5 comments about Audition: A Memoir.

1. About a tenth of the way through this book, when she was in her early 30's, I lost count of the number of men she had slept with. Then this picked up again when she was in her 40's. I think it was crass of her to include this in the book. Also, I don't understand what these famous and not so famous saw in her.
   
   The book is extremely well written and that's why I gave it 4 stars but I'm half way through and starting to get bored. She's repetitive in how great and special she is, how she's so friendly still with all her lovers and even their spouses, how she resented her sister and regrets it and how she supported her family. She doesn't sound like such a great mother either although she seems to be convincing herself.
   
   Frankly, I don't care about her and never did. The most interesting parts of the book are her interviews with the famous and that's what's keeping me reading.



2. My neighbor gave this book to my wife and I was home just getting over a sinus infection. I decided to read it. After about 1/2 hour I wished my infection would return so I'd have a reason for my headache. If you like this book, please don't reproduce and please give up your voting rights!



3. Mary Greenwood, author ofHow to Mediate Like a Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes
   
   Barbar Walters is a trail blazer for women in the media. Audition is a fascinating ride from the 40's to the present showing women's role in journalism. On the early days of the Today Show there was the Today Girl, the one "girl" allowed to do special segments on the Today Show. Walters was never a Today Girl, but when there were three women doing women's segments, one was considered too caustic and the other too elegant, so Walters got to do live advertisements for sponsors such as Alpo Dogfood, where she would feed hungry dogs on the air. When it was her turn, they stopped using the Today Girl moniker. OF course, she was the first to co-anchor the nightly news which she did with Harry Reasoner in the 70's.
   
   She was the first to interview many famous politicians, celebrities, and entertainers. The inside cover lists all her interviews from A-King Abdullah to Z-Catherine Zeta Jones. It is in very small print and there are thousands of names. Castro, the Shah of Iran, Truman Capote, the Dalai Lama, Hugo Chavez, Moshe Dyan, a joint interview with Anwar Sadat and Meachem Begin, and all the presidents and their wives. In the 90's instead of retiring, she started a new Women's Daytime program called the View. She also did 20/20 for over twenty years.
   
   In addition to all the firsts, we learn a lot about Walter' early days in Boston, New York and Miami Beach. We learn about the ups and down of her father's career, who was the impressario of the Latin Quarter in New York but had many business failures and successes. Barbara knew from an early age that she would probably need to support her family, including her "mentally retarded" (the term used then) sister and therefore, Barbara was always worried about money so she could help her parents and sister financially.
   
   We learn about the rr's in Barbar's speech and how that is a result of being brought up in Boston. We learn that she went to a speech therapist and even tried to speak with words without r's and then how she decided to just speak naturally. We find out that Gilda Radner's skits on Saturday Night Live initially hurt her feelings, but that one night when she saw Gilda, she had her do her impression especially for her.
   
   We learn about her fertility treatments; her adoption of her daughter, Jackie; her daughter's rebellious teenage years, her husbands and divorces, her love affairs, and her endless travel all over the globe to get the story.
   
   I am an Art Deco Tour Guide in Miami Beach and was particularly interested in the days in the 40's when Barbara was a girl and her father ran the Lou Walters Miami Beach Latin Quarter on Palm Island where Al Capone lived just down the street. People like Milton Berle, Sophie Tucker, and Jimmy Durante entertained there and people like Jack Kennedy and Howard Hughes went to the show. The Walters also bought the pistachio house next door to the club. Apparently both were previously owned by Bill Dwyer, a notorious bootlegger and the owner of Tropical Park Race Track. Mr Dwyer thought he had some claim on the house and arrived with his henchman to live there. Mr. Walters took a gamble and and allowed Mr. Dwyer to live in the same house with his family. Mr. Dwyer took a shine to Barbara, who was in elementary school, and took her to the track. She was too young to go in, but Mr. Dwyer parked so she could see the horses. Barbara would give him a few bucks to bet and "miraculously" she always won. Barbara said these were some of the happiest times for the Walters family.
   
   The book is long, but I appreciated the fact that she wrote a complete memoir in one volume. I loved this book. First I loved it because Walters was a trail-blazer for women. I have seen her pave the way for other women in so many ways and I am not sure she has gotten all the credit she deserves. Secondly, it has been an interesting life from her days when she lived down the street from Al Capone in Miami Beach to the famous people she has interviewed. With all the fascinating people mentioned, I did not get the feeling that she was name-dropping. She was writing as a journalist and giving us some background on some heady times. I recommend this to all women, especially younger women, who may not appreciate the trials and tribulations of the women who have gone before them. I recommend to anyone who is interested in show business from the early days of Milton Berle and Martha Raye to the Academy Award Winners of today. I would also recommend to anyone who wants to read a good book.



4. Walters, Barbara. "Audition: A Memoir", Alfred Knopf, 2008.
   
   Quite a Life
   
   Amos Lassen
   
   I have always loved Barbara Walters but I must admit that I really did not want to read her book because of all the hype. Nevertheless, when my copy came I sat down with it and found myself enjoying every word. It's over 600 pages long so there was no way I would get through it in one sitting; I do have a life and I had to prepare for my summer school classes.
   Walters has lived quite a life both personally and professionally and she comes across as a compassionate woman and an inspiration. She exudes class and humanity. She can interview people like no one else can and has done so. Her list ranges from Monica Lewinsky to Elizabeth Taylor to presidents, world leaders, disgraced public figures and just anyone else that has affected our lives.
   Her childhood was fascinating. Her father ran the nightclubs known as the Latin Quarter so she grew up around celebrities. She went where women had not been before and became a co-host of a major American news show and when she went onto 20/20 with Hugh Downs her star rose and she became one of the most famous women in the world.
   Much has been said about her "adulterous" affair with the American senator but the book is so much more than that. Barbara Walters is an ambitious and tenacious women and even though she says that her life has been one large audition, there is no question that she "got the job".
   If anything really characterizes the book, I think it is Walters' style and class. Sure Barbara Walters had an affair with a married man and sure, she has guilt feelings about not always being there for her sister but all of us must remember and consider how life would be without someone like Barbara Walters. She takes the opportunity in her book to let us into her life and even though she has not done everything the way some of his might have wanted, Barbara Walters, to me, at least, remains a major figure in our lives. She is an extraordinary woman and has led an extraordinary life.



5. Barbara Walters who has spent more than five decades shattering the glass ceiling for female journalists has delivered a candid new memoir, "Audition," looking back on her extraordinary life. "Audition" begins in Boston where she was born and concludes in New York where she continues to work at age 78 on her ABC specials and "The View." She provides the kind of personal glimpses and secrets she tries to extract from her many high-profile interviews.
   
   Walters got into television by accident and got her big break when she did Alpo dog food commercials as a "Today Girl" on NBC's Today Show. She then became the first woman cohost of the Today show, and after a difficult move to ABC, the first female network news co-anchor. "Audition" provides the behind the scenes stories we have come to expect in books like this, as she made history rising against all odds to the top of a male-dominated industry.
   
   "Audition" is filled with star-studded stories about her famous and infamous interviewees including Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Shah of Iran, Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Katherine Hepburn, Yasir Arafat, Warren Beatty, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Roy Cohn, the Dalai Lama, Princess Diana, King Hussein, Angelina Jolie, Henry Kissinger, Monica Lewinsky, Rosie O'Donnell, Christopher Reeve . . . the list goes on and on.
   
   Walters weaves a very human narrative of her family throughout the book; a narrative that provides clues to where she got her drive, the choices she made, her three failed marriages, being attracted to older (and often married) men, and her willingness to take risk. There is her risk-taking father, Lou Walters, the mercurial nightclub impresario who made and lost several fortunes; her long suffering mother; the family's descent from the penthouse to rent-controlled apartments; her mentally disabled sister, Jackie, who taught her much about patience and compassion; and the troubled teen years of her adopted daughter, Jackie (named in honor of her sister) who got hooked on amphetamines.
   
   "Audition" is a very readable portrait of a deftly calculating woman with an impeccable sense of timing and incredible luck. Walters has given us a story that is heartbreaking and honest, surprising and fun, sometimes startling, and always fascinating. This makes a great companion book to Katie Couric's recently published biography, "Katie: The Real Story."

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

1. "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream" by Hunter S. Thompson
   
   Hunter Thompson practiced total immersion journalism. This form of reporting is called gonzo journalism.
   
   Hunter Thompson drove to Las Vegas to report on a motorcycle race and ended up writing a story about himself writing a story about a motorcycle race. If he would have written a conventional report on motorcycle racing it would have been interesting to motorcycle enthusiasts for a few days. Since he wrote a gonzo story he had a very wide canvas and he used it well to create a classic.
   
   The reader might be turned off by the obstreperous behavior, extreme self indulgence and offensive inconsiderate language. If you can look past this offensive conduct and you will see that Hunter Thompson gave us an insight into the American character of the 1970's.
   
   See also: Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (Modern Library)
   
   I completely enjoyed this book and recommend it to others.



2. This book changed my view of literature and journalism and reminded me how important individuality is. Hunter S. Thompson, is amongst the best literary minds of his genration. He is able to draw a reader in with detail and inventive use of the english language.



3. Had some issues with delivery (of no fault to Amazons) which were dealt with wonderfully.



4. A 60's style drug trip in the 70's. Only a decade a part in time, but an age apart in form. Lawlessness vs. law-and-order, by a true life breather. A final cry from the peace and love generation; a time when Americans weren't afraid. Don't be fooled by the movie adaptation: you're looking at one of the finest pieces of literature of our time.



5. That so many people have tried to justify, make sense of and interpret Thompson's pseudo-fiction in literal terms only indicates how many asinine, clueless people have read this magnificently absurd book. All that's required when reading HST's drug-addled interpretation of his misadventures with Acosta is to simply ingest, and to set your inhibitive sense of reality aside while doing so.
   
   In his correspondence, literature and journalism, HST ably explains how he rode the crest, slope and break of the most exciting, disheveled period in the history of American culture. His written discourse is invaluable for obtaining a clear understanding of a muddled and dynamic era, where dysfunction of many varieties constituted the norm and both the freedom afforded by a permissive society and its' technological advances were exploited for enormous personal gain. In a time when America is descending into a sanitized quagmire of mediocrity and sedation, we could only hope for so much.

2 comments about The Prince of Frogtown.

1. This is the best book Bragg has written. I live in Jacksonville and can remember some of the people he writes about. I finished the book in 2 sessions. It was a easy read about a mill village town. Living in the "country" I could relate to the "village kids". Keep up the good work Rick.



2. I have long been a serious fan of Rick Bragg. I happened upon him during a reading at a local bookstore 9 years ago and have been hooked since. I never pass up an opportunity to hear him speak and have been anticipating the release of this book for over a year.
   
   His new book does not disappoint. One moment I was laughing out loud and making my husband listen to me read passages from the book...the next I was all but sobbing. Bragg tells the tragic story of his fathers life and contrasts this with tales of being a new stepfather. It makes for an incredibly moving read. He is able to use the English language and southern dialogue like few people can.
   
   Bragg's two previous family related books were easier reads, but the stories included in this book are wonderful and well worth the read.

5 comments about A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.

1. Okay, this book typifies the almost shameful culture we live in...the pervasive narcissism of the MTV generation. It is an autobiography which also nabbed a Pullitzer nomination. Dave Eggers, whose parents die of unrelated cancer within months of one another is primarily left to raise with the help of his two older siblings, his youngest brother Toph. It is a work of comedic excellence ( the preface included, which is a must read ) and intense tragedy, so much so you'll have tears leaking out your eyes and can't tell if the tears are from laughing or crying. I can't honestly say it is indeed a work of staggering genius but maybe I'll relent and say it shows some measure of genius. One thing however is that you will finish this book feeling like you are a solid member of the Egger family or at least one of the extended family by necessity.



2. I have read this book at a time when I needed something different in my life. I had just moved to live in a new country and needed something outside of the "real world" to keep me engaged and emotionally charged. This book did it.
   
   Eggers is brutal in his honesty, he took no escapade into fancy magical mystical worlds in this book, he lived the real world and struggled through the pain of losing both parents...what else can a man do but share his story? He literary parented his younger siblings (and any serious reader will also note that his sister committed suicide few years back). He did the best he can to raise a "family", being a child parent himself. Some men would resort to women, wine, work (took much of it), hide away from responsibilities of their lives and others' they love, some men would resort to more pain by numbing themselves with drugs, some would end see psychiatrists, but Eggers lived to tell.
   
   I found the language initially a little shocking, but got used to eventually. His extraordinary sense of humour also is commendable. He is a hero who we would be watching out for. His life is work, a creative work and it's only a grand pleasure to note someone to real exists in the literary world of today in America.



3. I REALLY wanted to like this book. So many people recommended it to me and told me how great it was. I had to force myself to turn the pages. The way it's written, it was really difficult for me to care at all about the characters. They don't have any real endearing qualities, and as much as I wanted to root for the kid raising a kid, I couldn't. In general, I felt it was a waste of my time to read this when I could be reading some genuinely moving.



4. Dave Egger's "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is a real, creative and outstanding piece of literature. Egger's style of writing is often times stream of consciousness, and though this could be distracting to some readers I find it adds realism and comedy. Egger's holds nothing back with his assumptions and stereotypes. Not a good read for an easily offended reader.
   
   After the death of their parents (both succumbed to cancer), John, Toph and their sister Beth move from the East coast to California. John and his little brother Toph move into an apartment together, while Beth lives close by. With no real "adult" influence they are left to fend for themselves in a (in their opinion, sometimes too much so) serious world. John and Toph's messy apartment speaks for itself and serves as a symbol for their messy and "free" lifestyle.
   
   Their struggle through the real world often provokes emotions of sympathy and often times laughter. A good read for the interested, scattered or creative mind. Egger's has really created something here, it's a book you'll either love or hate. So go ahead, give it a try.
   
   - Written by Kevin Gilmore



5. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is, as its title immediately suggests to the reader, a highly self-conscious product of a post-modern age in which pastiche, posturing and the pursuit of a wryly ironic and self-deprecating celebrity blend to create a `memoir' that seeks to combine a meditation on the meaning of life with a meditation on mortality. The comic sections of the `memoir', which include the lengthy and highly self-conscious introduction, while unusual for the genre the book purports to belong to, are typical of Eggers' style.
   
   Eggers typically exploits many of the narrative conventions of post-structuralist literature, compressing time for dramatic effect, engaging in fantastic (if not pure fantasy) scenes, having his characters acknowledge their own existence within the text, thereby disrupting the usual narrative convention and enhancing the text's own sense of its artificiality. As author, Eggers effectively turns each character, or significant event in the narrative, into a tool for exploring his own sense of loss and his thoughts and feelings. In this respect, the characters he introduced into the text, while based on real individuals, become fictional vehicles through which Eggers may articulate his moments of self-doubt, self-criticism and conduct an internal dialogue which, in the ironic style of the text, is conducted in the most public forum possible.
   
   The sense of self-consciousness, which is developed to the point of exhibitionism, that dominates the text both captures and satirises the emphasis laid upon instant celebrity, as opposed to fame, in late twentieth-century and early twenty-first century Western culture. It also means that the persona presented to the reader is not necessarily an authentic one, just as the events presented to the reader, while being based in reality, are not necessarily authentic in their mode of presentation in the text. This artificiality is a device deliberately used to distance the reader from the author while appearing to create an illusory sense of intimacy between author and reader. The blending of fact and fiction is, as with other works of this nature, used to distance the reader from the author as an individual and to engage with him as a literary construct that approximates a set of `truths' about the human condition. In this sense, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius may be seen as what the New York Times dubbed as `faction'--the blending of fact and fiction--, a typical feature of post-structuralist narratives.
   
   The most fundamental aspect of Eggers' narrative, apart from being the only true subject of his own story, is that the humour and comedy so often invoked by Eggers is itself a brittle thing; it is almost his only defence against the tragedy of his parents' untimely deaths from cancer, the enormous change this created in his life and those of his siblings (although any real sense of this is minimised to the extent that they appear only as flat, supporting characters in what is, fundamentally, Eggers' drama) and, above all else, from the criticism and judgements of others. This brittleness makes Eggers' self-consciousness a technique that begins to pall as the narrative extends itself into an examination, if not a justification, of the minutiae of the protagonist's pursuit of a creatively provocative level of celebrity; ultimately, there is little that Eggers does not write about that is not about himself. While, perhaps, capturing a sense of the egocentricity with which the modern world now operates, it is not an entirely endearing egocentricity and the brittleness of the humour, the febrile nature of the wit is something that invokes a more insipid version of the brittle wit of Oscar Wilde in The Importance of Being Earnest, where identity and the rights of a particular identity ultimately is all that matters.
   
   Put more bluntly, and to echo one critic's comments, the book may be characterised as being `self-indulgent, whiney and age-appropriate' and that `Dave as Peter Pan is not particularly appealing with his creative facial hair (his description), sexual indiscrimination and age-appropriate language'. Eggers creates a composite character of himself as a contemporary Peter Pan, a Generation X tragic Everyman, that conceals any sense of himself and makes his work a `memoir' of what might have been rather than of what was. This certainly fits more closely with the recurrent narrative use of stream-of-consciousness which becomes something of a relentless tide that sweeps the reader away from an event based narrative and into one that is composed purely of the swirling thoughts of Eggers' fictionalised self, or the self-criticisms voiced through his equally fictionalised real characters. Even the existential angst to which the book pretends is often reduced in its meaning as it becomes a platform on which Eggers is able to compete for our attention against the television, the Internet and the latest celebrity scandal. In the sense that there is very little that may be regarded as being sacred, that everything--and everyone--is simply grist to the mill in the pursuit of personal aggrandisement, this is very much a product of its time.
   
   In a sense this is one of the few books that may, perhaps, lay claim to being truly `post'-post-structuralist because it simply treats every device, every authorial and narrative structure and approach, as possessing value only when it brings attention to the author himself. This extends to the self-mocking approaches he adopts toward himself although, in reality, it is toward his role, as author and the status such a role may be understood to confer upon him. As a narrative strategy, it is one that is supposed to remove the traditional status of author as `expert' in relation to his work and strike a more a more `convincing' democratic note that suggests the author is, in fact, just like his readers. This democratic ideal, which is based in the notion of a spurious egalitarianism where celebrity is a celebration of the ordinary, the familiar, even the banal, is captured in the equally self-conscious eschewing of literariness in the text while manipulating its various features to the text's advantage.
   
   One such example is the partially developed motif of the `lattice' that is extensively referred to in Chapter VI. While lacking the substance of considered thought or reflection, which is itself another narrative technique, it presents a plausible narrative response to the personal, social and moral complexities of the world that has the illusion of complexity while being sufficiently simplistic to fit the demand for immediate consumption. In much the same way, the haphazard narrative structure of the text, with its various comic non-sequiturs, self-conscious interruptions and interpolations, presents a structure that may be claimed to mimic the lack of structure of existence. In other words, this is a narrative that presents itself, on an existential level, as art imitating life or, in other words, art holding up a mirror to life. The lack of resolution means, of course, that it is up to the reader to ascertain, or even decide, if there is any central revelation in the text, or whether it is merely the literary version of MTV's Real World, with the difference being that Eggers got on the show this time and that he is the producer as well. If this latter assumption is true, the entire `memoir' is simply an extended retelling and reformulation of everything that can be read quickly and with relative ease in Chapter VI alone.
   
   The notion Eggers develops in various forms throughout the book of him and Toph being `God's Tragic Envoys' (cf. p.73) presents the reader with a difficult choice: if this is indeed true, what value do others in similar situations have in relation to this claim? If the reader chooses to regard the claim as being nothing more than hyperbole, to what extent does this mean that death has little meaning beyond its effect on the living and the way in which the living may justify all sorts of behaviour under the guise of grief? Essentially, the reader must decide to what extent this notion of being `God's Tragic Envoys' is simply another self-serving fiction created by Eggers to maintain the reader's focus not so much on the death of his parents and its affect on his family as on himself, his `existential howling' and to remind the reader that there can only be one actor in this drama and that it will be, unequivocally, Eggers and his self-fictionalised selves.
   
   There is an uncomfortable sense in which this work is simply another example of Eggers `greedily cartwheeling toward everything we are owed' in the guise of being `God's Tragic Envoys'. This underlying aspect of the work is another element the reader must confront and make a decision upon. If this is the case then absolutely everything serves only one calculated purpose, even Toph, whom he purports to love dearly, that unswervingly moves towards to the goal of Eggers' personal celebrity. Or, it may be argued, that Eggers is indeed the spokesman for his time, for his Generation Y.

5 comments about The Year of Magical Thinking.

1. One evening before dinner in December 2003, Joan Didion served her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, a second tumbler of scotch as he sat in an armchair by the fireplace. She returned to mixing a salad. When she looked over at him again, he was motionless, his left hand raised. At first she thought he was making a bad joke, then she realized something was wrong. Dunne had had a heart attack and died. In an understated, considered tone...



2. First, let me say I am not a fan of Joan Didion's writing, thus the three stars instead of four. It is a well told story and the hurt comes through. It is simply cumbersome for the mind to digest. I don't know, maybe it is over-written or too thought out...I just didn't feel her actual words coming through. Worth reading.



3. As a lover of creative nonfiction, I was attracted to this book for its popularity and rave reviews--touching, beautiful, even magical. At the risk of being insensitive to the material therein, I found it dull. Didion, whose essays I love (check out: "On Keeping A Notebook") never went below the surface. Remaining in the action of the events, revisiting them painfully again and again, this was more a snapshot of her life, than a rumination on it. So if you want a snapshot, you'll love it.



4. I didn't like it either, until I realized it's not a book about grief, it's a book about guilt.
   
   See, Joan Didion is a psychopath who poisons her husband with blended scotch - partially because he was becoming suspicious of their daughter's mysterious illness, but mainly because it was all part of her devious plan.
   
   Joan had inflicted a terrible illness upon her young daughter through the use of rare and vicious biting insects that she had collected during her many exotic vacations. She originally conceives of the plan to slowly kill her daughter when she meets her future son-in-law and immediately becomes infatuated with him. She infects her daughter with a debilitating illness that would necessitate the two of them (Joan and the Son-in-law) spending a lot of time together, so that eventually he would fall in love with her, and they would fly to Hawaii for lunches and live in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel for the rest of their lives.
   
   I can't wait for the movie!



5. As a priest and someone who deals with death and grieving much too often, Ms. Didion captures the process of sudden death and grieving with such clarity. Certainly everyone grieves at the own rate and differently, but there are common threads which she captures so well. From the moment of her husbands death through the "year of magical thinking" she puts into words, what people who have lost loved ones have felt.
   
   I once asked a doctor to describe why certain deseases kill people and she suggested the book, "How We Die", which Didion, by the way, quotes in here book. What How We Die is to the non-physician, this book is to the those who have never grieved as well as a capturing of the saga to thsoe who have.

5 comments about Are You Somebody?: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman.

1. I am astonished at the 5 star reviews for this book. Pay attention to what other readers are saying. I read this book because it was our book club selection of the month. Out of many years in book club, this was the worst book we have read. I am writing this review so others may be spared by the glowing marks of 'professional' reviewers.
   
   It's difficult to describe how rampant the name-dropping was in this book. There were parts of the book in which 10 or more names would appear per page for dozens of pages. I don't care if the names are notable authors, it's boring to read lists of names! This was not writing, this was 'list making'.
   
   The book couldn't hold a theme for more than a couple sentences. (spoilers next)... The author has a miscarriage, which gets just 2 or 3 sentences of attention. The author is raped. Apparently something as life shattering as that gets only a brief mention as well. There are many traumatic and life-changing events that are barely explored in the book, because the look is too busy name-dropping every person she has met.
   
   This memoir should have been exciting, it should have been a great book. What an amazing life she has led, against tragedy and great odds. Yet somehow she manages to make this story sound boring.
   
   An interesting development is the 'Afterward' after the book has ended. It's so well written you can't help but wonder if it was done by the same author? The first 20 pages and the Afterward of this book are great, the 200 pages in the middle are a mess. Do yourself a favor and pay attention to the reviews here. Life is short and there so many great books to read, I regret I'll never get the time back I spent reading this disappointing book.



2. This is a splendidly written autobiography, unbelievably rich in detail and raw emotion. While other reviewers have ably described her life's journey - from a chaotic household with alcoholic parents to a very good job as TV producer and then columnist - this is also a beautiful and vivid evocation of a changing Ireland. O'Faolain provides the grittiest of portraits, of a stalled society that is emerging from centuries of repression and excessive religiosity to a modern society. She herself embodies much of it, journeying (across class lines) from desperate loneliness (seeking love as a panacea) to a self-empowered feminist writer who has the strength to keep going. It is deep and gets you to reflect on your own predicament, particularly middle age.
   
   Warmly recommended.



3. Nuala O'Faolain writes reasonably well. She has developed her craft enough to be labeled lucid, although inspired isn't a word I would use. When she writes about the shift in the concept of family that has taken place over her lifetime she can hold my interest. But what she did with whom over the course of her life, without a deeper examination of why, falls more in the category of vaccuous gossip, and won't hold any serious reader's interest.
   
   Most disappointing of all is the absence of the story that Nuala can't relate, the one she has yet to understand herself. Ms. O'Faolain tells us all about her upbringing as a child of alcoholics, complete with a horrific description of seeing her mother dead drunk on the floor of her home. She even laments the alcoholic demise and early death of her younger brother. But she never admits to alcoholism herself despite a book-long description of irrefutable symptoms. Aside from a borderline flippant remark about what she refers to as a brush with alcoholism and a one-line mention of "addiction" to pills in her younger years, Nuala never conveys any grasp of the nature of the disease that killed her mother and brother, and shortened the life of her father.
   
   For those of us with more than a casual relationship with alcoholism, Ms. O'Faolain's present condition of relative isolation is revealing, as well. It's another predictable phase in the inevitable progression of the disease. She also talks (writes) like a "dry drunk," and has the dysfunctional relationships to prove it. When she writes about retiring alone to read - with a bottle of wine - it is painfully obvious that she is living in denial of her own condition, that she has missed perhaps the most important revelation available to her. As she left us at the end of her book, it appears that the lessons her ancestors paid such a terrible price to impart have escaped Ms. O'Faolain.
   
   Alcoholics and their families and friends are among the many who would want to read "Are You Somebody?," and they want to read it with the hope that an understanding of alcoholism was reached by the author, especially after such a traumatic lifetime experience with the disease. Nuala has yet to absorb that lesson. When she does, the story she can relate will acquire a depth that escapes her present version.



4. I love the flow of Nuala's writing style. So beautifully written, almost poetic. I find myself reading some passages over many times to contemplate what is being said. She's so insightful to human character.



5. Nuala O'Faolain has been a waitress, sales clerk and maid; a university lecturer; a television producer, and, most recently, a columnist at The Irish Times. She is Dublin-born and bred, but received an education at Oxford, England, and did tv work in the United Kingdom. She has now returned to Dublin, and, in middle age, written this well-received memoir.
   
   Through most of its history, Ireland has been a tough country for women merely to live, let alone to establish satisfactory lives and careers, and O'Faolain's struggle to do both is at the heart of her memoir. Born one of nine children to an overwhelmed alcoholic mother; and a charming father who chose to spend his time, his money, and his charm elsewhere, leaving his family day-to-day poor, O'Faolain claims to have had the classic hard-scrabble Irish childhood. And from her writings, it seems she did. Though it should be noted that, whatever her father's faults, he was one of Ireland's best-known journalists, under a "nom de plume," as it happened. And it simply does not seem to me that, however hard Ireland was on women -- and we know it was-- it's quite so miraculous that a child of a well-known journo, whether male or female, should rise to become a well-known journo in his or her own turn. It's just not quite as extraordinary as, say, a child of an illiterate day laborer taking that same career path.
   
   Be that as it may, the North Dublin family was poor, and Mam wasn't up to much. Nuala reads books, struggles to get herself an education, discovers boys, pushes at the restrictive boundaries of Catholic Ireland at that time, and finally leaves the country to complete her education and begin her career. She seems to have been expert at finding help in stony ground, always a helpful ability. She seems also to take pride in having been an icebreaker for others as she pushed at those booundaries, as well she might, and she gives us quite an interesting view of talented young people struggling to find the way out of stultifying mid-20th century Dublin. She also seems to have found help in working herself up the career ladder, on her back, as they say. Some pretty heavy names are dropped, some others are held back. But there's no denying a girl can, at a minimum, learn a lot from pillow talk, if she picks the right pillow talkers. And she's certainly not the first or last woman to have gotten that kind of help up the ladder; let anybody who cares to throw the first stone.
   
   Now in lonely middle age, without male companionship or children, O'Faolain's unusually honest about her circumstances. Of course, it seems evident that, as a younger woman, O'Faolain was choosing her male companions for qualities other than the likelihood that they would stick with her for the long haul. Nevertheless, plenty of men and women have looked hard for mates for the long haul, without necessarily finding them. Ways to live must still be found. A lot of people wind up middle-aged and lonely, and can be grateful for the author's honesty.
   
   O'Faolain's trip has taken her some interesting places, and she has always been a keen-eyed observer with a keen pen. At one point, she writes of life in Oxford,"In real life, glamour consisted of my friend and myself getting done up in high heels and tight black skirts. Tucked into the skirts, and anchored by wide elastic belts, we wore men's white nylon shirts with the sleeves rolled up. We had big pointy breasts (old nylons stuffed in our bras), a thick layer of yellowy Pan-Stik on our faces, black lines going up from the corners of our eyes, Vaseline on our shocking-pink lips. In the Crystal Ballroom we two beauties eyed guys with duck's arse haircuts and crepe-soled shoes, while we condescended to dance with awe-struck Malaysian students." It's the next best thing to being there for us readers.
   
   Later she remarks, " I am still acquainted with a lot of the people I knew in Dublin around 1970. But most of them are so different now that the past might never have been. I remember the vulnerable, not always dignified young people who are, now, dignitaries: a judge, a professor, a feared critic, a consultant. In a more confident culture, people like these would reclaim their youth. In North America, people, however powerful they become, are happy to go to reunions to recapture the innocence of youth."
   
   O'Faolain found her way through her years, through alcoholism and severe depression, to become, at least, a person who owns her own life. And, hey, that's not so bad: generations of women all around the world have never achieved it, and still don't.

5 comments about When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa.

1. Having visited Botswana on several occasions, specifically the Okavanga "high end" safari camps, I was conscious of the the lack of exposure to the real Africa, the everyday Botswanan life experience. But for diamonds, the foresight of a powerful tribal chief and, among other things, a government committed to local natives investing in eco-tourism, Botswana could have been Zimbabwe. Godwin's "Mukiwa" increased my awareness of colonial Rhodesia and it's collapse into local rule and the emergence of Zimbabwe. "When Crocodiles Eat the Sun" relates Godwin's family's experience as Zimbabwe's social fabric is destroyed under the rule of Robert Mugabe. At the book's end I cried. Not for a romantic return to Rhodesian colonial life and not for what is happening today during the lead up to a re-election, but for what will happen in Zimbabwe's (and Africa's) future.



2. A book so well-written that you are compelled to keep reading even as the story breaks your heart. Superbly descriptive. A first hand account of the utter moral bankruptcy of modern day Zimbabwe. A must read for the African leaders who seem clueless about their neighboring country.



3. As the second generation child of a prominent white Zimbabwean family and a highly respected international journalist, Peter Godwin does a marvelous job of intertwining the inevitable, tragic disintegration of a formerly prosperous country with the all too real consequences for a white family caught in the throes of horrendous social, political, and economic change. To read this book is to finally understand what it's like to have one's culture pulled from beneath one's very being...and what it's like to adjust to a terrible world where race means the difference between life and death.



4. This beautifully written story will remain in your heart and mind. It will be one of the more memorable books I have read.



5. Author Peter Goodwin grew up in Zimbabwe when it was Rhodesia. He returns to help his aging parents and finds a country that is collapsing under the brutal dictator, Robert Mugabe. Eloquently he describes the downward spiral of a once beautiful, thriving country.

5 comments about The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, and the Glory Days of Television News.

1. Roger Mudd brings incredible clarity to his start in the business and takes through an incredible period of time when the country was able to count on CBS News to give us all the stories from D.C.
   He adds insights into the internal rivalries that developed and festered, ultimately resulting in his departure to NBC.
   For someone who was also entering the media at that time (and remains in it today), it was absolutely fascinating.



2. Roger Mudd certainly was in the right places at the right times. His accounts of the civil rights act filabuster and Watergate are intrguing. His strained relationship with Dan Rather might have used some more development in the book.



3. I purchased this book after having seen a live interview with Roger Mudd. Roger Mudd was a part of my growing up and I have always had a great deal of respect for him. Roger is a great human being and tells his story with a great deal of clarity and humor. It was wonderful to hear about the experiences he had during his career with Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Martin Kalb,Robert Kennedy, etc. - it brought back such wonderful memories. Roger has had a very meaningful life and remains one of my favorites. The book is definitely worth reading and the pages turn very easily.



4. You need to move it up your priority list to MUST READ status.
   You'll understand the world of News and Media and appreciate
   what reporters and anchors of "Integrity" have to face to be "great"
   and to stay on the air!!!! I Never could figure out why he (Roger) didn't replace Cronkite; now I know! The "Black Rock" turned varing shades of "bean-pusher grey" after Mr. Paley died. Mr. & Mrs. Moonves' CBS pales by comparison to Mr. Paley's BLACK ROCK!



5. Roger Mudd's fine book evokes a different and more comforting era. Like his friend Jim Lehrer who still delivers new this way, he writes in an even and measured cadence. His topical span is great and in some areas, such as the Kennedy family, the depth will also delight those devoted to the subject - not to say, however, that they will like everything they read about the political trio. If you've heard or seen Mudd's recent radio and television interviews the book delivers just what you'd expect. While the events he covers should be at least vaguely familiar to most adults, many of the political and journalistic characters (Long, Friendly, Sevareid, etc.) may be lost on those born after the Baby Boom years. Largely but not entirely free of angst, it is an altogether quick and pleasant retrospective read.

5 comments about Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise.

1. I found Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by former New York Times Restaurant Critic, Ruth Reichel as enjoyable as a warm plate of risotto paired with a glass of red wine!
   
   In Garlic and Sapphires, Reichel recounts the six years she spent contriving clever disguises to hide her identity as she gallivanted around New York City's restaurants and bistros writing reviews for the Times. Reichel's memoir focuses on three aspects of her life at that time: her personal life as a wife and mother, her restaurant patronizing as a critic, and her life as an employee of the venerable and mighty New York Times. Reichel's descriptions of her son are touching and heartwarming, her recounting of the extremes she went to in order to create and truly become her aliases are entertaining and amusing, and her telling of the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the Times are fascinating and fulfill the gossipy voyeur in all of us.
   
   Reichel is a talented writer and her truly joyous love of food, cooking, and eating are evident on each page of the book. The book is peppered with Ruth's favorite recipes and this adds a certain feel-good warmth to the tome.
   
   My only criticism of the book is that I had to be willing to suspend my good reason in order to believe that Ruth truly became the characters she created to the extent she described. According to Ruth, she was so immersed in these characters that she found herself unable to use her own judgment and mannerisms while inhabiting that character's persona. For example, is she was dressed as "Miriam" she was brash and rude and "Ruth" had no control over the rude things that came out of "Miriam's" mouth. This was slightly hard to believe - but maybe I just don't have the same amount of acting chops!
   
   The title Garlic and Sapphires is only briefly alluded to and comes from a poem written by T.S. Eliot.
   
   Overall, Garlic and Sapphires is a delicious romp of a memoir that I truly relished devouring - excuse the puns!



2. Reichl is a witty, smart writer who certainly knows her way around food. She has this uncanny ability to make food and the ritual of eating accessible to her reader, no matter how removed the reader may be from the actual setting. I recoiled in horror thinking about shrimp writhing as they died in the 'Dancing Shrimp' centerpiece in a chinese banquet, but nevertheless enjoyed reading her account of the events that unfolded on the evening in question.
   
   The characters that she works with are as colorful as the make-believe characters she invents, ostensibly to avoid being recognized as the restaurant critic of the New York Times. As she dons her various disguises, she adopts a whole new personality. The premise that adopting a new personality influences the experience of eating is as entertaining as it is revelatory. All in all, a refreshing, well-written book.



3. I love this woman. She writes books that are full of information and fun. Always a good foodie read. I just wish she would write faster!



4. The subject hooked me in immediately - a famous NY food critic working in disguise, so as to experience the same treatment restaurants give to lesser mortals. Her reviews of these places gave well-deserved rebukes, and reading her newspaper pieces shows why she's a respected critic. Her palate is obviously exquisitely sensitive, and her knowledge of the business must be tremendous.
   
   But it's only in the short format of a review that I can read her writing with any enjoyment. In a book, all her defects of style become very tedious (despite her acknowledgments citing all the help she's had from top-flight editors!). She writes in a breathless, overblown manner, with no sense of narrative proportion. She introduces new characters in lavish paragraphs of purple prose, and then they vanish entirely from the book. Incidents of no importance are written up in minute detail, and parts that would have been worth developing are skipped over.
   
   Her descriptions of people (including her own disguises) call on every cliche in the romantic novel genre, and her dialogue plods along clumsily, stating the obvious at every turn. After a chapter or two I had to suspend the willing belief one normally brings to an autobiography - really, are we to believe that her late mother's friend nearly fainted on seeing her put on her mother's dress, because the resemblance was so utterly convincing? Or that her own husband failed to recognise her as soon as she put on a wig and some stage make-up? Reichl tells us firmly and at length that it happened, and since her writing is otherwise completely without irony, I gather she intends us to take it as fact.
   
   Overall, I finished the book wishing I'd followed my impulse and dumped it after the first chapter. I kept waiting for it to turn into the promised hilarious and charming piece, but I waited in vain. I was left with the impression of a woman self-absorbed, arrogant and shallow, who notices little and cares less about other people except as they massage her ego or give her fuel for showing her contempt. There is no attempt at developing a theme or plot, and no insight into her own or anyone else's character. If extravagant, adjective-riddled descriptions of food appeal to you, there's plenty of that - but even then, my vicarious enjoyment of the meals was spoilt by the feeling that she's only saying this to impress us all with what an infallible and sensitive judge she is. Yes, Ruth, I guess you are. That's why they employed you. But a little more humility and humour would make for a better book.



5. 
   Reichl is brutally honest about herself, which makes for moving stories. At one point she dresses up as her crazy mother and enjoys the freedom of being an obnoxious old lady. I read this last book in the series first and it prompted me to order and happily read all the others.

5 comments about All over but the Shoutin'.

1. I bought this book based upon all the hundreds of positive reviews but almost instantly regretting the purchase. I found Mr. Bragg's writing style annoying. What works in a newspaper article doesn't seem to work for books. Mainly, I found the one liners coy (I think they were supposed to be zingers that put the chapter in perspective or gave it an ironic twist, or tried to overdramatize the chapter.) Whatever the reason, I hated the last lines of each chapter and felt they were smug and insulting. Really, please let me make my own emotional discovery at your words, don't insult me by forcing me to have the same emotional discovery you had when you wrote them.
   
   Another annoying Mr. Bragg's has is another dramatic writers trick of starting many sentences with the same words. For example, the following string of sentences:
   "He never said he was sorry.
   He never said he wished things had turned out differently."
   He never acted like he did anything wrong."
   
   This trick is over used and jolts the reader out of the story. If you don't know what I mean, go to the library and read the prologue. Ugh.
   
   Usually I stop reading a book that is this annoying but it was the only book available to me and I was stuck with it.



2. I was raised in North Alabama. Rick Bragg's ability to paint the picture of life in that part of the South blows my mind. It is perfect, as if he reached into my head and threw my own thoughts and memories onto the pages of this book. It is real, unapologetic and stubborn...just as it should be. It helped bring me back to a world I left years ago and understand why I love and hate it so much.
   
   What a wonderful writer, his sentences are so packed full of vivid descriptions it almost made me tired at first. Honest to God, I had to put it down a few times because I needed to let the images digest before going back for more. I usually devour books within a day or two. This one I chose to savor, slowly a chapter at a time. He is now one of my favorites!



3. If you have not lived part of this book you won't get it. If your hardest moment in life was not making the team or getting dumped by a girl then you won't understand Rick's story. But if you've been there, espicially if you've been there and you grew up in the South, then this book will resonate with you in deep and meaningful ways that won't make much good logical sense. After you have your first good throat aching cry you'll experience a measure of the healing that All Over But The Shout'in can bring to a life that started hard.
   
   More than a book. A story told with honesty. A witness. A testimony that speak to the soul.



4. I read this book after loving AVA'S MAN. I was less enthralled with ALL OVER, which was written first. From reviews, I expected it to be a paean to his momma. That it was, early on and again at the end. But I couldn't help thinking that for a woman to sacrifice so much for her children is not so exceptional--most of us sacrifice more than our children will ever know--and that he was perhaps too attached to her. His lack of any real emotional connection to any of his many "girlfriends" made me think that he needed to mature and to depend less on his attachment to his momma. Like other reviewers, I was less interested in his climb to the Pulitzer, but I adjusted to the switch of focus. It turned into an autobiography, and his many "clips" from stories that he wrote were very interesting. Overall, I think the second half is just not as gripping as the first and the switch was somewhat jarring.



5. I read this book when it first came out and had an occasion to repurchase it recently for a book club discussion. As I live now in the South and have followed his career in the last couple of years; I find his writing both stimulating and interesting. The group found his descriptions of his Southern long suffering Mother very realistic. Have ordered his new book and look forward to reading it as well.