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 Max Perkins: Editor of Genius.

1. I found this classic in the library the other day and what a treat it was to read. To read--but not to accept. It's a sad but inexorable fact that editors today are more salesmen and paper pushers than shapers of authors. What comes through in Berg's fine biography is that writers like Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolf would likely fall through the cracks if they toiled at the desk now. Although Perkins is best known for his troika (the first two authors mentioned) and Hemingway, I had not known that he was largely responsible for Douglas Southhall Freeman writing his multi-volume history of Robert E. Lee. This superb work is as disciplined and fascinating as its subject.



2. Berg's work rallies all aspiring authors to the cause of sainthood for Max Perkins...maybe even deification. He tracks Perkins's career vis-a-vis the literary careers of important 20th century American authors. Gives a peek at the largely ignored man behind the curtain...and stands as a monument to his contributions to our literary heritage. A must read for anyone who enjoys books.



3. Scott Berg's biography of Max Perkins is a warm, sparkling account of America's greatest editor in the prewar period, the midwife for works by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe in the twenties and thirties, when big-time publishing converged on New York. Berg's book is cunningly organized: the reader steps at once into the rough and tumble of editorial work at Scribner's, leaving Perkins' early life, marriage, and family to be described in concise digressions taken only after we get another satisfying dollop of publishing history. Unhappily, once Perkins has delivered his discoveries to the public, the rest is mostly about their boozy extravagance (Fitzgerald), bullying ego trips (Hemingway), and petulant indiscipline verging on insanity (Wolfe). So even if, for this reason, you stop two-thirds of the way through, your curiosity about this key figure in modern literary history will be very well satisfied.



4. This is a wonderfully written book, very informative and inspiring for authors, editors, agents and anyone else involved or interested in publishing. Berg does a terrific and subtle job of painting these larger than life characters, allowing their own letters to speak for them. He shows remarkable restraint and good taste and yet has created a book that is enriching and very difficult to put down. Highly recommended!



5. Max Perkins was the great editor at Scribners who handled quite a few of the finest writers of the twentieth century, F. Scott Fitzgerad, Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe being especially noteworthy (and dealt with at length in this biography). One might envy such a man with such a job, but Berg makes it clear that having to deal with the likes of these authors was like walking around with a huge millstone around Max's poor neck. His job was endless and thankless (Wolfe actually betrayed him). You see from the many letters quoted that many of them are blatant pleas for money. Saying that Perkins had to coddle some of these authors like children would be putting it mildly. Berg does an admirable job relaying Perkins's life and hard times. Recommended.

5 comments about Right Time, Right Place: Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement.

1. Excellent biography of an ingenious gentleman, who also loved peanut butter.
   I share this liking for PB, as well as for Buckley's vocabulary and wit. Such biographical data, on Buckley, are practically non-existent, so thanks much for the book, "Right Time, Right Place".



2. This was well worth the $1.24 it's selling for now, due to some local 60s color in the beginning, but it quickly becomes unreadable except as an unconscious account of what's wrong with so-called "conservatism."
   
   Brookhiser is one of those guys whose "conservatism" is not a matter of principles [that would be 'dogmatic' and 'old-fashioned'] but simply some adolescent impulse to gain-say whatever the Times or the cool kids at college say, then eventually giving in years later. His "conservative" odyssey starts by supporting The War by making stencils and throwing paint at hippies [rather than, say, going to Vietnam himself] but never gives any apparent reason for it.
   
   As the book continues Brookhiser acquires no principles [but does acquire a New York City Jewish psychoanalyst as a wife, which gives you some idea of his "conservatism"] but quite to the contrary, rather than learning anything he simply follows Buckley like a puppy dog as the latter continues his self- [or CIA] appointed task of neutering the "conservative movement." Everyone with ideas that might offend the Liberal Zeitgeist is first offered a place at the table so as to shock the Liberal Elite and then purged one by one when they get uppity; the ones who are already gone appear to Brookhiser only in the form of newsletters still mailed in from 'nuts' and 'racists' and 'anti-Semites;' more appear during his tenure at National Review, driven out in turn by Buckley or himself, until finally its his own turn, at which point he suddenly discovers Buckley is an unprincipled scoundrel.
   
   At no point does any actual idea occur, to say nothing of argument or refutation; instead, old friends suddenly become embarrassing at cocktail parties and so must disappear.
   
   I confess I stopped reading after the purge of Joe Sobran; really, anyone who takes "supply side" economics seriously [the economic equivalent of Brookhiser's unprincipled "conservatism": a non-theory promoted by non-economists to win elections against "da liberals"] is ill-qualified to denounce Sobran's harmless private hobbyhorse of Oxfordism as equivalent to "paranoia" and of a piece with antisemitism. I assume he still has the Jewish psychoanalyst to remind him of "the conservative movement"?
   
   In its own way, useful to future historians as an account, and even more, an example, of what Yockey [one of those 'nuts'] called America's "cultural retardation."



3. We have come to expect good writing from Brookhiser and this is no exception. But while Brookhiser usually writes about historical figures---all of these short, succinct biographies of founding fathers are worth reading---in RTRP he describes in great detail a modern figure, Bill Buckley, for whom he worked and acknowledges as one of what George Will called "the most consequential Americans" of the 2oth Century. Brookhiser has a great capacity for capturing the essence of great figures without the need to take hundreds of pages and thousands of words to do so. He not only describes Buckley's great contributions to modern American conservative thought but he gives a wonderful sense of the man, while not flinching from pointing out some of Buckley's odd foibles. While Christopher Buckley's book about both his parents is witty, I prefer this book as both personal, thoughtful and insightful. Time for one book on WFB, go for this one.



4. The relationship between mentor and apprentice is a fascinating one, and Mr. Brookhiser's compulsively readable memoir captures the nuances of this dynamic better than just about anything else I have read. The fact that the mentor in this instance was the larger-than-life Mr. Buckley makes this work of great interest to the two+ generations who counted Buckley as a constant presence on their TV screens and bookshelves. We benefit from the immediacy of this work: one gets the sense that the wounds of rejection (Buckley appointed and then dismissed--seemingly arbitrarily--Brookhiser as his "successor" at National Review) are still raw, which makes for a particularly searing read. And yet this is not a hatchet job: Brookhiser loves WFB as a son would love his father. Their relationship and, by default, the inner workings of National Review across four decades, is described in novelistic detail. The many conversational asides are always enlightening and often amusing, and overall the narrative flows along effortlessly. My only issue is with Brookhiser's strident defense of the Iraq war at the very end--a lapse into polemics in a book that is ultimately above all that. Recommended.



5. An insider's view of National Review and William F Buckley Jr. from the late 60s through the death of WFBJr. Nostalgic and appealing for an outsider who watched during much of this period. Not likely to appeal to someone who has never heard of National Review or of WFBJr.

5 comments about Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard).

1. I heard about Tokyo Vice from the Daily Show and another friend who read the book. I finally started reading it and couldn't put it down. Jake Adelstein is great story teller and his experiences in Japan were incredible. I didn't know anything about the yakuza before reading the book, I'm interested in finding out more now. I highly recommend this book!



2. Tokyo Vice is one of my favorite novels of all time. Not just because of the content within the confines of the hardcover, but because of the support the author has put behind it. This story covers such a wide spectrum of Jake Adelstein's life that writing it seems to have become his lifestyle. Which makes this book never ending. Once you finish the novel it points you towards a website: <[...]>. I read about this website with great doubt, the only reason I went to it was to see the one post I would expect on a personal website attached to a recent novel: "Sorry I can't update that often, very busy doing a book tour, etc., etc." Instead I found multiple posts as long as chapters in the book describing recent events that have happened since the novel finished. Not only are the posts well written like the novel, but he comments back in full to each comment left on his posts! Or in my particular situation I left him my e-mail and he sent a personal e-mail to me providing contact information since I was curious about going to Japan in the near future.
   
   I can not believe the support behind this novel and I may pick up an extra copy to have in pristine condition (I have a tendency to rough up my novels when I read them the first time.) This is a novel for a new age where people are always connected to the internet, Jake's Twitter also provides access to any book tours that he may be on or whether he is going to have a reading here in America or back in Tokyo.



3. When I started reading this book I had a very different expectation as to its content based on my perception of Japanese culture. This book opened a fascinating window on darker aspects of that culture I was only peripherally aware of. It is also an interesting tale of slow self corruption where the fall is not from on high. Rather a fall from a place of moral ambiguity at best to a place that is way dark and twisted. One wonders if there is any true recovery from such a place but hopes that there is.
   
   I highly recommend this book as a fantastic (if dark) read and a real page turner.



4. Having lived and worked in Tokyo in the 80's and 90's, I found Jake Adelstein's detailed narrative about Japan's criminal underworld fascinating. Most of his book is written with wry humor and the no-holds barred approach of a young, street-wise, foreign reporter fluent in the local language, who can explain the nuances and details of Japanese culture. Ultimately it is a horrifying tale of criminal exploitation, human cruelty, horrific violence and human misery -- very unsettling. Japan and Japanese culture have so many positive and admirable aspects, but this well-written book paints a horrifying look at the underside.



5. This is how great Twitter can be: when I was just 20 pages into Tokyo Vice, I posted this update:
   "Jake Adelstein's TOKYO VICE makes me want to be yakuza"
   
   He responded the next day with:
   "@calebjross It's supposed to have the opposite effect. :)"
   
   Considering that this exchange was completely unanticipated, I was quite surprised by the direct line of contact with the author. I anticipated the exchange ending there. But, then I finished the book, and I realized how insulting my first comment could have appeared. Tokyo Vice is such an amazing story, one that, though filed under "true crime" touches on memoir. Adelstein's position as a reporter with the unique opportunity to out certain immoral (to say the least) yakuza behavior, bleeds into his personal life in deeply affecting ways. As soon as I finished the book, I posted again on Twitter:
   "@jakeadelstein I must apologize for my earlier statement of wanting to be yakuza. I just finished TOKYO VICE. Incredible story, sir."
   
   And he came back with:
   "@calebjross Apology accepted. :)"
   
   Such a gentleman. Tokyo Vice goes highly recommended.

5 comments about More Than Money: True Stories of People Who Learned Life's Ultimate Lesson.

1. This author has such a positive outlook about life, and salutes quality and determination, throughout all his writings. Though beset with some individual and personal adversities, he remains most self-effacing; to extoll the virtues of others, about whom he writes and effuses about their accomplishments, rather than his own. A distinct pleasure to read his writings, (and to hear him speak, as well).



2. Stories of the rich and famous (mostly the rich) who were hit during their richness with a disease, usually a serious disease.
   Cavuto speaks lovingly of them, hard to say whether it was because they were rich and successful or because they didn't go into a tailspin when bad news hit. No great insight, however, comes from his reviews, or interviews, or analysis. The possibilities were there but the book fell short. Sadly, so many people do good things AFTER they are hit by MS or their child is hit by a drunk. Not to minimize their good deeds, but motivation is easier than it would be for Joe Schmoe who simply feels the need to aid the Lepers or feed the hungry or get rapists off the street. While these people took action, it took personal loss to get them off their seats, and as I said, admirable, but motivated by self. Some of what I read between Cavuto's lines is the shock that this could happen to rich people- duh- it happens to all of us and most of us don't have the means to do things about it.



3. It is very nice to see someone talk about business in a way that is touching and human. After all the huge scandals of rich business people screwing the little guy, reading about these heros is quite refreshing. It gives you hope that maybe there are still a lot of GOOD people left in this world.
   
   The stories are very personal, touching, and uplifting. I highly reccomend this book to everyone.



4. I watch this dude every time I get a chance. He's cool. His show is intelligent and balanced. It's relaxed but not lazy. He's firm but not overbearing.
   
   For some reason, one of my books is always listed on his amazon page and this one is listed on mine "The Wisdom of Shepherds." (I also wrote The Greatest White Trash Love Story Ever Told,where my email address is displayed). I am honored that my book is connected to Neil's. I would like nothing more than to be on his show-- heck I might even offer up my controversial social-policy opinions or something like that.
   
   Anyway, Neil is the man. Watch him. Buy this book. Seriously, buy this book.



5. This is an inspiring collection that relates the stories of numerous people who have overcome.
   
   The people included have overcome serious diseases, paralysis, family deaths, business failures, and more. It included stories of well known people such as NY Yankees Manager Joe Torre and former Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro.
   
   Cavuto himself has struggled through cancer and Multiple Sclerosis. He doesn't spend a lot of time on his own story, but definitely illustrates that he knows how to overcome. His attitude about his own troubles is really amazing. He talks about how his illnesses have helped him to become more of a human being. Speaking of that, he said: "It's one of the reasons I tell people I'm lucky to have come down with cancer and now MS."
   
   He makes the point that we all struggle and suffer with various issues throughout life. It is the way that we deal with them that makes all the difference.
   
   The only part of it that I didn't appreciate was a section where he was discussing a Congressman who is a quadriplegic. This person has accomplished a lot, which is great. The bad part is that Mr. Cavuto goes into an anti gun diatribe while discussing it. I think that the book would have come across a lot better without that unnecessary rant.
   
   Nevertheless, this is pretty good and has lots of inspiration for those struggling with something. It is a worthwhile read.

5 comments about Too Soon to Say Goodbye.

1. I have been reading Mr. Buchwald's books since the early 60's. This was one of his best works. He was a master of satire even satirizing his own demise. The world is a sadder place because there won't be another book by him.



2. I never quite "got" Art Buchwald. His humor seemed to always miss the mark for me. Here again, as Buchwald was under hospice care, writing what he thought would be his last random reminiscences - his observations seem too stray, too puzzlingly juxtaposed.
   
   For example, he writes how his attendants and visitors at the residential hospice were spoiling him, waiting on him, delivering greetings and felicitations and presents galore. He said all this doting attention began to turn him into Marlon Brando as that actor whined "I couldda been a contender." Well, I'd never considered that Brando particularly came across as a whiner in that scene from "On the Waterfront."
   
   Or again, Buchwald and his fellow hospice residents started to play their own version of the game, "Who I'd Like to Meet in Heaven." They played "Who I Wouldn't Want to Meet in Heaven." After Buchwald considers his list of dislikes, he wonders what he would do if he does run into these characters up there. He decides he might refuse to give them tickets to any upcoming rock concert. What? This whole train of thought comes off as another non sequitur.
   
   When Buchwald started to speculate on what heaven would actually be like, I hoped finally for some nuggets of wisdom. Buchwald concluded that in Heaven, there would be no taxes - because "paying taxes is hell." That was a let-down. But perhaps that was the point - that there are no profundities that can be delivered about the nature of Heaven, or about the lessons to be learned from terminal illness. But I often felt as if I had to impute points to his humor rather than actually finding them there, ready-made.
   
   At any rate, I stumbled through parts of this book - through remarks that seemed to be slippages along a fault-line. Another passage and there again was another crevice between the two parting sides of his thought - a gap become just a little too wide to leap. So although Buchwald wrote very simple sentences throughout this brief book - I still seemed to end up spending a disproportionately long time reading it.
   
   Nevertheless an ever-affable, sympathetic human being emerges from these pages. His impishly grinning face on the cover draws you in and holds you. He says he loved to flirt outrageously with all the women who visited him in hospice. And he seems to be flirting with the reader. And you can hardly resist. You go hand-in-hand with him through the fractured phases of his youth - through orphanage and foster care - then later through bouts of depression. You emerge with him into the warm glow of celebrity status, with kudos being issued by everyone from French Ambassadors to Kennedy family members to Hollywood stars.
   
   Buchwald does quote some of the truly incisive one-liners he's issued along the way, such as: "Don't commit suicide, because you might change your mind in two weeks." Then there's the sarcastic jolt he'd deliver to college graduating classes: "We've given you a perfect world. Don't screw it up." Or his advice about exercise - he gave up on it because he figured the time he spent exercising exceeded any increase he'd realize in life span.
   
   You will also get a sense from this book of what residential hospice care at its best can be like. For Buchwald, it ended up being an opportunity to hold a salon seven days a week. The best and the brightest all came to say what they thought would be their last farewells to him. In the process, everyone had a jolly good time.
   
   And then there's the boost of the happy ending to this book. Well, it was a temporary happy ending - but that temporariness is all any of us can hope for.



3. I had seen Art Buchwald a few times on TV and never thought he was nearly as witty or funny as people said. So I thought I'd try one of his books--and this was it. My mistake. Wrong choice. This book isn't funny at all. It's about dying, a cobbled together piece that just didn't touch me at all.
   
   All sorts of celebrities (whatever that word means) visit Buchwald in the hospice where he has gone to die of kidney disease and whatever. But we hear little of the conversations. Rather, the writer tells us how pleased he was to be so recognized. Then we have tributes of sorts from several people at the end of the book.
   
   When I finished this I had a rather empty feeling. It didn't seem that I had been anywhere very interesting, or enlightening, or amusing. Maybe I need to read one of Buchwald's books that was written when he was healthy.



4. 
   Over the past four decades our ideas about the human dying process have developed, formed by at least four major thinkers: Cicely Saunders, originator of the hospice movement, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross (Death and Dying), Irving Byock (The Four Things that Matter Most), and Mitch Albom (Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven). Art Buchwald's "Too Soon To Say Goodbye" belongs next to these four in the death section of your library, sharing with them a focus on examining the death process without judgment and with open-minded curiosity.
   
   Buchwald's medical problems started with a stroke in 2000, which led to chronic renal failure and the amputation of one leg. He learned in January 2006 that his condition had been worsened by the development of acute renal failure and was now life-threatening. His options were thrice weekly dialysis or death, estimated to occur within two weeks. Buchwald was subjected to twelve dialysis treatments and then opted out, choosing a hospice in Washington, DC as his home until he died. He dictated this book as a diary of his experiences and feelings in the hospice, fully accepting his approaching death and intensely curious as to what it would be like. He was keen on sharing all of his experiences with those actually present in his life, as well as with us, his readers. During the eleven months between his death sentence and his actual demise January 17, 2007), he enjoyed meeting friends and celebrities in the common room of his hospice and recording TV interviews and messages to be played to audiences and family after his death. He also went shopping for cremation urns, wrote a commentary on the high price of funerals, lined up speakers for his Memorial Service, received cheesecakes by the dozen from well-meaning friends, rallied for a summer vacation at his home on Martha's Vineyard, and reflected on his life. While Buchwald briefly mentions the trauma of having a remote father and an absentee institutionalized bipolar mother, he does not dwell on his insecure years in foster care and his recurrent depressions. His attention is on a confident understanding of the reason he was put on earth: to make people laugh. The Pulitzer Prize winning humorist is at peace within himself due to his understanding of his raison d'etre and this is a gift which many, including Eddie (The Five People You Meet in Heaven) do not receive until after death, if ever. Buchwald enters his final year of life already well into Kubler-Ross's acceptance stage. We have no glimpse of denial or bargaining. He is true to himself, making us laugh until the end. He is unafraid.
   This book will be of interest to all who work with the human mind and spirit, but particularly to those who identify with Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and who consult on the dying. It is also appropriate for the elderly or those approaching death, serving as a source of optimism and an invitation to discussion of a subject that may be otherwise difficult.
   
   Dr. Bazemore is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Family Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts.



5. This is a funny and fun book to read! Facing the wrath of the Catholic Church Martin Luther (1483-1546) declared: "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." That is powerful stuff, but because of the long time distance, one does not fully appreciate the gracefulness with which some people welcome difficult challenges. This book tells that same story. Here is a man in a hospice writing a book that covers 19 different subjects, almost all dealing with other people. There are no regrets and little fear of death. The breadth and insightfulness of this books compares favorably to Francis Bacon's Essays, only this one is easy to read.
   
   I was fortunate to hear Mr. Buchwald talk about his conditions with Diane Rehm on her NPR show. The book just capped it all. The people this man knew; how well he knew them; how much he accomplished! Artie, as his friends called him, even personally invited his best friends to speak at the celebration of the end of his life. The invitation on pages 147-148 will make anyone cry.
   
   This book is really good - I mean GREAT!
   
   
   Amavilah, Author
   Modeling Determinants of Income in Embedded Economies
   ISBN: 1600210465

5 comments about Diana Vreeland.

1. I'll keep this short & sweet. Before reading this amazing book, I had a very positive opinion of Diana Vreeland based on various articles I'd read in many publications over time. After reading Ms. Dwight's great book, it only makes me wish I had the privilege of knowing Ms. Vreeland while she was alive even more. Thankfully, through this book, I feel as though I have.
   
   She was truly in a class of her own.
   
   Well done!



2. Diana Vreeland was born homely into a family where beauty was rife. So what did she do? She invented herself! This is the most important lesson on style that she has bequeathed us: we are not born with style, we can acquire it. Diana Vreeland is an example of self-improvement, of how to do the most of your poor features and blow yourself up into a lady through the sheer force of your uniqueness. She taught herself poise and class and strived hard to render the world around her more beautiful in her personal, exquisite way. Apart from that, she led a very interesting life. From long sojourns in Europe as a child, where she had the chance to attend performances of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes to our times, where she hobnobbed with the rich and famous and was privy to the backtages of the fashion world as editor of Vogue magazine, in this all-out, thoroughly researched and profusely illustrated biography we get to know better this inspiring woman whose positive outlook on life and strong personality make her a role model of style to women from all walks of life. Very entertaining reading and very thought-provoking.



3. She was,is and still to this day considered an Icon in the Fashion industry.



4. This book could easily have become another banal coffee table "picture book for grown-ups"; big on visual display and short on commentary. It did not. The author has expended a great deal of effort into capturing the essence of a woman who single-handedly revolutionized the concept of fashion magazines.
   
   The book simultaneously chronicles the events in Ms. Vreeland's life among the international glamor set and showcases her astounding professional achievements. Dwight's prose is so evocative that we feel that we are in the Vogue office or at a fashion shoot, while Ms Vreeland makes her trademark dramatic pronouncements with theatrical gestures. As madcap as her ideas seemed, they captured the imagination of the fashionistas and people in the industry, sky-rocketing sales of the avant garde Vogue (previously a staid, niche publication).
   
   Ms.Vreeland comes across as someone who approached everything she did with wholehearted passion. Shown in the book are photographs of Ms.Vreeland with her suavely attired husband and sons, with friends, models and designers. In every photograph we see her totally in the moment, a larger-than-life but also very human diva. She was a genuine original, a woman of extraordinary talent and vision. It would be hard-put to do justice to her life and spirit, but Dwight has stepped up to this demanding task. Bravo!



5. Immediately after finishing D.V., I ordered this book. I will warn you that reading both of these books will make you absolutely besotted with the divine Mrs. Vreeland. On the face of it, it doesn't seem possible that a book mainly about someone's professional life could hold so much interest. You are happily wrong if you thought that. There is just something about Diana V that gets under your skin and works it's way into your psyche, until you are absolutely mad about the woman. She is absolutely fascinating, entrancing, and possibly one of the most aggravating women of all times. But that is all part of her considerable charm. Even years after her death, she continues to fascinate. The story itself is first rate, and the stuff of dreams and motion pictures. Homely girl marries handsome man, lives beyond her means, and becomes one of the most influential people in the worlds of fashion and culture. I read the book in two days, but the day I recieved it, I spent a good hour devouring photographs. The one quibble I had with Vreeland's autobiography was that there weren't enough pictures. There are almost enough in this wonderful book to satisfy even the most diehard Vreeland fanatic. And oddly enough, the writing and pictures are more personal and informative than in Vreeland's book. She influended nearly all the fashion people of her time and beyond. I am only sorry that I finished the book so quickly. I would have been happier had the book been longer and not found it the least bit tedious. Despite the fact that many of the pictures are from definite time periods, you can see people today that dress the same way. Vreeland's taste was impeccable, classic, timeless, and iconoclastic. She knew what suited her, and she knew what she suited. What a fabulous character. Vreeland is like a fine wine in that she grows better with time. The presentation is wonderful. When you open the box, you see a bright red book that almost looks like a lacquered box. Then after you sigh with pleasure over visual impact, you open the covers, and are lost in her fascinating world. This book is worth any price you have to pay for it. I suppose some people might consider this a coffee table book, but I wouldn't. I would never put this out where people would see it, because then they would want to borrow it, and that is never going to happen! Engaging, well written, and perfectly executed. I am going to see what other Vreeland books are available. Too much is never enough of this delightful woman. Her friends and acquaintances would fill a who's who of American culture in the 20th century. While certainly not classically beautiful, she was attractive, and her face had great charm, intelligence, and nobility. She was vain, theatrical, and always the little girl who revered beauty and created her own instintice and personal beauty. It will last forever. Her mother told her that she was a very ugly little girl, and when I read that, I wanted to shake her nasty conceited mother until her teeth fell out. Definitely that incident shaped Diana for life, and probably went a long distance towards making her what she was. But all the same, her mother was a monster, and I can not think of her with less than contempt. Vreeland herself noted that it took her many years to come to terms with her mother. I applaud her for making the effort, and being gracious and truthful at the same time. That's a difficult feat at best. What a wonderful, delightful woman. While living a very public life, she was an intensely private person. A delightful enigma. Nobody will ever know the real Diana Vreeland, but this book will help get you as far as you can go.

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.

5 comments about Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir.

1. A very moving memoir of a man who has lived with MS since the age of 25. Cohen is 60 now and still "coping" - a term and a life strategy which gets much ink here. In a discussion of this book with a friend who had already read it, he characterized it as a kind of literate good-news-bad-news-joke. God told Cohen, "The bad news is I've given you MS; the good news is I'm also giving you Meredith Vieira." Point taken, I suppose. But this is a story of a very difficult life lived with courage coupled with a very important and quirky sense of humor. When Cohen discovered later in life that he also had colon cancer - not once, but twice - it was nearly too much to bear. But bear it he does, and he tells you the whole messy business too, leaving very little to the imagination. He admits it was nearly a breaking point in his marriage, and also admits he was not a very nice person to be around. But his wife and kids stuck with him. This is, to put it in a nutshell, just one hell of a good book. I admire Cohen tremendously for all he has endured. But hey, he did have Meredith, so ... Great read; I recommend it highly. - Tim Bazzett, author of PINHEAD: A LOVE STORY



2. I am glad to see that this book helped MS sufferers, so that it perhaps will do some good to persons who don't mind the quality of the prose. I was quite surprised and disappointed in the writing given Mr. Cohen's journalistic background: I found the sentences abrupt and the use of cliched phrasing abundant. Nor does Mr. Cohen himself seem particularly contemplative about what he has undergone. It may be that journalistic style simply does not lend itself to describing the understanding of an experience; it is useful to report what happens, but the nuances of an evolved response get lost. Many of the sentences and paragraphs read like bullets in a memo describing an atrocity (no argument about the diseases both being that). At the very least the book needed a sympathetic editor who could smooth out the jagged prose, but perhaps also draw more emotional processing out of him--or have postponed the book.



3. Richard Cohen is a newscaster and journalist with the big networks. In this memoir he ponders his life - the professional challenges he incurs and the Multiple Sclerosis he has had since he was 23 years old.
   
   What is resilience, courage, self-esteem? What makes him feel like a diminished person in his own view and that of others? Mr. Cohen reflects on these questions and the challenges he faces as he tries to understand his life as a person with chronic illness.
   
   I wondered about his alcohol use. Was he self-medicating? Was his drinking an act of self-destruction?
   
   I was also left with a distinct question. What are the genetic components of Multiple Sclerosis? Mr. Cohen's father and aunt both were afflicted with the disease.
   
   I recommend this book for anyone who has struggled with a serious illness or knows someone they care for who has a serious illness.



4. This book was so helpful. His descriptions of the MS symptoms and the struggles with who to tell and not tell about the disease really hit home. It is so good to know others with MS have the same problem. Thank you for your insight and courage to "tell the world".



5. Everything was fine, I ordered the book, I received it in a timely manner. That's what I expect from Amazon...........Karolyn

5 comments about Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe.

1. Andrew Meldrum writes a memoir that I feel privileged to read. He is a courageous person for his work to advance freedom in Zimbabwe. To learn of circumstances in other countries, especially in Africa, I often turn to memoirs by journalists living in the countries or assigned there for a period of time. Because of their own inquisitiveness, when I read I gain information that gives me a sense for reality at the human level while also educating me about the country. Reading a journalist's book becomes compelling. because of their talent and skill in writing, the remembrances of detail, the writing of true story. Andrew Meldrum writes with talent and skill, attention to detail about Zimbabwe. He did not let me down, and surpassed all expectations. When reading this writing, I now know things I can not forget, and it changes one as a person and what they stand for. Thank you Andrew. May freedom come to your family and friends in Zimbabwe.



2. I have always respected Andrew Meldrum's writings and perhaps this is not the best place to come from when you rush out and buy a book. As a personal journey, it was an excellent read although I was left feeling a little short changed. Perhaps his life in Zim was so exciting he tried to fit too much in the book? As a discourse on what happened it does not provide much information and I am still not sure what hope there is except the irrepressible resilience of the Zimbabwean people.
   If you have never read Andrew's newspaper articles, this is still a recommended book.



3. Andrew Meldrum was the last foreign journalist thrown out of Zimbabwe and, after spending 23 years in the country, is ideally placed to give the reader a first-hand account of the collapse of a once-prosperous country. Meldrum could have taken the easy cynical route and just described the calamity caused by Robert Mugabe and his increasingly corrupt and vicious inner circle. But he does more, by weaving in his own experiences, including a narrow escape from the intelligence forces when they came to his home to abduct him. He also does an excellent job of not just depressing the reader by harping on the problems (as some of the pop authors writing on Africa are apt to do) but by also writing about the resilience of so many Zimbabweans -- hence the (admittedly sappy) title. This is certainly not intended as a comprehensive history of the country. But it is a beautifully-written book by one very brave journalist.



4. As a visitor to Zimbabwe - I love it there, the people, the landscape, the optimism everything. And to read a book which does echo how most of the people feel is rare. There is still hope that Mugabe will be removed and democracy prevail. The so called issue with white and blacks is not as the media and Mugabe portray at all. People just want their freedom and a decent economy so they can have a standard of living above the poverty line. Andrew Meldrum may be biased as he does love Zim and the people but its about time that the truth is highlighted as no one has tried to prevent this on the international scene. I'm glad someone has tried to show the world what is really happening in Zimbabwe.



5. I expected much more from the book. Lacks a lot of information on the conflict before Mugawe, why was he so succesful in his fight. It is interesting but I really wanted something more in depth.