Amazon.com
When Larry Brown died suddenly in 2004 at 53, he left a nearly finished sixth novel, A Miracle of Catfish, that revisits several of his favorite themes: fatherhood, alienation, and loneliness. Shannon Ravenel, Brown's Algonquin editor, had the daunting task of trimming the enormous manuscript to manageable size, almost impossible for a responsible editor to do without the help of the author. Brown's prolix, rambling style is at times mesmerizing and at times--just rambling. Brown's notes at the end show us where the story might have gone, but it does not suffer for being unfinished. Larry Brown definitely knew where he was taking his reader, and Ravenel helped him along.
Consideration of the fatherhood theme centers around a man known only as "Jimmy's Daddy," an unregenerate, wretched human being and an ignorant, violent drunkard. His preoccupations, view of women, and treatment of Jimmy might be seen as caricatures if we didn't know that such people actually exist. Another father, with a much more interesting story, is Cortez Sharp, a farmer in the low hills near Oxford, Mississippi, for nearly fifty years. He has a daughter, Lucinda, living "with a retard" in Atlanta. The man is a layabout artist who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome, which makes Cortez think that he is simply retarded. Cortez has a deep, dark, guilty secret which is eventually revealed, but the two things that we know about him from the beginning are that he is terribly lonely and is stocking a pond he just had dug with catfish--thousands of catfish. Two minor players are Cleve, a muderous black man who is an occasional employee of Cortez's and Tommy, who delivers fish to stock Cortez's pond and owns Ursula, the Mother of all Catfish. Jimmy is the hapless nine-year-old who suffers at the hands of his daddy, and comes to the attention of Cortez who tells him--initially--to get off his property. All of these lives intersect in unexpected ways and are changed by the encounters. Brown writes hell-bent-for-leather in a style uniquely his own which carries the reader along, into landscapes interior and exterior. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
Larry Brown has been a force in American literature since taking critics by storm with his debut collection,
Facing the Music, in 1988. His subsequent work—five novels, another story collection, and two books of nonfiction—continued to bring extraordinary praise and national attention to the writer
New York Newsday called a "master."
In November 2004, Brown sent the nearly completed manuscript of his sixth novel to his literary agent. A week later, he died of a massive heart attack. He was fifty-three years old.
A Miracle of Catfish is that novel. Brown's trademarks—his raw detail, pared-down prose, and characters under siege—are all here.
This beautiful, heartbreaking anthem to the writer's own North Mississippi land and the hard-working, hard-loving, hard-losing men it spawns is the story of one year in the lives of five characters—an old farmer with a new pond he wants stocked with baby catfish; a bankrupt fish pond stocker who secretly releases his forty-pound brood catfish into the farmer's pond; a little boy from the trailer home across the road who inadvertently hooks the behemoth catfish; the boy's inept father; and a former convict down the road who kills a second time to save his daughter.
That Larry Brown died so young, and before he could see
A Miracle of Catfish published, is a tragedy. That he had time to enrich the legacy of his work with this remarkable book is a blessing.
Customer Reviews:
Larry Brown's last miraculous novel.......2007-09-05
Another reason to mourn Larry Brown's untimely death is the fact that we will never know just how the lives of the people he created in his final masterpiece would have turned out. Would Cortez have become the father little Bobby deserves, replacing the hapless and clueless daddy who can think of no one but himself? Would we ever know any more about the fish man? Perhaps we already know enough about all the living, breathing, all-too-real characters Larry imagined for us by the time we come to the page where we are left wanting to know more about them and about the others living in his imagination, waiting for future books that won't be written. It's a rare talent who can keep us interested in and even hopeful about the fates of some pretty unlikeable and apparently unredeemable people. Bobby, Bobby's daddy, and Cortez are among Larry Brown's finest creations.
The last hurrah of talented writer Larry Brown.......2007-08-24
'A Miracle Of Catfish' was unfinished when author Larry Brown died unexpectedly. Because the book was almost finished, publication of Brown's last offering to his fans was possible. The book uses ellipsis to show where editing was done, and though unfinished, includes the notes that Brown left behind as to how he planned to wrap up the novel.
In Brown's languid southern prose, he explores the lives of several people living in the quiet, countrified outskirts of a small town. Cortez Sharp, a 72 year old man who's wife is disabled, decides to dig out a large pond on his property and stock it with catfish. He lives a solitary life, preferring to be left alone with his vegetable patches and herds of cows. His daughter Lucinda lives in Atlanta with her boyfriend Albert, who suffers from Tourettes Syndrome. Cortez calls Albert 'The Retard', driving a wedge between him and his only surviving child. Cortez carries a dark secret with him, one of horrible proportions.
There's Jimmy, a ten year old boy with bad teeth, who lives near Cortez's farm in an old trailer. Jimmy struggles with his father's temper, his two half-sisters Evelyn and Velma, and his desire to fix the go-kart his daddy built for him. Jimmy's Daddy (known only in the book as 'Jimmy's Daddy') is a typical redneck loser. He drives around in his old '55 drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, fights with himself over trying to treat Jimmy better, and has an affair with a woman at the stove factory where he works that turns out bad (in pregnancy) which threatens his life and marriage to Jonette.
And then there's Cleve, an old black man who used to work for Cortez, mean as a polecat, and murderous to boot. He's been in prison twice and though he swore he'd never go back, he's not quite done committing crimes.
Typical of Brown's unhurried and languorous prose, there's lots of smoking, beer drinking, and driving around. There's surprises like DUI's, tractor accidents, unwanted pregnancies, affairs, fishing, hunting, and a young boy worried about having puppies.
These aren't exactly people you would want for neighbors, but Brown brings them out fully fleshed and alive, and you know there are people out there just like Brown's characters. Everyday folk struggling with everyday problems, inner monologues that both repulse and enchant, and scenes that will suck you into the story despite their slowly building climaxes.
While I highly recommend Brown's work, I would recommend 'Joe', 'Fay', and 'Father And Son' as a warm up to 'A Miracle Of Catfish', simply because this is an unfinished work and may leave the novice Brown reader feeling flat at the abrupt end. It's sad that this is the last time we will hear Brown's voice in the literature world. Enjoy!
Unfinished but pleasing anyway.......2007-07-10
I have the same feeling reading Larry Brown as I do reading Faulkner: He's writing about us! And this latest is the same as the others of his; he has the weather, the land, the people, the animals and all down pat. It's like it is down here. He's just chosen a few characters to show a representation but he uses them to give insight into the universal truths as Faulkner says. It's a shame he wasn't able to finish the book but it's wonderful that his wife and publisher went ahead with what's there. And most of it is there.
I was in the Oxford Hospital getting a stent put in and finally going home after a week of tests and procedures when I read that he'd died suddenly of a heart attack. I always wanted to meet him as I thought we had so much in common. A couple of years before I thought I saw him leaving Square Books as we were going in- my brother from North Carolina who always wants to got to Square Books and my wife and our daughter who lives in Oxford. He had on a gray raincoat or light overcoat and he smiled at us when he saw us getting out of the car and heading into the bookstore. What a loss.
Beverly Lowry of George Mason University has written a fine review in the April 27, 2007, New York Times Book Review and I'm sure there are others. Read this book and you'll want to go back and read his others too.
Dewitt Spencer
You simply MUST READ this book! Such a masterpiece!!!.......2007-07-07
I was devastated when I heard that Larry Brown had passed away. What a loss to his friends and family, and what a loss to his fans. This man could spin a tale, write a story, take you away, pull you in. Such a loss - God bless him!
I have read EVERY book that Mr. Brown ever wrote -- FAY, JOE, FATHER AND SON, etc. When I saw A MIRACLE OF CATFISH on the new book shelf at my library, I almost fell over! Knowing Mr. Brown has passed, I was shocked and happy to see this book there -- all 454 pages of it.
Let me tell you, at first I didn't think I was going to be able to get into this book. Which I found very puzzling! So, I sat down and really READ and by page five I was HOOKED!! I will think of this book for years to come!!! It is just THAT GOOD.
The characters in this book are sooo life-like and believeable. There are not many people in this novel, but you don't need many. Each chapter revolves around one character and their life; however, they are all inter-twined and make the book was it is ~~ EXCELLENT.
The main characters are Cortez Sharp, who farms and raises cattle. His wife is ill and his grown child lives in Atlanta. He is older and very lonely. He decides to build a pond and stock it with catfish. When the author describes the tomato sandwiches Cortez makes, yum, hook me up with one!
Another main character is Jimmy, a young boy who lives with his white trash family down the road from Cortez. He is a lonely little guy whose step-sisters treat him like crap. His mom, Johnette {gotta love the names!}, works, eats, and sleeps (around!!) and doesn't pay her children too much attention. Hence, Jimmy is looking for attention, affection, interest, and love. He wanders down by the new pond only to get kicked off the property by Cortez Sharp, which is how these two main characters meet.
My favorite main character was Jimmy's dad who is only referred to as Jimmy's daddy. Such a loser! Such a womanizer! Such a sorry excuse for a father! Always thinking of himself, always looking out for himself. Loves his old '55 car more than his family. But all of these bad traits make him the great character he is. You have to give Jimmy's daddy credit -- he does try, he does love his family; however, if something bad is going to happen it happens to Jimmy's daddy. He never quite makes things work right for himself or his family.
Cortez Sharp decides to have a pond dug and filled with catfish. He doesn't know how having this pond will affect not only him, but Jimmy down the road. The book takes us on a journey that involves all of the above mentioned characters and simply their lives -- at work, school, their friends, family, their affairs, and the deep dark secret that Cortez Sharp lives with daily.
Sound boring? It is NOT. I found I could not turn the pages fast enough. The way the story is told and how life in the South is related just takes you right to the banks of that pond with a fishing pole in hand and trouble on the way. Life in this small southern town is one hell of a ride. Get this book and enjoy it.
You must get this book and read it. There are other not so main characters that add spice to the book. The writing is stupendous -- you can feel the heat, see Cortez taking care of cattle and riding his tractor, see the dirty, nasty living conditions at Jimmy's trailer, see the dirt and grease on Jimmy's daddy's hands, feel the hurt in Jimmy's nasty teeth, see the trashy way Jimmy's sisters and Mom dress. Mr. Brown had a talent and gift that will be sorely missed. I find I am having a problem finding my next "read" as nothing seems to compare to this wonderful book.
Take my advice and the advice of the other reviewers -- get this book, read it, and then get the rest of Mr. Brown's works and just enjoy. Every book he has written is simply a treasure! A MIRACLE OF CATFISH ~~ a miracle in itself!!!!!!!!
Thank you!!!
Pam
Dadgummit Larry, why'd you have to leave...........2007-06-12
Larry taught himself how to write and his stories improved exponentially to the end. If you are a fan, look for Larry Brown in the Blue Moon Cafe line; one of them has a strange, but awesome short-story in it.
As I neared the last few pages of the book I was anxious as to what point it might end, or if it would end before he passed away. I wasn't sure. Undeniable sadness filled me too, because Miracle was his best, and I knew it was his last.
While he didn't finish the book with in a cathartic end, his heart, I suppose, was driving it towards something good. Likely Jimmy's daddy would "get his" and Jimmy would end up happy. Who knows, but it is how it was flavored.
But it ended. The chapter just ended and his notes wrapped it up-- questions remained over things from Jimmy's daddy, to Queen and Ursula. But all in all, the end cut short is in a way a fitting epitaph for a great writer's life cut short like Willie Morris. No doubt the two are now side by side at the great catfish pond in the sky.
Lord knows how many times we might have brushed shoulders at The Beacon, or Smitty's, or Sneeds...God, I wish I'd actually known him during my years in Oxford.
Amazon.com
A great memoirist can burnish even an ordinary childhood into something bright--see, for instance, Annie Dillard's An American Childhood. So what about a really good writer with access to a dramatic and little-documented story? This is the case with Catfish and Mandala, Vietnamese American Andrew X. Pham's captivating first book, which delves fearlessly into questions of home, family, and identity. The son of Vietnamese parents who suffered terribly during the Vietnam War and brought their family to America when he was 10, Pham, on the cusp of his 30s, defied his parents' conservative hopes for him and his engineering career by becoming a poorly paid freelance writer. After the suicide of his sister, he set off on an even riskier path to travel some of the world on his bicycle. In the grueling, enlightening year that followed, he pedaled through Mexico, the American West Coast, Japan, and finally his far-off first land, Vietnam.
The story, with some of a mandala's repeated symbolic motifs, works on several levels at once. It is an exploration into the meaning of home, a descriptive travelogue, and an intimate look at the Vietnamese immigrant experience. There are beautifully illuminated flashbacks to the experience of fleeing Vietnam and to an earlier, more innocent childhood. While Pham's stern father, a survivor of Vietcong death camps, regrets that Pham has not been a respectful Vietnamese son, he also reveals that he wishes he himself had been more "American" for his kids, that he had "taken [them] camping." Catfish and Mandala is a book of double-edged truths, and it would make a fascinating study even in less able hands. In those of the adventurous, unsentimental Pham, it is an irresistible story. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book PrizeA New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Whiting Writers' AwardA Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the YearCatfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey-a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam-made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness." In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.
Customer Reviews:
a random and beautiful encounter.......2007-07-09
i was travelling alone in Lhasa, Tibet and found this book in Makye Ame restaurant. i started reading and couldn't put it down. it gave me true enjoyable solitude on my lonely journey. loved it. i spent the last two days reading it in that restaurant. ordered a copy from Amazon last week and i can't wait to finish it.
my heartfelt thanks to Mr Pham!
. . arriving at the place where you started. . .and knowing it for the first time.......2007-07-09
`I am a mover of betweens' writes Andrew X.Pham. . . `I slip among classifications, like water in cupped palms.' And in his award winning Catfish and Mandala he takes his readers into those `betweens' with him Viet-kieu, `foreign' Vietnamese, Pham sets out from San Francisco on his rickety 18 speed bicycle riding the Pacific Rim, first up the coast to Seattle, then through Japan, and finally arriving in Ho Chi Minh City from where he begins his odyssey through Vietnam, seeking to understand his relationship to the country of his birth, and the people, and his culture.
The ride he takes us on becomes, for the reader, as spiritual as it is physical. We feel every bump in the road, we push up the hills, we are cold, wet, hungry, ambivalent at times, and we suffer from chronic dysentery. Pham meets people who reject him, who taunt him, and those who, often after initial distrust, befriend him for part of the journey. While he is `pedaling and pushing' alone to Hanoi and back , on a journey everyone advises him is too dangerous, the narrative ebbs and flows through his childhood, through the escape on the boat, through the struggles of his family.
Pham moves comfortably from the specific, the particular, like his recollections of Scarface, Bugsy, Redeye, or Bagman and Mechanic, or the roasting ears of corn dripping with pork fat and scallions, to the philosophic - and then the poetic. It is little surprise he has been linked to writers like Thoreau, Kerouac, Steinback.. . I might add William Carlos Williams,T.S.Eliot or Carl Sandburg. He speaks at once of Vietnam and of his uncertain place there and of the US- and in so doing speaks to all of us who now count among the millions who have left homelands and no longer fully understand what home is, and who `move between.'
By the end of Pham's journey we begin to understand what that is, and value it.
moving.......2007-06-09
This story of a family's escape from Vietnam is a captivating memoir. The author combines his family history with richly detailed descriptions of the landscape of Vietnam. Very well-written and moving.
Great book!.......2007-04-30
Born in Vietnam and came to America at the age of 2--this book is such a great read. It's quite a feeling to see so many of my own thoughts and conflicts regarding my heritage written out this way. Highly recommended.
From another Vietnamese's perspective.......2007-02-23
Overall, this book is well written and has its good moments. As a Vietnamese who came to America at the same time frame and age as the writer, I can't help but to dislike the writer as I read the book.
First of all, I think the writer has a condescending view toward Vietnam and the people. He tries too hard to describe the negatives while not trying to even understand the reason for the state of the country and the people. I feel that the writer sensationalizes, even bordeline fictionalize, his story to appease to the readers. In the book, the author tried to describe the character Kim as a victim of the society, yet, he goes on to use her and skip town so he wouldn't have to face her. He paints such a negative picture of everyone that he met on the road. I wonder why he even took this trip. This author is the reason why Vietnamese Americans are so dislike in Vietnam. The author came back to the country without any knowledge nor understanding, and sadly, all he can do is whined.
I'm two years older than the author and came to United States when I was nine. What the author faced is not unlike any other Vietnamese refugees' story. I wonder about some facts and timeline in the author's recollection of his childhood. Base on the events that were stated, the author must have a photographic memory at such a young age. Some of his memories were a bit far fetched. One has to wonder if the memories were really his or a collection of someone else's memories.
As far as the difficulties in a new country, GET OVER IT!!! Every Vietnamese had to endure the similar situations. My father was a high ranking government official and he too had to work as a janitor. My mother who was a teacher, had to work on a assembly line making seat belts. I grew up in Fresno picking oranges and tomatoes. My wife escaped Vietnam by herself at the age of 16. We all survived and thrived on our experiences. There were many, many more Vietnamese who endured much worse fate than Mr. Pham. I find the author's self-indulgent story annoying by the end of the book.
Overall, I think the author tries a bit too hard writing about himself and forget the real victims, his motherland and the Vietnamese people. As much as the author wants to convey of his noble character, I find his views lack of empathy and understanding for Vietnam. I happen to be very proud of my roots and appreciate all that Vietnam has to offered, even with all of its imperfections. Sadly, Mr. Pham reflects many Vietnamese Americans that have turned their back on their roots. I'm proud that I was born in Vietnam and will be proud of my heritage everyday.
Amazon.com
There are some preconceptions about southern traditions that need to be clarified. Moonshining is no longer the pastime of grizzled Deliverance yahoos, but a multimillion-dollar business laced with SWAT-style raids; squirrel brains probably aren't responsible for neurological disorders; and in Louisiana, a good cockfight is fun for the whole family. These are some of the enlightened reports delivered by Burkhard Bilger as he explores the stereotypical, eclectic habits of southerners from West Virginia to Oklahoma. Despite Bilger's journalistic pedigree (he is an editor with The Sciences and Discover, and has credits in The Atlantic and Harper's, where his cockfighting piece, "Enter the Chicken" previously appeared), he slips into nostalgia just enough to romanticize a squirrel hunt, or raise a game of backwoods marbles into an Olympic march of glory.
Bilger kicks off the tour from his hometown in Oklahoma, where he "noodles"--thrashes a limb around in catfish-thick waters--hoping to land a fabled 80-pound monster with his bare hands. In Louisiana he challenges the misgivings any nonenthusiast might have about cockfighting. Even though it's illegal in most of the country, the bloodsport is thriving in the Bayou State, replete with trade magazines, well-produced venues, and American Kennel Club-worthy breeding strategies. The same passion for efficiency goes into the moonshining business, where Bilger is taken under the wing of one of the few shiners willing to lead him through his sourmash operation. A few nights later, however, Bilger is on the other side, on a raid with the local sheriff. Squirrel-brain consumption is still popular in hamlets throughout Kentucky, even after a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine blamed a neurological disease on the dish. Frog legs, one Georgia entrepreneur claims, will soon replace chicken, and southern cooking--the kind that features chitlins, pigs feet, and collards--has become haute cuisine in Atlanta. Back in Oklahoma, Bilger connects with a coonhound trainer during a long night's raccoon chase, and he follows the success of a backwoods marble team who shaped their shooters in the granite-strewn streams of Tennessee. Bilger treats each eccentric character with a distant respect and hints at the melancholy of losing tradition, no matter how bizarre. --Lolly Merrell
Book Description
Burkhard Bilger vividly captures a world that lies outside the familiar images of life in the United States in the twenty-first century in eight superbly crafted essays about little-known corners of the South. It is a world in which grown men catch catfish with their bare hands, crowds of people cheer on chickens as they fight to the death, and a woman moves into a trailer home when her house burns down just so she can continue hunting 350 nights a year.
Bilger records the eccentric and sometimes downright bizarre behavior he encounters with humor and wit but nary a whisper of mockery. In essays that combine history, anecdotes, and personal observations, he describes each activity, its origins, its dangers, and its pleasures. But Noodling for Flatheads is much more than a survey of unlikely pastimes. Through lively portraits of the participants, Bilger illuminates the obsessive individualism that is at the heart of the American spirit.
Download Description
Though satellite dishes outnumber banjo players a thousand-to-one, the old Southern traditions haven't died, they've just gone into hiding. Cockfighting is illegal in forty-eight states, yet there are three national cockfighting magazines and cockpits in even the most tranquil, law-abiding communities. Homemade liquor has been outlawed for more than a century, yet moonshiners in a single Virginia county ship out nearly half a million gallons of corn liquor a year. Noodling for Flatheads explores these and other clandestine worlds and shows us that the weeds growing between the cracks of American culture are some of its most vital signs of life.
An exceptionally eloquent observer as well as occasional participant, Burkhard Bilger dissects the history and practice of eight bizarre Southern pastimes. He introduces us to the people whose spirit of individualism keeps these traditions alive, from the fifty-something female coonhunter who spends 350 nights a year in the woods, to a man whose arms are scarred by the 80-pound catfish he catches by hand. A fluid combination of adventure, history, and humor, Noodling for Flatheads is absorbing, evocative, intelligent, and wonderfully weird -- a splendid antidote to the sameness of today's popular culture.
Customer Reviews:
Unfortunately Overlooked.......2005-01-07
I recently found myself recommending this book yet again and I realized that far too few people had commented on it. I used to work at a magazine that had published two excerpts from this book and I was priviliged to help edit Bilger's work for publication.
Bottom line is that this book is sorely overlooked, despite Bilger's New Yorker affiliation and the various "best of" anthologies that many of these pieces appeared in. Bilger may be the best science writer working today - but that seems like an unfair qualification. He's just flat out an excellent journalist and writer, as evidenced by his keen observation and predisposition to rewarding literary style arcs in journalism. When Tom wolfe first coined the term 'New Journalism' I'm pretty sure this is exactly what he had in mind. In addition to the immense pleasures of the writing itself, in the end you actually learn something. I sincerely hope more people read this book and I continue to scour the New Yorker table of contents for his work.
Turn off your tv -- there's an amazing country out there.......2001-07-23
This is storytelling at its best. I first read one of the essays in this book in the New Yorker and right away I knew I'd be looking to read everything that Burkhard Bilger writes. This book contains eight essays but I think of them more as real-life stories. In the table of contents each essay title has a subtitle. Even they are a pleasure to read, each one beginning with the words "In which". To give you an idea of what I mean, here's the subtitle for the essay on moonshining: "In which the age of the microbrewery meets the modern police state, with intoxicating results".
In the introduction the author tells us how he started writing these tales about the South. He was living in Massachusetts and decided he wanted to get a coonhound which he knew, and missed, from growing up in Oklahoma. But finding a coonhound in New England wasn't easy. He says "A few people had heard rumors of such dogs, but none had actually seen one in the flesh." He ended up at the home of a breeder who handed him a magazine "American Cooner". The author said "It was the strangest publication I had ever seen." And so began his journey in search of life outside the popular culture which is all most of us know, beyond the "range of most antennas".
Each of the essays is about a tradition, or sport, or way of life that is in danger of dying out, some of them illegal, some not. He visits a woman in Oklahoma who breeds coonhounds and hunts racoons more than 340 nights a year, a man in Kentucky who hunts and eats squirrels, and a man in Georgia who owns a fish hatchery, frog farm, and wild hog preserve. Each of these stories is, in the end, about people and this is where Bilger's writing really shines. He knows how to write about people better than almost anyone else I've read. I read alot of non-fiction and profiles of people and I know it's not easy to write about people in a way that gives the reader the sense that they now know that person, at least a little. The writer spends a few days with someone, hangs out with them, talks to them for hours. Then he has to sit down and from all those hours pick just the right details, just the right quotes, just the right observations, to make that person seem real on the page. And Bilger has mastered that art.
Beyond the people, he also puts the stories into a larger, sometimes historical, context. In the story on cockfighting he goes to Louisiana where some people are reluctant to talk to him even though it's one of the few states where the sport is still legal. He tells about the popularity of the sport in different parts of the world and in the early history of America, when it was not only legal but a "fashionable amusement". In fact it didn't begin to be banned until the 19th century, and New York in 1867 "became the first city to ban all blood sports." The author talks about the efforts to outlaw the sport in the few states that still allow it, and he does mention animal rights activists but he doesn't interview any. He doesn't seem to be trying to write an unbiased account, and if there's any doubt about where the author's sympathies lie, that doubt will be dispelled by the time you get to the last paragraph of this essay which gives us his view (brilliantly written, I think) of modern civilized America.
The final story is about marbles. Yes, marbles. A specific game called rolley hole, which he tells us "is to other marble games as chess is to checkers". It's about the near extinction of the game and how it was revived by a folklorist, and how the revival led to, among other things, an international competition in England. Even if you know nothing about marbles, even if you've never heard of rolley hole, this story will have you on the edge of your seat wanting to know what this is all about. But in a larger sense this story is also about how and why life is changing in our country and whether anything can be done about that, even by a well-meaning folklorist. The last few pages are reflective and philosophical and I was left not quite sure whether to feel sad or hopeful.
Make no mistake about it, the author likes the people whose stories he tells. He writes about each of them with great warmth and affection. And reading this book made me feel happy to be in this world with all its strangeness.
Yikes? Who knew?.......2000-09-18
Most of us who live outside the South have adopted the "New South" image, consisting of budding high-tech nodes, car plants in South Carolina, and, of course, the Atlanta Olympics. Bilger shows that unique southern traditions, including those squirrel brains, are still around and thriving. He is not judgemental (although he doesn't seem too anxious to relocate), but rather paints a detailed and sympathetic portrait of a unique and still vibrant rural southern culture.
Noodle away.......2000-09-06
Bilger calls himself a gonzo journalist, and it may take just that type of writer from the fringes to head out in search of folks who eat squirrel brains or play rolley hole (a marbles game). Yet he proves greatly sympathetic to his subjects (more so than gonzo god Hunter S. Thompson, for example). In the hands of a Faulkner or a Flannery O'Connor, the tales of bullfrog farmers and coon hunters might have become Southern gothic grotesqueries. But Bilger paints them in vividly human colors in ways that might even make you want to go noodling for flatheads (a most unique method of catching catfish). This is a fun look at the lives of people we rarely encounter.
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- Catfish of the World in one book
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The World of Catfishes
Midori Kobayagawa
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
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Customer Reviews:
Catfish of the World in one book.......2000-10-19
This book contains almost all families of "cats" including Asian, African, European and North and (of course) South American. There were equal pages\pictures devoted to all species not just the most popular "cory" catfish. There are a lot of full color pics for id but most pics are not fully identified (i.e. synodontus sp.). There is also text on keeping the different families of fish including pH, temp, hardness etc.. Overall this is one of the most complete catfish books on the market although it could use some revision and additional info, but I still concider it in the top 5% of all fish books I have read.
Book Description
The heartland's answer to Sarah Vowell and David Rakoff, Nancy French tells it like it is--one laugh-out-loud anecdote after another about a red state American's experiences living in the blue states.For the first 20 years of her life, all Nancy French knew of the world was Paris--Paris, Tennessee, that is. When the former homecoming queen trades in cow-tipping, big hair, and the Catfish Capital of the World for a new life in the Big Apple, she is in for a real education. With a keen sense of humor, French discusses everything from the South's obsession with church attendance to the blue-state notion that red staters think as slowly as they speak.
Customer Reviews:
Laugh Out Loud for this transplanted Southern Girl.......2007-01-15
It's been a while since I finished reading this book. I enjoyed it a great deal. I was 27 when I left the South and moved to upstate NY -- like the author I found that life was VERY different outside the South. A lot of her observations rang true and made me laugh out loud.
Very funny and a good read.
Excellent Book!!.......2007-01-11
A wonderful glimpse at the subtle (and not so subtle) cultural differences in our country. Mostly funny, but with some serious points, and relevant throughout. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Funny and timely.......2007-01-09
I loved this book. Nancy French is able to point out the cultural differences in our society through anecdotes which are very funny. Conservatives will be encouraged and I think liberals will see that conservatives aren't as intolerant as the main stream media portrays them.
Hoping for Funny.......2006-12-24
And this book didn't deliver it.
The author has a good voice and a lovely, light writing style. She knows how to set up a good domestic story and make it funny as sin. Unfortunately, she spends entirely too much time whining about the "liberal" North and complaining about how horrible things are in the Northeast.
As a transplanted Southerner living in Taxachusetts, I thought I'd enjoy this book. I stopped reading half way through, sick to death of her whining. She didn't finish her degree at NYU because all the liberals were soooooo mean to her. Her friends in New York froze her out just because she wrote a nasty article in the paper. Her newborn baby had to wear cloth diapers. Oh the pain. Oh the agony.
Poor upper middle class, suburban Republican stuck amongst the Democrats!
Jeesh. From her book, you'd think all Southerners are White, middle-class, right-leaning Republicans. Speaking as a Yellow Dog Democrat Evangelical from the deepest part of the South I can only say that obviously she sees what she wants to see and disregards the rest.
Funniest book I've read all year.......2006-12-14
This isn't the type of book I'd normally pick up, yet I found myself laughing with each and every chapter. Nancy truly has a gift for words. It doesn't matter where you live, or what your political and religious beliefs are, this book will make you smile. As a Texan who works in New York and lives in California, I could totally relate to just about everything Nancy wrote - her grocery store and garbage dump experience, her mother's cardboard box collecting obsession. I can't wait to read Nancy's next one.
Book Description
All known plated catfish are presented on 144 pages with 650 brilliant color photographs and short introductory text. Besides the genera Aspidoras, Brochis, Corydoras, Callichthys Dianema, Hoplosternum, we show all variants, mutants, hybrids, breeding forms and undescribed forms ("C-numbers"). All AQUALOG -reference books introduce each fish (incl. breeding forms etc.)with at least one color photo and a short description. The ingenious code number system labels every known or newly discovered fish with an individual code number. This number re mains, despite any scientific renaming. Moreover, it enables you to communicate internationally about any fish without the danger of confusion regarding local names! Your AQUALOG -reference book always stays up-to-date! All newly discovered or bred species are regularly published as supplements or so-called "stickups" in our AQUALOGnews. These stickers can be attached to the empty pages at the end of your book. If you want more information about these interesting fishes, you'll find it in our AQUALOG -Special "Fishes of the Year - The Highlights"!
Customer Reviews:
Simply the Best Reference Books.......2007-01-20
All of the Aqualog books are excellent value, although they are not particularly cheap. They are full to the brim with first class colour photographs and to reproduce these in a book is an expensive process. Whether they are about Corydoras or some other species of fish they are the most comprehensive identification books you can buy. They never become dated because as new fish become available to the aquarist trade the books are updated.
They will not tell you how to set up a tank or what plants or rockwork you need. They will not tell you which filter to use or what type of substrate. They are a fish identification encyclopaedia and nothing more. But for those aquarists who are particularly interested in a particular species they are indispensable.
Average customer rating:
- The best catfish book there is. A must despite the price.
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An Atlas of Freshwater and Marine Catfishes: A Preliminary Survey of the Siluriformes
Warren E. Burgess
Manufacturer: TFH Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 086622131X |
Customer Reviews:
The best catfish book there is. A must despite the price........1998-03-02
This book contains an incredible wealth of information on catfish keeping, breeding, taxonomy etc., plus a wealth of photos. Unlike too many TFH books, which are just rehashes of old photographs, this book contains real, useful, in depth info, that makes it worth the rather high price.
Book Description
The 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds is generally considered the best of all time, and baseball historians often rank its sixth game as the greatest single game ever played. Adelman opens his story of this epochal summer with the dramatic preseason showdown between owners and players that catalyzed free agency, increased player salaries, and launched an age when baseball would be less about the game and more about 'the green.' THE LONG BALL then tells the dramatic story of the star-studded season that followed and the heart-stopping series itself. With unforgettable portraits of some of baseball's most colorful characters, this is an affecting look at baseball's last great days-all of it leading up to a magical home run that wins a game for a losing team and leaves the bat with the thump of a heartbeat.
Customer Reviews:
An entertaining read.......2007-05-12
"The Long Ball" is definitely an entertaining read. There were laugh-out-loud moments as the author described some of the plays in the '75 World Series. The first half of the book covers the regular '75 season, many of its players and teams, while the second half concentrates on the post-season. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because the author's slant in favor of the Boston Red Sox eventually emerges as an unmistakable bias. I would have liked to see the book's approach be more even-handed between the Reds and Red Sox, especially since it was the Reds that won the World Series, not Boston. Still, a very enjoyable read. Recommended.
Not impressed.......2005-11-29
Don't let my review scare you from wanting to read this book. My reasons are obvious...I found myself in a love hate relationship with this one. As a die hard red sox fan I purchased this book with only them in mind. My only intentions were to learn more about the history of the sox. There was a lot more information than I needed to know in this book. All the other information was good but unnecessary to me. I found my self skipping around to get to the information that kept me awake.
The detail that was good was really good (this is why I still gave the book three stars). Some of the information on the hall of fame players that are described in the book was perfect. How Pete Rose played the game, How Carbo got to bat in the ninth, how the camera stayed on Pudge after he hit the bomb, what happened to Tony C. etc etc. If your a red sox fan and you wouldn't mind fighting through all the useless facts about the other teams, you would definitely enjoy this one. But if you're easily distracted there are probably better books out there on the history of the sox.
Warning Track Power.......2005-08-26
Tom Adelman's The Long Ball: The Summer of '75 is both an interesting and frustrating read. The concept of the book is excellent. Connecting various stories of the 1975 season in a cut and paste manner makes for a more interesting read than just a straight chronological account. Mr. Adelman is also very adept at painting a descriptive picture of the events he is relaying. The frustrating part is that he is very inaccurate with his facts and one never knows if everything is real. The story about how Barry Bonds started choking up on the bat during bat day at Shea Stadium just seems too far fetched to believe. This other similar stories of young Ken Griffrey, Jr., Mark McGwire & Rickey Henderson lead you to question how accurate or real the stories of the actual '75 are.
Makes you feel like you're right there in 1975.......2005-05-17
I happened to stumble upon this book at a local bookstore. The paperback cover said it was a "national bestseller." After a quick glimpse through it, I decided to pick it up. I wasn't disappointed. Adelman makes you feel as though you are right in the thick of things during the 1975 season. Newlywed Johnny Bench is featured prominently, as are Bobby Bonds and his son Barry, Pete Rose, Carlton Fisk, and Sparky Anderson. There isn't any reminiscing on how this year was, Adelman puts you right there month by month. The League Championship Series' and World Series are expounded upon greatly. The World Series is broken down by the days including the rainout days. A very good book. Recommended.
Why didn't I hear about this book sooner?.......2005-04-30
I just discovered this book at a local bookseller. I read it over the course of a few evenings, and I continue telling friends about cool tidbits I learned from The Long Ball.
Adelman's done his research, and his crisp, fast-paced writing gets you in the game quickly. Even if you're not a Reds or Red Sox fan, there's plenty in the book to enjoy, as it celebrates not only numerous players' personalities, but the nuances that make baseball so enjoyable for so many.
Book Description
Fishing for Catfish is another exciting addition to the Freshwater Angler series. This highly requested title is a valuable reference guide that covers all aspects of catfishing. An appealing book that conveys helpful how-to information through four-colour photography, illustrations and easy-to-understand instructions.
Customer Reviews:
A good overview of catfishing.......2002-02-25
This book offers a great overview of the four most common types of freshwater catfish (channels, blues, flatheads, and bullheads) and the methods used to catch them. The author also covers the different bodies of water where catfish can be found, and different techniques for fishing these bodies of water. Sutton also goes into great detail about different catfish baits, tackle, and rigs. If you already know a lot about catfishing and want to learn more, this book isn't for you, however, if you want to learn the basics of several different methods of catfishing, I highly reccomend this book.
Everything you need to know..........2000-10-07
...about finding, fishing for and even eating catfish appears in Keith Sutton's excellent Fishing for Catfish. Sutton edits Arkansas Wildlife magazine and is a well-known outdoors writer and photographer with other books to his credit. This book opens with an introduction to catfish of all sizes from around the world, then settles into the real heart of the matter--understanding where catfish live, what they like to eat, and the best ways to rig up your tackle and catch them all--from 12-inch bullheads to 100-pound flatheads. You'll find advice on hooks, sinkers, rods and reels, varieties of live and so-called "grocery-store" baits and recipes for homemade stinkbaits so obnoxious that only a catfish will love them. Sutton even teaches his readers how to clean their catch and cook it to perfection--Fishing for Catfish covers everything from the first thought--"I think I'll go fishing"--to the last one ("What a great dinner!"). The best testimonial I know is from a friend, an avowed bass and crappie angler who'd never targeted catfish in more than half a century of fishing. After he read Sutton's book, he bought a new rod worthy of big catfish and used Sutton's advice on the Arkansas River near his home--and caught fish the very first time out.
A great book for all serious catfishermen........2000-09-15
This book is the best on the subject. It contains a wealth of knowledge on all aspects of catfishing. "Fishing for Catfish" covers everything from catfish biology to every type of fishing method, gear, setups, etc. . The photographs and diagrams are exceptional. A great book for all experience levels.
Average customer rating:
- If you like loaches, this is not the book for you
- Hobbyist Guide to Catfish and more Catfish
- Exellent!! Outstanding everything you need on loaches!!!!
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Hobbyist Guide to Catfish and Loaches
Paul V. Loiselle , and
David Pool
Manufacturer: Tetra Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 3893561382 |
Customer Reviews:
If you like loaches, this is not the book for you.......1999-12-07
Many things are disapointing about this publication if you are not a catfish enthusiast. The text covering the loaches is not even close to an adequate assessment of this group. It seems as if the author simply needed to fill some space or broaden the material covered in the book. One chapter is devoted to captive breeding of the clown loach (Botia macracanthus), but this too is a let-down. If you are a serious loach fanatic you will probably find a few tidbits of information helpful, but for most others it simply isn't worth purchasing.
Hobbyist Guide to Catfish and more Catfish.......1999-12-07
If you're into loaches, this book lacks in information. Most of the book concentrates on catfish. There is a section recounting an incident of clown loaches bred in captivity, but that's about it. A little disappointing for loach lovers.
Exellent!! Outstanding everything you need on loaches!!!!.......1998-11-08
Perfect book!!! Loaches Rule!!!
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