Richard Dreyfuss Books

this is a very awesome book it has lots of pictures it also has poems, stories, names of all the people who died. etc..........

Not satisfied to let the images speak for themselves, noted anti-American Noam Chomsky includes an article blaming the U.S. for the 9/11 attacks.

I was enraged to see that such a sad individual would capitalize on an American tragedy, to further his anti-American political agenda.

Do not support the publisher of this book.

I cannot explain how angry I was to see Chomsky's article quietly inserted among these horrifying images. Its existence invalidates the entire book.

Profits from this book are donated to The Robin Hood Relief Fund. I had a hard time reading this book because it is so overwhelming.

This book has a list of names of people who perished in the tragedies from that day. There are man thoughts, words and poetry from victims, and witnesses. It also includes Survivor stories, pictures of loved ones....and much more.

Although we all know we will not need this book as a `remembrance'....perhaps it is meant to be more as a memorial, a tribute to those who have suffered....to Americans.
There are a lot of things I am feeling about this book, but I don't know how to say them so I will let it be.

After receiving a few mean-spirited e-mails about my review of this book, I feel I must clarify a few issues.

Again, I've gone through nearly 30 books about 9/11. After you get past the austere black cover, this paperback falls with a thud.

Simply put, this book tries too HARD to be profound. You see images you've seen before, such as the sequence of shots of one of the jets slamming into the south tower of the WTC. Nothing new.

Two things bug me: Layout and content.

In the layout, you get the feeling the editors are trying to SLEGEHAMMER the reader with the obvious. I hate this. For example, in some essays, certain words and phrases are laid out into single lines, as if they are poetry. Then there is the awful decision to use fonts of varying sizes to EMPHASIZE certain passages. This is a pretentious device that, I'm sorry, calls TOO MUCH ATTENTION to itself. It is completely unnecessary and smacks of a patronizing tone intended to magnify the depth and gravity of what occurred on 9/11. We all know about that dark day. We DON'T need it pushed into our faces under the umbrella of "literary art."

Meanwhile, about the Chomsky essay: It's short but it's awful. It's laid out, again, in a way that feels like "padding." His message reads like an "I told you so" lesson. Here's what he does: He points to America's "sins" of the past and then turns them around in a way that makes you want to believe that it's NOW THE UNITED STATES' TURN TO SUFFER. This is horrible. His opinions are the stuff of fiery pamphlets handed out on street corners. (BECAUSE WHO WOULD PAY FOR THIS?)

OK, what's good about this book? Well, some of the transcripts of phone calls and a handful essays from victims and witnesses are well done. Why? Because they ARE NOT pretentious. But when others try to be "inspirational," they end up stating the obvious. I can't help but feel most writers were given an outlet to "vent" their own emotions, which have more relevance to the writer than to the reader.

If you want more for less, pick up the December 2001 issue of American Heritage Magazine. There you get five-star opinions about 9/11 from individuals of world repute. It has a "permanence" this book lacks and it doesn't feel rushed together.

In sum, it's fine to read what people like Joan Rivers, Deepak Chopra, Richard Dreyfuss and others "feel" about 9/11. But is it worth PAYING for? You can't judge quality by "good intentions." This is a rush-to-market volume featuring opinions from most who have (or who will have) little if any impact on our lives. Why not opinions from Giuliani, Bush, Blair, Sharon and Arafat, even those recorded by the news media in the AFTERMATH of 9/11? Why not more views from individuals who can effect CHANGE? This book could have been GREAT.

Trust me, this is NOT the definitive book of "think pieces" about 9/11/01.

If you disagree, fine. It's your money. But my advice is to borrow before you buy. There are other books worth buying. This one isn't.

This book is not easy to find. I finally ordered it from Amazon.com and I was amazed by it. I read all the critiques to this book. I usually like or do not like a book. I love this book, it is very factual, accurate and explores the feeling of about 30 people that had somenting to say about 9-11. It does not matter to me who they are and what they do, what matters is that the essays touch on fears that I had and still have. I do not pretend this book to change the world but to give me feeling and images to hang on to. On each essay I can find someting I can relate to and this makes the book special, it makes it personal. Highly recommended.

In my opinion, this is my favorite book done by Turtledove period. This book should be on every Alt. History fans bookself.

Yes, it starts off slow. In fact, I had to skim large sections to keep up interest. The authors would be better afforded to dwell less on the mystery of the theft of a painting, and more on the strangeness of the society they are proposing, especially the point of divergence, which is only lightly touched upon and never fully developed. (What would cause Washington to submit to George II? I have no idea. Neither, evidently, do the authors.)

However, after the first 100 pages, it is well worth the read. Once I accepted that this book had been badly billed, and was less alternative history than a detective story with a twist, it was exceptionally well written. This is literature, with strong character development and exceptional conversational nuance. Dreyfuss and Turtledove's style is to state emotions, but in a complex and overlaying manner. The plot is also engaging, with mutliple endings and suprising twists. And in the best of the genre, we truly explore what life would be like had the American Rebellion never occured, and America never seceded from Britain. It is a world suprisingly pleasant, although not without flaws. It is simpler technologically, with a lack of awareness of basic health. Ironically, without the fight for independence, there is a deeper comitment to equality (although they haven't completely reached a utopia in that regard). And most assuredly, without that one little paragraph in a constitution that never occurred, guns are nearly unheard of in civilian matters, and deaths are far, far lower. Kind of gives a feeling of nostalgia for the good old days under King and Country.

First the negative, which will be short. I wish Turtledove and Dreyfus had included something about how the the colonies and Britain settled their differences. Nonetheless, a satisfying and interesting alternative based on the lower technology but much more fair and egalitarian society that might exist if the revolutionary war hadn't been fought (or was if fought and lost). The authors keep you guessing throughout the chase across a recognizable 'America' with interesting characters, and charming love story and a surprise villian. Highly recommended.

What would the world be like if the 13 colonies that became the U.S. had never gained independence from Great Britain? The Two Georges's setting takes place there, in a world that Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfuss have masterfully shaped in a blend of reality and fiction. In the story, the symbol of the 13 colony's treaty with Great Britain-the painting of George Washington meeting with King George III-is stolen by separatist radicals. Colonel Thomas Bushel of the Royal American Mounted Police chases the painting and those who stole it across the country. An alcoholic of several years, the path that Bushel takes to retrieve the painting is perilous with pitfalls, and the chase leaves a trail of carnage and destruction. As Bushel discovers that one of his superiors is among the radicals, or Sons of Liberty, as they call themselves, he also uncovers a plot that could throw the world into complete chaos. The Two Georges is very detailed, but because it has two authors there is little in the way of stylized writing. Much of the book follows neat gridlines of a plot, as opposed to twists, and although some parts are captivating, others are not. As a teenage reader, I would recommend this book for any teenager patient enough to wade through the slow parts.

Books written by more than one author can be very good or very bad. Most novels by Harry Turtledove just have his own name on the cover, but the two collaborations to which he has contributed - this one with Richard Dreyfuss, and "Household Gods" with Judith Tarr - are very good indeed.

All the action in "The Two Georges" takes place in the late 20th Century in a world where the argument between the American colonies and the British government had been peacefully resolved two hundred years before. Hence the area which in our world became the USA has a huge amount of autonomy but is still part of the British Empire.

The authors do not go into great detail about how the bargain between George III and George Washington (the "Two Georges" of the title) had been struck, but the story is set in a fascinating depiction of the kind of North America which might have resulted. They suggest things which might have been both better (Native Americans get a fairer deal, a rather less violent society) and worse (lower technological growth, significantly less democracy) in such a world.

The core of the book is a detective story in which a precious work of art, a painting of "The Two Georges" (Washington and George the Third") has been stolen. The gritty, well-crafted hero is trying to track down a group of terrorists who he suspects will turn out to be - gulp - American patriots. This must take some courage to try to sell in the US market.

Most of the characters in the book are fictional, but the authors have some light-hearted fun allocating alternative roles to a number of people from our universe. I particularly enjoyed the depiction of Richard Nixon as America's leading used car salesman.

I would particularly commend it to anyone who enjoyed S.M. Stirling's more recent book, "The Peshawar Lancers" - if you liked that book you will like this one, and vice versa.