justice. Moehringer's (and his mother's) run of bad luck and the consequences of repeated poor judgment could be too dark and depressing if it weren't for his uncanny sense of humor, powers of observation, and willingness to expose himself, warts and all, to the reader. Yes, there were times you wanted to kick him in the seat of the pants, but it appears he finally found his own footing.
   
   My only quibble is that after a wonderfully rich telling of his childhood and early adulthood, there is a conspicuous ten-year gap as the story jumps abruptly from his first job as a journalist and what appears to be a downward slide towards alcoholism to the end of the book where he has clearly stopped drinking, has become a recognized journalist, and finally appears to have gained a healthy perspective on his past.
   
   The scenes in the bar and the many conversations, over many years, between Moehringer and the bar's zany, wonderful patrons were filled with laugh-out-loud hilarity, philosophical depth, fascinating bondings and break-ups, and unspoken rules and behaviors that engendered fierce loyalty and unexpected tenderness. The intersection of Moehringer's personal story with the events of 9-11 and its impact on the characters and the community were especially moving.



2. I don't know where this book has been in my life but I just finished it and wish I had the sequel to pick up right this moment. He is an amazing writer with phrases that you can't decide whether you want to devour or roll around on your tongue like rich chocolate. I actually avoided this book for a while because as a female, I didn't think a book about a guy who hangs out in a bar could interest me at all. I don't even know what finally made me read it, but I was spellbound. Like other reviewers, I laughed out loud many times which was such a pleasure. Thank you J.R. Moehringer for a great read.



3. When you buy a book AFTER you've read it, you know the book is good. I've read this memoir three times! Moehringer is a talented writer with a toe-tickling sense of humor and a great understanding of human foibles. This book is one of my all-time favorites.



4. I am a big fan of memoirs. I'm always looking for a good one to read. This one was great. I could not put it down! Buy this book! You will not be disappointed!



5. This book started out a little slow for me. I thought the intro was a little corny. But as you continue reading, the author grips you with his story and beautiful and very funny writing style. As you continue, you realize this might just be the best memoir you've ever read. It's terrific.

5 comments about Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power.

1. This book is fascinating on so many levels. It's a great chronicle of an important part of American history -- the birth of mass media. It's a compelling portrait of a media giant who rivaled Hearst and Howard Hughes in his eccentricities. And it's a classic American Dream tale. I highly recommend this biography!



2. "I don't care a damn how ugly he makes me, but he shouldn't misrepresent me," Joseph Pulitzer once told a sculptor working on his likeness. "There are elements of romance and tragedy." And so there are, aplenty, in this wonderful, compulsively readable biography. James McGrath Morris captures the romance and tragedy of Pulitzer's life, his era, and his profession. This is truly an American rags-to-riches story: A Hungarian immigrant, Pulitzer made his way to this country as a mercenary. After a short stint at soldiering, he ended up sleeping in doorways, shoveling coal, and tending mules. He taught himself English in the St. Louis Mercantile Library, got a toehold at a German-language newspaper, and never looked back. At times, I felt like I was reading a novel by Edith Wharton or Henry James, from the description of the glittering "Patriarch's Ball" at Delmonico's on 5th Avenue (and ostentatious parties where hosts wrap gold bracelets in their guests' dinner napkins) to darker passages dealing with the open antisemitism directed at Pulitzer and his newspapers.
   
   But this is not only an outstanding portrait of the time. The author has uncovered extraordinary new materials, and he offers a nuanced and complex account of Pulitzer's bruising battles with Teddy Roosevelt and what the publisher himself called "that so-called militarism." As this country picks up the pieces after yet another foreign war championed by the media--newspapers included--an understanding of this episode is not only fascinating; it is essential.



3. In the style of Ron Chernow and Jeane Strouse, James McGrath Morris has provided a robust and sterling account of one of the most important, yet very complicated giants in American history. In the hands of this sublime biographer the tale of Hungarian-born Joseph Pulitzer leaps in grand fashion from each page as we follow Pulitzer across the Atlantic in 1864 and then are whisked through a life that saw its fair share of triumphs and tragedies. While most people know of the award that bears his name, readers will find on these pages that Pulitzer was more than a newspaperman turned mogul, a man driven with ambition to whatever endeavor or cause he pursued. Utilizing sources never before mined Morris literally fleshes out the life of Pulitzer not only within the context of his times but with a nuanced and balanced portrait of Pulitzer the mortal, a man who could easily turn on the charm, win your trust, but could also be a nefarious liar. Chronicling his ascent to power and fame in the arena of nascent modern journalism readers will no doubt have mixed emotions as Puiltzer descends into severe neurosis and lonliness, making his life all the more tragic. A must read, PULITZER: A LIFE IN POLITICS, PRINT, AND POWER, belongs alongside the recent monumental biographies that have been penned about the pantheon of greats including J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Cornelius Vanderbilt.



4. After the gripping ROSE MAN OF SING SING, James McGrath Morris's previous book, I wondered who he would tackle next. What subject could be more fascinating than Charles Chapin (the titular "rose man") for professional accomplishment, personal psychodrama, and narrative scope?
   
   The answer: Joseph Pulitzer.
   
   The result: defintive.
   
   Simply put, this is everything a biography should be: scrupulously researched, consistently readable, with a subject fully deserving of such sustained attention.
   
   My only question now, Mr. Morris: who's next?



5. If you enjoy biography and history, this book will provide you with days of pure pleasure. Morris not only makes the reader feel as if he is a bystander at the events described, but also gives real insight into the political and social environment of the times. And what a time it was. Wild machinations in politics and society and the evolution of Pulitzer into a certifiable neurotic madman, fantastically wealthy, controlling his family and newspaper employees from his increasingly cloistered life on yachts and rented European mansions. A fantastic read.