Writers Books

Michael Drinkard's Disobedience seamlessly weaves together the wacky stories of several generations of the Tibbets family, a Southern California clan who initially cultivated the orange in the Golden State.

The Tibbets, and the characters drawn into their lives, are beautifully rendered and utterly believable, no matter how comedic Drinkard's portrayal (from Grandma Gortex, an ex Las Vegas showgirl who parades around with an artificial hip, eye, and chest; to Luther Tibbets the down-on-his-luck, infertile engineer who can't impregnate his wife but eventually fertilizes the Imperial Valley by delivering water to California's deserts).

Underneath the surface of Disobedience's narrative lay brilliantly complex symbols and themes related to California's past, present, and future--if you choose to read them as such. Yet, these complexities do not detract from the stories, which are overwhelmingly imaginative and entertaining. As a writer, Drinkard's unique eye for detail, dialog, and diction far outweigh any of his references to structuralism, postmodernism, or any academic ism. The author is simply a marvelous, talented storyteller.

Anyone interested in a good yarn and the simmering conflicts within California would enjoy reading Disobedience. I look forward to reading Michael Drinkard's next novel.

This book had me hooked from the start. At first, I thought Drinkard was deconstrucing history but what he's really doing is *reconstructing* history. I was most impressed with how the author shows the linneage of traits within this very screwed-up family. This work also has a great sense of humor without sacrificing the humanity of the characters- most notably, the teenage son of the near future.

Michael Drinkard is not only the most original and literate chrnonicler of the Southern Californian landscape writing today, but also an insightful, poetic, and innovative traveler of the territory of childhood, of work, and of the psyche.

This book is a throbbing fun chant, a glockenspiel, an information tsunami, a benevolent dose, a purple eye pouch, a navel orange, a sexy sprawl, a fanatical consumer, a big fat violent happy face. I laughed, I cried, I got wet.

From the Bear Flag Revolt to the mini-mall present, the military and industrial powers of white California have consistently attempted to define the state's future by redefining (or obliterating) its past. This is certainly not a unique characteristic of the powers-that-be, but in California, especially Southern California, they seem intent on rubbing it in our faces. Thus it is not surprising that young California writers are increasingly turning to the state's past, at a level beyond supermarket historical realism or postmodern surface-nostalgia, to attempt to come to grips with this region's unsettled and unsettling present. Drinkard succeeds in crossing the seemingly impenetrable haze that separates one generation's California from the next. Jumping from parent to child, womb to grave, the novel encompasses the boosterism, booms and busts of the McKinley era, the corporate greed of the nineteen-eighties, and a near-future setting so plausible that it barely qualifies as science fiction. The author shows how the emotional lives and destinies of the characters in each present are created in a history that is largely unknown to them, revealed only when disasters both man-made and natural literally turn up the bones of the past. The book is an enjoyable read, especially in the near-future setting, whose characters are the most lovingly detailed. Drinkard has not quite learned to write the distant past, though his treatment shows promise. The nineteenth-century portion is lovingly researched, but the speech and mannerisms of the characters did not ring true enough to immerse me in the setting. The near-future part is full of gizmos and knick-knacks (some would say "gimmicks") that resonate with both DeLillo at his more whimsical (White Noise) and Jonathan Lethem. I am not personally fond of the former writer, but anyone who is--you must be out there--will certainly enjoy this aspect of Drinkard's book. By far my favorite part of the book was set in the corporate high-rise culture of the nineteen-eighties, amidst the early growth of the "information superhighway" and the cocaine-fueled careers of its builders. In this part of the story Drinkard portrays the emotional and moral development of a young man in a way that any writer could be proud of; and he certainly surpasses most of the other writers dealing with the same subject matter. More importantly, it is the part of the book that gave me the greatest sense of time past, of history both made and in the making.

Coming from a similar background, I could truly appreciate the author's message; her mother came across as slightly exaggerated, but recognizable enough. I will say that the financial aspect struck me as not-quite-adding-up (as it did the I.R.S. also!). Ms. Warner seems to alternately poormouth herself - there's one essay about taking a job solely because she didn't have enough money for the rent - and yet she brags about her bi-coastal real estate. Finances seemed to be no concern at all for her move to L.A.; the whole situation seemed to fall effortlessly into her lap with a great apartment and car waiting. That point aside, the book is very funny.

Yes, I am an unabashed fan of Liz's writing. No one turns a phrase like Ms. Warner. Her writing has bite and wit and never fails to entertain me. I have this book and I have read some of the same stories numerous times. One day, everyone will be in her thrall. She is every bit as insightful and entertaining as the fabulous Mr. Sedaris. Yes, she's included in my book Fired! Tales of Canned, Canceled , Downsized and Dismissed and we are friends. I fell in love with her writing and sought her out. You should too.

Liz is a rebel in a pink headband. This brilliant, sensitive, witty force of a comedienne could offer so much more than just wisecracking irony, physical comedy and a vicious, vicious bite. Still, she's written a very funny book of monologues, and you won't be able to resist laughing out loud, especially if you grew up around a lot of money somewhere nice on the East Coast. She'd be even funnier if she'd seek the magnificent in the world and laugh when life falls short. Instead, she doesn't trust herself enough to go deeper than a cat scratch, which limits her and makes the read a little tedious. Still, it's well worth buying, reading, giving...

Rarely do I laugh out loud as I read a book on a crowded NYC subway. In fact, I thought only David Sedaris could make that happen, until Elizabeth Warner came on the scene. "Ditched" is about two worlds colliding: the last gasp of Main-Line Old-School traditionalism meets the reality of the modern urban world. But it's the way it's written that really sucked me in: "To my right two elfin girls in baby-doll tees and jeans so petite they appeared to be conducting a rape in progress...." and "... impossibly appealing men with that ruddy, Northeastern skin that wants to shout 'sun' and 'tropics' but really whispers 'gin.'" See? Funny!

I am buying this book for all of my friends because they are getting tired of me calling them to read excerpts aloud to them! Everyone can relate to these great stories about overbearing family, wacky friends, and a derailed love-life. Parts of the book keep popping into my head and making me laugh out loud. This is the funniest book I have read in years.

Sal Glynn gives it to us straight and with (FINALLY!) a sense of humor. "Dog Walks.." is a must have for writers trying to publish. It's smart without being pretentious, thorough without being overwhelming and all in all, the perfect handbook for writers of all shapes/sizes/levels. Sal knows what he's talking about, and thankfully, he also knows how to make us laugh when LOOOOORD knows, as writers, we need to. Like, a lot.

"The Dog Walked Down The Street: An Outspoken Guide For Writers Who Want To Publish" by Sal Glynn is 96-pages of solid, practical, experienced, 'user friendly' instructional advice for authors in answering a series of fundamental questions about their work such as: When you finish the first draft how do you decide whether its really good or simply too flawed to submit for publication? How do you go about finding a good agent? Sal Glynn draws upon his years of personal and professional experience working as a managing editor for book publishers to demystify the common problems encountered by novice authors and experience writers alike; presents a clear, accessible approach to writing for publication; offers practical 'first aid' for writers, details just how to stay sane and healthy while writing, and provides aspiring writers yearning to break into print with a strong and effective foundation for their present and future work. "The Dog Walked Down The Street" is a welcome, thoroughly useful, and critically essential addition to any dedicated author's reference shelf.

Glynn's tour de force may prove to be the only page-turner in non-fiction; my copy, at least, has many pages turned down. I will go back again and again, not only for the bon mots he delivers on every page, but because his brief, incisive points motivate me to write more often, send more query letters, try one more time. "Get to it", he seems to say, and "here's how". Authors, editors and publishers: his book will save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. And did I mention that it's funny?

Buy a copy for each aspiring writer on your gift list, and another for your reference shelf. This is a book for the ages. And--Sal? Please write another one soon.

As a new author (2005) I was very naive about the ways to work with a publisher. I expected more hand-holding, and didn't know how to help the pubishing house staff help me. I so wish I had access to the clarity in "The Dog Walked Down the Street." Sal Glynn knows the book business from the ground up, and loves to help people turn an idea into a book. His viewpoint is pro-author, but always sympathetic to what the editors and publishers need from the writer for a co-creative process. Most writers are so grateful to be published they will take crumbs of praise in place of a solid partnership in making the book as terrific as it can be. After reading this book, any writer can navigate the business behind taking a book from draft to galleys to book signing events.

Here's a little gem of a book that anyone trying to be a writer must have. The title comes from a quote by the poet Charles Bukowski that "most writers can't write a simple sentence, like, `The dog walked down the street.'" Unfortunately, that holds true for most of the "how-to" books on writing out there, but this sleek little volume is different because Glynn does it with humor, a wry, I've-seen-it-and-it-ain't-pretty sort of humor that always rings true. He's obviously been around the publishing business for years, and he openly shares his savvy about the nuts and bolts of the business from contracts, re-writes and editors to galley proofs, typography and book design.

Mostly, though, this book is about inspiration, inspiring the writer to keep writing. Filled with terrific quotes, antecdotes, and just plain good advice, it's a book to be read straight through, but also to be picked up and opened to any page for a laugh. Glynn doesn't pretend to offer a treatise on plot arcs, characterization, etc., but he makes up for it with a suggested reading list that's eclectic, exhaustive, and knowledgable. "The Dog" is sure to become a cult book for serious, aspiring writers. It succeeds beautifully in supplying that one percent of inspiration that makes up for all the perspiration.

The first was Abraham Lincoln, and thank God he lived to see the Civil War to its conclusion. Unfortunately, Dostoevsky died of smoking-induced emphysema before his genious was able to formulate the aims of a revolution, potentially of comparable historical import to our own. This is my analogy -- not Frank's -- but his "biography" does make my view legitimate, I think.
Dostoevsky's sway over the new generation of radical activists was profound enough that he aimed to transform the ideology of socialist revolution into the ideology of a unique Russian Christian renaissance, in opposition to the secular materialism of the civilized world. In the author's eschatalogical imagination, he envisaged a Russian revolution of sentiment that would have had the opposite effect of France's "liberty, equality, and (compulsory) fraternity" -- but he died before he was able to manifest his positive ideal in its complete force through the character of Alyosha Karamazov. Thus, it would be interesting to find out what the sequel to The Brothers Karamazov would have been and also to see how Russians would have taken such a message.
Frank's "biography" should bolster most people's initial internal response to Dostoevsky's work -- a response that most of us have to struggle to articulate.

Dostoevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881 is the long-awaited final volume by Joseph Frank, Professor of Comparative Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and Professor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Languages and Literature Emeritus at Stanford University.

Previous volumes in the series are: Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849; Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859; Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865; and Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871.

It was during the final decade of his life, 1871-1881, that Dostoevsky wrote Diary of a Writer and his greatest novel, The Brothers Karamazov. Many pages of Frank's fifth volume deals with analzying these two works (140 pages for The Brothers Karamazov alone).

With impressive literary scholarship, Frank throws light on the historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and literary setting within which Dostoevsky created his works of art, novels of great psychological depth.

For example, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "Dostoevsky, the only psychologist, by the way, from whom I had anything to learn; he is one of the happiest accidents of my life, even more so than my discovery of Stendhal."

Dostoevsky traced the roots of the evils in Russian society to a loss of religious faith. By "religious faith" he meant specifically the Christian faith of the Russian Orthodox Church. He thought the Roman Catholic Church was a distortion and perversion of true Christianity. (See the harangue Dostoevsky puts into the mouth of Prince Myshkin in Part Four, Chapter VII, of The Idiot.

Of particular interest is Frank's discussion of Dostoevsky's philosophical thinking (framed, of course, within a Christian worldview), such as his ruminations on Russian nationalism, rational egoism, and the freedom of the will, and his grave concerns over the adverse moral and political effects of atheism and nihilism.

Frank soft-pedals Dostoevsky's notorious anti-Semitism, seeking to exonerate his hero as being simply "a child of his time."

Although one finds many things to dislike about Dostoevsky, one cannot help being impressed by his literary genius. Recognizing the excellence of Dostoevsky's art, Frank devotes the lion's share of his volume not to the man himself but to the man's literary production.

While this is surely not the fault of Joseph Frank, one is depressed by the seemingly endless fare of Russian sectarian bickering and murky political maneuverings. One breathes a huge sigh of relief to escape this oppressive atmosphere.

"Dostoevsky : The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881" is the fifth and final volume in Frank's extraordinary biography of Dostoevsky, a remarkable undertaking of more than a quarter century. While every volume has been exceptional and well worth reading, because they share a title and differ only in subtitle Amazon's system tends to muddle reviews of the various volumes together. This final volume covers the last decade of Dostoevsky's life, so don't buy it expecting a one-volume bio of the great writer. If you care about Dostoevsky's work find copies of the first four volumes, read them, then read this book. The series sets a superlative standard for examining a great writer's life and works, but this volume isn't really intended to stand alone, despite a short "story-to-date" intro.

A truly triumphant conclusion to a massive and passionate undertaking. Frank shows the highest standards of scholarship in being objective, fair, yet sympathetic to one of the greatest of all writers. In this final volume, we have Dostoevsky living and breathing the Russian air of his beloved land seething with social, cultural and political issues of the day. An engaged and far-seeing artist if ever there was one. The complexity and paradoxical simplicity of his life presents us a real genius often at odds with the way he would be perceived by many of his readers, yet a humane and sincere human being. Now go back and read the magnificent works he has given us from his pen.

Not until in this the fifth and final volume of Frank's biographical look at Dostoevsky's books is the issue of antisemitism fully dealt with, and good heavens what PASSIM references there are! Finally, Dostoevsky's introduction of the blood libel myth into The Brothers Karamazov got on Frank's nerves (I don't know if Frank is Jewish though): "[T]hat Dostoevsky should have introduced such material at all, no matter how topical it may have been, leaves a permanent stain on his reputation that nothing can efface.....NOW, he gives the widest possible circulation to this age-old vilification, first used in classical antiquity against the early Christians themselves." (p. 670)

Yet Frank's words for the book itself include: "genius," "grandeur," "poetic power," "symbolic elevation," "a monumental power of self-expression to his characters which rivals that of Dante's sinners and saints, Shakespeare's titanic heroes and villains, and Milton's gods and archangels....with the same superhuman majesty as the figures of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel." To save ink Frank might as well compare The Brothers Karamazov to the Old Testament. (This would be appropriate as Christianity is a leitmotif in Dostoevsky's works.)

Such a brilliant book! (Dostoevsky's, that is.) Little wonder that Einstein, someone I admire very much, also liked it a lot, antisemitism notwithstanding.

Frank's biographical criticism runs to almost 3,000 pages from Volume I-V. I'd hoped at least 300 of those pages would be devoted to The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky's masterpiece) but I got half that number.

The "mantle of prophet" which Frank refers to of course has nothing to do with antisemitism: He means that Dostoevsky was, even more than Pushkin, the prophet of the Russian radical spirit.

A long time will pass before another definitive work on Dostoevsky supersedes this multi-volume masterpiece.

This book is certainly one of the most unusual I've ever read. Step by step an intriguing and compelling story unfolds itself until in the end the line between reality and the inexplicable vanishes. The reader has to be prepared to let go and to get involved in a story about love and insanity, murder and justice, the shadows of the past and, finally, hope. The rich and inventive language of the author makes this read a real treat and I can only highly recommend this novel to everybody who enjoys to read a book that demands something from the reader as well as offers a few hours of excitement. I truly hope that this wasn't the last novel by Matt Spencer!

This is a wonderful tale that is totally unpredictable. Every time I thought I knew were the story was headed, the story went in another direction. It is a complex tale with an ending that left me wanting to know still more about the story. An excellent read that I highly recommend to anyone who is look for a different type of tale.

This is not for the faint-hearted or those with a weak stomach. This is psychological, terrible stuff, about demons within and demons without. It is about coming to terms with your own darkness; about magic, horror and love. It is scary, original and deeply touching. Even if this book wasn't the fascinating story it is, it would be a pure joy to read something by a writer who uses the English language like Mr. Spencer does. He writes cleverly and inventive, and every description paints vivid images in my head.

This book's strongest point is the totally weird ideas the author is constantly throwing at you, and the unique language he uses to express them. You trully feel as though you've been taken to another world, even though the events take place in "real life." The images and characters from "The Drifting Soul" will stay with you long after the final page has been turned, and you'll be left waiting for the next instalment, for surely Mr. Spencer has more plans for Angela Wrecker, and the wicked new world she's just stepped into!

I was recommended this book by a friend, who knew I liked horror novels, and that I was in the market for something different than the usual horror fare, ala King, Barker, Rice, etc. This book is written very much like a play-by-play description of a very strange dream, which starts out as very surreal and kind of romantic, then bit by bit, turns into a nightmare. Or to be more accurate, there are two stories going on, one that seems to be in the "waking world," and another that feels more like a dream, where most of the true horror plays out. The last 50 or 60 pages contain some of the most vivid, disturbing material I have ever read dealing with the supernatural. For a while, I was wondering where the parallel story was going, but by the end, the author manages to tie everything together nicely. If you are looking for a gruesome, imaginative story with memorable characters, this is for you.

I've owned both editions of this wonderful little book. This little gem is for the person who doesn't have time to slog through all sorts of prescriptive grammars. It's handy, well organized, and easy to use. I own a lot of grammars, being both an author and an English teacher, and this is the one I turn to first.

Author of:
Nasty

"Nate Jepson (a.k.a. "Nasty") is a solid entry into the P.I. hall of fame." - Publisher's Weekly

A good friend who must really love me gave me this book when I headed to grad school. It answered all of my APA citation questions and many of the little grammatical quandries one encounters at 3 a.m.
I only wish I had the budget to buy this book for all of my high school students. Every young writer should have a guide like this to tidy up their work. Alas, at about $50 a pop, with a school of 350 students, this book is out of our range. If you can pick one up used or can afford a new copy you won't be sorry.

As one of Andrea's former students, I've had to read this book and use it extensively. Not only did it get me through her class, but every class I had after that (and I've had a large number of English and History classes). If you're looking for a book to help you with MLA style, Professor Lunsford covers everything you can possibly hope to draw info from, including lectures, interviews, and even MUDs online.

This book is an ideal tool for anyone who has to write for school, work, or as a hobby. The easy access tabs and extensive menus help you find what you are looking for quickly and the spiral binding lets you lay the book open while you type. The coverage of the writing process and argumentative writing really set this book apart. Anybody can write up grammar rules or documentation standards, but Lunsford's coverage of writing at the start of the book is wonderful. Buy this book and don't sell it back to the bookstore, this is a keeper. Also, for the teacher that wants one for every student, try "Easywriter" which is the smaller version of this text that only costs about fifteen bucks.

The Everyday Writer is a wonderful asset to any college English student. It contains all the essentials for writing term papers. I suggest that everyone who needs help in English should pick up this book.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The story keeps you tied to your chair from start to finish. I can't help but believe that if the author's ideas were put into effect the world would change, to everyone's benefit.

You get more than you bargain for--action, issues, and ideas that provoke a far greater reaction than most thrillers. I found myself thinking about this book long after the last page was turned.

This book has the best of everything! Great, fast-paced action, believable plot, and a great message. Presents a believable scenario for the not-too-distant future, as well as a feasable solution. A great, fast read, with nary a dull moment! Whether you just like a great action story, or if you're looking for something with meaning, this book's for you!

Guess I'm just not a "message" book kinda guy. If I'd read the author's comments on this site I might not have picked this up. Woulda been too bad.

This is a great read. Lots of action, interesting, well developed characters and some cool plot twists.

There is a message here but the author wisely doesn't beat you with it. You can just enjoy the ride, and it's one worth taking.

I look forwad to Rhamey's next....

A unique blend of fast-paced action adventure, fascinating characters, and sound philosophy of living, The Enemy is a page turner that left me thinking about it long after I reached the last page. It's enough to give the NRA nightmares and to give the rest of us a look at a better way of living that, if we're smart about it, really doesn't have to be that far into the future.

Leever has definitely arrived with 'Even In Darkness"! I couldn't put it down...if you enjoy suspense-filled novels, this one belongs in your collection!

This is a very intense read. The book grabs you and doesn't let go. I simply wasn't ready for the twist at the end, but whoa! Jay's (the main character's) a guy whose feelings I could really relate to. He's definately a man with "balls."

I really enjoyed this book. The suspense is right up there with the stuff on the bestseller list. I will read anything else this author comes out with.

For the person who doesn't read often (like me), this is the kind of book that keeps you engaged and needing to read on to the next section. The pacing is excellent, and the backdrop of the story--a university campus that takes on more and more of a menacing feeling as the book progresses--is excellently done and unsettling at the same time.

I particularly liked the character of Breeze, and what happens with Kristin near the end of the book. The scenes in the tunnel system underneath the campus with Kristin being pursued in the dark by two bloodthirsty thugs were enough to give one nightmares, but it was great suspense.

Overall, a great read.

Jeffrey Aran Leever is a publications manager for a nonprofit organization in Colorado. An English/writing major from the University of Nebraska (Kearney), he presently lives in Arvada, Colorado. He has co-authored two published non-fiction books.

Colleges often have immense power with the locals of the communities they serve...power which can be turned for dark purposes. When Jay Downing's friend Reed Manley doesn't appear for a preappointed "night on the town," and some strange girl tries to lure Jay into the University's long unused underground tunnels, Jay begins to fear for his friend's life. The police treat Jay as if he is on drugs, and when Reed's body appears outside of town, even the coroner seems to be in on the coverup. But it is the professors at Jay's school in Stratton who act the most bizarre:

"Jay looked again at his professor, and wondered what the man knew. What pieces of the truth he held. It was as if Lanum was trying to hold back something, and yet share it at the same time. As if there'd been something Jay had done that gave Lanum reason for contempt. It had to have been something independent of their never-quite-so-serious interactions in class. But what?"

The idea that a university setting could be used for nefarious purposes, and that professors (who, after all, are supposed to represent the creme de la creme) could be arch-fiends stirs up a shiver of recognition in all of us. (Who hasn't dreamt about not attending class and not knowing where their final was?)

Even In Darkness is a well written, spine-tingling, Gothic, Steven Kingish novel that grips the reader from page one. Leever's use of uncertainty in speech, action, and tone puts the reader into a nervous state from the beginning. It is an excellent tool to produce the results he wants, which is to scare us to death and keep us turning those pages. Even In Darkness is an great first effort in the genre for Leever, and presents him as a new talent to be reckoned with. It is entertaining, scary, infuriating, and deeply satisfying, all at once. A great read.

...

This book is a thriller from start to finish. Word to the wise; don't read this book before you go to bed at night, you may not be able to get to sleep.

Truly enjoyed the variety of poems!!!!
Authors of all ages and walks of life had the opportunity to publish their work in this beautifully compiled book by Ana Monnar. The only book of its kind with pictures of every author. As a teacher and parent I recommend it to children and young authors for inspiration!!!!

The way that Anna Monar has found and allowed authors such as those that have been in the book to be published is excellent, as I am one of those myself. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in the many different writing styles and to get a glimpse of how others think and feel. Anna has done an amazing job in bringing together all the different cultures and aspects of people from around the world in past, present, and future. Props to you Anna! Thanks for making this happen for those of us who have always wanted this opportunity!

I have truly enjoyed reading this book. Due to the variety of the different types of poems; past, present & future, one can enjoy reading a poem at any given time. I love how Ana Monnar gives other writers the oportunity to publish their own expressions. As an educator and a parent I would recommend this book to anyone. Can't wait to read Volume 2!!!!

All in one book is a mixture of age, gender, color, places, and array of style. Ana Monnar has brought this diversity to readers and writers. She has taken inspiring talent of days pass and now. How people use to live and write and how people live and write today. I would recommend this book to readers of all ages who would like to write and need some inspiration. This book inspires.

Ana Monar brings together not only writers from past and present but also a wonderful blend of different cultures, ideaologies and even generations. This will certainly encourage young people who would never have published their work to do so. If I could I would put a copy of Dancing With Words in every school (and public) library.

In "Farwell to the Sea," Arenas continues his Pentagonia series by departing from the hallucinatory violence presented in the first two books ("Singing from the Well" and "Palace of the White Skunks") and entering the minds of a young married couple spending a week by the sea. Divided in two parts, the first part is the stream-of-consciousness narrative by the unnamed woman who resents her baby, fears losing her husband, and who feels helpless to cope with the communist society in Cuba. She aches for her husband's love, yet is suspicious of his infidelity, particularly when a handsome and taciturn teen-aged boy arrives with his loquacious mother and moves into the cottage next to theirs. Her dreams are mixed into her daily conscious narrative and reveal her anxiety, torment and fears. In one dream with sexual connotations, she sees visions of Greek warriors slaughtering each other in a violent orgy-like battle. And in another vivid rendition of the ubiquitous cue of the communist life, Cubans stand morosely in line while soldiers standy nearby, gunning down anyone that dares defies them or attempts to alter the cue.

The second part is from the husband's, Hector, perspective, but it's primarily told in poetic form and involves often allegorical portrayals of how he sees Cuban life and his own. His resentment underscores much of his tale, even his attraction to the boy next door, which becomes a central conflict during his stay. He longs for the boy and to freely express his homosexuality, yet feels the omnipresent oppression of the communist system as it systematically stifles all that is human. Perhaps one of the most poignant passages is the following poem in which Hector expresses what the communist system has done to his and everyone else's humanity: "You are no longer a man who calls things by their name -- you blaspheme. You are no longer a man who laughs -- you jeer. You are no longer a man who hopes -- you mistrust. You are no longer a man who loves -- you accept. You are no longer a man who dreams aloud -- you are silent. You no longer sleep and dream -- you are sleepless. You are no longer one who is wont to believe -- you consent. You are no longer a seeker -- you hide." And then he adds the line (not 30 yet) to signify how communism has jaded him and turned him into a hopeless cynic while still a young man.

Beautifully written, and a tale that will bear repeated readings.

A young Cuban couple gain permission to spend a week at a beach resort. They spend most of their time sitting by the ocean, silent in private thought. We get inside her head for the 7 days and then into his, receiving different perspectives and views on the vacation, and on their current lives. Arenas does a fantastic job of expressing both her and his frustrations at their station in life, and in the freedom they feel has deserted them. She laments the burden of motherhood and the loss of her personal sense of self. He laments his loss of freedom as the Castro government clamps harder down on writers and artists. Also, driving his frustration is his own frustration as a closet homosexual in a straight, macho world. Arenas does not overtly state his themes, but reveals them like one peeling an onion. There is layer after layer to discover.. and the underlying themes of the novel come across through reverie and daydreams.. hallucinations of the young couple as they stare at the water. It is this non-linear dual-narrative style of writing that is so effective as through their private thoughts, we start to understand the true essence of the lives of this young, but jaded young couple.

For sure the best of Arena's books, this middle novel of his five-book pentagonia series is brilliant and unwinding. This is one of my favorite books of all time - if you choose to read any Arenas book I highly recommend this one.

I love each of the books in Pentagonia but this one especially stands out as a masterful work by a truly brilliant talent. Perfect as a stand alone read or as the center of the five novels, I cannot recommend this enough.

Having read them in their intended order, Farewell to the Sea seemed to anchor the five novels perfectly, fusing the stream of consciousness of Singing from the Well and Palace of the White Skunks and paving the way for the absurdity of The Color of Summer and the dystopian horror of The Assault. Farewell to the Sea places Arenas in the company of Faulkner and Virginia Woolf, but he still manages to forge a niche of his own that is remarkable, stunning and thoroughly rewarding. Read this book.

A young Cuban couple gain permission to spend a week at a beach resort. They spend most of their time sitting by the ocean, silent in private thought. We get inside her head for the 7 days and then into his, receiving different perspectives and views on the vacation, and on their current lives. Arenas does a fantastic job of expressing both her and his frustrations at their station in life, and in the freedom they feel has deserted them. She laments the burden of motherhood and the loss of her personal sense of self. He laments his loss of freedom as the Castro government clamps harder down on writers and artists. Also, driving his frustration is his own frustration as a closet homosexual in a straight, macho world. Arenas does not overtly state his themes, but reveals them like one peeling an onion. There is layer after layer to discover.. and the underlying themes of the novel come across through reverie and daydreams.. hallucinations of the young couple as they stare at the water. It is this non-linear dual-narrative style of writing that is so effective as through their private thoughts, we start to understand the true essence of the lives of this young, but jaded young couple.