Amazon.com
"Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans--in fact, few Kansans--had ever heard of Holcomb. Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there." If all Truman Capote did was invent a new genre--journalism written with the language and structure of literature--this "nonfiction novel" about the brutal slaying of the Clutter family by two would-be robbers would be remembered as a trail-blazing experiment that has influenced countless writers. But Capote achieved more than that. He wrote a true masterpiece of creative nonfiction. The images of this tale continue to resonate in our minds: 16-year-old Nancy Clutter teaching a friend how to bake a cherry pie, Dick Hickock's black '49 Chevrolet sedan, Perry Smith's Gibson guitar and his dreams of gold in a tropical paradise--the blood on the walls and the final "thud-snap" of the rope-broken necks.
Book Description
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.
As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy.
In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.
Download Description
With the publication of this book, Capote permanently ripped through the barrier separating crime reportage from serious literature. As he reconstructs the 1959 murder of a Kansas farm family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, Capote generates suspense and empathy.
Customer Reviews:
Quite Cold, Indeed.......2007-10-06
It is a testament to Truman Capote's ability that he was able to take a small yet disturbing blurb in the New York Times and not only write a compelling book about it, but create a new literary form, the nonfiction novel, and also turn the story into an American classic. IN COLD BLOOD fully deserves the accolades that have been heaped upon it since its publication.
That newspaper blurb, of course, was about the mysterious murders of the Clutter family (father Herbert, mother Bonnie, and teenagers Nancy and Kenyon) in the small, isolated town of Holcomb, Kansas. At first, it was unclear why the family had been slaughtered and it was thought to be the work of a psychopathic killer. That such psychopathy flared up in America's heartland made the story all the more disturbing. After all, everyone knows all the weirdos and lunatics were supposed to live in New York or San Francisco. To think that they were right in our midst...
Capote's detailed (and controversial!) studies of the murders take us so deep into the story it is like we were really there. Using the techniques of fiction and applying them to a non-fiction story, Capote brings the real life tragedy to life a second time around. This is particularly disturbing with respect to the two men who committed the crime, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. IN COLD BLOOD probably is the first book of its kind to give the readers such an accurate portrait into the minds and personalities of such brutal killers.
What strikes the reader hard is that, of the two criminals, it is the actual trigger man, Perry Smith, who is the more tender and emotionally vulnerable. That Dick Hickock seems, by every measure imaginable, to be a harsher person than his compatriot is juxtaposed powerfully with Hickock's own complaints that he is the only person on death row who did not actually kill anyone. We now know, of course, that Capote developed some type of emotional relationship with Perry Smith while researching the book and so it is up to the reader to determine how much this might have clouded Capote's judgment and writings on him.
Despite the bleakness of the story, IN COLD BLOOD is written in a very feminine and flowery style. If Capote's homosexuality were not widely known, one could almost assume as much by this. Again, this creates a jarring juxtaposition for the reader, as he is confronted with the darkest corners of depravity.
Anyone who visits the true crime section of a bookstore is confronted with books basically reeking of schlock. A good writer, however, can turn the average, or even below average, subject and elevate it to new heights. This is what Truman Capote did. IN COLD BLOOD is very cold, indeed.
Read the book before the movie!.......2007-10-05
This was a wonderful book, but I made the mistake of seeing the movie and then I had a biased. I enjoyed this.
Capote's Masterpiece Is Full Of Thrills, Suspense, And Incredible Prose.......2007-09-24
When Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" was published in 1966, it became an international bestseller and was lauded by the critics. Now, over forty years later, "In Cold Blood" remains the crowning achievemt of Capote's career as a writer. Capote's skill as a journalist and natural talent as a writer combine to create the definitive American true crime book. Whether you prefer nonfiction or fiction, Capote's true account of mass murder and it's consequences is sure to please!
As Good as it Gets.......2007-09-19
In Cold Blood is incredibly well written. Unlike many of his short stories, the prose is clean and not overly adorned. Without moralizing, he simply tells the story of one of the most random and nonsensical murders of his time. In my opinion, Capote wrote one great book, and this is it.
A compelling read.......2007-08-23
Because I practice criminal law, I walk around in a world with stories like this one everyday. So I didn't really see the big deal until I finished reading Capote's In Cold Blood. Capote makes a nonfiction account read like fiction. That may not sound like much, but it impressed the hell out of me. Usually nonfiction has a dull feel to it. It just doesn't pop like fiction does. But Capote is able to cut right through that and make this story every bit as compelling as fiction without giving it a corny, Court-TV "true-crime" feel.
Amazon.com
The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.
The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.
Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson
Book Description
Through the story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on an Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd." First published in 1946; now in a new translation by Matthew Ward.
Customer Reviews:
The Emperor Has No Clothes.......2007-10-07
In summary . . . this automaton-like self-absorbed jerk shoots a guy to death, and the jury correctly finds that it is not self-defense (you read me correctly fellow reviewers. It is NOT self defense to shoot someone laying on the ground that possibly possesses a knife with evil intent. You should simply step back. Society accepts use of deadly force as justified in order to "stop", not recreationally "kill". That is referred to as murder, not self-defense). So, the jury found Msr. Meursault guilty of taking another man's life, unjustifiably, and with intent. I agree. (Do you?)
So anyway, this thick jerk is sent to prison awaiting execution. He doesn't seem to mind very much. His long term future certainly looks bleak since he has decided that there is no God, and he is scoring near zero on the repentence meter. Yes, he is an existentialist and a nihilist.
So much for the renowned Albert Camus. Technically, this book is well written. However, I found it rather boring, only marginally believable, and generally depressing. For me, it was no more "thought-provoking" than observing someone in a cycle of picking and regrowing a scab (inexplicable, but not interesting). There is NO REASON for the acclaim that this novel has garnered (except perhaps that there are academics out there that wish us to believe that this philosophical tripe is truth).
This is an unlikable story about a small unlikable man. Not recommended, but I understand that your teacher may be forcing you to read it. Fear not, it is short. It's a little above average as literature, but written about a fool by a fool.
I Got an A+ On My Paper - But I Hated It.......2007-10-06
I read this book in High School and I hated it. Even to my young 17 year old brain, the concepts of philosophy seemed ludicrous. I guess I must have understood them on some basic level, because like I said, I got an A. But it was a shock to me as well! I understand why a book like this is in an Honors English class. It may be more interesting in the original French.
Made me squirm..........2007-10-01
Nihilism...existentialism...theory of the absurd...I don't which category this book technically falls into, all I can say is that it made me squirm. The protagonist of the novel was a very calm person, quite detached in fact, but ironically it is his calmness which unsettled me.
Is this what life really is all about? Does it have no meaning, no purpose? Are there no morals? No God? I don't know...I'll the philosophers and thinkers argue that. I can't alter my beliefs now, but the book provided me a window into all the things which I don't believe in.
I would certainly recommend it to anyone and everyone.
SO overrated.......2007-09-26
This is a top contender for the worst book ever written. I thought about giving it a tied position with Pamela Anderson's _Star_, but upon reflection I have decided that I would rather read _Star_ again than read _The Stranger_ again, although I would rather be eaten alive by rabid wolverines than do either. This book is so bad that it is painful for me to read it. If I had a time machine, I would pay to have Camus beaten to death on a deserted beach, ultimately preventing this disaster from ever coming into existence.
He Dies For The Truth ?.......2007-08-18
Camus claimed in an interview that the main character who is "the stranger" died for the truth. The reader can make their own judgement. I thought it was more complicated than that.
Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus rejected any ideological classification. Camus was a young recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature when he became the first African-born writer to receive the award in 1957. He died in a car crash only three years after receiving the award. He was a social activist and Communist, and fought with the French resistance in WWII. Later he rejected Communism.
I like his work because he combines realism with the rational versus the irrational. He creates an interesting combination of intense and compelling plot along with political and moral ideas. His trademark contribution was his idea of the absurd, "the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither, which he explained in The Myth of Sisyphus and incorporated into many of his other works, such as The Stranger and The Plague."
The Stranger is short, just over 100 pages. It is about a North African man probably in his late twenties or thirties, called Meursault, and his girl friend Marie, and a neighbor Raymond.
Without giving away the plot, the story follows the reactions of Meursault to the death and the funeral of his mother. He puts on no airs or false fronts, and acts in a way he thinks is honest. Others interpret his emotions as being deeply flawed.
The reader can judge if Meursault is honest or flawed.
I liked the short novel. It has a certain bite to it and it grabs the reader and holds the reader through the whole novel, right to the last page. The story is both unusual and plausible. Camus makes his philosophical point in the 120 pages.
It is an outstanding piece of writing, and it is far less complex and easier to understand than some of his other works.
Book Description
For sixty years, Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of revelations of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Proud, grateful, and longing to be American, the Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant, gritty, soulful, and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. For sixty years they have been left alone, neglected and half-forgotten in a backwater of history. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end: once again the tides of history threaten to sweep them up and carry them off into the unknown.
But homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life—and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage—and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears.
At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
Customer Reviews:
Slow-starter but good.......2007-10-10
After slogging my way through Yiddish references ad infinitum, this book finally got good after the halfway mark. I was disappointed as it wasn't nearly as engaging as his other books. (Maybe if I had a strong Jewish heritage, I would have enjoyed it more.)
Another Classic From Chabon.......2007-10-09
If you loved Summerland, Wonder Boys, Mysteries of Pittsburgh order The Yiddish Policemen's Union today. Chabon delivers another classic.
Go With the Flow.......2007-10-09
Like many reviewers, I found this book hard to follow, but I gave it a chance and found myself getting into the flow of the story. What I was confused about, I let go, and then I was swept into the telling of an amazing tale. I eventually found it hard to put down.
After finishing the book this morning, one of the wonderful things I love about reading happened regarding the journey it takes you on and the connections it forges. I watched Bill Moyers Journal which I had taped and was amazed to watch the short film about John Hagee and CUFI, Christians United for Israel and Moyers' discussion with Rabbi Michael Lerner and Dr. Timothy Weber. Suddenly Michael Chabon's story did not seem so outlandish. Suddenly I was sore afraid.
Disappointed.......2007-10-01
I heard so many good things about Chabon that I decided to read his new book. I am struggling. It is hard to understand--too many Yiddish phrases that I don't comprehend. I have lots of Jewish friends, so you would think that something would be familiar. Oh well, I will try to finish this book as I hate to give up on anything, but it will be hard. Don't think I will try Chabon's other books.
Too Cutsey.......2007-09-24
Hard to fathom and follow, thanks to too many cutesy Yiddish expressions and associations. And I'm familiar with Yiddish.
Average customer rating:
- Lacks plot
- Reviews by Nan Kilar-This one is so-so
- Gone and best forgotten!(1.5 stars)
- I don't know.
- Gone
|
Gone: An Alex Delaware Novel (Alex Delaware Novels)
Jonathan Kellerman
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Kellerman, Jonathan | ( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
( K ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:
-
Obsession (Alex Delaware Novels)
-
Dead Watch
-
The 5th Horseman (Women's Murder Club)
-
At Risk
-
Prior Bad Acts (Large Print Edition)
ASIN: 0345452623
Release Date: 2007-03-27 |
Book Description
No one conducts a more chilling, suspenseful, thoroughly engrossing tour through the winding corridors of criminal behavior and the secret chambers of psychopathology than Jonathan Kellerman, the bestselling “master of the psychological thriller” (People). Now the incomparable team of psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide cop Milo Sturgis embark on their most dangerous excursion yet, into the dark places where risk runs high and blood runs cold.
It’s a story tailor-made for the nightly news: Dylan Meserve and Michaela Brand, young lovers and fellow acting students, vanish on the way home from a rehearsal. Three days later, the two of them are found in the remote mountains of Malibu -battered and terrified after a harrowing ordeal at the hands of a sadistic abductor.
The details of the nightmarish event are shocking and brutal: The couple was carjacked at gunpoint by a masked assailant and subjected to a horrific regimen of confinement, starvation and assault.
But before long, doubts arise about the couple’s story, and as forensic details unfold, the abduction is exposed as a hoax. Charged as criminals themselves, the aspiring actors claim emotional problems, and the court orders psychological evaluation for both.
Michaela is examined by Alex Delaware, who finds that her claims of depression and stress ring true enough. But they don’t explain her lies, and Alex is certain that there are hidden layers in this sordid psychodrama that even he hasn’t been able to penetrate.
Nevertheless, the case is closed–only to be violently reopened when Michaela is savagely murdered. When the police look for Dylan, they find that he’s gone. Is he the killer or a victim himself? Casting their dragnet into the murkiest corners of L.A., Delaware and Sturgis unearth more questions than answers–including a host of eerily identical killings. What really happened to the couple who cried wolf? And what bizarre and brutal epidemic is infecting the city with terror, madness, and sudden, twisted death?
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
PRAISE FOR JONATHAN KELLERMAN
RAGE
“[Kellerman is] a master of the grab-the-reader contest. . . . The chills start within the first two pages.”
–Saint Paul Pioneer Press
“[An] adrenaline-fueled read.”
–People
TWISTED
“An elaborate, tangled web . . . with unsuspected turns at every chapter break . . . This addictive tale . . . is as intricately detailed as it is tantalizingly page-turning.”
–Entertainment Weekly
“A perfect whodunit–a tale told with gusto . . . a thrilling, engrossing pace from the first page to the last.”
–Orlando Sentinel
THERAPY
“Labyrinthine twists, excellent pacing, and hard-boiled, swaggering dialogue.”
–The Washington Post
“Immensely enjoyable . . . There’s even a shocking surprise.”
–Associated Press
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Lacks plot.......2007-08-31
As in other Kellerman novels, the plot is loose and unconvincing.
If all the pieces come together at the end, it is because of the same old "deus ex machina" Kellerman uses in other novels, not because of the natural, deductive progression one would expect from a police mystery work.
The author uses his signature resources: detailed physical descriptions of characters and their clothes, infinite Californian car drives, discussions about the case over meals, impersonal Los Angeles atmosphere. However, without real plot depth to sustain, these scenes seem repetitive and unjustified.
The action is slow and the outcome is predictable and anticlimactic.
The rendition by actor John Rubinstein is excellent, especially his versatility in switching between the characters' voice registers and timbres.
Reviews by Nan Kilar-This one is so-so.......2007-08-10
Two wannabe actors stage their abduction, get caught, and a few days later the young woman is dead. As homicide detective Milo Sturgis and Alex Delaware try to figure out whodunit, I had a pretty good idea who was responsible as the bodies kept turning up. And talk about a wacko family that's introduced! The story is not exciting; it just plods along and should have ended with the killer's death. But there is a happy note in Alex's life.
Hopefully the author will put some life into his next Alex Delaware story...if there is another one. They just aren't quite as exciting as they used to be.
Gone and best forgotten!(1.5 stars).......2007-06-25
I just couldn't warm up to 'Gone', or Kellerman's style. Maybe it was my relative lack of familiarity with the Alex Delaware series(I'd only read one of them previously, and I can't even remember which one!), or the feling that this was just another 'paint by numbers' police procedural, loaded with characters at the expense of plot. I think something about the overly superficial 'seamy underside' of Southern California put me off, as well.
I wouldn't recommend jumping in on this series in midstream. Kellerman assumes readers have a familiarity,if not a deep understanding, of the previous volumes, and newcomers might be lost. This book seemed like a mishmash, with Alex's romantic 'complications' filling space in the middle of a murder investigation that wasn't very compelling in the first place. The dynamics of Alex's and Milo's partnership could have been intersting, but it soon becomes a tired cliche. I really only finished this book because I don't like to leave anything unfinished.
I might try 'When the Bough Breaks' at some point, just to see how this series began, and if there was anything to recommend the series at the start. However, if Kellerman's later work is similar to this example, I'll most likely skip the rest of the series.
I don't know........2007-05-15
I hate to give a J K a low rate review. Since he is like like my best page turner writer,13 novels i think i read.
So i am not goin to elaborate, it's still a good book, but not like past ones.
for a newbiew Kellerman, do read it. IT's still boiling.
Gone.......2007-05-13
I am never disappointed in a Jonathan Kellerman book. I first read one about five or six years ago, then had to go back and buy all the others that he had written years ago. I am especially like when the author keeps a favorite character around like Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgess.
Average customer rating:
- Creepy and Comforting?
- Moving Novel About Love and Loss
- All Over The Place
- Terrible writing
- Sad and pointless
|
The Lovely Bones: A Novel
Alice Sebold
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
Lucky.
-
The Secret Life of Bees
-
She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club)
-
The Kite Runner
-
The Time Traveler's Wife
ASIN: 0316666343 |
Amazon.com
On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.
Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue."
The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife. Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Book Description
On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon ("like the fish") is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. Alice Sebold's haunting and heartbreaking debut novel, The Lovely Bones, unfolds from heaven, where "life is a perpetual yesterday" and where Susie narrates and keeps watch over her grieving family and friends, as well as her brazen killer and the sad detective working on her case. As Sebold fashions it, everyone has his or her own version of heaven. Susie's resembles the athletic fields and landscape of a suburban high school: a heaven of her "simplest dreams," where "there were no teachers.... We never had to go inside except for art class.... The boys did not pinch our backsides or tell us we smelled; our textbooks were Seventeen and Glamour and Vogue." The Lovely Bones works as an odd yet affecting coming-of-age story. Susie struggles to accept her death while still clinging to the lost world of the living, following her family's dramas over the years like an episode of My So-Called Afterlife.Her family disintegrates in their grief: her father becomes determined to find her killer, her mother withdraws, her little brother Buckley attempts to make sense of the new hole in his family, and her younger sister Lindsey moves through the milestone events of her teenage and young adult years with Susie riding spiritual shotgun. Random acts and missed opportunities run throughout the book--Susie recalls her sole kiss with a boy on Earth as "like an accident--a beautiful gasoline rainbow." Though sentimental at times, The Lovely Bones is a moving exploration of loss and mourning that ultimately puts its faith in the living and that is made even more powerful by a cast of convincing characters. Sebold orchestrates a big finish, and though things tend to wrap up a little too well for everyone in the end, one can only imagine (or hope) that heaven is indeed a place filled with such happy endings. --Brad Thomas Parsons
Download Description
This edition of the New York Times best-seller and a Good Morning America "Read This" Book Club pick contains features available only in the electronic version! Included in this eBook edition are a Reading Group Guide, an exclusive interview with the author, and "The Oddity of Suburbia," Alice Sebold's comments on growing up in the suburbs of "Nowhere U.S.A." When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. (It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing set.) With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief-her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor-and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant new novelist, and through the eyes of her winning young heroine, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful, touching, even funny novel about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.
Customer Reviews:
Creepy and Comforting?.......2007-09-29
Everyone else is right. Th book is great in the beginning. It contains some odd scenes that are unnecessary and hurt, more than help, the story's momentum and punch. The author tried to wrap up too many loose ends too quickly in the end, and I felt so dissappointed that a book I really enjoyed and that had so much potential ended so poorly. However, I so enjoyed the beginning, that I got over the ending.
The aspect that I think I most enjoyed about the plot of this book, was that the main mystery was solved very close to the begnning.
You do not feel suspense waiting to find out "who did it?" The author tells you who did it right away. Then you don't feel suspense waiting to see when one of the other characters will figure it out, because another character figures it out right away. You feel suspense waiting to see when others will believe and if the murdered will ever get caught. Very non-traditional suspense.
I really appreciate books that make me FEEL. Good, bad, hapy, sad, scared,or totally creeped out. I just enjoy having my emotions provoked by a good book. This book made me feel every one of those things. I laughed and cried, sometimes one right after the other. I definitely felt completely creeped out and oddly comforted really close together. That's why this book is a winner.
This book will make you think. If you don't like to feel sad, or uncomfortable, this book is not for you. If you appreciate emotion and creativity, you will enjoy this different book. I look forward to the movie, hoping they don't massacre the story.
Moving Novel About Love and Loss.......2007-09-19
After fourteen year old Susie Salmon is raped and murdered, she goes to heaven where she is able to look down at her family and friends and the rest of the world. As she is adjusting to life in heaven and making friends there, she is also watching her family deal with her disappearance. She watches as both her parents struggle to accept the fact that she is gone and the affect it has on their marriage; she watches her younger sister Lindsay grow and become stronger as a person; and she watches her little brother Buckley, who is too young to understand what is going on. She also watches her friends Ray Singh and Ruth Connors, as they grow closer after Susie's death. As Susie watches her family and friends grow older and mature, she begins to realize how much she has lost and longs for one more chance for life on earth.
"The Lovely Bones" is a sad, moving, and at times odd novel. Extremely well written by Alice Sebold, it is told in the first person by Susie. This unique perspective means that we not only have insight into what Susie was like as a person, but who her killer was and how frustrating it is for her to not only watch the killer stalk other victims (including someone close to Susie) but watch the police try and find her body and determine who her killer is and prove it. Her ability to look down from heaven to see her family and others (and somehow be privy to their thoughts) adds poignancy to the novel, as each of her family members and friends struggle to cope with their loss in their own private ways. It is heartbreaking to read about how Susie's disappearance and the inability of the police to find her body affects her parents marriage, and how Susie begins to realize she didn't know them, especially her mother, all that well. It's equally heartbreaking to see Susie watch her sister Lindsay grow up and experience things that Susie never will, especially falling in love and having sex for the first time. Sebold makes the characters so believable that at times I wanted to hug them and say "I'm sorry" and at other times I wanted to shake them and make them aware of how their actions were hurting others. Although the book is sad, it's not as depressing as I thought it would be and there are some humorous moments in the book, mostly with Susie's Grandma Lynn. While I thought "The Lovely Bones" was well written for the most part, there was a truly odd section towards the end that felt out of place in the book.
"The Lovely Bones" is a moving novel about love and loss.
All Over The Place.......2007-08-29
I had heard great things about this book so decided to read it. I agree with a lot of the other reviews that say it started out really great and then fizzled out. I think the storyline was all over the place, and I couldn't understand what the point was, other than just to be a fly on the wall in the lives of Susie's family. I was also not happy with the bodily possession (a bit much in my opinion) or the weak ending. I think the concept was interesting, and I think I would have liked it better if it kept the same energy it had in the beginning. I did enjoy the fact that it was based in the Philadelphia suburbs, as I am familiar with that area.
Terrible writing.......2007-08-27
I couldn't finish reading this book after getting about 150 pages in. This turned out to be a fortunate decision. My wife tells me it got worse and worse. I'm shocked at how well-recieved it was... The writing is sloppy, we're given no descriptions of the characters, and the storyline makes you groan with its cliches. What really annoyed me were the incredibly strained metaphors tossed around, dice in a Yatzee game of literature, spinning like Disneyland teapots in the cosmos of ludicrousness. This was one gem: "leaden weights had been tied by anesthesia to the four corners of his consciousness".
Sad and pointless.......2007-08-24
I'm sorry to say it... I really wanted to like this book... but I didn't! In fact, I was quite stunned to discover how disappointing and unproductive this book is, considering the number of people who have read it. I read it on a recommendation from a friend whose book recommendations I usually agree with. Unfortunately, I wish I had gone with my gut instinct and put the book down after getting nowhere in the first 100 pages. Instead, I kept reading just to get through it. I really disliked this book! I'm not a book snob, but I like a book to be somewhat believable if the author is attempting to depict a real life scenario ie: a family's coping with the death of thier murdered child. The whole thing, start to finish, was so contained, so picture-perfect, so annoying!!!
It's funny, the person who recommended the book to me said the hardest part of the book was the first chapter because of the grisly details of poor Susie's death. I disagree. Though I am not a fan of horror or even CSI shows... I at least found the first chapters suspenseful and engaging... I cannot say that for the rest of the novel!
The concept of the narrator being in heaven is definitely an interesting one, but the story she tells is so contrived and meandering and really uninspired that her perspective hardly seems special.
I think this novel has the ability to be interesting or possibly helpful to someone who has had to deal with the death of a close family member because it so plainly shows that a family falls apart around such a loss and that this is sort of a natural process. But beyond that situation... I'm sorry, I would not recommend this book.
Amazon.com
When the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary put out a call during the late 19th century pleading for "men of letters" to provide help with their mammoth undertaking, hundreds of responses came forth. Some helpers, like Dr. W.C. Minor, provided literally thousands of entries to the editors. But Minor, an American expatriate in England and a Civil War veteran, was actually a certified lunatic who turned in his dictionary entries from the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. Simon Winchester has produced a mesmerizing coda to the deeply troubled Minor's life, a life that in one sense began with the senseless murder of an innocent British brewery worker that the deluded Minor believed was an assassin sent by one of his numerous "enemies."
Winchester also paints a rich portrait of the OED's leading light, Professor James Murray, who spent more than 40 years of his life on a project he would not see completed in his lifetime. Winchester traces the origins of the drive to create a "Big Dictionary" down through Murray and far back into the past; the result is a fascinating compact history of the English language (albeit admittedly more interesting to linguistics enthusiasts than historians or true crime buffs). That Murray and Minor, whose lives took such wildly disparate turns yet were united in their fierce love of language, were able to view one another as peers and foster a warm friendship is just one of the delicately turned subplots of this compelling book. --Tjames Madison
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
The compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary, 70 years in the making, was an intellectually heroic feat with a twist worthy of the greatest mystery fiction: one of its most valuable contributors was a criminally insane American physician, locked up in an English asylum for murder. British stage actor Simon Jones leads us through this uncommon meeting of minds (the other belonging to self-educated dictionary editor James Murray) at full gallop. Ultimately, it's hard to say which is more remarkable: the facts of this amazingly well-researched story, or the sound of author Simon Winchester's erudite prose. Jones's reading smoothly transports listeners to the 19th century, reminding us why so many brilliant people obsessively set out to catalogue the English language. This unabridged version contains an interview between Winchester and John Simpson, editor of the Oxford dictionary. (Running time: 6.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --Lou Schuler
Book Description
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Download Description
"
The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
"
Customer Reviews:
Interesting, but cannot match its own hype.......2007-09-10
I think that I could've really enjoyed this book on its own merits had the author not continued to insist throughout that the story was horrifying, amazing, shocking, thrilling, electrifying, and tragic by turns. Rarely can these "sensationalist histories" live up to their own hype. I found the book a fascinating look into the development of the OED with the bonus of the intriguing back story of one its most unusual volunteer contributors. Isn't that good enough? Why must everything be oversold? Note to the publisher: Next time undersell, over-deliver.
Surprisingly absorbing.......2007-08-28
Locked inside the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary is an astonishing, bizarre story poignantly told in The Professor and the Madman. Well written, this disturbing story flows easily, holding the reader's interest to the end, even through the definitions!
After reading this book I have also gained a new appreciation for the beloved dictionary.
Sensationalized Version of a Gripping History.......2007-08-13
The Professor and the Madman is the yellow journalism version of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), Sir James Murray, Dr. William Chester Minor, the treatment of the criminally insane during the Victorian period. I was particularly offended by the overly graphic details of Dr. Minor's self-mutilation (if you don't have a strong stomach, skip that section) and playing up of the fictionalized (and often repeated as fact) version of how Sir James and Dr. Minor first met. If the story weren't so interesting, I would encourage you to avoid the book.
Writing the first edition of the OED took 70 years and employed an unusual organizational method that has since become popular for monumental knowledge tasks -- relying on volunteers to do the bulk of the work of finding quotations that use each word in different ways over time. As someone who has always admired the OED, I enjoyed learning more about the process involved in its development. Unfortunately, that material is scattered throughout the book rather than concentrated where you can find it for a brief read through. The examples are good, however, if the material is needlessly diluted.
Thinking about that monumental effort will give you just the right foundation for appreciating how mental illness can affect parts of one's faculties while leaving others undisturbed, as the paranoid Dr. Minor employed his extensive free time in the Broadmoor Asylum for Criminally Insane and personal wealth to become of the most organized and helpful contributors to the OED.
Dr. Minor's story is the actual focus of the book. Unless you are quite interested in ironies, mental illness, and how the Victorians treated the criminally insane, you will probably find this book has more of Dr. Minor than you really care to know. It's a tragic story, but not one that I would have sought to read if the OED development process material hadn't been in the book. As background for that comment, you should know that I have a strong interest in criminal insanity and wrote my law school thesis on the subject. The book tells its story to make you feel the pain of being Dr. Minor quite well, but The Madman and the Professor won't advance your knowledge of mental illness or legal concepts of responsibility very much.
I was attracted to this book in part due to my work in leading the 400 Year Project, seeking ways to make improvements in everyone's lives at 20 times the normal rate between 2015 and 2035. I came away impressed that just a few people can make a remarkable contribution to an all-but-impossible project. I will redouble my efforts to locate such people for the 400 Year Project.
Tackle the impossible to find out what you can really do!
Slow.......2007-07-11
I did like this book and would have given it 3.5 stars is I could. The history was interesting and easy to get through, even for a casual reader of histories such as myself. However, for some reason I felt like I was dragging myself through parts. I am unable to put my finger on it, but some parts were just really slow for me. I would recomend that you read this book if for no reason than it is full of interesting facts that may come in handy at a cocktail party. In all seriousness, I did like it but read it on vacation so you can cruise through the slow parts.
THIS BOOK IS A MUST-READ.......2007-03-18
IF YOU ARE SOMEWHAT INTERESTED IN MENTAL ILLNESS AND NON-FICTION, THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ. FROM THE OPENING LINES TO THE END OF THE BOOK, THIS TRUE STORY WILL HAVE YOU TURNING PAGES. THE TITLE IS SOMEWHAT MISLEADING BECAUSE YOU PROBABLY THINK "SO WHAT" ABOUT THE MAKING OF THE OXFORD DICTIONARY. BUT DO NOT LET THE TITLE FOOL YOU. THIS IS A FASCINATING STORY FROM THE 1800'S ABOUT PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA, BRILLIANT MINDS AND WRITING OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DICTIONARY OF ALL TIMES. THIS BOOK IS ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVORITES
Book Description
It's 1979, the height of the post-Stonewall era of gay sexual liberation, and a young man has been brutally murdered. The gay son of a wealthy family has disappeared. Now it's up to private dick Don Strachey to get to the bottom of this mess--even if he has to cruise every gay bar in the city to do it!
Don Strachey isn't exactly the most sought-after private eye in Albany, New York. In fact, this gay P.I. has gotten to the point of having to write checks to pay his tab at the cheapest lunch counter in town. And he isn't sure that the latest one, for the grand total of two dollars and ninety-three cents, is going to clear. Then the phone rings. Billy Blount, the gay heir to one of Saratoga Springs' upper-crust families, has disappeared, and his parents want him back. On top of that, Billy, a young and outspoken gay activist, is wanted for the grizzly murder of the man he slept with on his last night in Albany--a man he'd never met before that night!
Set in the glorious, promiscuous pre-HIV late 1970s, Death Trick is a fast-paced excursion through the seamy underside of gay Albany. From gay discos where the hard-pumping music never stops, to the city's infamous baths, to the dark alley behind the local precinct house, this hard-bitten private dick searches for answers to the questions that plague Billy's parents and the police.
With his faithful companion (and unfaithful lover) Timmy plus a cast of characters that includes drag queens, ex-jock gay bar owners, homophobic cops, male hustlers, and wealthy suburbanites, Strachey begins a chase that leads him to seedy gay bars, posh suburban homes, and pricey mental institutions where they use electric shock to destroy "sick" gay tendencies.
Armistead Maupin describes Death Trick as "sassy and sexy" and calls Don Strachey, "a private dick who really earns his title." The New York Native calls the novel, "more than just a first-rate murder mystery." The Advocate said, "a great lazy-day read." And Newsday called the book, "well written and compelling."
Don't you owe it to yourself to take this trick home tonight?
Customer Reviews:
A very unique work that hits close to home........2007-03-24
I have been searching for a book series like this one for quite a while. I say this for several reasons. First, as a gay man, I am always looking for literature that connects me to who I am as an indiviual. Secondly, I am also a gay private investigator; an apprentice in college, but an investigator. Finding a fictional mystery series that relates to my human side, and connects me with the career I have chosen has been hard, but I have very quickly found admiration for this series and Mr. Stevenson. In fact, in high school, I wrote my own fictional novel about a gay private investigator. I have yet to get the novel published; which I hoped to turn into a series. Mr. Stevenson's series may give me hope for that.
I whole heartedly recommend this series to anyone. The characters are intriguing, with features that attach you to them fairly quickly on; and the plots are sound and thrilling.
A witty mystery.......2004-02-26
The year is 1979 and Don Strachey is hired by a wealthy couple to find their son Billy. Billy is wanted for murder, and since both he and Strachey are gay, the detective must have some ideas as to where the young man has fled. Of course, because all gays know each other, right? Soon Strachey is drawn into a complex puzzle as he becomes determined to prove Billy's innocence. Now if he could just find the young man before it's too late. In this lively mystery, Stevenson introduces his plucky detective and spins a great tale that belies the social commentary contained within. "Death Trick" is not only a great example of the mystery genre, but also a compelling slice of gay literary history.
The gay storyline blends well with the telling of the events.......1998-04-30
around a murder. I like the angst that Donald feels when he becomes involved with a central figure in his case. The patronizing parents are a good, but overdone touch. In all, it is a pleasant read.
A fast-paced, witty, gay who-dunnit........1997-08-07
In the series opener Albany P.I. Donald Strachey takes on a sensational murder case within the gay community--which just happens to be right up his own alley.
The underappreciated Stevenson writes a clever mystery made memorable by his portrait of gay life from over a decade ago (remember bath houses?). Appealing, believable characters (Timothy Callahan, Strachey's Jesuit-educated lover, is a creative gem), and a wicked sense of humor lift this novel "straight" out of the genre category
Average customer rating:
- Very good (somewhat) historical novel
- Awesome book!
- Suspenseful and descriptive novel
- Exposing the Human Condition
- well-written, poetic
|
Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel
David Guterson
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | African American | Asian American | Classics | Collections & Readers | Drama | General | Hispanic | History & Criticism | Humor | Jewish American | Letters & Correspondence | Native American | Poetry | Short Stories | Women Writers
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Guterson, David | ( G ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Paperback | Guterson, David | ( G ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Popular Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Book Clubs | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:
-
Snow Falling on Cedars
-
Cold Mountain
-
Cliffs Notes on Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars
-
A Lesson Before Dying (Oprah's Book Club)
-
David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars: A Reader's Guide (Continuum Contemporaries)
ASIN: 067976402X
Release Date: 1995-09-26 |
Amazon.com
This is the kind of book where you can smell and hear and see the fictional world the writer has created, so palpably does the atmosphere come through. Set on an island in the straits north of Puget Sound, in Washington, where everyone is either a fisherman or a berry farmer, the story is nominally about a murder trial. But since it's set in the 1950s, lingering memories of World War II, internment camps and racism helps fuel suspicion of a Japanese-American fisherman, a lifelong resident of the islands. It's a great story, but the primary pleasure of the book is Guterson's renderings of the people and the place.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Ishmael Chambers, the one-man staff of the newspaper on San Piedro Island in Puget Sound, is covering the 1954 trial of a high school classmate accused of killing another classmate over a land dispute. Actor Peter Marinker--a stage veteran who has appeared in such movies as The Russia House and The Emerald Forest--takes us deep inside the world created by David Guterson in his award-winning 1994 novel. We learn the sensory details of life in a small fishing community; the emotional lives of people scarred inside and out by World War II; and the deep and unresolved prejudices toward the island's Japanese Americans, who were interned during the war--a tragedy that led to financial advantage for some islanders. Marinker deliberately but nimbly moves from the characters' distinctive voices to the poignant interior perspectives of the soulful, wounded Chambers as he tells a combination love story, murder mystery, and painful history lesson. (Running time: 15 hours, 10 cassettes) --Lou Schuler
Book Description
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award
American Booksellers Association Book of the Year Award
San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound, is a place so isolated that no one who lives there can afford to make enemies. But in 1954 a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, and a Japanese American named Kabuo Miyamoto is charged with his murder. In the course of the ensuing trial, it becomes clear that what is at stake is more than a man's guilt. For on San Pedro, memory grows as thickly as cedar trees and the fields of ripe strawberries--memories of a charmed love affair between a white boy and the Japanese girl who grew up to become Kabuo's wife; memories of land desired, paid for, and lost. Above all, San Piedro is haunted by the memory of what happened to its Japanese residents during World War II, when an entire community was sent into exile while its neighbors watched. Gripping, tragic, and densely atmospheric,
Snow Falling on Cedars is a masterpiece of suspense-- one that leaves us shaken and changed.
"Haunting.... A whodunit complete with courtroom maneuvering and surprising turns of evidence and at the same time a mystery, something altogether richer and deeper."--Los Angeles Times
"Compelling...heartstopping. Finely wrought, flawlessly written."--The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Very good (somewhat) historical novel.......2007-08-05
This is not a fast paced read but it is so rich with detail of the characters and the places of its time you can almost feel you're there. The descriptions of the island of San Piedro sent me looking for it on a map of the Puget Sound area only to find there is no such place. I wish Mr. Guterson had included a glossary for the fishing jargon and the colloquialisms of northwest Washington of that time; that would have made it even more interesting for me.
Also a good cultural study of the interactions of Caucasian and non-Caucasian Americans and how much war influences and divides us such as we are experiencing now.
Awesome book!.......2007-07-30
I bought this book for my daughter to read for an honors English class. I read it first and had forgotten that I had watched the movie years ago. I absolutely was saturated by the story. I would recommend it for anyone!
Suspenseful and descriptive novel.......2007-07-14
During the time of Japanese Internment and WWII Japanese settlers strive to live in dignity, finding comfort relying on their old Japanese traditions and customs which ultimately left one white man who courted a Japanese woman broken hearted and another white man who tried to sell and enter into a contract a piece of land to Japanese in a mysterious demise whose trial is the focus of the novel. In the end though truth, heroism and rule of law prevailed over racism and jealousy.
Exposing the Human Condition.......2007-06-25
At its bare bones level, the literary genre here is a murder mystery in which the reader learns of events essentially through witness testimony as it is given in a courtroom trial. And this aspect of the story is quite good and well-crafted, in and by itself. But at a deeper level, the backdrop of time and place reveals the deeply ingrained prejudices and suspicions that Americans felt and directed against Japanese-Americans who were living in the American northwest in the WWII years following Pearl Harbor. Very effectively and in a non-judgmental way, the author spotlights this chapter in America's history when completely innocent Japanese-Americans were forced from their homes, uprooted from occupations and earning capabilities, experienced painful alienation in relationships within their communities and ultimately were interned in camps until war's end. Woven throughout, the human condition of bigotry is nakedly exposed but thankfully so are honor, grace and integrity.
well-written, poetic.......2007-06-05
Sensitive and well-written story that grips the reader. The descriptive passages and the character development are splendid. This novel works on so many levels: love story, mystery, courtroom drama, history. The book has a poetic feel that charms the reader.
Average customer rating:
- A gripping story of teenage angst, cruelty, and self-delusion
- An unlikeable main character
- You are cooking them, aren't you ?
- If only it had a different ending
- Brilliant Book
|
The Wasp Factory: A Novel
Iain Banks
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Banks, Iain | ( B ) | Authors, A-Z | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Horror | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | 18th Century | 19th Century | 20th Century | Classics | Contemporary | General | Historical | Humor | Letters & Correspondence | Middle | Old | Poetry | Renaissance | Shakespeare | Short Stories
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
Complicity
-
The State Of The Art
-
Use of Weapons
-
Feersum Endjinn
-
And the Ass Saw the Angel
ASIN: 0684853159 |
Amazon.com
"I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped. I already knew something was going to happen; the Factory told me."
Those lines begin one of the most infamous of contemporary Scottish novels. The narrator, Frank Cauldhame, is a weird teenager who lives on a tiny island connected to mainland Scotland by a bridge. He maintains grisly Sacrifice Poles to serve as his early warning system and deterrent against anyone who might invade his territory.
Few novelists have ever burst onto the literary scene with as much controversy as Iain Banks in 1984. The Wasp Factory was reviled by many reviewers on account of its violence and sadism, but applauded by others as a new and Scottish voice--that is, a departure from the English literary tradition. The controversy is a bit puzzling in retrospect, because there is little to object to in this novel, if you're familiar with genre horror.
The Wasp Factory is distinguished by an authentically felt and deftly written first-person style, delicious dark humor, a sense of the surreal, and a serious examination of the psyche of a childhood psychopath. Most readers will find that they sympathize with and even like Frank, despite his three murders (each of which is hilarious in an Edward Gorey fashion). It's a classic of contemporary horror. --Fiona Webster
Book Description
Meet Frank Cauldhame. Just sixteen, and unconventional to say the least:
Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my young brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim.
That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again.
It was just a stage I was going through.
Customer Reviews:
A gripping story of teenage angst, cruelty, and self-delusion.......2007-06-23
"The Wasp Factory" is a story self-narrated by Frank, an angry and confused teenager who only finds solace through elaborate rituals involving cruelty to animals.
Frank's story takes us through several days of his life where he wanders the island he lives on and the town he lives by. As an indifferent aside, he also tells us, in dark, cold, and unsettling humorous detail, the three murders he has committed--some of them family members. If you are in the mood for a dark psychological study narrated by a unreliable sociopath, then this is the book for you.
Banks creates a very dark and twisted world with this book. His attention to detail when he describes Frank's inner thoughts is flawless. With ease he describes the quick, sometimes random, feelings that we all have and that we all forget. He also describes Frank's cruel rituals in fascinating specifics.
Unfortunately, I give it four stars only because the ending was a bit over the top and, IMHO, it didn't fit well into the main vein of the story.
An unlikeable main character.......2007-05-01
I think that this is another book that you either love or hate. I loved it, it has a very black humour throughout the book, and there are some disturbing aspects to our main character.
I have leant this book to a few people, and of these, a couple have loved it, one absolutely hated it.
It is true that it is hard to empathise with a main character that is violent and malicious, but in this respect, this book reminds me a little of A Clockwork Orange only in as much that the main character in this book has no redeeming qualities either.
If you like twists, this one has a good one at the end.
You are cooking them, aren't you ?.......2007-05-01
Iain Banks was born in Scotland in 1954 and published his first book - "The Wasp Factory" - in 1984. In the years since, he's won critical acclaim, topped best-seller lists and has even written Science Fiction books under the cunning nom-de-plume 'Iain M. Banks'.
Frank Cauldhame is sixteen years old and hasn't quite had what you'd call a typical upbringing. In fact, he doesn't officially exist : Frank was never registered, has no birth certificate, no passport and no national insurance number. The upside is that, as a result, he's never had to attend school - though he was educated at home by his father. (Angus, Frank's father, did occasionally embellish parts of the curriculum - for example, Frank believed for a time that there was a character called Fellatio in "Hamlet"). Angus is a scientist : the discipline is never clearly identified, though he does appear to be involved in the biomedical sector. These connections have also apparently allowed Angus to provide for Frank's medical needs - despite his son's official non-existence. (These needs were increased at an early age, following a devastating encounter with a dog). Angus' study is strictly off-limits to Frank and is permanently locked - though Frank is determined to make it inside someday.
The pair are pretty comfortable, whatever it is Angus does for a living. They live on a small island, just off the coast of Portneil in Scotland. Frank never knew his mother, Angus' second wife, as she left shortly after he was born. (Apparently, she didn't care much for children). It's probably lucky for her that she didn't stick around : Frank has turned into a very strange kid whose values and beliefs don't really overlap with those held by 'normal' society. He's very fond of general destruction and killing - so far, he's dispatched two cousins, one brother and various animals. (He's yet to be caught out). He is also very inventive and has essentially created his own belief system - involving a Wasp Factory, some Sacrifice Poles and the Bunker (a pillbox on the beach, a relic from the Second World War). He also has his own name for various parts of the island, depending on what he's done there - for example, the Snake Park, Black Destroyer Hill and the Bomb Circle.
The events of "The Wasp Factory" take place over a couple of days - beginning with the news that Eric, Frank's half-brother, has escaped form hospital. (Eric was committed several years earlier, for setting dogs on fire). The book sees Frank looking back over his life, in the build-up to Eric's expected return. This isn't something that causes Frank any great amount of stress, despite the fact that Eric clearly still isn't firing on all thrusters. (Frank's is more than a match for his brother : the worrying this is that he sees himself as being the "somebody sane who still likes" Eric.) Unsurprisingly, the book can be a little gruesome at times and it isn't one I'd recommend if you're feeling a little queasy. However, if you're feeling up to a challenge, it's certainly well worth reading !
If only it had a different ending.......2006-12-18
I would have given this book 4 stars if it had an ending that wasn't absolutly terrible and ruined every page that came before it.
Brilliant Book.......2006-09-08
A friend suggested this book to me, so I decided to give it a try. I found it compelling plot and liked the twist at the end. Iain Banks knows how to write excellent characters that you can sympathize with, even though the character is murderer. This is one of the best books I've read in recent years. I highly recommend it.
Average customer rating:
- Carr Shines as both Historian and Novelist
- Very good read
- great story, poorly written
- periodic thriller..
- The Alienist: A Novel
|
The Alienist: A Novel
Caleb Carr
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Carr, Caleb | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Carr, Caleb | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:
-
The Angel of Darkness
-
The Italian Secretary
-
The Interpretation of Murder: A Novel
-
The Dante Club: A Novel
-
The List of Seven
ASIN: 0812976142
Release Date: 2006-10-24 |
Book Description
The year is 1896, the place, New York City. On a cold March night New York Times reporter John Schuyler Moore is summoned to the East River by his friend and former Harvard classmate Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, a psychologist, or "alienist." On the unfinished Williamsburg Bridge, they view the horribly mutilated body of an adolescent boy, a prostitute from one of Manhattan's infamous brothels.
The newly appointed police commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt, in a highly unorthodox move, enlists the two men in the murder investigation, counting on the reserved Kreizler's intellect and Moore's knowledge of New York's vast criminal underworld. They are joined by Sara Howard, a brave and determined woman who works as a secretary in the police department. Laboring in secret (for alienists, and the emerging discipline of psychology, are viewed by the public with skepticism at best), the unlikely team embarks on what is a revolutionary effort in criminology-- amassing a psychological profile of the man they're looking for based on the details of his crimes. Their dangerous quest takes them into the tortured past and twisted mind of a murderer who has killed before. and will kill again before the hunt is over.
Fast-paced and gripping, infused with a historian's exactitude, The Alienist conjures up the Gilded Age and its untarnished underside: verminous tenements and opulent mansions, corrupt cops and flamboyant gangsters, shining opera houses and seamy gin mills. Here is a New York during an age when questioning society's belief that all killers are born, not made, could have unexpected and mortal consequences.
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Carr Shines as both Historian and Novelist.......2007-09-21
Caleb Carr's writing style and historical acumen could have produced a riveting book surveying the cultural trends of New York City during the late 1800's. The fact that The Alienist also tells the tale of a controversially assembled detective squad and its chase to capture a serial killer victimizing young male prostitutes yields an endlessly provocative novel. Carr's aptly describes the sheer beauty and the gritty despair existing in the Big Apple during the time period by entering the psyche of several vastly different characters. The reader is able to connect with the thoughts and visions of the lowly serial killer himself, the controversial "Alienist" psychologist Lazlo Kreizler assigned to the case, and the bodacious New York City police commissioner at the time, Theodore Roosevelt. Carr's depth of research about both New York City in general and about the increasingly popular, though highly doubted, mode of catching killers through psychological examination during the 1890's provides a gripping mystery that both challenges the reader and is hard to put down.
Very good read .......2007-08-08
An interesting read don't tell the grisly subject material put you off. I find myself having much more time to read stuff then I did a year ago this time and I have to say that this is the best book I have read in the last year and probably the year before that.
Basically a serial killer is on the loose and it is up to a collection of fictional and real characters to catch him. The author doesn't go about this simply by having the characters following a predicable line going from A to B it is much more intricate then that. Not only are methods that we would term "modern" used to catch the killer but some thing that would make us go huh? In one instance investigators take pictures of a victims eyes in the belief that the final image captured in them would turn out to be the killer. We know that such an approach would be ridiculous but they didn't know that in 1896 in New York City. Nor does the main character charge right to the resolution in superhuman fashion he has a lot of help.
Overall-The ending is satisfying and the characters have as much life as you are ever going to get in a book. What more could you ask for?
great story, poorly written.......2007-07-28
I wanted to give this 2 stars, but for the interesting storyline (a serial killer's on the loose in 1890's NYC and a group of forensic profilers are hunting him down) I bumped it up to 3.
First of all, the convuluted writing style, an attempt to mimic Victorian writing no doubt, read as sloppy and inconsistent. Also, the characters behaved as 21st C. New Yorkers rather than 19th C. individuals would have. But most annoying was awkward the way Carr infused historical content into this novel. "The Alienist" reads as if the author did loads of research and then made it his business to cram everything he knew about 19th C. NYC in to this book. He used parentheses everywhere to showcase his knowledge - which only proved to take me out of the story and into what felt like a history lesson. Historical fiction should include period details seemlessly, and this quality was sorely lacking here.
That said, the characters were fleshed out and three diminsional, the murders intriguing, and the psychological explanations straight on.
periodic thriller.........2007-04-04
I loved this book...it's a thriller that really makes you feel like you are in New York at the turn of the century..a real page turner with characters that you feel and pull for..it's gory and scary and keeps you on the edge of your seat at times..with a great cameo by Theodore Roosevelt..
The Alienist: A Novel.......2007-03-17
This was great! Kept you guessing and on the edge of your seat all the time! I have to get the next book "Angel of Darkness" I'm sure I won't be disappointed. This was a great mystery to solve!
Books:
- In the Belly of the Bloodhound: Being an Account of a Particularly Peculiar Adventure in the Life of Jacky Faber (Bloody Jack Adventures)
- Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness
- Inside the Minds: Selling Million Dollar Homes--Industry Leaders on Becoming a Tier 1 Real Estate Agent (Inside the Minds)
- Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life
- Life After Death: The Burden of Proof
- Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth (Princeton Science Library)
- Live from Death Row
- LL Cool J's Platinum Workout: Sculpt Your Best Body Ever with Hollywood's Fittest Star
- Long Time Coming
- Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Dying to Live
- The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Awakening, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND: 10 Keys for Unlocki
- Modern Medical Statistics: A Practical Guide
- Methods in Theoretical Quantum Optics
- Space Mission Analysis and Design, 3rd edition
- The PowerScore LSAT Logic Games Bible
- The Friesian Horse
- Skyscrapers--skyprickers--skycities
- Nanoarchitecture: A New Species of Architecture
- Oh Say Can You Seed
Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories (Modern Library)
Capote: A Biography
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Complete Stories of Truman Capote
Other Voices, Other Rooms
