Book Description
Mexican architect Luis Barragán (1902-1988) is famous throughout the world for his seductive treatment of colour and space. His unique persona and remarkable buildings have attracted growing interest for many years. In this monograph, Danièle Pauly, provides an overview of his life and his architectural oeuvre, his Mexican roots, the Mediterranean influences, his Functionalist period, and finally the steps to maturity as a consummate architect. All Barragán's major buildings are documented comprehensively and analysed in the light of his life, enhanced with attractive illustrations that reveal his masterly, almost magical touch with space and shadow, walls and colour - a celebration of Barragán's undeniably significant contribution to world architecture, including previously unpublished material. Danièle Pauly is Professor of Architecture in Strasbourg and author of the Le Corbusier Guide to the Chapel at Ronchamp, also published by Birkhäuser.
Product Description
Book Review by New York Times Best Selling Author Ellen Tanner Marsh Shadow Fields By D. F. Whipple What happens when you wake up from the American Dream to find that you are actually living in an American nightmare? Can reality ever be as good as all you had hoped for? In D. F. Whipple's wild original debut, Shadow Fields, we're about to find out. Jack Maguire has it all: charm, power and enough money made on Wall Street to live like a king. But things are definitely not what they seem. His wife Jennifer, for instance, is so plagued by her past that she soon sinks into the brink of madness. His daughter Anne is depressed and suicidal. And Jack's favorite anodyne, work, just isn't doing the job for him all of a sudden. How can Jack live when the only dreams he has now are broken ones? As satirical as Thomas Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities and as inventive as Nabokov, Whipple has great fun poking holes into Wall Street sacred cows. His prose is diamond-hard and shining with meaning, and his characters are so alive and rich, you'll swear you know them personally. But Whipple is after more important things than creating mere satire. This is a tough reexamination of lives in the balance, careers on the make or break, and the casual way in which we sell our souls to achieve what we only think we want. Blistering, funny and deeply moving, this cautionary tale tells us to be careful for what we wish for, because getting it may not make us happy. At least not as happy as this richly satirical novel does.
Download Description
Control. Jack wanted it back. It was ripped away long ago. So this life of Wall Street-a realm where reality and myth intertwined-had taken its toll. On his body. On his soul. After December, he felt besieged, and it was all random and meaningless, and Jack knew he was falling into the abyss.
Jack Maguire has it all: money, power, charm, and the ability to overcome any challenge. Until today. Suddenly Maguire, the CEO of Taylor Drake and one of the most powerful businessmen in America, finds himself helpless-desperate for bearings. Working ninety hours a week is no help; in fact, the harder he works, the deeper he sinks. His wife, Jennifer, has grown distant. Anne, his teenaged daughter, is depressed. And worst of all, a tragedy struck on Christmas Eve. After years of camaraderie and laughter, Jack now suffers alone-a winner overwhelmed with loss. Wry, heartfelt, and deeply poetic, Shadow Fields explores the nature of opposites-life and death, success and failure, hope and fear-but ultimately asks whether these are opposites at all. Indeed, Jack Maguire cries out for an answer, and in the process, he speaks for everyone.
Customer Reviews:
Shadow Fields.......2007-05-29
From the moment I opened this book, I knew I would want to know everything there is to know about Jack's life. I felt every pain and victory with him. The writing is truly glorious. Thank you D.F. Whipple!
Stephanie D.
A gem--read it!.......2007-05-28
If you have ever heard someone describe seeing Springsteen at the Stone Pony *before* Greetings from Asbury Park, or saw LeBron play basketball in high school, you can get a sense for how I feel having read D.F. Whipple's Shadow Fields. The book is beautifully written, not just engaging but engrossing. That it comes without the hype of a major publishing house makes it even more delicious.
Shadow Fields tells the story of Jack Maguire, a man on the fast track who gets to the top and wonders what he has sacrificed and whether he should change course. But this is a fresh take on this not uncommon story.
I'm no literary critic, so I can't delve too deeply here, but the highlights of the book for me were the characters and their conversations, which are vivid and oh-so-real; the examination of the marriage, which will have anyone in a relationship doing some soul-searching; and the fact that I did not want to put this book down.
The book also passes my other tests: I will give it to friends confidently; and I will read it again myself to delve deeper into some of the important themes.
Look--I'm rooting for Whipple, in part because he is not backed (yet) by the big publishers. I just ordered Snooker Glen, his second novel, although I wonder if an author who scores big with his first novel can possibly nail the second as well.
And I recommend this book highly. You will enjoy reading it, and it will get you thinking. And someday, we'll all boast about how early we were aboard Whipple's career.
Shadow Fields.......2007-01-27
Who can recall that vivid, altering moment when the confluence of events converge to define one's life course? The trajectory is announced, crystallized...defined. When is that second when the whispered voice of encouragement and self affirmation adjusts to an audible volume, undismissable with its intent? It morphs into a propellant for self confidence...self belief...an embracing escort to the next test. It becomes the impenetrable fiber woven for the vicissitudes of life...not dismissable! D.F. Whipple conducts those pivotal Doylestown scenes with a musical mastery...balancing the "turn of the phrase" with the staccato of anticipation and a sensitive , controlled tempo, until the accelerando vibrates towards its ultimate , exuberant release. I felt present for Jack Macguire's defining moment on those Doylestown Shadow Fields, realizing at once the transforming message of self insight and self affirmation. An invaluable read for life students, who approach the raised bar...no matter what the goal....n'importe! A Shadow Field is there for us all.
A Great Read.......2007-01-10
Shadow Fields is a great read!! Jack is a captivating character with struggles that are well storied by D.F. Whipple. The flow of the story was excellent and the writing superb. No part of the story was left unfinished and I was left with a seamless vision of the characters portrayed. I'd highly recommend buying the other book by D.F. Whipple, Snooker Glen.
Shadow Fields.......2006-08-09
D.F. Whipple's poetic development of a young man in total control of his environment, effortlessly setting and achieving his goals, is eloquent and beautifully constructed. Jack Maquire's fast-paced life and meteroric rise in the most demanding pressure cooker, Wall Street, contrasts sharply with his almost melancholy awareness of 'the true meaning to love and life.' While his inner struggle for Balance ensues, his values and beliefs are shaken to the point of collapse.
Wonderful insight from Mr. Whipple; I loved all the switch-backs; a great read!
Average customer rating:
- Myle's Fantastic Review
- Shadow of the Wall is a terrific book!
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Shadow of the Wall
Christa Laird
Manufacturer: Greenwillow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding
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ASIN: 0688093361 |
Customer Reviews:
Myle's Fantastic Review.......2004-03-12
Shadow of the Wall
This is a story about a boy that survived what seemed to be the impossible, when he was very young his father died of a disease. His mother sent him to an orphanage; she eventually started to live there. After Misha was older he started to smuggle food in from the "outside" for his family because his mother was very sick and couldn't work. Eventually Mishas mother died, leaving him and his two sisters. The Nazis started to give terrible punishments to people who broke the law, if Misha was caught smuggling food he would be killed. The Nazis are preparing to raid the orphanage and many of the children and adults are very weak. What will happen to Misha, his sisters and the rest of the orphanage?
I didn't like this story because it is to sad the way both of his parents die when he's young and leave him to fend for both him and his two sisters. It is also a little bit gross, when Misha was smuggling once he stumbled over two dead bodies and one of them wasn't even covered up! This story relates to The Diary of Anne Frank.
Shadow of the Wall is a terrific book!.......1998-03-03
I AM A 6TH GRADE STUDENT AND I JUST FINISHED READING SHADOW OF THE WALL. IT IS A FANTASTIC BOOK. IT IS CONFUSING AT THE BEGINNING BUT WHEN YOU GET TOWARD THE MIDDLE IT GETS REALLY GOOD. I WOULD RECOMEND IT TO ANYONE. IT IS ABOUT A 13-YEAR-OLD JEWISH BOY THAT LIVED IN A GHETTO DURING THE HOLOCAUST. HE GOES ON A VERY IMPORTANT MISSION (SMUGGLE HIS BABY SISTER OUT OG THE GHETTO TO LIVE WITH A NON-JEWISH FAMILY). IT ALSO TELLS ABOUT HIS OTHER ADVENTURES.
Average customer rating:
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In the Shadow of the Wall: An Anthology of Vietnam Stories That Might Have Been
Manufacturer: Cumberland House Publishing
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
ASIN: 1581822529 |
Book Description
It was a war that tore America apart. When it ended, more than fifty-eight thousand of our young men and women were dead, killed defending a country most people had never known existed.
Years later, this nation still bears the scars of that terrible war, but the men and women who fought to uphold traditional American ideals have not been forgotten. In 1982 the Vietnam War Memorial was dedicated to those who gave their lives in the defense of freedom. The black marble wall, inscribed with the names of every serviceman and woman who died in Vietnam, is our most poignant reminder of the sacrifice made by the 1.2 million veterans of that war, a sacrifice that the survivors still live with to this day.
In the Shadow of the Wall is an all-original anthology of fictional stories by some of the best writers of the Vietnam generation. In many instances, these are the same people who experienced firsthand the surreal experience that was Vietnam, both there and at home. The authors and stories included are: “50 WPM” by Orson Scott Card • “What's in a Name” by Michael Belfiore • “Blood Bone Tendon Stone” by Michael Brotherton • “Obsessions” by Leah R. Cutter • “Names in Marble” by Joe Haldeman • “Willing the Child to Return” by David Lange • “The Pilots” by L. E. Modesitt • “Reflections in Black Granite” by Mike Resnick and Michael A. Burstein • “Black Reflections” by Robert J. Sawyer • “The Angel of the Wall” by Byron R. Tetrick
Andy Duncan, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, and Michael Swanwick have also written stories for this thoughtful and thought-provoking collection. FICTION 6” X 9”, 320 PAGES PAPERBACK
Product Description
The House with a Clock in Its Walls; The Figure in the Shadows and The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring are three magically eerie tales gathered in this one-volume edition. The series opens as Lewis Barnavelt, a newly orphaned ten-year-old, comes to live with his Uncle Johnathan. Little does Lewis know that Uncle Johnathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman are witches. Lewis finds that he himself owns magical powers, and soon is thrust in a supernatural battle between good and evil. The second tale focuses on Grampa Barnavelt's old coin. Lewis thinks the coin is an amulet, but when he starts to wear it around his neck, bizarre things start to happen - and not all of them good. The last tale shifts the focus to thirteen-year-old Rose Rita, who is embittered because she cannot go to camp like Lewis. so Mrs. Zimmerman offers Rita an adventure of her own. But when a magical ring disappears, Rita gets more of an adventure than she bargained for. John Bellair's vivid characterization and and excruciatingly suspenseful plots make this series a thrilling ride!
Customer Reviews:
Enchanting horror and a little bit of kid angst.......2007-09-19
John Bellairs is a master of children's horror that I'm afraid the world has forgotten in the Harry Potter rush. As much as I love all that good stuff, nothing beats Bellairs' aura on a little town in 1940's Michigan where anything spooky can happen.
The three novels in this volume ("The House with a Clock in its Walls", "The Figure in the Shadows", and "The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring") focus on a orphan boy named Lewis who has come to the town of New Zebedee to live with his eccentric uncle who just so happens to be a wizard. What proceeds is various dippings into the supernatural.
And these are not the "cute" supernatural, at least in the usual sense. Sure, Stephen King and Anne Rice would probably consider these adventures kid stuff, but they are they are perfectly creative enough for kids; honestly, I think they're more creative than most of the adult horror out there. Bellairs deals with necromancy, Biblical prophecy, possession, the whole nine yards, but all very tastefully done to be suitable to this age group.
Besides the horror, these are books about what it's like to be a kid. Bellairs gets into the heads of his characters with their thoughts and worries and hopes like few do whilst balancing another subject.
His writing is also absolutely enchanting. Without being flowery, he is a master of description with exellent pacing and a storytelling voice that just draws you in.
I know these are a couple decades old, but I adored this mans' works as a kid, and even now I can't think of many things better to do than curl up with these stories.
Still A Good Read.......2007-04-29
I read these books years ago, found them creepy, and forgot about them until recently. These are aimed at a young adult reader, but they're atmospheric and well written, and definitely make enjoyable adult reading. Check out the pages on the individual books for more info, but the three books in one edition is a great deal. These are also excellent for pre-teens and older who enjoy books on the supernatural. They do deal with themes of witchcraft and magic, but otherwise, contain no objectionable content.
Bellairs' Barnavelt/Zimmerman Trilogy.......2007-03-21
This volume contains:
House with a Clock in its Walls (1973)
The Figure in the Shadows (1975)
The Letter, the Witch and the Ring (1976)
I have not read all of Bellairs' novels, so I cannot say whether these three are really his the "best". But the grouping is appropriate for other reasons: These are in fact the first three of Bellair's supernatural horror novels for kids; each is a sequel to the last; and all three feature the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Jonathan Van Olden Barnavelt, Mrs. Zimmerman, and (in the last two novels) Rose-Rita Pottinger. Moreover, the collection is more-or-less complete, since these are the only ones featuring these characters that were written entirely by Bellairs and published during his lifetime. The "next" in the series, entitled "The Ghost in the Mirror" was published posthumously after being completed by Brad Strickland in 1993 (after a gap of 17 years, during which Bellairs switched to writing about Johnny Dixon and Anthony Monday). Strickland has gone on to write his own adventures in the series (with what success I cannot say).
HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS begins with the orphaned Lewis Barnavelt, aged 10, being sent to live with his crazy Uncle Jonathan, and his batty neighbor Mrs. Zimmerman. The Uncle and the neighbor both turn out to be magicians (of the benevolent sort), and the grand old house they inhabit is filled with magical artifacts and mysteries, including a strange ticking sound reputed to come from a hidden clock. Matters get serious after the insecure Lewis, in an attempt to impress a friend, ignores his uncle's warning that he should never attempt magic. Creepy, scary fun ensues.
The next two novels in the series are just as well written, and every bit as creepy and scary as the original. However, the grimness becomes a little more unrelenting, and some kids may even find it depressing. One reason for this is that Bellairs seems to have somewhat regretted sending mixed messages in his first book, by his positive portrayal of magic as practiced by Mrs. Zimmerman and Uncle Jonathan. In the course of these volumes Mrs. Zimmerman is almost completely deprived of her powers. Bellairs continues to pay lip service to the idea that they are both benevolent minor magicians, but he ceases to show them using magic to positive effect. Magic use becomes, for all practical purposes, almost entirely associated with evil, and any dabbling therein leads only to horrific consequences.
I don't think Bellairs is necessarily wrong to want to discourage kids from seeking occult powers. However, it is a possibly unintended effect of this decision that the stories become increasingly and unrelentingly horrific and depressing. While the first volume made it seem as though there were powerful forces of Good to compete with those of Evil, the two sequels start to seem a bit like reading H.P. Lovecraft, wherein Evil has all the power.
The edition contains the original Edward Gorey illustrations for the first novel. Unfortunately, other artists illustrated the two sequels. The latter illustrations do not enchance the stories, which would be better off without them.
Three tales in the Lewis Barnavelt series.......2007-01-22
John Bellairs is best known as the author of sixteen gothic mystery novels for young adults comprising the Lewis Barnavelt, Anthony Monday, and Johnny Dixon series. The three stories in this book are the first three in the Lewis Barnavelt series, although the last has more to do with his friend, Rose Rita. The tales collected in this book are "The House with a Clock in Its Walls," "The Figure in the Shadows," and "The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring."
So far from what I've read of this author, his characters tend to be elderly eccentrics, or ordinary children (no superkids, here). Lewis is resourceful, but with a child's fears and limitations. Most especially, he is afraid that his uncle won't like him, that the kids in his new school will make fun of him, and that he'll never have a friend. His uncle, Jonathan and neighbor, Mrs. Zimmerman are very likeable magicians. They play poker with Lewis and make him chocolate chip cookies and cocoa, and generally treat him as a small adult.
The House with a Clock in its Walls (1973) - illustrated by Edward Gorey
Lewis is a newly orphaned, plump ten-year-old, who wears "purple corduroy trousers, the kind that go `whip-whip' when you walk." The author often claimed that his imagination got stuck at ten, and here is Lewis, age ten, going to live with his Uncle Jonathan in New Zebedee, Michigan. The year is 1948, and New Zebedee bears a strong resemblance to Marshall, Michigan, where the author was born--- The Cronin House and the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Hall still stand in Marshall, just as their counterparts do in New Zebedee.
The only thing Uncle Jonathan is reluctant to talk about with Lewis is the ticking noise within the walls of his old mansion, recently acquired from a deceased magician.
Lewis discovers that his uncle makes midnight excursions throughout the house, stopping and restarting all of the old clocks. He slowly gets involved in the mystery of an undiscovered clock. The wizardly Izzard couple who used to live in the house are both dead, but what did they leave behind and why?
There are some genuinely frightening scenes in "The House with a Clock in its Walls"---most especially when Lewis tries to impress a new friend by stealing one of his uncle's magic books and taking it to the graveyard at midnight on Halloween---but I don't want to spoil the story for you (Hint: there's a scene straight out of "Count Magnus" by M.R. James when the lock pops off of the crypt). Let me say that this is a truly scary book, and if the author's imagination got stuck at ten, he must lived an awesomely spooky tenth year.
"The Figure in the Shadows" (1975) - illustrated by Mercer Mayer
Lewis wants desperately to believe that an old coin belonging to his Great-Great-Grampa Barnavelt has magical powers. He is being bullied at school and starts to wear the old Civil War coin around his neck for protection. Finally Lewis turns on the bully and beats him up, but he soon learns that the coin has other, even darker powers.
When Lewis begins to see a shadowy figure in a long coat and starts to get scary messages, he asks his friend, Rose Rita to take the coin and throw it away. She wrestles the coin away from him, but instead of throwing it into the storm drain, she hides it.
The bully starts in on Lewis again, and he decides he'll do anything to get the coin back again, even steal it from Rose Rita.
This story has a very spooky climax that will scare even the grown-ups who are reading it to their children.
"The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring" (1976) - illustrated by Richard Egielski
Rose Rita is mad at the world. Her friend, Lewis Barnavelt is going to Boy Scout camp for the summer, and he is the only one who appreciates her for what she is: a tomboy with a great pitching arm who has no interest in growing up into the world of proms and pretty gowns. When Mrs. Zimmerman offers to take her on a trip to see the farm she just inherited from her cousin, Oley, Rose Rita jumps at the chance.
Unfortunately when Mrs. Zimmerman and Rose Rita arrive at the farmhouse up in the woods of Northern Michigan, it has been ransacked. The ring that Oley had found and believed to be magic has been stolen.
When Mrs. Zimmerman herself disappears, it is up to Rose Rita to solve the deepening mystery.
Don't expect milksop magic or easy solutions from this author. Rose Rita has to confront both interior and exterior demons, and comes very close to death before Bellairs winds down to his usual cocoa and cookies (well, roasted marshmallows in this story) ending.
The Best Of John Bellairs.......2007-01-18
Good product, prompt service. John really writes for much younger readers (I'm 83) but is a comfortable read anyway.
Average customer rating:
- Enjoyable account of a vietnam special forces operation
- Not one of 'Bo Gritz' best, in fact written by a russian decent, Aussie, who severed under Bo...
- Shadows is Fantasy
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Shadows on the Wall
Stan Krasnoff
Manufacturer: Allen & Unwin
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Called to Serve
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Covert Ops: The CIA's Secret War In Laos
ASIN: 1865088870 |
Book Description
This is the compelling autobiographical story of an Australian army officer attached to an American special forces unit on the Cambodian border in the Vietnam war. For the men in Stan Krasnoff's unit, life entailed sleep deprivation, bad rations, and the forging of a brotherhood. For the Special Forces gathered together to conduct a daring series of covert intelligence-gathering operations for the U.S. government, every day posed the threat of being killed-or worse, being taken prisoner. This is the story of a select group of men who, under the command of Major Bo Gritz, lived life on the razor's edge and faced the enemy up close and personal.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable account of a vietnam special forces operation.......2006-12-30
Capt. Krasnoff was the team leader of 5 Australian SAS attached to a U.S. Special Forces unit for project Rapid Fire (B-36). If you enjoy true first-hand accounts of SF operations then this is for you. I had some reservations about buying this book because of another 'anonymous' reviewer who somewhat bitterly alleged that it was a work of fiction. I contacted via email the commander of this particular operation, Col. Bo Gritz. He stated in no uncertain terms that Capt. Krasnoff did indeed serve under him during the operation and that the account was true in every word. He further added that anyone who says different - wasn't there. Since the negative reviewer declined to identify himself it is his own credibility (at best) that is obviously lacking. I enjoyed the book thoroughly!
Not one of 'Bo Gritz' best, in fact written by a russian decent, Aussie, who severed under Bo..........2006-01-11
Bo Gritz wrote the forward and it IS ABOUT
his first tour in the Cambodia region of
Southeast Asia. Written in vulgar (and non-
Christian) style by an Aussie named Krasnoff,
who served under Gritz for about one-and-a-
half years. The previous reviewer, who is
such a coward, he won't reveal his name, this
story IS MOST ASSUREDLY not fiction. By the
writting style is best suited for someone other
than a fine Christian like Bo Gritz to be assoc-
iated with. Bo's intro is very good though. It
adds to: 'A Nationa Betrayed', 'Called To Serve',
and 'My Brother's Keeper'. Interesting if you can
stand the language...
Shadows is Fantasy.......2003-09-10
Stan Krasnoff's tale 'Shadows on the Wall' is at best a piece of fiction, which is tied together with pieces of fantasy. Firstly, the then Captain Krasnoff was not in Vietnam during operation Rapid Fire IV. He did not get to Saigon until 5 December 1967. His participation in Rapid Fire Operations was limited to five patrols that amounted to less than 24 hours in the field. Copies of the official after action reports from these patrols do not match Krasnoff's hyperbole, especially the 'heart yammering' action where he allegedly killed the enemy soldier in the 'spider hole'. Krasnoff has made basic errors of description throughout the novel and some of his Acronyms are wrong. Shadows on the wall does not live up to its extravagant promotion. At best the words are a promotional tease written by someone with not one iota of knowledge about special forces operations in Vietnam and at worst it is a deliberate misleading of the reading public. False advertising, if you will. The book should be treated as a tale based around some actual events, but Shadows on the wall should never make it to the history or reference shelves of any library. In the telling of a story that needs no embellishment, this writer has done himself a disservice. It is a sloppy book.
Book Description
IN THIS FIRST BOOK IN THE HAUNTING YORK TRILOGY,
DAN TRIES TO SHED SOME LIGHT UPON
THE SHADOWS ON THE WALL...
Dan is confused but thrilled when his parents decide to take a family vacation to York, England, right in the middle of the school year. But his excitement turns to dread when he discovers a terrible family secret that threatens to destroy everything.
As if Dan doesn't have enough to worry about, the ancient Roman ruins of York are alive with ghosts of Roman soldiers, and they all seem to be reaching out to him. Could they be trying to tell him something? And what d the local gypsies have to do with it all? Do they know something about Dan's future that he doesn't?
Customer Reviews:
Haunting.......2002-06-19
Fans of ghosts, fantasy, history and haunting writing will find a gem in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "Shadows on the Wall," the first book of the York trilogy.
Dan Roberts is unexpectedly plucked from his everyday life for a vacation in York, with his parents. He's delighted by the vacation, but puzzled by how his parents are acting. One minute they are gushing and effusive, the next cold and silent. He soon discovers why: His father has found that their familiy has a hereditary nerve disease called Huntington's Disease, which his father might have -- and might have passed on to him.
As Dan struggles with the knowledge that he might have a terrible disease, that might affect whether he can marry and have kids, he encounters a friendly cab driver named Joe Stanton, and a group of mysterious gypsies led by Ambrose Faw. The strange ways of the gypsies are intermingled with visions of Roman soldiers, and a mysterious feeling of dread that Dan gets every now and then. He is inclined to think the visions and dread are hallucinations -- but Joe sees them too...
Haunting writing abounds in this novel. Without a single word of dialogue, Naylor can provoke feelings of dread, mystery, sadness, fear, and surreality. Her dialogue is unpretentious and thoroughly ordinar, as you would expect a teenage boy and his friends and parents to talk; yet the reader can detect the undercurrents of emotion underneath them. Atmosphere is expertly done, especially in scenes with the gypsies. Their differences are noted but not judged, and she does a good job with Dan's reactions to such things as the casual planning of a funeral before the person is dead.
It's also interesting that she wove together two different kinds of "haunting." Dan is haunted by his fear of having Huntington's Disease, a very realistic fear. At the same time, we view Joe and Dan both seeing visions of the past, such as a mute gypsy boy momentarily transforming into a lime-covered primitive tribesman, or the face of a Roman appearing in a pond.
This book is the first of a trilogy, and it shows. Though it can be considered a standalone story in its own right, it nevertheless has a feeling of "to be continued" on the last pages. And there are threads left dangling that undoubtedly are picked up in the second and third book.
Fans of ghost stories will undoubtedly enjoy this book, and race to read "Faces in the Water" and "Footprints at the Window."
shadows.......2002-06-18
I really didn't like this book very well. I thought it was boring and also a little confusing. It is the first book in a 3 part series, but there is no way that I would want to read the other two books. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for reading when I had to read the book, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
A book for people who like books about ghosts.......2000-12-29
The back of the book:
fifteen-year old Dan Roberts is confused about alot of things. Why did his parents decide they must suddenly take a juoney to York, England and why have they been acting so stangely since they arrived?
Beyond that, what is the sense of doom and draed Dan gets that Dan himself feels as he approches certain ancheint ruins in the City? Are the moving shadows he sees on the walls real, or just is he beginning to lose his mind?
And what of his new friend, the cab driver Joe Stanton, And their enconters with the gypsies? When they're together a stange sensation takes hold of Dan as the distant past melds with the present and dreams become reality.
If that doesnt intrige you what will?
A really neat book.......2000-03-04
You may never have heard of this book, but it's swell. It'sabout a boy named Dan who goes to York and goes through a mystery. Itjust kinda ends, but it's an awesome book!
Average customer rating:
- just don't assume it is art history
- Montaigne's Novella
- Answering Maria Carstensen
- Noit enough research
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Shadows On A Wall: Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro
Hilary Masters
Manufacturer: University of Pittsburgh Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0822942607 |
Book Description
Novelist and essayist Hilary Masters recreates a moment in 1940s Pittsburgh when circumstances, ideology, and a passion for the arts collided to produce a masterpiece in another part of the world.
E. J. Kaufmann, the so-called "merchant prince" who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater, was a man whose hunger for beauty included women as well as architecture.
He had transformed his family's department store into an art deco showcase with murals by Boardman Robinson and now sought to beautify the walls of the YM&WHA of which he was the president. Through his son E. J. Kaufmann, jr (the son preferred the lowercase usage), he met Juan O'Gorman, a rising star in the Mexican pantheon of muralists dominated by Diego Rivera, O'Gorman's friend and mentor.
O'Gorman and his American wife spent nearly six months in Pittsburgh at Kaufmann's invitation while the artist researched the city's history and made elaborate cartoons for the dozen panels of the proposed mural. Like Rivera, O'Gorman was an ardent Marxist whose views of society were radically different from those of his host, not to mention the giants of Pittsburgh's industrial empire-Carnegie, Frick, and Mellon. The murals were never painted, but why did Kaufmann commission O'Gorman in the first place? Was it only a misunderstanding?
In the discursive manner for which his fiction and essays are noted, Masters pulls together the skeins of world events, the politics of art patronage, and the eccentric personalities and cruel histories of the period into a pattern that also includes the figures of O'Gorman and his wife Helen, and Kaufmann, his wife Liliane, and their son. Masters traces the story through its many twists and turns to its surprising ending: E. J. Kaufmann's failure to put beautiful pictures on the walls of the Y in Pittsburgh resulted in Juan O'Gorman's creation of a twentieth-century masterpiece on a wall in the town of Pátzcuaro, Mexico.
Customer Reviews:
just don't assume it is art history.......2005-09-14
Whatever the literary merits of this short essay might be and keeping in mind the author himself reminds us that history is fiction and has no pretense of being a historian, I caution readers who, misled by the title, might think of this as somehow "art history". It is not. But I still have to point out that there are several errors that not even a dilettante (or non-historian) with -as he states- access to the Internet need make. For ex., it was the Cárdenas not Calles regime that censored O'Gorman's airport mural, and not because that regime was "flirting with fascism"; the Rivera-Kahlo studios are 1930 not 1936, and there is no Taxo (maybe Taxco: what about a spell check?). The "history" that gives him a story and helps him sell the book is sloppy, so much so that one is led to dismiss all the other other dates and points, like the gossipy innuedoes that are "retracted" sentences later, though the mud sticks. I don't blame O'Gorman's family for being less than enthusiastic.
Montaigne's Novella.......2005-08-26
This book's striking cover caught the eye of many a potential juror as I read it while spending a day waiting to be placed on a panel of prospective jurors. What's more striking than the cover, though, is the prose inside and the artful way in which Masters has created scenes with the same photographic skill that has made his memoir, Last Stands, an American classic.
The book is aptly described as part history, part fiction, all essay and one can't help but wonder that if the father of the essay had written a novella, this is surely what it would havve looked like.
Time and memory and the way in which memory allows us to travel in time (but always in an altered, often better, condition) are often the subject of Masters's work. Here, though, one sees the inner workings of his process as he forges a coherent narrative out of scant details and very few recollections. Reading this book is like watching an accomplished mathematician work out a solution to a famous unsolved problem. Except, the solutions here are presented as scenes of what might have happened.
And like a mathematician, Masters has the same up-front honesty: he acknowledges where his answers might be lacking. He hastens to add, however, that the truth is rarely as interesting as fiction, as what we remember: "My old friend and mentor Wright Morris once told me," he writes, "pass any fact through the human mind and it immediately becomes fiction."
Artists, affairs, robber barons and one giant attempt at a meaningful narrative produce a great read that never disappoints and often surprises.
Answering Maria Carstensen.......2005-06-27
It is disturbing to see Maria Carstensen using the good offices of Amazon to discredit my essay on her father Juan O'Gorman and the "merchant prince" of Pittsburgh, E.J. Kaufmann- "Shadows on a Wall--Juan O'Gorman and the Mural in Patzcuaro."
Number one: My essay is an imaginative account that attempts to understand why what could have been a mural masterpiece in Pittsburgh was never painted but resulted in the masterpiece that was painted in Patzcurao.
Number two, as the member of a family that has been frequently written about, I can well understand how perspectives may differ.
Hilary Masters
Noit enough research.......2005-06-02
This book was certainly interesting reading. Although as Juan O'Gorman's daughter I was very offended by Mr. Masters portrayal of the relationship my father had with me.
Our relationship was far from the "chilly" one described by Masters. I do not know where Mr. Masters got his facts, but when he contacted me he was only interested in what happened in Pittsburg which occured prior to my birth. Mr. Masters did not collect any information from me, about my full lifetime with Juan O'Gorman and Helen.
Masters carries on about a surgery my mother had, she had gallbladder surgery, not an abortion as he contends.
Another falacy was that Juan and Helen were divorced at the time of Juan's death,they had divorced and remarried pror to my birth, but I took care of all the legal affairs following my father's death and nowhere was there anything about them being divorced at that time. Helen did not leave Mexico and Juan to move to the US with me, she had come to the U.S. for medical care related to lung cancer, she returned to Mexico only to find he had commited suicide. These many "inacuracies" are hurtful to myself and my family.
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