Book Description
The project that captured a nation's imagination.
The instructions were simple, but the results were extraordinary.
"You are invited to anonymously contribute a secret to a group art project. Your secret can be a regret, fear, betrayal, desire, confession, or childhood humiliation. Reveal anything -- as long as it is true and you have never shared it with anyone before. Be brief. Be legible. Be creative."
It all began with an idea Frank Warren had for a community art project. He began handing out postcards to strangers and leaving them in public places -- asking people to write down a secret they had never told anyone and mail it to him, anonymously.
The response was overwhelming. The secrets were both provocative and profound, and the cards themselves were works of art -- carefully and creatively constructed by hand. Addictively compelling, the cards reveal our deepest fears, desires, regrets, and obsessions. Frank calls them "graphic haiku," beautiful, elegant, and small in structure but powerfully emotional.
As Frank began posting the cards on his website, PostSecret took on a life of its own, becoming much more than a simple art project. It has grown into a global phenomenon, exposing our individual aspirations, fantasies, and frailties -- our common humanity.
Every day dozens of postcards still make their way to Frank, with postmarks from around the world, touching on every aspect of human experience. This extraordinary collection brings together the most powerful, personal, and beautifully intimate secrets Frank Warren has received -- and brilliantly illuminates that human emotions can be unique and universal at the same time.
Customer Reviews:
Totally engrossing.......2007-09-26
I bought this as a gift for my twenty-something brother. I started to glance through it a little before wrapping it, and ended up sitting with my nose in it for an hour. Really cool coffee-table book.
Great!.......2007-09-07
An amazing book! Read it page for page and it's so hard to put down, great buy.
Secrets shared are a wonderful thing........2007-09-05
Big time fan fot he website and love this collection of books. The honesty makes me laugh, cry and feel totally connected to others. A birlliant project.
Amazing.......2007-08-24
This book absolutely amazing and unique. Sure there are 3 books so far from him, all with the same postcard concept, but each book is direct and revealing. I found myself looking into my life and relationships and thinking that the post cards are saying and showing exactly what I felt/remember feeling. The pages are beautiful and colorful along with the words and writing that somehow display exactly what the writer was feeling. Even if you only read a few pages every once in a while, it will ground and humble you, pick you up, and make you want to be a better person. Truly amazing.
Amazing book, amazing video trailer to go along with it.......2007-08-16
I have been a fan of the Postsecret phenomenon since the first book came out. They are moving, and make one feel that you are not alone. Everyone has baggage. quirks. Human beings have alot going on. You must see the Book Trailer just posted on Youtube, it is inspirational, a work of art and makes you want to buy the books! Go to Youtube and search for Postsecret, and watch!! Its extraordinary!
Book Description
Postsecret.com founder Frank Warren is back with an irresistible addition to his bestselling PostSecret series. For The Secret Lives of Men and Women, Warren has selected a never-before-seen collection of postcards bearing the explosive confessions and captivating revelations of men and women everywhere. Created using photographs, collages, illustrations, and more, the handmade cards offer a compelling dialogue on some of today's most provocative topics—from marriage and infidelity, to parenting, office politics, repressed fantasies, and even abortion—daring us to consider how well we really know our friends, family, even ourselves.
Customer Reviews:
The secret lives of men and women.......2007-09-23
This is a fantastic book as are his others great insight to the human mind, plus makes you laugh cry and think.
Filled with insights.......2007-09-05
As a fan of the cult show this is the book to read lots of theories about the symbolism and meaning of the show. A great read pack with insights.
Interesting look into other's minds........2007-08-09
I think this project is amazing. After reading all of the books and getting the updates every Sunday from the website, I have come to realize that everyone has their own bag of crap to carry. It's a very interesting look into the minds of people and the secrets they carry around with them. Some funny, some sad. If you would like a book that is read in one sitting (everyone I have let see it has to look through the whole thing), this is the book for you.
Great!.......2007-07-15
It's the reading equivalent to searching through someone's medicine cabinet. It'll make you cry and make you giggle. Ultimately, it will make you contemplate your own secrets!
People Have Secrets Both Dark and Light.......2007-07-07
And secrets have power. It is a courageous and amazing thing to write down a secret and post it on a website. Some secrets are sweet, some are deep, and some are heartbreaking. But with each secret I read, I know that my secrets are not crazy. I'm just a normal person, like everyone else.
Book Description
At Home with Art is about art lovers, their passion for art, and their seemingly unquenchable desire to bring home the works that have captured their hearts. Whether the artworks are Picassos or posters, these people want to acquire and live with the art they love. "I wake up in the morning and exercise where I can look at it," says John Robson about one of the paintings in his San Francisco townhouse. How these art lovers integrate their finds
into their living spaces, juxtaposing their paintings and sculpture with the artifacts of everyday life -- furniture, rugs, books, lamps, objets d'art -- is vividly illustrated here in more than fifty homes inhabited by people for whom living with art is as essential as breathing.
These homes are not mini-museums with art to be admired from a respectful distance. Nor have they been designed by interior decorators whose goal is to harmonize the upholstery with the pictures. Each home has been chosen for its very personal and inspired expression of art and decor, revealing a deep, even spiritual, relationship between the pictures on the walls and the people who place them there. From airy lofts and old farmhouses to sleek city apartments and cozy traditional houses, all are made special by the paintings and sculptures within.
A wide variety of people appear in these pages, from the president of MoMA to a young man in love with poster art, to the writer who has artist friends, to the young woman who inherited pieces from her mother, to the actress whose art travels with her wherever she goes. The kinds of art that speak to them and that they are impelled to acquire range from old masters to outsider art, from folk art to contemporary art, to prints, drawings, photographs, and sculpture. We learn about what sparked their interest in a particular genre, how they make their selections, how they meld them into their homes, and what living with their art means to them.
Though looking at these interiors proves there are no fixed rules about displaying a work of art, special sections on framing, hanging, lighting, and caring for art, from oil paintings to delicate works on paper, provide technical assistance. A directory includes framers, dealers, auction houses, and restorers in major American cities and in London.
Above all,
At Home with Art shows that there are all kinds of art to be loved and cherished, however grand or simple, and that living surrounded by art's beauty can bring boundless personal satisfaction.
Customer Reviews:
An invitation into the homes of collectors........2000-12-31
This book is inspiring because it shows us the homes of many collectors of paintings.It is well written, but there are not enough new ideas that can be incorporated by the reader. Some of the collectors have little idea on how to display their paintings in a way that is pleasing and justifies the works. Many of the dispalys are cluttered and claustrophobic. Yet, there are some splendid homes that incorporate paintings spectacularly. The article on Dorothy and Herbert Vogel is very moving. These extra-ordinary people deserve a book just on them.
A unique and personal view of collecting.......2000-01-12
This is an extraordinary book. Clearly not intended as a scholarly exercise, the authors take us up close and personal with outstanding collectors and their art. These are people I would be unlikely ever to meet, and their personal views and how they are expressed through the works they surround themselves with provide a glimpse into the collecting mind. Many of the homes are wealthy, though some are artists who have accumulated works from their friends. The photos are spectacular, and give many ideas of how art can be integrated into one's home.
At Home With Art Not Your Home.......2000-01-06
Diving into this book, as an avid art collector, one might expect to learn how different people work with the art they possess. This book though is really for those who are stricly ardent and almost excessive collectors who like to jam pack their residences with works galore. What is missing from this text is a careful presentation of how many different types of people display their art. There is too much focus on furniture, collecting passions and interest, and not enough focus on ideas. Overall, I found this book to be somewhat mono-dimensional in the concepts portrayed of how others live with their art. More a picture of what the authors had preconceived than a search for the spectrum of ideas.
Average customer rating:
- Private?
- The Private Lives of the Impressionists
- An enjoyable read....
- Sue Roe makes public the private lives of such artists as Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissaro and their friends
- Enjoyable, Historical Read, Learn about great painters!
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The Private Lives of the Impressionists
Sue Roe
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0060545585
Release Date: 2006-10-31 |
Book Description
Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Though they were often ridiculed or ignored by their contemporaries, today astonishing sums are paid for the works of these artists, whose paintings are celebrated for their ability to capture the moment, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape but in scenes of daily life. Their dazzling pictures are familiar—but how well does the world know the Impressionists as people? The Private Lives of the Impressionists tells their story. It is the first book to offer an intimate and lively biography of the world's most popular group of artists.
In a vivid and moving narrative, biographer Sue Roe shows the Impressionists in the studios of Paris, rural lanes of Montmartre and rowdy riverside bars as Paris underwent Baron Haussmann's spectacular transformation. For more than twenty years they lived and worked together as a group, struggling to rebuild their lives after the Franco-Prussian War and supporting one another through shocked public reactions to unfamiliar canvases depicting laundresses, dancers, spring blossoms and boating scenes.
This intimate, colorful, superbly researched account takes us into their homes and studios, and describes their unconventional, volatile and precarious lives, as well as the stories behind the paintings.
Customer Reviews:
Private?.......2007-09-29
The title of the book is misleading. Most, like me, would believe that it is about the various affaires des coeurs of the Impressionist painters. But it is far from that. It is an insightful look into the struggles of the impressionist painters during the years of 1860-86; this was before they became famous.
The book covers the lives (intimate or otherwise) of the better-known impressionists such as Monet, Manet, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Cézanne, and Pissarro and the not-so-well-known painters who were in their company Berthe Morisot, Frédéric Bazille, Mary Cassatt and Gustave Caillebotte. The author describes how these painters tried to break the rigid moulds of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, which controlled the technique and subjects of mainstream painting in France.
The author described many of the better-known and the not-so-well-known paintings in such an anecdotal form that the reader is forced to have a look at those paintings somehow (in a coffee table book or online). She brings alive the characters who had posed for the paintings that give a greater depth to the work.
The author has researched this period well and one not only gets an insight of the lives of these painters but also of the world around them. The reader can literally visualize the gradual realization of Haussman's vision of Paris, or the soirées and evenings spent in cafés. The Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and the siege of Paris are also described in detail - it led to tremendous upheaval in the French society as also the lives of the painters - a large amount of their output was lost during this war and the sense of loss is transferred to the reader.
The author manages to intertwine the lives of the painters - the individuality of each painter is maintained even though all are presented as a collective. Despite the fact that so many characters are being biographed, the author doesn't leave the reader of being overwhelmed with the plurality of characters.
Use of exact addresses and trivial but minute details such as a `thirteen-minute stop for hot chocolate' (238) which Eugène Manet made on way to Paris from Nice. Though the use of French words was rather limited despite the fact that the setting and the painters were French. Most words can be understood from the context - However, some words (cocottes, arrière pensée) do require a bit of looking up to understand the true import of the sentence.
The Private Lives of the Impressionists.......2007-08-05
This book gives insight to the artists and their methods and environment equally interesting reading.
An enjoyable read...........2007-08-01
This is well-researched, extremely readable looks at the interactions and development of the Impressionists. Roe is knowledgeable and handles her subject well.
I found it hard to put down.
Sue Roe makes public the private lives of such artists as Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Pissaro and their friends.......2007-05-30
Paris began the nineteenth century as an ancient city of winding streets, dark alleys and dankly dangerous ill lit streets. Due to the architectural genius of Baron Haussman, Prefect of the Seine,it was transformed into the City of Light. The Eiffel Tower! The well lighted boulevards, the enchanting and cool parks, the height of fashion and the charm of beautifully sculpted public buildings made it the apex of urban beauty (although appalling poverty did still exist). Even the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 when Paris was briefly occupied by Prussian soldiers did not dispel the charm of this world capital.
In mid nineteenth century Paris art seemed locked in a Procrustean bed of classicicism and stody history painting. The French Academy would only show painting approved by its ultra-conservative directors.
Each year bold new artists were seeking to make impressionism the wave of the future. Each year their art was rejected at Academy shows. Each year masterpieces were created as they launched their own art shows to intially hostile and then adoring crowds flocking to see them. Who were these artist beginning the most popular movement in art history?
Among their number were:
Eduard Manet the oldest of the impressionists whose bold colors and views of sea and the life of evereyday Parisians was a bold step in the art world. His painting "A Modern Olympia" picturing a nude prostitute as well as other controversial works such as "Le Dejeuner
sur l'herbe" of 1863 portraying a nude women sitting with two fully clothed male friends was a cause celebre bringing attention to the new trend of budding artists seekiing to portray light, color and air as they caught the "impression" of the evanescent passing scene.
Claude Monet (1840-1926) noted for his water lilies, boating scenes and haystacks at his home in Giverny had to struggle against his family, saw children die and faced years of poverty would, nevertheless, triumph becoming rich and famous. His 1872 painting "Impression: Dawn" gave the word impressionism to the movement he and his friends were launching.
Auguste Renoir (1841-1917) was famed for his portraits, love of abundance feminine nudes and boating and fruit scenes.Like many of the impressionist
his family opposed his painting and his choice of a simple girl as a bride.
Camille Pissaro (1840-1903) was born to a Spanish Jewish family in the West Indies. Pissaro served as a mentor to many of the impressionists.
Edgar Degas (1832-1883) died young of syphillis. The French artist Berthe Morisot married his brother Gustave. She may have been in love with Edgar.
His art is noted for brilliant persective, color and beauty.
Several other leading impressionists are discussed such as the American Philadelphian Mary Cassat: Paul Cezzane (who grew up as a friend of the famed novelist Emile Zola) are profiled.
The group eventually broke up showing ther art in shows with one another but by then the art world had been revolutionized by their genius.
Sue Roe has penned a fascinating study of the impressionists. She shows the mileu of Paris and France at the time they lived; how they interacted; how they loved, supported one another and at times feuded with not only the critics but themselves.
Anyone who strolls through an art gallery wanting to know more about the lives of the artists would enjoy this delightful book.
Enjoyable, Historical Read, Learn about great painters!.......2007-05-27
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. If you are new to learning about impressionism or art history, I think you need another book of pure pictures to follow this up.
I learned so much more about Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Rembrant, Mary Cassat, Degas, Pissaro, and others that I can not accurately name. Of particular interest to me was Berthe Morisot, who, as a woman, was in on the impressionist movement from the beginning. However, she's not so well known, and I wonder if her name is included now in art history classes.
The impressionist painters even struggled with the word impressionst! They struggled with each other and disagreed, made up, then disagreed again. They agreed, then disagreed about when and how to display their work, if they should or should not submit to the Salon, and the list goes on.
The impressionts struggled to live on income soley from their art, and really who doesn't? I was struck with how insistant some were that they paint to live. They had little shame about begging and barrowing from rich patrons. Some of the artists portrayed were really above trying to suppliment an income with teaching. In reading this book I had the sense that they found teaching and work other than painting just plain common and not for them. As a working mother and writer, I found this postion quite privlidged. And some of them, like Degas, were wealthy growing up, and they felt they belong to the "gentleman's class"
If you want to know more about how the impressionists knew each other, realted to one another, hated one another, loved one another and so on, then this is the book for you. It is very much about their relationships. If, on the other hand, you want to know more about their paintings, then you need another book that illustrates thier art, as this one offers little in that way.
All in all, I enjoyed knowing more about these amazing people, their ideas, politics, relationships, and what they wanted from the world. This book will deliver all that and more to you.
Average customer rating:
- At Home with Books - How Booklovers live with and Care for their Libraries.
- More than a coffee table book
- One of my favorite "Books about Books"
- Books or looks?
- Come in and look at my books...
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At Home with Books: How Booklovers Live with and Care for Their Libraries
Estelle Ellis , and
Caroline Seebohm
Manufacturer: Clarkson Potter
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Amazon.com
For the bibliophile anxious to enhance the home library, At Home with Books presents both practical advice and divine inspiration. Chapters on starting a collection, organizing the library, and caring for books offer useful information on categorizing, editing, storage, and space-saving--"break down the books into categories by subject matter ... and compare their quantities to the available shelf space. If necessary, measure. Consider the book's height as well as its width. You may need to adjust your shelves to optimize your space." "Library Lighting," "The Art of the Bookshelf," and "Library Ladders" further encourage collectors to create a personal space suitable for its intended purpose, yet reflective of one's passion--"shelf lighting can draw attention to cherished objects and volumes; track lights can highlight certain areas of your room." Interspersed throughout these highly helpful chapters are interviews with noteworthy bibliophiles, including Keith Richards, Loren and Frances Rothschild, Bill Blass, and Paul Getty, whose "literary lairs"--ranging from the classic book-lined walls to books in the kitchen and the bathroom--are beautifully photographed, making At Home with Books not only a valuable resource for the dedicated collector, but a beautiful addition to any collection.
Book Description
At Home with Books is a visual delight, a helpful resource, and an inspiration for every bibliophile with a growing home library. Includes professional advice on editing and categorizing your library; caring for your books; preserving, restoring, and storing rare books; finding out-of-print books; and choosing furniture, lighting, and shelving.
Full-color photographs.
Customer Reviews:
At Home with Books - How Booklovers live with and Care for their Libraries........2007-05-08
I found this book a delightful and easy read and a great addition to my library. Every bibliophile should have a copy if only to read how others obtain so much enjoyment from their collections. I particularly liked Victor Niederhoffer's comment "I could spend a lifetime in this room and not be bored". I agree.
More than a coffee table book.......2007-05-04
I really enjoyed this book. I expected to use it primarily to get ideas for my own library. As I was browsing it, however, a couple of articles caught my eye and I started reading more. Before I knew it, I was curled up in bed reading it clear-through. It has interesting articles about different people's libraries, their collections, and a few about collecting in general. Mix in a little bit of history on books and collecting and you have one enjoyable book.
Some of the other reviews criticize this book because it seems to focus on the aesthetics of books. I must say that I agree that a library is more than how they look but that is certainly part of it - particularly in a coffee table book about home libraries. After all, I do not think that anyone would like to see photos of my aunt's double wide full of tens of thousands of paper-backs.
So the library of books all covered with white bindings may not be my taste or yours, but it is the celebration of these differences that makes this book interesting and compelling. My only complaint is that I would have liked to seen a few more average-Joe home libraries.
One of my favorite "Books about Books".......2007-02-22
This is a wonderful book for book lovers. It's primary purpose is to show how people (mostly living now) that love books chose to live with them. That is a theme throughout all the "articles". The folks profiled in this book live with their books. They surround themselves with them. Just my style!
This book has gorgeous photographs of current libraries and homes turned into "libraries" (basically just homes crammed with books so that every room has thousands). It also has short, but interesting profiles of the the booklovers who's libraries are photographed. The book is worth it for the pictures, but reading about others who love books, and learning about how they related to books and live with them is fascinating as well. Finally, the book also contains pretty good general informatin related to the care and appreciation of books. In many cases, the book even provides lists of companies that provide needed accessories, services, and tools (like covers, book repair, library ladders, etc.).
To pick a few nits: the information on book care is pretty basic, and there is little information on how an "average" book lover without unlimited financial means can build a library and care for books. The lists of information is necessarily dated, as well, but I think still worth inclusion. My biggest complaint is that there seemed to be a much larger percentage of "booklovers" profiled that were artists. The problem with that is that I am a booklover for the books themselves, not the artistic elements of the books (covers, illumination, artwork, etc.). So I didn't relate to as many of the people in the book as I wanted, because they related to books in a different way than I did - and that was the majority of people profiled. There was even one person who collected primarily journals and magazines, and had them all bound in white to match the decor of the room. For me, it's about the BOOKS! NOT about using books as an accessory for decoration.
All that being said, however, this is a book I go back to time and time again. For the pictures, for just immersing myself in text that extols books and their virtues like I do, and for the occasional refresher on book care and tending. This is book is a great general-purpose coffee table book and a MUST for bibliophiles!
Books or looks?.......2007-02-19
This is the same review I posted concerning the paperback edition; in fact I own the hardback, but the books' contents are the same. Only two stars here because the editors did not even bother to make an attractive binding: therefore, the hardback is not a good buy if you insist in having the book.
Having read some of the raving reviews here, and having read the book and possessing a very large library myself, I must say I was somewhat dismayed by the book's contents. The authors seem to try to illustrate many different kinds of libraries, studies and living rooms that function as libraries. This is all right, indeed, this is exactly what I expected. The only trouble is the choice.
Many of the photographed houses seem to have many books but not great book readers. The texts, themselves, give that impression. Also, why were almost only famous people's houses pictured - some of them almost without books at all? The house of a real bookworm is a very different thing from most of the pictured libraries.
If I may put it this way, I would have liked more emphases on books and less on looks. For instance, it is suggested that one might classify books by colour. For anyone that actually uses a library this is almost insulting. Other kind of advice ought to be given: what is the right height of a shelf, what are the more or less standard measures of books, and why this matters (because of space and aesthetic reasons).
Finally, a real book lover cares about bindings, first editions, and typefaces. There is not a single word about the actual "feel" of a book.
Perhaps this is just a very personal opinion. But, having lived with books all my life, I felt this book to be rather superficial. It does not delve into what a book is to its reader or how a book ages, what is different in han-dling incunabula, a Plantin book, a 19th Century small octavo or a modern hardcover or paperback.
I will not say that there were not one or two libraries with which I empathized. I did, in two or perhaps three cases. But the rest seemed about people showing their books off.
Come in and look at my books..........2006-11-15
For what looks like one's standard coffee-table book, this is so much more. The authors present us with lavish colour photographs and intelligent commentary on a wide selection of private libraries from the homes of book collectors from different walks of life - from the scholar, to the English aristocrat, to the Rock musician. For one who loves books and book collections, it is a treat to be able to step into the homes of serious, passionate book lovers and learn how they live with their books. There are lots of ideas here for arranging one's books and the room(s) in which they are kept; and I felt inspired simply to buy books - often I found myself straining to decipher some of the book titles in the various collections, often tantalizingly just out of focus. The authors help the initiate by providing essays on book care and storage issues, and at the back there is a useful guide (mainly for U.S. and U.K. readers) to booksellers, bookfairs, great libraries, stores that cater for library furniture needs, and so on.
Book Description
Extensive biography of jazz saxophonist Paul Desmond, one of the major jazz figures of all time, written by noted jazz critic Doug Ramsey. Large format (10x11"), hard bound with dust jacket, 372 pages, 190 photos, matte paper; complete with discography of all Desmond recordings.
Customer Reviews:
The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond.......2007-01-17
I've read the first 50 pages or so and I am really enjoying the book and the photos. I am a volunteer jazz DJ and I'm finding a lot of good information to use on my jazz show, "Jazztime with Don". The station is an NPR affiliate, KAJX - Aspen Public Radio. [...]
Take Five:The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond.......2007-01-04
A very interesting and complete biography of this brilliant musician.
It let us inside his very private life. He had a very wicked wit although
he was self deprecating.
A Treat.......2006-12-30
After reading this book from cover to cover, I thought that Matt Schudel's editorial piece was a bit harsh. The book illuminates Desmond's life far beyond what most jazz fans can glean from the meager pickings of liner notes. I would have to say that Desmond emerges from the pages as a complex, intensely private, humorous individual, with a personality that maintains the reader's steady interest. At times, the book doesn't flow all that easily and, though the layout is superb, there are many text boxes that are a challenge for the eyes. There are also copies of sheet music that will add content for those who read music and nothing for those who don't. On balance, I enjoyed the book and feel I was rewarded with a much better understanding of this unique talent. I found it to be an entertaining read. The quality of the book itself (i.e. the paper, the photos, the layout) is certainly worth the price.
Things you never knew about the greatest alto sax player ever.......2006-11-12
As a jazz fan all of my (long) adult life, I thought I was quite conversant with the lives of the jazz greats. Not so with Paul Desmond. This bio, the size of a coffee table book, superbly traces his life as a student of all musical genres, of his intense desire to achieve perfection in his own playing and in his compositions. It covers his early doubts regarding a career in writing rather than music; his periods of self doubt and introspection. A major revelation to me was that success might not have come to him or to Dave Brubeck if they had not discovered each other. They read each others musical minds on the fly making for some of the most delightful jazz ever.
And the book tells it all with many, many quotes from those who knew Paul well.
Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond.......2006-11-04
I great book. I plan to keep it on my coffee table. It's more than about Paul. It's about Brubeck and the rest of the great musicians in that era-1950 to 1970 or so.
Customer Reviews:
I am ashamed to be a Marketing person.......2000-06-29
I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. Let me just say that this book is the greatest. It even made me ashamed to be a marketing person! Enough said!
Great book about the excesses of bureaucrats and marketers.........1998-07-18
..who invade and abuse the privacy rights of citizens around the world. Read this well written overview and realize that we can all be victimized by the excessive zeal of those who wish to profit from or control us...
Book Description
Written with the art of a skilled fiction writer whose ear for Irish bluster is pitch-perfect,
Whoredom in Kimmage tells the tale of contemporary Irish women through a series of brilliantly animated scences that take the reader from Dillon's tiny pub in rural Corofin to the heart of Dublin. This beguiling account of Irish life transcends that nation's small shores through the power of Mahoney's great storytelling gifts.
Before the phenomena of Frank McCourt's
Angela's Ashes, and Thomas Cahill's
How the Irish Saved Civilization, Rosemary Mahoney traveled to Ireland in response to the growing feeling that changes were taking place, and that those changes directly involved women. Her ideas are animated in brilliantly crafted scenes, taking the reader from Dillon's tiny pub in Corofin to a lesbian pub in Dublin, from a Legion of Mary meeting to a classroom full of boisterous schoolgirls determined to drive their teacher, S'ta Keatin', over the edge. Here, too, are scenes with Ireland's first woman president, Mary Robinson, and the country's preeminent woman poet, Eavan Boland. But most memorable, and perhaps most prescient of the recent enchantment with literature about the Emerald Isle, are Mahoney's pitch-perfect ear for Irish bluster and warmth, her eye for detail, and people so real and unforgettable you'd think they were having a cup of tea with you.
Customer Reviews:
Irishwomen & men changing in the early 1990s.......2006-01-30
After recently reading Mahoney's account of late 80s China, "The Early Arrival of Dreams" (also reviewed by me), and thinking about her curious account of pilgrimages as "The Singular Pilgrim," which I also enjoyed, I went back to re-read "Whoredom" a dozen years after I had first finished it, when it came out to a small flurry of attention (at least in my conversations) among Irish emigres and Irish Americans, especially feminists. Taken in the dimmer light of an Ireland since riven by clerical scandal, and where now 1:3 babies are born to unmarried mothers, the transitions seem far away from the subsequent hi-tech & EU-fueled immigration booms into Ireland. Her interviews with Mary Robinson and the poet Eavan Boland are a bit too lengthy, but do document well this jittery state of change as the 90s settled in and unsettled traditional roles across the nation. I was amused, by the way, to hear Boland call herself "middle class." As Boland was the daughter of the UN's first president, with a diplomatically-raised childhood and a very posh education, it made me wonder if you'd have to live in Buckingham Palace to be any rank higher than "middle class."
Anyway, Mahoney, as in her other books, reveals very little about herself and an overwhelming amount about everyone who passes by her sharp eye and into her evidently capacious memory. Like many Irish, no matter where born, she directs conscientiously but almost invisibly her attention outside herself. So, this is not even a memoir but what's since been labelled "creative non-fiction" in its novelistic and "thick" detail--perhaps more fitting an anthropologist crossed with a storyteller.
I did wonder, especially in the Corofin pub dialogue--and most of all a drunken long night after when some of the folks followed her back to the castle for more craic and awkward conviviality--how she remembered it all in such minute incidences as the alteration in a countenance after an utterance or the shift in tone as heard in the midst of one of her "informant's" endless recitations. I presume, without discounting the essential veracity of her accounts, that she does take a bit of liberty with the re-creation of so many thousands of words after perhaps hundreds of nights whittled down to the best bits from her many months.
While some castigate the author for trying to fit into the JJ Smythe lesbian pub scene by "passing," Mahoney does explain in retrospect that she did not do this lightly, and acted on the spot half out of embarassment or fear, rather as any willful and premeditated desire to deceive her companions. She describes well the mingled excitement and terror that she feels when put on the spot in a setting she never before had entered.
Similarly, I do not believe that she tricked any of her Corofin conversationalists; they all knew her as a writer and her task being to observe them all for a book in the works. The accusations she relates while--fittingly--being driven off from Clare by way of Ennis while being tongue-lashed by a madwoman driver who disdains her passenger's scribal vocation which the driver knows by repute: this subtly portrays the tensions that she stirred up among the local people.
Mahoney's characteristic approach being rather to let herself be self-effaced and to blend into what she is experiencing and then conveying to us makes her style admirable for its technical skill, if rather detached for the lack of a strong first-person presence. I realize that this is her chosen vantage-point, but it makes the hints she gives out--alcoholic strife, no mention of a father, only the barest asides to her own Boston formative years--all the more mysterious. Judging from her previous China and her future pilgrimage books, I suppose she wants to remain more enigmatic--an intriguing trait for a non-fictional writer who tells of her own encounters.
A few typos marred an otherwise thorough effort: on pg. 265 she misspells what should be the writers Walter "Macken" and Austin "Clarke"; the next page shows her twice giving out Eric Cross' folkloric and once notoriously banned (and de-banned) account as "The Tailor of Ansty" when the "of" should be "and."
She has done her homework. Her careful attention to what she hears and how it's spoken makes her a thoughtful and slyly entertaining guide. Her paragraphs on pp. 10-12 showing us what her castle looked like marvelously show her powers of summation and support. I still wish she would have delved further with her first-person narration, and told more about her own previous trips to Ireland, her studies that prefaced the months narrated, and much more about her own Irish American background.
But, her reticence amidst so much verbiage is typically Irish itself.
Some of the reviews seem to be missing the point .......2005-11-25
How can anyone spend a couple of years abroad, anywhere, and expect to portray an accurate historical account of the status of women in that country, let alone the entire people? She can't. So why are the reviewers expecting this book to be that impossible thing and to be unequivocally historically complete?
This is an autobiography of the author's experience in Ireland, not a history of Ireland. This is Ms. Mahoney's journey, not Ireland's. Take it for what you will beyond that, because it is a compelling read with wonderfully imagined and experienced events. She is honest with her material while drawing out the poetic charm of her travels. She tracks several key political movements, such as the attempts to legalize a woman's right to seek counseling on abortion, through their late-80s specific events and leaders and in relation to the deeper built-in oppressions of Irish-Christian dogma. She does not come out and condemn anyone or anything, but leaves those opinions to the reader. She paints a picture of a country that is quite progressive in many ways, even electing their first woman president, but silently the culture continues to oppress women in ways that are not befitting a 20th (now 21st) century world.
Too bad so many individuals misinterpret her work: If the people of Corofin and Dublin truly were "having their fun" with Ms. Mahoney by avoiding being honest with her in the hopes of making a fool out of her, frankly, they deserve to be caricatured. What a wonderful lesson in humility - a detail that speaks more about the state of a handful of men and women than any idealized cultural representation could have. When you have a guest to your house, do you mock them and make them out to be fools or do you welcome them and their cultural differences? I guess in some places, the tradition is to scare the outsider away rather than include them in the larger world picture.
Maith go leor, a Rosemary! Is iontach ?
hardly representative.......2004-06-26
Mahoney's book has many many flaws. Number one, she approaches her subject with a condescending, superior attitude of "I'm an enlightened American feminist looking at these backward Irish people." She then interviews many Irishwomen: lesbians, abortion activists, anti-abortion activists. . All of these people are cartoons and she never seems to get around to interviewing more typical Irishwomen who for the most part are religious Catholics with conservative views but certainly aren't the extreme fanatics or the radical feminists Mahoney describes. I spent some time in Corofin several years after this book came out and the hatred of Mahoney remains. I can attest that while Corofin has some characters, they aren't the pathetic freaks she describes.
I was blown away by this book!.......2003-05-13
I had no idea what to expect of this book when I picked it up, but a friend of mine recommended it, and after about ten pages I was hooked. Written from a first-person perspective by an American writer living in Ireland, it offers a most engaging voice and a vivid view of modern Ireland. The writer spent half a year living in Dublin and another half year living in rural Ireland in a Norman castle in the small village of Corofin. Having lived in Ireland for nearly ten years I was awestruck by the accuracy and intimacy of her portrayal of Irish life, her very engaging sense of humor, and her great talent as a writer. Line for line this book is absolutely beautiful. Her affectionate characterizations and stories of the people she met in Ireland fairly lift off the page. Her ear for dialogue is superb. There is a great deal of information here about Irish society, including interviews with the President of Ireland, and with other prominent Irish people, but the real draw of this wonderful book is the manner in which the writer has chosen to tell the story of this small country entering into the modern world. I laughed out loud at so many descriptions and scenes, conversations in a the pub, mishaps, local oddballs, lifestyle and beliefs of the Irish people. I didn't want the book to end. It's the kind of book you read and wish you knew the person who wrote it. There's a vividness to Mahoney's writing that I have not seen matched in many works of non-fiction. Above all, what distinguishes this work most is the clear respect and love the writer has for the people she has chosen to study and portray in it. There's a deep humaneness and sympathy to her approach to Ireland and its people, even though she offers criticisms and skepticism. I was entertained, moved, and enchanted by the stories she tells and don't know why I hadn't heard of it before now. The truths put forth in this book are sometimes a but upsetting, but they are exactly that: truths. And they are truths that needed to be told. I loved it.
A travesty on both author and Irish women.......2003-04-13
This book is a travesty on the author and on Irish women. The author obviously did not get in touch at all with the Irish culture and how she herself was being treated. There is a long tradition in Ireland of making fools of 'outsiders' - Irish literature is full of such pranks. The author obviously fell into the trap. This is not a good description of how Irish women live or feel. I actually laughed out loud at some of the dour parts - the author did not get the satire or the tricks behind some of the women she interviewed. One needs to be very subtle to talk to the Irish - talking everything at face value is a mistake.
Average customer rating:
- Three Brilliants By The Great English Wit
- Impressive
- The only serious challenge to Feydeau in English
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Blithe Spirit, Hay Fever, Private Lives: Three Plays
Noel Coward
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 067978179X
Release Date: 1999-01-26 |
Customer Reviews:
Three Brilliants By The Great English Wit.......2002-05-30
Noel Coward's talent for spinning gossamer plots into rapier-sharp comedy assures his reputation in theatre, and his comedies have such timeless appeal that they remain staples of both English and American theatre. This volume collects three of his most memorable scripts: the fantasy BLITHE SPIRIT, the farce HAY FEVER, and the razor-wicked PRIVATE LIVES.
Of the three, BLITHE SPIRIT and PRIVATE LIVES are best known to the general public through various film versions and frequent revivals. BLITHE SPIRIT concerns a novelist who invites a medium to give a seance that he might learn tricks of the trade for the book he is writing--but the medium is no fake, and she unintentionally summons up the ghost of his first wife, who promptly moves in and makes his second wife's life a living hell. PRIVATE LIVES offers the story of a divorced couple who unexpectedly meet while honeymooning with their new spouses--whom they quickly abandon in order to resume their torrid passion for each other. Trouble is, although they love each other desperately, their personalities are about as compatible as two scorpions in a bottle. HAY FEVER, one of Coward's earliest successes, presents the story of visitors to an eccentric family who are very nearly driven mad before they are able to escape.
Coward was reknowned for his sophistocated and often acid turn of phrase, and all three of these plays contain enough outrageous situations and sharp-tongued lines to make even the worst sourpuss laugh loud enough to annoy the neighbors. Although those unused to reading playscripts may find HAY FEVER a bit hard to grasp, both BLITHE SPIRIT and PRIVATE LIVES read extremely, extremely well--so much so that you're likely to find yourself acting them out as you read! Wonderful fun, and strongly, strongly recommended.
Impressive.......2001-07-02
I recieved my summer reading list for Honors English a few weeks ago, and under the section that held a list of three play titles to choose from, I came across Blithe Spirit. Having never heard of Noel Coward, or anything of the other two plays in this book (Hay Fever, and Private Lives) I decided to give the book a chance and I am pleased that I did. I am not a huge fan of reading plays, but after I read Blithe Spirit, I felt that I just had to keep going and read the other two. After reading this book, it is now very obvious to me that Noel Coward was a man with extreme talent, and an awful witty sense of humor. While reading these plays you come across some really interesting situations, and characters, and I guarentee that you will be smiling throughout the whole thing.
The only serious challenge to Feydeau in English.......1999-12-19
Noel Coward's _Hay Fever_, Evelyn Waugh's _Handful of Dust_, and Kingsley Amis's _Lucky Jim_ are, for my money, the three funniest things written in English in the 20th century. I was a drama critic for nearly 12 years, saw hundreds of productions of all kinds from coast to coast in the US and a few in London, and never laughed harder or enjoyed myself more than at a regional US production of "Hay Fever" in the late 1970's. Do it again! Do it again!
Customer Reviews:
Intimate and stylish.......2006-08-08
I really enjoyed this book. I could pore over the fashions, the interior decoration - it satisfied my desire to see all the details! At the same time, I got a sense of the passage of time in Virginia and Vanessa's lives. Read as a companion to any of Woolf's novels, I think the book would also convey a sense of the writing process.
It evokes the time and place beautifully, and the text is not intrusive: the images are allowed to take centre stage as works of art in their own right.
Fine choice, Sweetpea!
I'm in between.......2006-04-17
Nutty yet poignant
Have we found the smoking gun here? I doubt it
Bloomsbury has a posse!
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