2 comments about Father and Son: Finding Freedom.

1. No fairytale this, but an honest sharing of the realities that tested this father-son relationship from the perspectives of each. A tribute to the strength of love.



2. This is a deeply emotional book about broken lives and redemption. Reading the brutally honest story of this father and son team touched my heart. If you have a rocky relationship in your life that you don't think can ever be made right, this book will give you hope.

5 comments about Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with My Dad.

1. Bob Morris's father (not the guy on the book's cover!) is pushing eighty when Assisted Loving opens. He's a youthful eighty, though, and newly widowed, a retired traffic judge, so he's a hot commodity among senior singles. Not one to mourn over-much, he is ready only months after his wife of fifty-plus years died (in 2002) to start the search for a new mate. He enlists his son to help him, and the younger Morris chronicles his fathers re-emergence on the dating scenes of Palm Beach and New York. That's the plot of the book, but the dates merely serve as the framework onto which Morris packs a meatier story about his relationship with his father and about growing up. At book's end, Joe Morris remains the man he was at the beginning: happy-go-lucky, exasperating, utterly devoted to his son. It's Bob Morris who emerges from the experience a changed (to a degree) man.
   
   It's difficult to like Bob Morris for the first third of his book. His father may be legitimately annoying--most parents are--but at forty-four the younger Morris still acts like a teenager around him: pouting and saying just the wrong thing and not having much patience for the eccentricities of an old man. Worse, Morris is a superficial, elitist jerk. He's embarrassed by his old neighborhood, turns up his nose at his father's kitsch. He's irritated that visits with his father take him away from his usual party-hopping. Morris's mother had been very ill for years before her death. Morris was disappointed during that period because she lost interest in her appearance. He was ashamed to be seen with a dying woman who wasn't fashionable: "It was hard, watching her in her hopelessness. It was even harder seeing her thin, bruised arms and neck because she dressed in the most unflattering T-shirts." He dragged her out to Macy's to buy her new clothes--blouses, and hats to cover her thinning hair. He claims it made her happy, but it sure sounds like the new wardrobe was for him more than her.
   
   Morris may be a jerk, but he's also self-aware. He is, after all, drawing attention to his bad behavior and, largely, condemning it. In the course of hanging out with his father during the dating period, the younger Morris becomes a better man--still, it seems, someone whose instinct is to be impressed by the superficial, but a better man. It is impressive that Morris is able to alienate the reader at the beginning of his book yet still bring us around by the end so that he seems likable. Also impressive is the portrait Morris paints of his father. The initial image we get of Joe Morris is a negative one, a man as seen through the eyes of a son who has little sympathy for him and is still harboring adolescent resentments. But as the book progresses we are given more insight into the older Morris, who turns out to be more supportive than many parents are and wiser than we might at first have supposed. It's a powerful portrait. And Assisted Loving is a well-written, funny, and surprisingly affecting book.
   
   -- Debra Hamel



2. When I purchased this book I thought it would be all comedy. I was pleasantly surprised that although it had its funny moments it was also filled with nostalga and caring. A loving story about a father and son and their mutual acceptance.



3. I LOVED this book. It's written really well, but more than that..it's funny and makes you think about your own life...love...family...death.
   
   I love the relationship that grew between this son and dad...and how the writer found his own love and life by being patient and accepting his dad's love and life.
   
   I highly recommend this to anyone who has older parents and know that life doesn't stop when you are a senior citizen!



4. Absolutely entertaining, witty and poignant. I work in the elder care field and was delighted by this account of an elderly gentleman's search for romance and yes nooky. Bob Morris tells the story of his father's romantic quests with humor and empathy. A must read for anyone with a single elderly parent or anyone who has hope for a geriatric dating life!



5. Morris, Bob. "Assisted Loving: True Tales of Double Dating with my Dad", Harper, 2008.
   
   A Unique Father and Son Story
   
   Amos Lassen
   
   The name Bob Morris may be familiar to you as he frequently writes for "The New York Times" Sunday styles section and is a commentator on NPR. He has also written two picture books, one for children and the other for adults who do not like to read. But more than that, he is the author of "Assisted Loving" a delightful new book from Harper's. It is blend of humor and social commentary which shows both the grief at the death of his mother and the new found social life of his father, Joe.
   Joe has no concept of social graces and his humor is racy. His hero is Dinah Shore (stumps me too). At 79 years old he is a former New York judge for the state department of motor vehicles. Bob, his son, is a gay journalist who is quite lonely and has been thrust into the position of senior advisor and chaperone to his dad's girlfriends. Among the women that Joe sees are Gracie who is extremely serviceable, Rita who is a bit on the loony side, lovely Edie, Ann who lives on low carbs and Roz who is brilliant.
   Bob hopes that his father will find a patient woman so that he can about his life but soon discovers that for either of them finding a mate is no easy job. Bob even begins to wonder if he is pimping foe his fad. Bob's own life is frustrating to him especially since he is a middle-aged gay man (tell me about it). His father encourages him not to give up and the memoir soon becomes a love story about two men that teaches us a good deal about the gift and receipt of affection.
   Bob has never had a successful relationship and he also realizes that if his father is happy, he will not be lonely and therefore Bob can have some peace and be left alone to live his own life.
   As the two men interact they learn a great deal about each other and they are often both surprised at how much they care for one another. Reading this book is the same as having a good time and the book says a lot about love, pain and disappointment and frustration. We learn that love does not have to be perfect and that there are times when "good love" is good enough. The book not only opens the closet door on gay love but on senior love as well.

5 comments about It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life.

1. The book begins: "I want to die at a hundred years old with an American flag on my back and the star of Texas on my helmet, after screaming down an Alpine descent on a bicycle at 75 miles per hour." When I first read those words, I found the book impossible to put down.
   
   I purchased my first copy of It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life right here four days after it was released in the spring of 2000, and read it immediately. I read many chapters of it to my youngest son over the following years, and we discussed its message even in his early grade school years. Lance Armstrong became a personal hero to him, as he has been to me.
   
   Have given this book as a gift, sometimes in its paperback form and other times as a hardbound, and only once have I given it to a fellow cyclist -- it's often been to friends who have gone through a battle with cancer, either themselves or with someone close to them. And now I see that it's available here in a Kindle Edition, so I'm sure that I'll be giving it again... and if I ever get my own Kindle, it's going to be the first book that I get in that media.
   
   I'm a cyclist of the mountain/trail bike variety, but as the title of the book says, "It's Not About the Bike." I've never had cancer, but have had numerous close family members and friends who have been victims of this most dreaded disease, including my mother and my oldest son's mother. This is perhaps why I find Lance's story so inspirational. It's more than a story of his amazing athletic achievements and cancer recovery, this is a true story about the triumph of the inner self.
   
   Since the book was originally published, 'Maillot Jaune' (Lance's nickname in French for 'Yellow Jersey') has gone on to break so many cycling records. In his final tour before retirement in 2005, he crossed the finishing line on the Champs-Élysées on July 24th to win his 7th consecutive Tour de France title. Since his retirement, he has focused his efforts on the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which provides support for people affected by cancer. And yes, I'm one of those who wears a yellow LIVESTRONG wristband on a daily basis in support of his efforts.
   
   Lance has also written a moving and insightful follow-up to this book, Every Second Counts which offers another facet to this inspirational athlete who is both motivated and motivating. And now we hear that Lance Armstrong, at age 37, will be making his pro-cycling comeback, and he's already in training, and put in 20-24 hours a week on the bike throughout October. He's pledged to continue with his national call to action on cancer prevention and survivorship program.
   
   If you're looking for a book about cycling, this isn't it. Read the title and that will tell you that. I found his message of optimism to be quite stirring, and hope that you will as well.



2. Lance Armstrong was a strong, single, 25-year-old world-class athlete that was diagnosed with testicular cancer in October of 1996. It's Not About the Bike, My Journey Back to Life is his story. Through x-rays and severe symptoms, the doctors finally pinpointed his disease and Armstrong embarked on the most aggressive form of chemotherapy as soon as possible. Although being testicular cancer, it had metastasized through his entire body to even his lungs and brain. This man even underwent surgery before his chemotherapy treatments and afterwards. Before his treatments to remove the cancer his chemotherapy could not and afterwards to fix and smooth out complications brought up by the chemotherapy. You will have to read to find out what exactly those complications were. Even before his final chemotherapy treatment on December 13, 1996, Lance began to ride again, but this time for a different reason, for the love of it, not because it was his career. He even said, "it was something I had to do for pleasure--like poetry." After Armstrong's grueling fourth cycle of chemotherapy he began to ride again and train. Yes, as a career, but with a new sense of passion and accomplishment. He had married a woman he had met one month after his treatments and went on to race in the Tour de France, which you all can guess the outcome. Lance was now a "record-breaking seven-time winner of the Tour de France, a cancer survivor, a husband, a father, a son," and of course, "a Human being."
   Although this book does not go into extreme details of how cancer forms and specifically testicular cancer, it does talk about the multi-cellular level and what stages this cancer undergoes. With this absence of information, the reader is able to concentrate on the emotional appeal brought up by the spreading of cancer, treatments and the overall affect of this great athlete's life. However, overall this book was extremely informative. It gave great experiential information and therefore a chance for the reader to understand the steps of a process such as cancer and how it affects the person who has it but the family and close friends as well. As the book progresses reader's began seeing cancer as monster, and questioning its reasons for taking over a man's life and why it would inhibit the natural ways of life such as marriage and reproduction. But as readers, we are triumphant over cancer just as Lance Armstrong was, because we are with him during this time, and through his description we are able to understand closer to what cancer truly is and how people overcome it, even when its at the most dangerous stage and the survival rate is only 3%. Anyone can read medical pages with boring facts, but to read this book is true meaning behind the word cancer.
   I personally have not had cancer, but I have had plenty of family members that have, including my cousin having testicular cancer. Although he overcame it in the early stages and before I was old enough to understand what was going on, this book really came me a true insight to a little of what he and other victims of this disease must go through if they want a chance at a normal life afterwards. Armstrong writes in an empathetic way, not only for himself but in a way that makes people want to help everyone in their own lives and societies. Lance Armstrong even did this himself by creating the Lance Armstrong Foundation which helps to research for cures and treatments for cancer. After reading this book, the word cancer has an entirely deep, empathetic, and different meaning.



3. I really valued reading this book after someone very close to me was diagnosed with the same cancer as Lance. It was informatative and emotional. Thanks to Lance for his Foundation.



4. Its not about the bike, in fact there are only two paragraphs in the whole book that talk about the bike. This book is about Lances diagnosis, his struggle to accept his new reality, the aftermath of living as a cancer survivor, and trying to have a baby using frozen sperm. Oh yeah, and also winning the Tour De France.
   
   I enjoyed the book because I like the "overcoming really bad odds and still becoming a champion" type of story. I do not cycle, unless you count the sporadic bikes rides with my kids. I was hoping the book would not be loaded with unrelatable stories and details about the bike, training, and the actual races, and luckily for me it wasn't.
   
   This book was a personal account of a serious athlete struck with cancer. It gets a little whiny in a few places, but I have to give him points for being honest. I am sure I would be whiny if I was struck down in my prime and had to endure the horrors of chemo and brain surgery.
   
   The writing is excellent and you can almost feel the rain hitting your face during his grueling training rides in the mountains of Europe. My legs are burning right now just thinking about sitting on a bike for 6-7 hours of non-stop riding. Wow.
   
   To me, this book left the message of be happy because it can all change fast. Enjoy what time I am given and try to forget about the small stuff. Its a great book with a great message.



5. as I was mid-way through this book, there were only two thoughts going on in my mind -
   1. this guy is human/normal like us with all frailties/insecurities
   2. and gosh what extremes are humanly possible!!... the triumph of human spirit! very humbling. very inspiring.

5 comments about 84, Charing Cross Road.

1. The book was delightful. The copy was old which gave me the feeling that I was reading the book when it was written. I'll pass it on to another book-lover friend.



2. This book is a collection of a series of letters exchanged by the author, Helene Hanff, a New York writer, and the employees, though primarily Frank Doel, of Marks & Co, a London-based antiquarian bookseller. These letters occurred over a period of twenty years from 1949 to 1969.
   
   This book of letters is special because it captures so well the passion that both the author and the company had for rare and classic books, not to mention the friendships that were engendered because of that shared passion. The author demonstrates by far the most emotion as she both chides Frank for his failure to either obtain a book or his sending an inferior version and sings his praises for sending along an especially pristine version of a finely crafted classic. The author softens her sharp letters by shipping tins of meat and eggs during a period when such were being rationed in England.
   
   The question arises as to whether all of this constitutes a love story. The author herself writes that Frank would likely not like her writing "love" letters to others at the firm and that furthermore only he understands her. Perhaps the question is irrelevant - obviously high regard existed. The author constantly made tentative, unrealized plans to visit England and the bookstore, but when her friends visited, they were practically mobbed by the employees as being representative of Helene.
   
   The relative merit of the book is difficult to judge. Only scraps of information about the individuals involved are conveyed; there is little in the way of discussion concerning ideas. The book conveys best that our connections with others can originate in the most unusual manner, especially if we are open to them. Helene could not possibly have known that a simple request for books would evolve into a lifetime of heartfelt communication. One would not necessarily have to be a book lover to appreciate the book.



3. 84 Charing Cross Road is a great read! The premis simple, but the characters are full and rich. Worth reading again, even if you have seen the movie.



4. Given the amazing reputation this book has had for over thirty years I wanted to like it so much more than I did. Helene Hanff, a television screenwriter living in Manhattan after World War II, collected a series of letters she wrote to the workers at Marks & Co., a bookstore along London's famous Charing Cross Road, over the course of two decades, from her initial requests for certain books she had trouble acquiring in the United States through her later lasting friendship with the Marks & Co. staff. The book has often been advertised as being all about a common love of books, yet that's really not what comes through in the letters: the bond Hanff forged with the booksellers had much more to do with her over-the-top personality, which fortunately they found quite charming. While their letters to her are very restrained and respectful, hers are pretty zany, filled with all kinds of strange punctuations and with forceful declarations: of enthusiasm when her book orders live up to her expectations, and of mock outrage when they are not. As the letters make clear, she is also extraordinarily generous to the booksellers especially during the lean years in Britain between the War and the Coronation, and sends them all kinds of commodities and foodstuffs which were very hard to acquire during that time (like eggs, bacon, and nylons).
   
   If this were an epistolary novel it might be a bit hard to take the incredible zestiness of Hanff's wild enthusiasms, and even the poignancy added by knowing it is all true only curbs your exhaustion a bit at her gigantic personality. (You even wonder at times whether the Marks & Co. are as delighted by her so much as they're just cowed by her.) It's a sweet little book, but you do feel as if Hanff were trying to clobber you -- and the booksellers -- over the head with her forceful charm.



5. After seeing the wonderful film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, I was anxious to read the book. It did not disappoint. I enjoyed the book even more than the film. It was so nice to peek into
   the friendship that developed between Helene and Frank through their
   letters. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

No comments about A Devil to Play: One Man's Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra's Most Difficult Instrument.

5 comments about While You're Here Doc: Farmyard Adventures of a Maine Veterinarian.

1. WHILE YOU'RE HERE DOC is about a DVM's experiences through out his career. In this book you will find hilarious tales about cows, horses, a monkey, and many more. You will be amazed about the things that happen in the country. The saddest story is about a dog named Rover, the owner's boyfriend wanted to kill Rover had cancer and the boyfriend thought he would catch it. Dr. Brown put a stop to that and told him that no one can catch cancer from an animal.
   
   Why I recommend this book is because it's heartwarming. When you pick it up you can't put it down.



2. In the realm of veterinary literature, some books encapsulate the love and cameraderie between humans and animals with aplomb, and some hooooooooooooo!!!! A book can wheeeee wheeeeeeeeeeee wheeeeee! Some books are hoooooooo! Oh man. Sheeez. Get it together, Kirkman. Some books, like this one, some books hoooooo hooooooo. This thing kills me.



3. I discovered this book from a review in the Maine Sunday Telegram. "Small farms and their close, personal way of living... come alive for us in Brown's humorous, compassionate stories of struggling farm life."
   You get first-hand accounts of the doc trying to save an ox that's choking on a too large potato or rescuing a cow from a love-struck moose. It's all told with enthusiasm and wry humor.



4. I highly recommend this book. It belongs in my collection along with all my James Herriot books! It is heartwarming and very funny. Also, Dr. Brown explains certain animal diseases and conditions in an down to earth, easy to understand way. I am a farmer and I found that I understand several diseases of our animals even better now. I only wish the book was longer. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it and I was very sorry to get to the last page. I wanted to read more of those wonderful animal stories. I would like to thank Dr. Brown for writing such a great book, and I sure hope he considers writing another one.



5. I'm so glad I bought this book! I have read it twice...bet you can't read it just once. Get a copy it is great for all ages!

5 comments about Sharon Osbourne Extreme: My Autobiography.

1. This is Sharon Osbourne Laid Bare. A very honest account of a tough life. Raised by a tough father, with strong links to the London Underworld and a mother who simply did not care, Sharon's story is one of survival and triumph. Meeting and managing Ozzy turned it all around for her but their married life was littered with his infidelities, heaving drinking and constant drug abuse, whilst she battled weight problems & family issues. She held it all together and I admire her for her dedication. I came away from the book with great admiration for her tenacity but also found her crude and not a very nice person (certainly not one that I would like to spend company with). What I missed here was how she dealt with her own childrens struggles with alcohol and drug addiction, which were skimmed over. Surely, this played a huge part in her daily life and forced her to question her own parenting style. All in all, a fascinating read but missing some important detail to complete the picture.



2. I recieved the wrong book with the correct sleeve, so basically i got ripped off. The book was used and it isn't worth my time to send it back. Thanks alot, Amazon.



3. I really enjoyed this book! I learned alot more about this incredible woman.Fun read too!



4. This book is very interesting, I love Sharon and she's had quite the odd life. If your interested in the Osbournes I'd recommend reading Sharon's book.



5. Nothing too much to say about this book except you should really like Sharon to pay the hardcover price for this read. It is interesting if you're really into learning about her life and her start.

1 comments about It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet.

1. It was the first James Herriot book I read, and I think the best. It was funny at times and serious at others. It introduced me to a English Countryside vet's life. Sqeamish people might want to skip over parts. (He is a vet!) But over all, I really think this book is a wonderful must read.

5 comments about Storms: My Life with Lindsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac.

1. I read this back when it first came out and even though it's not a great masterpiece, it touched me in many ways. I got the back as a gift from my own abuser and read it at the height of the abuse. I left my abuser for the first time just days after finishing the book. Unfortunately, abused women take an average of seven tries before they escape. Carol Ann Harris is a very different person from me. I'm not fashionable or trendy, but like her I was a good music loving girl from the midwest when I moved to LA and got involved with a musician. My husband wasn't nearly as famous as Lindsey Buckingham, but he and his semi famous best friend have used their little bit of fame to torment me. I receive hateful emails from their fans that I've never even met. People tell me that my ex husband couldn't possibly be an abuser because his music is so pretty. People side with him because it's cooler to get backstage passes by sucking up than it is to be on the outs with the abused ex wife.
   
   I'm a big Buckingham fan, but I do believe he was abusive with Harris. And I know how it feels when fans are so enamored with artists that they'd rather not know the ugly truth. I enjoyed her book and I'm glad she spoke up. It's hard to speak out against abuse. Most abusers are charming and only abuse their significant others. Thus, the victim, who is already being attacked at home, is further attacked when people don't believe her. Being a talented guitarist shouldn't be a "get of jail free" card to abuse women. Sometimes, speaking out and standing up for the truth is tough.



2. I'll be honest and say that I've never read any of the other biographies that document the Fleetwood Mac story, so if you're trying to decide between Storms and another Fleetwood novel, I can't make a knowledgeable recommendation of one over the other. However, I can say that Storms, despite it's often cliche writing and sometimes irrelevant details, does a good job of capturing the emotions and drama of Fleetwood Mac.
   
   The novel begins with Carol Ann Harris' introduction into the Fleetwood world, right before the release of the album Rumours. As a result, the book does not document the famous recording sessions of the Rumours album, nor does it discuss the Peter Green era in much detail. Also, the writing at times feels forced, and Ms. Harris too often results to cliches involving fairy tales. Still, there are certainly times where the writing is effective, and the more of the novel you read, the more the story becomes centerfold as opposed to the writing style.
   
   The stories told are downright amazing - from Lindsay Buckingham accepting his AMA while on quaaludes to the unbelievably interconnected relationships and affairs that took place, Storms is fantastic at showing just why Fleetwood Mac is known as the most dramatic band of all time. As someone who tends to shy away from extreme drama (think the OC), I was surprised at how engaged I was by all the drama. In large part that may be because there is such great music behind it all. The band's new direction in the album Tusk is told extremely well, and there is are great insights into the band's individuals. While Lindsay comes across as an abusive and terrible person, Ms. Harris does a fine job of showing both his sides. She also depicts Stevie Nicks in a less than favorable manner, often showing her to be nothing more than a self-centered and unintelligent woman. While her opinion is definitely biased, she seems to have altered her opinion of Stevie by book's end.
   
   Finally, to address the complaints of other readers, Carol Ann Harris does include information about what she was doing apart from the band. While several readers have been frustrated by her lack of detail about shows and the music itself, it's not unexpected that she would tell about her own experiences as well. While I will agree that the information about her modeling career can be dull, it should come as no surprise that she wants to include her own endeavors. Also, at times, her personal life leads to issues with her relationship with Lindsay, so overall, I'd say that the book DOES NOT get sidetracked with Ms. Harris' ego. In fact, the biographical sleeve of the novel says that she's gotten married in her years since. I would've appreciated an epilogue that satisfactorily showed where she took her life after her breakup with Lindsay.
   
   Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the whole book is that Ms. Harris still seems to think that she's lived a blessed life. How naive she seems to be! At one point, she says that she and Lindsay spent a drug-free vacation in Hawaii... except for the alcohol, pot, and cocaine. She still does not realize that she was not blessed to be surrounded by Fleetwood, but rather that she's lucky to have had such success after the fact.
   
   Overall, I would say this novel is well worth the read.



3. If you find yourself really bored then pick up this pubescent piece of work. The only good thing this book really delivers is all the name dropping this embarassing insecure author has to offer. It's evident from the get go Carol Harris is very jealous of Stevie Nicks because she can't help herself from trying to name all her short comings that you realize what a fool and sad person she really is. FAMOUS PEOPLE BEWARE: the person you think that loves you may be secretly taking in all the moments that should have been kept private, and taking notes no less, to display them to the world for their own monetary gain. She couldn't do it on her own so she decides to use "real" famous people to do her dirty work. That makes Carol one of the most hated i'm sure, and rightly so. But as long as the money comes in from this over-rated trash, who cares how you treat others, right!! You'll be sick to your stomach how insecure she is. Over and over she reminds us how her life revolved around Lindsey Buckingham. That she gave everything she had. That being there for him was the only thing that mattered. Ugh, this woman does not know how to get a life. I don't blame Lindsey one bit for his temper tantrums. Being around this woman would drive any man to it. I only got half way through this book because I couldn't stand the woman any longer, I can't imagine being in a relationship with her would do. (be sure to read my review on the album TUSK)



4. C Harris has written a book that I found on the whole dubious. On one hand I do believe her in her accounts of the craziness of the period, the band and her intense relationship with Lindsey. However I just found it all too hard to believe her detailed conversations and depictions of events. But more than anything it's Harris depiction of herself in the book which is completely ridiculous. She tries to portray herself as a naive innocent girl who just 'loved her man' and didn't understand the world she was in. In reality she comes across as a complete coke fiend, who loved the lifestyle and on many occasions mentions how she dressed in the best fashion and was accustomed to living the high life.
   
   On the plus side Harris does reveal many events of Fleetwood Mac from 1977-1984, ie AMAs, the Rolling Stone shoot, the Nicks-Fleetwood affair yet these events come across as one sided and on other occasions just untrue (some accounts conflict with interviews I have read given by members of FM). It feels like there is only one side of the story being told here and its aim is to make Harris look like an 'angel'.
   
   Furthermore the complete lack of self awareness and hindsight into Lindsey's relationship with her, specifically the abuse and moreover his relationship with Stevie is perplexing. Even after all these years she seems to not acknowledge the intense connection that SnL had during that period (in parts it even feels like a SnL affair is going on under her nose) or how destructive Lindsey, the 'musical genius' (watch out - that phrase is used on almost every page), was to her.
   
   Sure in parts it's entertaining and I actually enjoyed it for the most part. It is an easy read but every now and then I had to take a break because the writing is so repetitive and cliche-ridden. However once finished I felt that the book was poorly written, flaky and just lacking any real honesty



5. i was rivited to this book from the time i got this book from the library until the time i put it down.. i read it in about three hours... i was simply fascinated and scared by the whole story ... and yet not terribly surprised at what was revealed... i have no reason to feel that she would lie about anything that would have happened during the time that she and lindsey were together... i kind of feel that at first it may have been a rebound romance for lindsey, but it grew quickly into a romance of dependence on both of their parts, full of romance, drugs, and violence, and issues with stevie, and the fact that she put up with it for five years was amazing in itself... she lived with him for five years, put up with his abuse, was at his beck and call, and put her own life in physical and emotional danger... she told this honestly and i am sure that she feels much better for having told the truth after so many years... hopefully she told the primary people involved that she was writing this before she wrote it....

4 comments about A Writer's People: Ways of Looking and Feeling.

1. Certainly it is no secret that V.S. Naipaul has unsavory aspects to his personality. In this work, "A Writer's People," some of those traits are on display: the snobbishness, the egotism, the general myopia of things, events, moods, which are outside of Naipaul's purview, and therefore, to him, unimportant. But in the cavalcade of harsh judgments, it is easy to the pass over the essential fairness he attempts to exercise in his assessment of other writers. He is critical and dismissive of Walcott, but does not leave out the excitement this poet's work generated both for himself and for other Trinidadians in the 40's. He has nothing particularly good to say about Anthony Powell's work "A Dance to the Music of Time," but he is generous to the man, his easy stance as a writer, and his semi-admiration for his "collection" of people so much like a literary endeavor in its meticulousness.
   
   This collection of essays, although a bit disorganized in the flow of ideas, show how strong a writer Naipaul continues to be: witty, incisive, stern, humorous, Naipaul is still a writer of great subtly and dexterity. Here, writing about writing, he still has new things to say.



2. I was not going to write the review but the passion of a fellow reviewer compels me to say a few words. The reviewer had expected humility and dignity from the writer. If the reviwer wishes to see those attributes, why not pick up other books or watch politicians. I thought Mr.Naipaul's most recent book is one of the most amazing book I have ever came across. The book contains a theme: "what is history, what is disaster and what is civilization." This has been the writer Naipaul's preoccupation. He does not write to belittle others or settle some score. Anyone could do it. A reader expects more from a writer of great imagination. He see so much and feel so much. In fact the writer teaches the reader how to be aware of the world around. Reading all his books has been one of my best experience so far.



3. I found this book very disappointing and would not recommend it.
   V.S. Naipaul, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001, indicates that this book is not meant as a literary criticism or biography. In fact, I found the opposite. He is very critical of authors' works, and often sickeningly condescending. In places, he seems to be apologizing for having favored authors' works in his past, but having seen the obvious shortcomings of these works, he takes us on a laborious, rather self-serving, journey into how he grew to see the light.
   I found him so utterly annoying that I tore the book up after reading it on the plane, just in case someone else had the misfortune to pick it up and read it.
   He is a Nobel Prize winner, and I (perhaps naively) expected a little more humility and dignity from V.S. Naipaul.



4. Born in Trinidad of Indian descent and educated in England, V. S. Naipaul won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. In A Writer's People, he is concerned with the process of cultural assimilation--of fitting one civilization to another--and the nature of good writing.
   
   "My purpose in this book," he writes, "is not literary criticism or biography. . . . I wish only, and in a personal way, to set out the writing to which I was exposed during my career. I say writing, but I mean more specifically vision, a way of seeing and feeling." Nevertheless, there is much literary criticism and biography in this work.
   
   Juxtaposing various authors, Naipaul shows how some are burdened with prejudicial "fixed ideas," and how others have broken free of such constraints to face honestly, with open eyes, our place in a changing world.
   
   Naipaul's far-ranging interests include critiques of Derek Walcott, Francis Wyndham, Anthony Powell, Gustave Flaubert, Juulius Caesar, Virgil, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharhal Nehru, and many others.
   
   The elegant prose and thoughtful content of A Writer's People reveals Naipaul to be a champion of a high culture that is both erudite and realistic, exalted yet down to earth.
   
   About the author: V. S. Naipaul was born in 1932 in Trinidad, an island seven miles off the coast of Venezuela. He went to England on a scholarship in 1950. After four years at University College, Oxford, he began to write, and since then has followed no other profession. In 1990 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and in 2001 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1971, Naipaul became the first person of Indian origin to win a Booker Prize for his book In a Free State. In awarding Naipaul the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001. The Swedish Academy praised his work "for having united perceptive narrative and incorruptible scrutiny in works that compel us to see the presence of suppressed histories." The Committee added, "Naipaul is a modern philosophe carrying on the tradition that started originally with Lettres persanes and Candide. In a vigilant style, which has been deservedly admired, he transforms rage into precision and allows events to speak with their own inherent irony." The Committee also noted Naipaul's affinity with the Polish author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad: "Naipaul is Conrad's heir as the annalist of the destinies of empires in the moral sense: what they do to human beings. His authority as a narrator is grounded in the memory of what others have forgotten, the history of the vanquished." Naipaul has published more than 25 books of fiction and nonfiction, including Half a Life, A House for Mr. Biswas, A Bend in the River, Magic Seeds and a collection of letters, Between Father and Son.