5 comments about Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War.

1. It's been awhile since I remember reading a Bob Greene column, and my memory was that they were charming and well-written. Not this book. It is padded, repetitive and remarkably dull a lot of the time given the subject matter that should be full of opportunity for a skilled journalist. Other reviewers here have put it best when they said the book is really a magazine article stretched too far. Greene has an interesting concept--weaving in his own father's life, war service and death with the story of Paul Tibbets, of Enola Gay fame. But he never comes close to making it work most of the time. For instance, he seems to quote everything Tibbets says, no matter how mundane. It's rather amazing that he barely dips more than toe deep into the man's life before, during or after Enola Gay. In the end, Tibbets just comes across as a slightly cranky uncle who you really don't want to see except at the holidays. In the same way, Greene's dad seems to be a complex man--and at times Greene taps into that. More often than not, his dad's recorded statements are better written than his son's writing.



2. We received the book very timely. And it is a great read. I would recommend it to anyone.



3. This was absolutely a wonderful read. The author, through the time he spent with his dying father AND the time he spent with Paul Tibbets, brings to the reader two remarkable stories in one. It is a great book historically, and , I think, enables some of us to understand our own WWII fathers better. In any case, you will love this one!



4. Great book, I have grown to really like Bob Greene. I have bought many of his books and and reading them as fast as I can. This book brings the people who fought WWII for us and why they did it and makes them real. I am learning to really appreciate their sacrifices.



5. This is a good work. As one disgruntled reviewer pointed out, this is not a history book, but rather a memoir and tribute from a son to his father and to one of the many heros of WWII. Having been raised by a father from that era, it is quite apparent to me that my relationship with my father was my no means isolated, but somewhat the norm. This work struck pretty close to home. Having spent over twenty years in the military myself, I can understand some of their thoughts, but even that cannot bridge the entire gap. Those guys looked at life differently than my generation. The author has approached the subject with great sensitivity and through his conversations with these men, I feel, has been able to understand not only them, but himself. I highly recommend this one to any father and any son. Well done Mr Greene.

5 comments about Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson.

1. Some brilliant insights here into what made the famous Gonzo journalist tick. You wouldn't want a dry, academic biography of someone like Hunter S. Thompson, and McKeen, happily, gives the reader a rousing and picaresque ride for his money.



2. An essential read for anyone wanting to obtain a deeper understanding behind the madness of Hunter S Thompson's life and writing. In fact, his life was based on numerous personas, many of which were created to uphold his public image. The way he chose to live his life, as well as its tragic end, bore a striking similarity to that of one of Hunter's greatest idols, Ernest Hemingway.
   Mc Keen summarizes Hunter's life best when he writes."He was a work beast, and it shows in the quality of anything he wrote in that period. But then came fame, and cocaine, and the suffocating persona he had created...Fame cost him the ability to lose that gift."



3. [...]. I warned you not to write that vicious trash about me. Now you better get fitted for a black eye patch in case one of yours gets gouged out by a bushy haired-stranger in a dimly-lit parking lot. How fast can you learn Braille? You are scum. HST."
   
   High praise for William McKeen from The Good Doctor using his own unique mode of expression. Thompson was referring to the William McKeen's book called "Hunter S. Thompson" written in 1991. This was the first book aboutThompson and by far the most popular, perhaps until now with the release of McKeen's new book about Thompson called "Outlaw Journalist."
   William McKeen first met Hunter in the late 70s when he interviewed him on stage at Western Kentucky University. No doubt this meet must have been an important one for McKeen who had been a fan of Thompson, and still is. "When I met him, I was struck by his manners and his genuine interest in me and everyone else he met that night." McKeen told me. Though they didn't become what you'd call "close friends" McKeen did have an impact on Thompson later on. As Anita Thompson (Hunters' widow) said "William was a good friend to Hunter" and as Hunter said himself of McKeen "He understands me." To write about a writer like Thompson must have been a daunting task but McKeen came up trumps with his 1991 account of Thompson's life, and considering HST liked it, that in it's self is no mean feat.
   
   When I heard "Outlaw Journalist" was in the works my first thought was; oh no, not another biography about the good Doctor. I was of the opinion that the Thompson`s life story had been squeezed dry, it didn't occur to me that this one could be different. I read it in two sittings and was surprised by how sharp and savvy it was. I am a fan of Hunter Thompson, I'm also a proponent of keeping his memory alive, and I enjoyed this bio as a fan, but it's also very readable for someone new to the sometimes complex journalistic style, and life of HST.
   
   This is the second trip McKeen takes into the world of HST. He leads us down a fine line between the crazy behaviour, and the exceptional writing talent of the Gonzo commentator. It's done with a skill that has eluded Hunters' other biographers. McKeen explores the undesirable side of Thompson whilst his focus is on the writing skills, and aptitude for perfection that Thompson put into most of his work. We are also shown some of the more disappointing times in his life as a journalist, like his failure (and utter lack of interest) to write about the Ali vs. Foreman fight in Zaire where he chose to float in a swimming pool full of sodden marijuana (which he had dumped in himself.) George Plimpton is quoted in the book as saying "Thompson's readers were not interested in the event at all-whether it was the Super Bowl or politics or a championship fight in Zaire but only how the event affected their author." From a fans point of view Hunters' lack of interest was a huge disappointment and regrettably not the only one in his writing career.
   
   The people interviewed for the book were the ones closest to Thompson, the ones who knew him and spent most time with him, not the hangers-on. Folks like some of his high school friends, Deborah Fuller his long time assistant, Anita Thompson, Bob Braudis, Ralph Steadman, Jann Wenner, and many more, all of which serves to tighten the purpose of the otherwise well researched book.
   
   From birth to death to blasted from a cannon. We get an ordered and honest account of his life with many details that will be new to most Hunter Thompson fans. An attention-grabbing look at how Thompson operated, disrupted, succeeded and failed. His health gradually went downhill before his own eyes and he was helpless to stop it. He conceded. Finishing off, McKeen gives a moving account of the blast-off service held at Hunter's "Fortified compound" where his long time wish of his ashes being shot from a huge cannon was honoured by his friends and family, with the bill footed by Johnny Depp, and attended by 150 guests including Senators and stars. A fitting send off for Hunter. And if this is to be the last biography about HST I could live with that.



4. I lived on the property next to Thompson in the 80's and knew him as portrayed in this book. I sold him the Pontiac convertible that is in a couple of the photos. The writing here is tight and moves along well. From my experiences with Hunter this has a BS-factor of about 1 on a scale of 5, good job.



5. This is the best biography on Hunter available today. It's written with insight into the mind and persona of Hunter that very few people really knew intimately.
   Buy the book, take the ride...
   
   Cristian Ponici

4 comments about In Front of Your Nose, 1945-1950 (Collected Essays Journalism and Letters of George Orwell).

1. Do you know what a time capsule is?
   
   I saw one pictured in an old Life magazine back issue about the 1983 World's Fair in New York. 1938, the brink of war's abyss. The time capsule was featured at the Fair, filled with Depression era technology and pop culture. An ominous looking black tank... a dark looking torpedo thing... metallic, shiny and heavily lowered by chain into a cement crypt to sleep for decades...observed by people who would never live to see it opened. The metallic time traveller contained hopeful letters to the future from a world on the brink of war and beset by economic decline.
   
   The old world of sentiment was dying... to be replaced by a new streamlined world that promised utopia to some and endless darkness to others.
   
   The last book in this great series...perhaps the saddest and most ominous. The begining of the atomic age (1945)is mentioned in this last part of the series... a bright atomic flash succeded by a long proceeding dark shadow...pointing towards 1984? Devolution, decay and death not evolution, utopian progress or hope shadows this last book.
   
   The Penguin Books edition is simply a reprint of the earlier edition by Sonia Orwell made two years earlier in 1968. It is better bound as the earlier editions tend to crack because of their great age. This book is unique for two reasons: it is loaded with letters and tends to reveal more about the inner thought life of Orwell. This collection of writings shows the Orwell of the Cold War, far removed from the Edwardian England of his youth as was his character George Bowling from his childhood; Bowling looking at the crumbling churchyard of his youth from a street leading to the streamlined future Orwell and Bowling seemed to fear more than embrace.
   
   The technology of mass death has also the power to end dictatorships while paradoxically threatening life on earth. The threat of total war would make slave states stable enough to survive without any credible threat. In other words, Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania would be forever locked into the static war of "1984" much like 1948 was locked into the seemingly permanent Cold War.
   
   The problem of England's birth dearth reappears in yet another essay as an unavoidable fate...a fact "In Front of Your Nose."
   
   The "Red Duchess" wrote back to Orwell after he had long written about her. The Duchess of Atholl had long been a subject of interest to Orwell who commented often on the "Blimps" who seemed to plague english society with various hues of functionlessness. Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists seemed to echo the Duchess' radicalism on the right wing.
   
   The letters in many of the Orwell collections never seem to have answers. It is interesting to ponder why so few answers were ever published or if they ever existed. Was this an issue of deliberate omission?
   
   Another curious unanswered fact: was why Orwell never seemed to write detailed letters about his personal life. There are no details about the adoption of Richard, the death of his first wife, or his second marriage...critical time points. When Orwell writes about hospital visits near his death bed, there is nothing about Sonia's involvement. Personal illness letters would have revealed much integrity and compassion, yet they are conspicuously abscent. Did Sonia want to leave out embarassing details such as why Orwell was so often alone with his TB or why she insisted on using his pen name as her married name? The last selection in the book is a poignant diary and note book, Orwell's last writings laced with gloomy thoughts about children dying, an outline for a long short story and notes about Evelyn Waugh.
   
   It is ironic that Waugh wrote the "Loved One" about the funeral industry in America and Waugh was the last writer Orwell wrote about. Was Orwell thinking about death, but felt a need to intellectualize it rather than confront it honestly? There is no introspection involving Christ or eternity (despite Orwell's traditional values and previous essays on religion)...only a pointed remark about how appropriate a symbol (seen in a picture) was a crucifix hiding a stiletto "for the Christian religion."Interestingly,Orwell pointed out the contradiction in Matthew about the geneology of Jesus without citing the commonly known answer to it. Orwell also quoted a wrong verse for the whale in the book of Jonah when talking about Henry Miller's book "Inside the Whale." It is strange that a mind as sharp as Orwell's would find death a non-issue as he lay dying and would apply little intellectual accuracy towards the Bible even though he lamented the collective lost of the belief in immortality in several writings, claimed, in one letter, to have seen a ghost, and was upset that hell was often lampooned by comic strips. Orwell and death... quite an enigma.
   
   Orwell was one of those men cursed with integrity and conscience who have no beliefs to sustain their integrity. Men like Winston in "1984" are forced to eventually pay homage to the idols they fight..."I love you Big Brother"... then die obedient under the System; like the show trials of Communists under Stalin with its numerous self-confessions followed by executions or banishments.
   
   The man who died in 1950, midway in the twentieth century, was embraced with its begining and cursed with its future. Orwell longed for the Edwardian society of his childhood, yet had to live with the dawn of nuclear armed super states. Orwell was the
   policeman shooting an elephant in Burma, and later performing a hanging for an empire he detested, yet had the integrity to serve. Orwell was Dorthy Hare dutifully accepting the role of a church spinster and a life of forgotten service. Orwell was George Bowling looking with longing recollection at the church of his youth and seeking the inner freedom of the long lost fish pond.
   
   Orwell was frequently at odds with left culture: abortion, homosexuality, trendiness (vegetarianism), yet he was part of the Left. The man who died in 1950 had an Edwardian soul, yet was damned to live in a totalitarian-threatened world created by the failure of Capitalism in 1929.
   
   Orwell's intergrity of vision may have kept that totalitarism from ever being justified.



2. This fourth volume concludes the excellent essay collection from a man who died much too young and with whom I do by far not always agree, but who provided me a very satisfying and instructive reading experience.
   I chose the headline from one of the essays in this volume because it gives Orwell in a nutshell, including my own ambiguities about him. He argues against the Soviet apologists, in the early post war time, who say that one must break eggs to make an omelette. (Is that a Lenin quote, btw?) His question: so where is the omelette? strikes me as witty and appropriate, but at second glance as callous and cruel. After all he seems to imply that yes, you may kill a few million people for a 'good' purpose, but the purpose must be met.
   In such moments Orwell is deserted by his own devotion to clarity and he gets caught in his own puns. That does happen to him. As much as he lambasts against bad language, he will write e.g. 'I could multiply these examples endlessly' (talking about bad stories from the Soviet Union), when he actually means, he could add to these examples for some time.
   Reading the man for 4 volumes gives me the conviction, that this suspicious interpretation of mine is unfair. No, he would not have intended to mean that.
   The title 'In Front of Your Nose' refers to our ability to harbor contradictory notions without suffering too much from it: the English intelligencia in the 30s was able to oppose Hitler as well as disarmament and conscription. Another example: the gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus descended from Abraham and David through his father Josef, and then proceeds to tell us that Josef was in fact not the father. (I am sure theologists are perfectly able to talk this contradiction away.)
   Vol. 4 has plenty of worth while literary criticism as well, like the previous 3. The essay on good bad books predicts that Uncle Tom will outlive the complete works of Virginia Woolf. (Frankly speaking for me that has already happened.) Jack London could tell his stories well, but they are not well written.
   Let us close our Orwellian peregrination with a timeless reminder: political language is designed to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. Right, my AFs in the much afflicted US?



3. The late James J. Martin stated that one could learn great prose from reading George Orwell. Orwell's anthology titled IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSE is a good book to learn political insight and excellent writing. Orwell was not only knowledgeable, but he expressed some of the political tragedies and problems of the 20 th. century in this book. Readers should note this book is the fourth volume of essays of Orwell's essays literary criticism, political protest, etc.
   
   Orwell was one of the very few who realized what a disaster W.W. II was for both Europeans and Asians. His essays on the forced repatriation of millions to the Soviet Union to miserable die in concentration camps were among the first to publicize this tragedy. Orwell's essays were blunt in stating that the only real winner from W.W. II was Big Communism especially in lieu of the rapid disintegration of the British Empire.
   
   Orwell gave a good description of the inconsistent thinking of the British people. The British wanted total victory at any cost, and found themselves in bad economic shape. Many British complained about the immigration of Polish refugees to mine coal in Great Britain. Yet, the British public also complained (whined) about coal shortages. Orwell indicated the inconsistency of these remarks and commented that the British failed to see the logic between acts and consequences. Orwell Presented a clear picture of what was to occur with the British Empire which disintegrated rapidly after "victory" during W.W. II.
   
   Orwell's essay on Gandhi is an interesting case study of Orwell's honest assessment of political leaders. Orwell is clear that he could not live like Gandhi, and Orwell admitted that he probably could be friends with the Hindu leader. Yet,Orwell highly praised Gandhi's courage, policy of nonviolent resistence to the British rules, and Gandhi's honesty. Orwell gave Gandhi praise for being honest and a decent man among political rogues, hypocrites, and cowards. Whether one agrees with Gandhi, he was indeed a brave, honest man. Among poltical figures these are rare traits indeed.
   
   This reviewer disagrees with part of Orwell's criticism of James Burnham. Orwell correctly shows Burnham's errors in predicting the outcome of W.W.II. However, Orwell should have recognized Burnham's book THE MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION was a solid account that political and economic affairs were to be controlled by managers and "experts" rather than a market economy and by traditional political processes.
   
   Orwell's anthology has interesting essays of literary criticism and correspondence. Orwell was suprisingly well versed with continental European poltical leaders and literary figures. There is an interesting letter that Orwell wrote to Arther Koestler, author of DARKNESS AT NOON,in which Orwell favorably compares this book with Orwell's own 1984.
   
   Orwell also has some disturbing remarks regarding "allied" abuse and torture of defeated German prisoners of war. Orwell reflected that he remembered British and U.S. propaganda against the Germans before and during W.W. II. Yet, right in front of his nose, the "allies" were acting in the same beastial manner against those caught on the wrong side of the war. This was quite disturbing to Orwell, or any thoughtful person.
   
   This reviewer has always been very impressed with Orwell's work. Any thoughtful individual who is not afraid of clear writing, honesty, and truth would enjoy Orwell. Unfortunately, the number of such people is small. As Orwell wrote one time, propaganda and lying do not decieve people. Propaganda and lying only help people who want to be deceived.



4. Essays and journalism and very good footnotes deal with starvation in Europe, prevention of literature, Gandhi, an attempt to form an organization which would deal with issues like expelling people from their homes, people forced back to Soviet Russia, and much more including civil liberities for anarchists.

1 comments about Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting.

1. Dean John Maxwell Hamilton of the Manship School of Journalism at Louisiana State University has given us in "Journalism's Roving Eye: A History of American Foreign Reporting" a comprehensive and fascinating account of the lives and writings of some of journalism's most colorful characters. Beginning with Colonial times and moving to our contemporary era, Dean Hamilton covers a lot of ground but does so in a lively and informative fashion. Anyone interested in journalism or the sweep of America's diplomatic history will find it a valuable source book, as well as a good read. Jack Sullivan, Alexandria, Virginia

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

1. Nuala O'Faolain's book is elegantly written, but sometimes it got so depressing that I wondered if I wanted to keep reading.
   
   Her emotional life seems to be a never-ending train wreck, as she hopelessly pursues one man after another.
   
   I wondered if she was any better off than the mother she so pitied, neglected by her husband, looking after ten kids, and sitting at home all day reading and drinking.



2. After being completely charmed by 'Are you Somebody?" I was expecting at least a well-written decent read. Instead this book was disjointed, rambling, went into highly irrelevant personal details, and didn't seem to have much of a point.



3. Nuala O'Faulain writes of her life in an uncompromising, hard look at a time spent very differently from many of her countrywomen, and gives vast amounts of insight into the roles prevalent in Irish culture, and how they effect every day life. She has lived a full,wandering life and while she hasn't been endlessly happy, she has learned to value what she has and who she has become. There is much here of value for any woman to take away.



4. I did not like this book. It is a memoir that is more like a catharsis and 'atta girl in order to make excuses for a fairly valueless and vapid life.
   
   Fueled by the Womens' Movement, Ms. O'Faolain justifies her short-lived, alcohol-entrenched or extra-marital liaisons with no remorse. She claims that if her lovers are married, it's their wives' problem (and this from a soon-to-be feminist!?). She is also a name dropper of all manner of literati with some anti-semitic descriptions thrown in.
   
   Finally, we look at the terrible neglect and abuse from her childhood with narrow-visioned denial. She demonstrates this same denial when she minimizes the domestic violence in her relationships.
   
   I have to wonder if she's ever done deep reflection or if she has any capacity to put herself in someone else's shoes.
   
   Not recommended.



5. I'm as surprised at all the bad reviews, as some of you are surprised by the good ones. I would call this book one of the best i've ever read. I love books for different reasons... the quality of writing, the "story" itself, the development of the story, and/or how the book itself makes me feel - ie. how much i'm moved or entertained by it. I sobbed thru about the last 60 pages of this one. This book made me wish i knew this woman. It's incredible to me - her life, her dreams, her intelligence, her inner beauty and turmoil...everything about her. I will read this again...i will be 50 next month, and maybe this book means more to me than most - as i live alone (divorced), and never had children.
   
   We love things for different reasons. I love this book for all the right ones. Enjoy.

3 comments about Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones.

1. This is the story of the person whose London grave is located immediately to the left of Karl Marx's. She was, as the authors point out, "left of Marx" in another, more important, way; although she was a loyal member of the Communist Party, she "pushed the envelope" with regard to consideration of women's special oppression as well as that directed towards people of color. Thus, she was ahead of Marx, who did not address either of these major issues.
   
   I would have liked this book a lot more, were the authors not wholly infatuated with the current postmodernist cant. Rather than reading about "locations" and "voices" and "geographies," it would have been nice to read a straightforward biography written in normal English. This is why the four stars; insofar as the information in the book is concerned, it merits five stars for telling the story of this interesting woman, ahead of her time in understanding, articulating, and promoting the concerns of the multiply oppressed--people of color, and women.



2. Carole Boyce Davies delivers a stunner in Left of Karl Marx, a deft and thorough analytical treatment of the political life of Claudia Jones, "Black Woman Communist of West Indian Descent." Neither Pan-Africanism nor Black Women's Studies can begin to do without this book, not to mention a host of other fields and constituencies. It brilliantly performs the task of resurrection made intellectually necessary when the status-quo takes such important figures away from us and then tries to erase their memory, to boot.
   
   We should not be forced to think and struggle in ignorance of Claudia Jones, and now we certainly don't have to with such a powerful and impressive study.
   
   Critically, Boyce Davies treats not just the politics of diaspora, but deportation as well; not just "political" activism, but cultural activism (such as Carnival) as well; not just bookish intellectual production, only, but polemics, speeches and journalism (in the spirit of Ida B. Wells) as well; not just "women's rights" or "worker's rights" or the rights of colonized peoples, but all of the aforementioned and then some. Perhaps most crucially, she recovers the "radical Black female subject" in a fashion that immediately calls for pretenders to the titles of "radical," "Black," etc.," to walk the walk talked and walked by Claudia Vera Cumberbatch Jones.



3. This is what intellectual life is all about...Carole Boyce Davies *rocks* our understanding of the left, black feminism, transnationalism, and more. Boyce Davies carefully re-narrates the life of black communist, activist-intellectual Claudia Jones--identifying Jones' political and creative struggles as a black woman who *radically* hopes for, strategizes, thinks through, a *just* future and was thus consequently rendered a punishable, deportable, subject...
   
   These women, these ideas--Carole Boyce Davies, Claudia Jones, Left of Karl Marx--are what intellectual life is all about. Inspiring and challenging...
   
   katherine mckittrick

5 comments about Living Color: A Writer Paints Her World.

1. I am reading and drawing. I am writing and here in southern New Mexico, Alamogordo all by myself. I am sooo glad she found art to be a good tool for seeing detail. I'm seeing differently.
   I have seen color all my life but been afraid to express it. I grew up parttime in Maryland. The East Coast has its own flavor, but out West we command another kind of beauty. Natalies writings have been a good refresher for me. I'm excited to do a workshop up in Taos. Thanks.



2. I had never heard of Natalie Goldberg before this book was mentioned casually in an online journaling group. But the comment peaked my interest and I surely was not disappointed! I read the entire book in one sitting (during the first major snowstorm of '05!) There were many "ah ha" moments...and I especially enjoyed the chapter about her father...very emotionally moving and insightful. Highly recommended if you do visual art and are curious about what propels you.



3. Natalie's paintings are dazzling...she seems to have caught the emotional color of her subjects, the inner dance of things...it's essential magic. In the chapter titled "How I Paint", she says: " I noticed that the blue of my paints wasn't blue enough to get the intensity of that New Mexico sky. I painted the sky red instead. I painted Jazz yellow. He was a brown dog, but yellow expressed him better. Color became fluid".

   There's a chapter on her father, with 7 paintings of him, the first from '78, the last, '98...wonderful portraits, with a sadness in them, despite the vivid colors.
   Another chapter, "A Deep Source of my Writing", is about how her writing and painting are interrelated.

   She writes of her European travels, her visits to the Musee Matisse, Cezanne's studio, the Kafka Museum, and so much more...with an easy flow that makes reading a pleasure, but it's the paintings that captivate me.

   Her interiors are incredible..ordinary places like bathrooms and kitchens, turned into playgrounds of glorious color...her buildings and outdoor scenes are also amazing (her sense of perspective is fabulous !), but I love her cars best of all. If I could own one painting, it would be the green Chevy truck on page 22. It seems to have a face, with a side window that's winking at me.

   This is a very special book, so full of life and love. It makes me laugh, inspires me, gives me hope and warms my heart.




4. I can only echo the other rave reviews: This book is a must-own (not just a must-read) if you're an artist, a writer, or both. Even if you can't draw a stick figure, but have always wanted to be an artist, this book will set you on the path to creative expression. Don't just wish to be an artist... get this book, and start painting!



5. Don't lend it to a friend, guard it with your life! Ms. Goldberg's drawings are wondrous. I want to say that they remind me of David Hockney's work - but that wouldn't quite do it. Because her style is hers alone and it's magical! The accompanying text throughout gives you an understanding of her drawings - and how she's able to unleash that part of her creativity - and have FUN! I never fail to read the latest Natalie Goldberg book - her insights, her truthfulness about her struggles help me realize that we're all artists. Some of us are just a little freer and further along than the rest. Thank goodness Natalie keeps writing to show us paths that she's hewn for herself.

5 comments about The Year Before the Flood: A Story of New Orleans.

1. Missed on the title . If you really want to know about New Orleans or the flood do not buy this book.



2. I was born in Texas, living in 4 corners of that state. Although technically already an adult before my move, the 15 years I spent living and working in New Orleans from 77 to 92 was when I grew up. I already had Mr. Sublette's two music histories when TYBTF came out. Each of them are deep draughts of history and music insight that I am still exploring and use as reference. TYBTF is a more personal book than those, a memoir of a life through the prism of a unique year. For me it was a page turner, after tasting a few passages, I read it daily, devouring it cover to cover. The author shares his experiences and gained knowledge of New Orleans but first gives us what parts of his life helped prepare him for his experiences there. It speaks to the nature of the city and to the life Sublette has lived that these experiences center on music and the 900-pound gorilla of this country, race. Here I feel is the first book I've read which captures the world that I experienced growing up.



3. Going to New Orleans for lovers of American music is like going to Greece for lovers of antiquity. If you're serious, someday ya just gotta make the trip.
   
   The difference is that a surprising number of the "ancient" things past legends like Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton recalled from the early part of the 20th century are still alive and well in NOLA today: social and pleasure clubs, Second Line parades. Indian tribes, jazz funerals, great musicians seemingly on every block .and what for my money is the best food on the planet.
   
   If you can't get to New Orleans right now, get this book. It's the next best thing to being shown around by a native.
   
   If you love New Orleans, this book will fill you with pride and joy and get you even deeper into the deepest city in America.



4. I was born in New Orleans. Even after I left I would go back and spend summers with my Aunt and Uncle in Houma, spending a great deal of time in the Big Easy. Do not be fooled: This book is not an accounting of what took place before the flood. It is a living, breathing document that holds your soul and refuses to let go until, gasping for air, you curse the time and finally close the cover and turn out the light.
   
   I cannot describe what New Orleans was anywhere near as well as he does, and while that makes me a little sad, wow, this book is just what it needed to be to fill that gap...



5. The Year Before the Flood offers a different perspective on the city of New Orleans and its people tracing its musical history and that influence on the world and the author.
   Having read a number of books on the city, its history and the affects of Katrina, this book was a welcome addition to understanding why New Orleans is New Orleans. It offers insight into issues such as politics and race as well as charting the rich and varied musical influences that make New Orleans such a great city for music today as well as the the cradle of jazz and, as Mr. Sublette convincingly argues, rock n roll.
   This book also traces Mr. Sublette's personal journey from a child dazzled by the many musical styles he encountered living in the south, to adulthood as a sucessful musician with an ongoing interest in varied approaches to music
   At its heart, this is a love story for New Orleans, a story not without its ups and downs, but all in all, an impassioned account of how place, culture and art are intertwined. And how a city, like a good song, can stay in your head long after its stopped playing.

5 comments about Mississippi Sissy.

1. Pretentious, self-indulgent, and by far the most boring book I have read in a very long time.



2. Seemed like a crybaby [...]. If you like child porn or gay [...] then yes this book is for you. If you don't well then it was a waste of time. Luckily I bought it at the dollar tree so I only wasted [...] on it. I could not have been more dissapointed. Some of the stories just seem way too farfetched, others go into gross detail that does not seem necessary for the story. There is a million and one fantastic [...]novels/biographies, this is not one of them.



3. One would think 'Mississippi Sissy' would be a memoir about a gay man struggling with, and overcoming homophobia. Nope, it's not that at all. Well it's certainly a memoir of a gay man growing up in Mississippi but he barely makes reference to any sort of homophobia. Instead we have the author carefully selecting important episodes in his life, mostly involving racial issues of the 1960s, and presents them to the reader in a haphazard fashion. A couple of these episodes are simply terrific - that is, painfully moving. But too many fall flat. And the author seems to dwell on certain facets (eg, going into extremely graphic detail on his homosexual acts) and dismisses others (eg, he devotes all of two sentences about a girlfriend he feared he had impregnated). And why he suddenly injects the memoir of his brother meeting Billy Graham is anyone's guess, ... the author wasn't present at this meeting.
   
   
   Bottom line: a couple of marvelous vignettes generally saves this well written yet sloppy autobiography.



4. This is not a review as much as it is a kick in the butt to me for not writing it! (I can also furnish a photo holding a baseball bat) I grew up in Tupelo Mississippi in the 50's and about a third of this book is of my own experience. I could have added the sexual experiences with the Baptist minister or the choir director or the Cub Scout leader and made a bit longer book or added more about my own escape to New York City. It was a joy to read and to know I was not alone at the time even though, of course, we all thought we were alone. An enjoyable read and the vernacular was a joy to "hear" again.



5. This is the most moving book I have read in a very very long time. It took me through the full range of emotions--laughter to tears. It had such a hold on me I finished it in one day. It made me feel like being 11 years old again reading "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" for the first time.

5 comments about Messages From My Father: A Memoir.

1. This is a very heart-moving memoir written by a man who is remembering his father. It is not a very in-depth memoir but it is moving. I picked up the book because I enjoy Trillin's short poems in the Nation magazine and wanted to know more about the man behind some of the wittiest poems. This book is mainly reflections of a man who is sharing a tale of one of the most important person in his life, his father.
   
   Calvin Trillin tries to make sense of the man who was his father and takes the reader along for a nostaglic walk down memory lane. In this event, he has also shown a side of himself that most people probably don't get to see ... Trillin as a boy and as a young man, trying to live up to what his father believes in.
   
   Trillin says that his father is just an ordinary man who just blends in the crowd, but Trillin brought his father to life with those amazing stories and reveals a warm-hearted man of few words to the world. It is a fitting tribute to a man who raised Trillin and it is a pleasure to read this book.
   
   7/13/09



2. This is a lovely endearingly funny book. I read it in just an evening but I'm sure it's a book I'll go back to in the future.



3. Such is Calvin Trillin's caliber of work you don't realize how good he is, and he is really good. This book touched me deeply; Mr. Trillinsky was not an emotional man and given to the touchy feely sort of stuff so espoused these days, but he gave his son everything he would need to have a fulfilling life, one of the main components being a deep, abiding and unconditional love; how lucky Mr. Trillin was.
   
   My father was an evil and stupid man who never learned from his mistakes and is now reaping the whirlwind; I believe Mr. Trillinsky would have I.D.'d him in five minutes flat, and would have had mercy on him, much more than I can manage now. If you are raising a child, or trying to figure out what in God's green earth happened to you during your childhood, read this book. Mr. Trillin's artistry is a delicious extra.
   
   I have read "Remembering Denny" and it has seared a place in my mind since. It explained so much to me. This is another book that is going to go on my mental bookshelf, probably till the end of me.



4. This book was a disappointment to me. Although it is only a slight volume I found it to be heavy going and very uninteresting. Avoid.



5. I don't know anyone in the Trillin family personnally, but I recognize them very well. I learned something I didn't know--that Jews landed some place other than Ellis Island. As a father myself, I appreciate what Abe did for his son. So did Calvin.