Movies Books

"After too many years looking for an answer, a man marries the most beutiful woman in the world, with her, he's got most of the things he's ever wanted in life. Except money"... Josh and Joan, a happily married couple, decided to take a week of and fly to Las Vegas. There, they met Ibraham, an Arab billionaire, which proposed Joan to spend a night with him, in exchange of a million dollars. Joan and Josh felt desperate and empty, they did not know what to do. Finally they both decided to accept the proposal. After that night, Josh and Joan werent the same, everything seemed to go wrong. They decided to separate, and Joan left with Ibraham.Later on, she realizes that the only man she belonged to was Josh,she discoverd how deeply in love she was with him, and returned to Josh. This novel shows how ambition can destroy your life. It taught me that everyone should be happy with what they have, and try to make the best out of it. Who cares if you have all the money in the world, all the cars you've ever wanted if you dont have love.Love is life, and it's free.

I am a fan of Robert Redford so I enjoyed the movie, but it was NOTHING compared to this book.

Jack Engelhard while telling an interesting story is super adept at weaving in moral dilemmas which make his readers THINK!!!

Bottom line...the book is better than the movie by far.

BTW...I have read ESCAPE FROM MOUNT MORIAH...I just wonder if it weren't for Adolf Hitler, Jack could well have become a rabbi...a very distinguished rabbi.

REALLY GREAT BOOK, Jack!! You and Cassell write about different Atlantic Citys. Yours is the Atlantic City of today:slick and tinseled...as opposed to Cassell's shabby but colorful.

Love lost and regained... maybe... at what price.

I quest for novels like this (The Bathsheba Deadline: An Original Novel was one, too), which are inspired and masterfully presented, but which do not leave the reader in the hopeless state of wanting to jump off a cliff, or off a skyscraper or high bridge, whichever arrives first.

Not only that, the story surged contemplations on various vital issues of life games... politics, religion, culture, all of what Engelhard ascribed to King David (the protagonist, Josh's man) as "lover, poet, warrior, sinner, king"... (I flipped instantly to page 61 when looking to verify that list, ha!)

Each character in this novel is precisely, profoundly, psychologically on target, with Joan, Josh, and Ibrahim being the prime trilogy in that observation:

--- Joan must have written her part, as the author accused of her in his introductory remarks, because her psychology of the feminine, as it is breaking down and rebuilding itself, are true to that psyche and hormonal balance which limits, defines, and elevates that gender, a gender which each human has within.

--- Ibrahim must also have written his part, because, as it appears to me, he is an embodiment of the pure strength and raw beauty of princely power, and of the potently rich addiction of profanity, both within his Amalekite blood.

--- Of course, Joshua, as bred by the author, constantly works the phenomenal growth potential inherent in his Jewish ancestral blood, as he relentlessly responds to the dynamic demand of consciousness shifting through the kaleidoscopic, mesmerizing, eternal process of thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

As I was reading somewhere in chapter 27 of INDECENT PROPOSAL, a thought came to mind:

"THIS IS A NOVEL."

I've never said that before, in that way, and in the most precise sense of the term "novel." For me, INDECENT PROPOSAL has delineated the term. Regarding that novel, I mean that term in the full, brightest sense of an inspired, artistic, structural accomplishment enhanced by the ability to entertain and enthrall a reader within the circular cohesion of a story format.

The complicated twists leading to the denouement of this story were awesome.

They had me fluctuating between seeing the book as a novel in the sense of bright-side brilliance...

... (especially during the reader's joy in experiencing the growing anticipation between Josh and Joan that the New York scene they had planned as a renewal of their love might work a healing magic for this pair of desert-crossed lovers)...

... then seeing the book as a novel of dark-side brilliance (on par with the literary classics, many of which I honestly can't condone as contributing to the mental health of the human race)...

... then flipping maybe a couple more times between the bright and dark... finally ending with the conclusion that INDECENT PROPOSAL has honored the grace of art and redemption of soul.

All of which brings me to noting how much I was impressed and edified by seeing parts from Escape from Mount Moriah: Memoirs of a Refugee Child's Triumph, Engelhard's childhood memoirs, bleeding, literally, into PROPOSAL. Now, of course, I see why ESCAPE stepped up to me to be read just prior to PROPOSAL, and why I was compelled to buy both in the same order on Amazon.

A question which remains after having read INDECENT PROPOSAL is:

Why did the movie move away from the intriguing, if discomforting, thematic landmine within the original novel.

Of course, the introductory essays to this original version of the novel made the opening reading of the first chapter all the more riveting, especially knowing ahead of time that this book contrasts so obviously with the movie.

As Englehard detailed generously in his intro remarks, the attempt to translate a novel into a movie is always limited by the forms of text Vs film. Also involved, as I know from my own perspective, is the fact that reading a novel aloud takes around 7 hours; whereas a movie's average run is under 2 hours. In any case, a balsamic touch for condensation is required for an honorable translation.

In this case, the movie script did not go balsamic with the essence of the original novel. It did ingeniously exploit one of the surface concepts of the book, while ignoring the deeper issues in the novel, eclipsing them with a concept of "every woman's fantasy." That fantasy may have been true for the screenwriter, but is not true for me, and not true for 90% of the female population, in my opinion.

Truly, the translation from novel to screenplay was confusing.

There was a reason that the female lead in the original novel was a high-spirited, gorgeous, blond Gentile. There were reasons that it was an Arab prince, an enormously wealthy Sheik, who tempted a Jewish man and his wife. There were reasons for the setting of the story being in Atlantic City's gambling cassinos, with the Jewish man being unlucky in his gambling addiction due to the intensity of his need, with the Arab prince owning the dark luck his wealth and ancient blood empowered. Where did all those reasons go.

As others have said, Engelhard has accomplished something timeless, eternal, and primal in this book. To acknowledge the publisher, Huberman's understatement, it holds universal messages.

Possibly, when this book was written on Engelhard's kitchen table, and later when it was made into a blockbuster movie, the human race was not ready to be entertained by the primitive sides of politics and truth. At that time, we were buying the romantic ideal, paying for redemption through rose-tints.

In the long run, truth designs a much bolder, richer story. Jack Engelhard has presented that story with literary finesse, with gritty depth and enthralling prose.

I love movies as well as books, yet I wonder if a movie could ever capture what this author can bring to life in an original novel.

Long may he write.

In some ways movie producers today have been getting away with politically and culturally adventurous plots. Maybe they're closer now to portraying the type of bold and rich which resides in the true novelist's soul.

Every minute of every day is a choice and a second chance (I said that).

Linda Shelnutt

Check out also Engelhard's Kindle novel, The Girls of Cincinnati
And see the works of John W. Cassell for novels of the same caliber which also embody the qualities praised in this review.

Oh, boy! This book is really something else. Although the movie gets the general idea of the plot, the characters are totally different from the book. Woody Harleson is a dark, moody and sacrastic European Jew obsessed with his blonde trophy wife. He lives in Philadelphia that he so deliciously hates. When the twosome go to Atlantic City (Vegas would be too happy a place), they meet, Robert Redford? Nooo! An evil oil prince from some desert kingdom. And this time it's not about money...

Toward the end of his 1971 conversation with Richard Meryman, easily the best interview in this collection, Bergman says that "to make a film is to try to open up the roof--so we can breathe" (p. 112). This is as good a one-line characterization of Bergman's project as I know. Bergman's films defy easy analysis, sometimes because they're poorly conceived, as Bergman himself admits (he thinks, for example, that "Through a Glass Darkly" is a prime example), sometimes because even Bergman in retrospect isn't quite sure what he was trying to do, but sometimes because there's simply a great deal of depth to them. How, for example, to collapse the message of loneliness, despair, human nature, and hope conveyed in "The Silence" into a couple of sentences? But what Bergman at his best does succeed in doing is expanding us, opening up the roofs of our worldviews, inviting us--sometimes forcing us--to breathe in an atmosphere that's crisp and thin and heady.

Readers who pick up Raphael Shargel's collection of Bergman interviews in the hope that the master will explain what his films are about will be disappointed. Bergman tells us that he wants to elicit emotional experiences first and cerebral ones second in his films; that dreams have influenced his scripts and his director's eye; that he works best when his days are rigorously scheduled; that he thinks a film is "selected reality" (p. 106), which reminds me of Tarkovksy's beautiful characterization of film-making as "sculpting time"; that he thinks a certain "childishness"--a naivete, an openness to experience--is essential for good art. But what Bergman doesn't do, appropriately enough, is tell us how to interpret his films. So in many ways, his intervews are as mysterious as his artworks.

The interviews collected by Shargel vary in quality. As I've mentioned, Richard Meryman's is the best of the lot, closely followed by A. Alvarez's. The "Playboy" interview conducted by Cynthia Grenier is worse than worthless, and seems intent on focusing on little else than sex in "The Silence" (the interview was conducted shortly after the film's American debut). There are numerous typos in the text. "Feeling" is consistently spelled "felling," for example, and at one point Bergman is referred to as the "15 year old creator of 'The Silence'"! The only other book I've read by the University of Mississippi Press was also poorly proofed. Strange that an academic press is so careless in its copyediting.

Shargel's collection is a decent starting point for readers new to Bergman, but better ones include Bergman's memoirs, The Magic Lantern (2007) and Images (1995). Jesse Kalin's The Films of Ingmar Bergman (2003) is highly recommended for serious students.

This collection of interviews with Ingmar Bergman gives the reader almost a definitive view of not only the great director's vision, but of his constantly evolving artistry. As a teacher, I found the discussions of individual films invaluable.

No film critic could have approached Bergman with such passionate understanding and insight as Raphael Shargel. Following his film reviews in The New Leader for years, I am not surprised by his far reaching ability to grasp a life's work as he does his movies, always interested in their impact on society and us as individuals as well as the history that produced them in our time. When you get to it, your understanding of Bergman and appreciation for the value of interviews across a lifetime will be as rich as this book's index.

I'm a big fan of Bergman, and I was thrilled to see these interviews come back into print. They tell you so much about Bergman's life, films, and his personal opinions. Organized chronologically, this book reveals a development of Bergman both as an artist and as a person. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Bergman's genius or film in general. The introduction offers terrific insight into the mind of an artist.

This volume of articles and tidbits about the great Jackie Chan is definitely worth a read if not great. There are many fine insights into the man and the legend Jackie Chan, and indeed a lot of interesting photographs, which makes it so much the more enjoyable.

The format of the book, however, does not really agree with me. I don't like the article form, it seems cheap and mean. In my opinion it would have been better to write a uniform, coherent text based on the interviews and articles instead. The information is still there, it just seems a bit disorganized (which it really is not, it just seems that way).

It is still highly recommendable for all the information in there. Sure to please any fan.

This book is awesome! John Little's interview with Jackie Chan is worth the price alone. The photographs are the best, particularly the one of Jackie climbing a flag pole that looks like it has to be 50 feet off the ground! I learned so much about Jackie Chan, his martial arts training, his fitness methods and his personal philosophy. Having read all the other books on Jackie, I can easily say that this is - by far - the best! A must for everyone who loves his stunts or have been awed by his physical talent in martial art.

I loved this book. Anyone into the arts will love this book to. Its great and i personally like Jackie Chan.

This book is a fabulous read. I couldn't put it down until I finished it. It is not a narrative, but rather a compiled series of interviews between the author(s) and Jackie Chan that have taken place over the past ten years or so. The chapters are split up into sections on his childhood, martial arts training, philosophy, health and fitness, career and film making, stunt coordinating etc. Each chapter has an introduction and then goes straight into an indepth interview with Jackie Chan himself! There is a small overview at the beginning of the book on his life (a mini "My Life in Action"!) and at the end a filmography and a chapter containing what the author considers are Jackie's ten best stunts in a short paragraph format. There is a treasure trove of pictures from Jackie's films (all black and white unfortunately), many not before seen. I consider this book belongs on the shelf with Jackie's autobiography as it is contains personal insights and comments from "The Man" himself. My respect for Jackie Chan, already high after reading "My Life in Action", has risen even higher. The man is phenomenal and makes the so-called "Hollywood Stars" shine rather pale in comparison. If the many who dismiss Jackie as "just an action actor" could only read this book, how their eyes would be opened! Highly recommended - a must read!

Or maybe a Sharon Stone (she is not spared in these pages). Quite simply, this book is impossible to put down. James Ulmer's clever rating system is interesting enough in itself -- but the best part of the book is his personal stamp. He makes no bones about being star-struck, yet his mission is the demystification of the gods, and he does it with gimlet-eyed clarity and intelligence. A dirt-filled riff will turn on a phrase into a sharp insight into the celebrity cult and our fascination with it. Some of his observations of actors are priceless. My image of Marlon Brando struggling up the Brooklyn waterfront ramp will now forever be juxtaposed with him struggling up the aisle of an L.A. supermarket, dressed in a muumuu and eating from an as-yet-unbought gallon of Breyers ice cream. This is a great summer (or winter) read, but don't take it to anyplace where you're self-conscious about laughing out loud. Because you will.

For anyone who enjoys following the cult of celebrity -- go backstage with James Ulmer and find all of the behind-the-scenes gossip (ok really thruths) about today's biggest stars. Ulmer has been compiling this list for industry insiders for years and this is the first time he's published his info for the general public -- can't wait for the next installment!

It's fun and funny to see how the industry perceives itself, this book is a hoot. The information they based the ratings on is already outdated, (Russell Crowe's career trajectory arrow is going sideways? Hello?) but it's still worth the $$ for the essays, especially the one on star perks, (you will not believe the story about a certain actress and a baby opposum) and the "inside dirt" remarks.

The title only tells half the story. The lists are fun to browse (the 200 top stars), especially the inside dirt on each star. But the essays are really hilarious: weird twisted perks, gossip and insecurity, naughty inside references - a pretty amazing picture of business and culture in Hollywood, where Ulmer says nothing binds people together like money, tribal membership "and the desire to see your best friend fail." Yikes. This book definitely goes on my holiday gift list.

I happen to collect various art and photographs of entertainment from the early 1900's to modern times and I've always been interested in others collections of art or photography.

"Japanese Movie Posters" is a book that features posters from various genres such as yakuza, sci-fi and monster, samurai, pink, horror, animation and new cinema and goes further by allowing the reader to have a chance to purchase the book.

Similar to other Cocoro Books (DHP Publishing) releases, this book can be seen as a photobook but you do get commentary for each poster and its respective genre. Also, unlike other recent releases from Cocoro Books, this book is about 8×12 and quite large, featuring large full color photos and more.

The book was written by Chuck Stephens, a contributing editor from "Film Comment" and Jinema Junpo", Masuda Tetsuya, a prdocuer and runs the cinema section at the bookstore @wonder and the final person featured is Kairakutei Black, known as a walking encyclopedia on Japanese films of all genres.

The pages feature a large image of the poster and below the image is the title of the film (in English and Japanese), the film studio and year it was made, the director and how much the poster costs. Then a brief information on the film.

So, an example would bey "Return of the Tokyo Drifter" (Zoku: Tokyo Nagaremono" which was releasd in 1966. It was great to see classic posters like this, that go back in the 60's and the same can be said for other genres featured. Especially for the Sci-Fi films such as Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera and Ultra Man films. Great to see those posters.

As much as the book features straight up movie posters, this book is not for the young as it does contain nudity.

Once you get to the chapter of "Pink" (adult films produced by indie productions), then you do get to see quite a bit of the nudity featured on the posters and it's not full frontal nudity but a lot of the movie posters featured a lot of women nude from the the torso up.

I'm sure one of the biggest attractions of this book will be those who are enamored by anime films. Posters from the 1978 "Farewell Space Battleship Yamamoto", 1979's "The Castle of Cagliostro", 1984 "Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer" and many Miyazaki film posters are featured. But unfortunately, anime posters are limited to only nine pages and I admit that I was hoping to see posters from the late 70's "Gundam" films, the 1982 "Cobra" film, a few other Miyazaki films and more.

Also, another attraction is the "samurai" posters which seem to be the most expensive in terms of collectability. But if there was one thing I was hoping was that there would be Kurosawa Akira posters featured. I know that the book features films from 1960's and up but I would have loved to see the posters for "Yojimbo" or even "Ran".

As for the category "New Cinema", you get newer films such as Kitano Takeshi films and films that I watched in Japan such as "Odoru Daisousassen" have their posters featured.

And featured at the end of the book is an index in both English and Japanese for those looking for a film poster in this book which was cool to see both featured. And as mentioned, a way for fans to purchase the posters online.

"Japanese Movie Posters" is definitely another welcomed niche book from Cocoro Books. The fact that this company continues to bring niche books that appeal to fans worldwide is great and as much as one can see many film or TV drama posters on the train stations or high above buildings, and many around the Odaiba Fuji TV area, for me, it's always cool to see artwork, photography or posters from a film, especially if it was created before I was born.

I did feel that I wish there were as equal amount of coverage for other genres, especially for the coverage of anime films and wished there were posters for Kurosawa-related films. That would have been awesome to see.

But all in all, the guys did a great job featuring the posters and giving information on the films. And as much as it serves as a visual reference for fans interested in purchasing the posters, it also works as a great entertainment book covering Japanese entertainment within the last 40 years.

Japanese Movie Posters: Yakuza, Monster, Pink And Horror is an eye-opening, full-color presentation of movie posters representational of the best and the worst of Japan's cinema. From lurid and graphic horror to yakuza movies to posters of Hayao Miyazaki's wondrous words of animation, Japanese Movie Posters offers an unforgettable slice of Japanese popular culture in the twentieth century. Brief yet erudite and scholarly commentaries by Chuck Stephens (contributing editor to "Film Comment", a columnist for "Kinema Junpo, and a freelance specialist in Asian cinema for publications worldwide), Tetsuya Masuda (vintage poster expert and head of the cinema section of wonder antiquarian books), and Kairakutei Black (a Japanese film critic and traditional "rakugo" comic storyteller) offer informed and informative insights into the psychology and media background of the individual posters round out this impressive collection. A unique compendium of cinematic poster art, Japanese Movie Posters is a welcome and highly recommended addition to any personal or academic Cinematic Studies reference collection.

I discovered this new book put out by Tokyo-based DH Publishing by accident. And am glad I did. Chock full of full-page full-color posters of the most wonderfully wackiest of Japan's classic movie posters. There's everything from Horror and Monster to Samurai and Ninja, Pink (what they call soft porn) to Anime, and even some new posters thrown in. My best is easily the Sci-Fi genre, which includes the ultimate Ultraman. Also, you gotta check out some of the Monster posters, like Godzilla and some huge Ice Man creature. I bought two of these, as I knew it would make that perfect present when you've run out of ideas what to buy someone. DH Publishing arigato! I'm going to check out their other books. I hope they're as good!

If you buy one book on Japanese cinema this year, this is it. They have done a terrific job of laying out the history of Japanese film in poster format, in correct color no less, with
a lot of useful information for the Japanese film buff, and collector since many of the posters are available to order right from this publication. My only comment is when will their next
book be issued? Enjoy!

If Ernest Hemingway had made movies, they would have looked something like John Huston's. The passion, intelligence, and joie de vivre of Huston's films are reflected in this set of articulate interviews. Pour yourself a good drink, and listen as one of Hollywood's best raconteurs spins yarn after yarn in this splendid volume of a valuable series.

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career.

This is a terrific book. It consists of interviews with John Huston from 1952-85. Not only does the reader find out about Huston's ideas on filmmaking and get some inside info on the making of classic films, but he will find out about the breadth of Huston's interests, which extended beyond filmmaking to art and philosophy. Here, truly, was an intelligent man.

The most interesting thing to me about Huston was that he started in the classic studio age and survived its downfall to make films that were fresh, interesting and important even in the Eighties. These interviews show Huston's mental flexibility. He admires "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," "Rocky," and "Taxi Driver." Huston is also quite frank about his own films. I will never be tempted to see "Roots of Heaven" or "Barbarian and the Geisha." I have to see "Moby Dick," which he considered one of his films that never got its due.

I was sorry when this book ended.

Ably edited by independent scholar and freelance writer Robert Long, John Huston: Interviews is an informative and insightful compilation of interviews with the late John Huston (which took place from 1952 to 1985) in which he personally comments on his life and projects as an acclaimed filmmaker. Among the movies that are surveyed within this context are The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen, The Night of the Iguana, Prizzi's Honor, and The Dead. The observations range from his approach to directing; the influence of painting upon his camera work, and his association with stellar actors, to his beginnings in Hollywood as a screenwriter, and the influences of James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway upon his movies. Replete with numerous anecdotes about writers, directors, and actors with whom he collaborated, we are presented with a body of work and a filmmaker's life that will be immensely appreciated by students of his work and a man whose personal life was as prodigious as his professional career. John Huston: Interviews is also available in paperback ..., [price]

The Journey of August King is a novel rich in description of the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. This book very well illustrates slavery and how it was dealt with as well as the kindness of the mountain people of that time.

Being from North Carolina myself, I am fully aware of how accurate the description is. The scenery makes you feel as if you are actually there with August King.

Also, I particularly enjoyed the portrayl of August King. He is showed as a very kind man, not unlike his neighbors, just having a bit more sympathy. He is not unhuman, either. He is portrayed as a man who has known hurt, loss, and love, though he does not recognize it.

As noted, his journey is a spiritual one to finally come to terms with the death of his wife. I like the way this is done, using tears even, to help us understand how he is accomplishing this.

Ehle's descriptions are both surreal and earthy. The characters are complex entities, they are not perfect. August is a hero almost by accident, and an ambigious one at that. The struggles August experiences with his attitudes vis-a-vis race forms a major catalyst in the story.

For individuals interested in historical fiction about Appalachia this is a must read.

On a historical sidenote, I've always liked Ehle's inclusion of Germans in his stories. It is a refreshing multiethnic approach from the general Scotch-Irish dominated stereotype of Appalachia history.

John Ehle makes you remember the NC mountains like no one else can. The roads and trails seem familiar because some of them still exist and perhaps you have been there. The people haven't changed all that much even though Ehle covers the time near the civil war. Yes, the story is good and keeps you interested. Yes, his writing flows well. But Ehle has always been somewhat of a regional writer because he understands the locals. I would love to go back to the black mountains, walk the trails and talk to the people there. Reading John Ehle is a close second.

I loved this book. I've read it many times. Each time I appreciate the beauty of the prose, the skillful character development, and the suspense of the plot. I like the contrast between the main characters' thought patterns and conversation: August's thoughts and words free-flow; Annalees' are more grounded and practical. I like the subtle differences in their speech patterns: it's like listening to a conversation. I also like the way Mr. Ehle has peppered his character's words with idioms and phrases from the time in which the book takes place. The scenes unfold with drama and picture-perfect description

I wasn't disappointed in the movie and the novel didn't either! It has all the action and science- fiction bits combined in one! You might be even surprised that this was actually one of the first drafts of the script for the top-notch movie.

Judge Dredd was a great book! It's highly recommended to those who have not read it. Buy it today

The Judge Dredd book was as exciting as the movie.Although the format might be different,it is still a great book you don't want to miss!

Judge Dredd the book had everything the movie had and even a little more. Don't plan on just picking this book up and reading it for a minute, once you start reading it, you're hooked and you can't put it down.

Larry Clark books? how many are in print? 1. Tulsa 2. Teenage Lust 3. Kids 4. Heroine (Jan. 2000) 5, anything else? please help...i'm desparate! thanks. peony@compac.net

I think that this book was great.it tells about the dangers of sex and drugs....me being a teenager it really tought me a lesson.

When I saw "Kids", it really hit home. About a year later, I was clawing my way around a library, and I found the book, "Kids". I looked at work inside there, and it was great. Unlike most books made from movies, you HAVE to have seen the film to enjoy the book, because the book is the screenplay. I couldn't get enough of it. It was wonderful. I think it's a great piece of art.

When a book or a movie can both be as true as the world that we live in, than you know that it has succeeded. Such is the case with KIDS. As a teenager growing up in the rural life, you don't see very many pieces of art that reflect upon what truly is happening in society with the younger generations. While critics might say that it is too "touchy" or "sick", they don't realize that this is what is really happening in America today and must either deal with it, orchange their opinion on it because what they call this movie or book, is what they call American teenage society.

Congratulations to Moonstone for bringing out a second anthology of our favorite underdog in a birdfeeder hat.

For those of you new, Kolchak was the X-Files before the X-Files. Get The Night Stalker/The Night Strangler (Double Feature), then the TV series (Kolchak - The Night StalkerS). And I must give kudos again to Moonstone: The Kolchak Papers: The Original Novels, the Holy Grail, is back in print

Each story deserves its own rating. The two best are "Stealing Fire" (Ch. 2) and "Call Me Sam." (Ch. 16). Coincidentally they are about mercy and justice respectively. Kolchak, when the writers are at their best, is not about chills or the fear of the unknown, but about the human condition. We all live below our potential, so we are all underdogs. We have all told our employer "See, I Told You So," so we are all Cassandras. And somehow, we still seem to come out on top, despite the dangers.

Chapter 17 "Cancellation" is a treat. It was written by Mark Dawidziak, the author of the The Night Stalker Companion: A 25th Anniversary Tribute. It is also a wonderful "In Your Face" for any Kolchak fan who was bothered, even scandalized by the not-short-enough revival series Night Stalker - The Complete Series. It has to be 2007's winner of the Tom Swift Award for Dead-On Satire. Again, Cassandra; again "See, I told You So."

The rest of the stories are ho-hum. This is not bad, because the series had it share of turkeys. Future Authors: Keep in mind that Kolchak has a very obvious pattern or format.

* The story being with a run of the mill crime, with some inexplicable details.
* There are Dragnet-esque time slugs, which gives the story a feeling of concrete and factual reality.
* Kolchak examines the odd details.
* Tony is skeptical, which he indicates at the top of his lungs.
* Kolchak interacts with quirky experts, oddball people, and mysterious contacts (The Monk of the lower orders is the best informant).
* Kolchak runs afoul of the Powers That Be who mastermind a cover-up in the public interest. (Claude Atkins is the best, with Mr. RING the creepiest)
* Kolchak takes matters into his own hands.
* There is collateral damage, for which Kolchak takes the blame.
* Justice is served to society, but not to Kolchak.

This formula also explains why Kolchak lasted only one season. The concept was limited, and there was no room for growth. At the end of The Night Strangler, Tony gets convinced, but then later in the series he thinks Kolchak is crazy. The backtracking locked the series into a formula that would quickly becomes stale and repetitive. The Cassandra complex got old since it never went anywhere.

*

So if you like you horror in a lo-cal version, such as Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) or Ghostbusters Double Feature Gift Set (Ghostbusters/ Ghostbusters 2 and Commerative Book), or just love Darren McGaven, get this book. It's not the over the top best, but the three stories are worth reading.

Another collection of fine stories. This is the character we all grew to know and love back in the seventies, not the one in the aborted new show(shudder). It's worth the price to lovers of the oddball character Darrin McGavin brought us way back when. Moonstone has a new novel on the way as well. Anyone who likes good adventure should check out The Spider anthology and The forthcoming Phantom anthology as well.

A wonderful collection of new adventures for our beloved Night Stalker, Carl Kolchak. Spooky, unnerving, supernatural, fun, funny, and thought-provoking, these tales stay true to the quirky character we came to love on television in the 1970's. Includes two gorgeous interior illos by Cortney Skinner for the Chris Golden/Rick Hautala and the Pierce Askegren stories. Absolutely worth the cover price.

When Kolchak: The Nightstalker premiered in 1974, I was firmly convinced it was the greatest show ever. Unfortunately not enough people thought the same way I did and the show lasted a single season...just 20 episodes in all. Despite that, the show has continued to have a strong cult following and re-runs were still turning up on the Sci-Fi channel just a couple of years ago. ABC even did a remake, which failed miserably. While the remake had the same character names, the show had no character, at least none of the character that the original did. Carl Kolchak, reporter for the Independent News Service, each week encountered the strange and horrific: werewolves, vampires, swamp creatures, Native American spirits, mummies, etc...Each week Kolchak would find a way to destroy the creature and each week no one would believe him.

While the remake failed to capture the spirit of the original show, Moonstone Books has been doing a marvelous job keeping Kolchak alive through a series of graphic novels and prose books. The latest is Kolchak: The Nightstalker Casebook, featuring 17 original stories by Tom DeFalco, P.N. Elrod, Elizabeth Massie, Joe Gentile, Mike Baron, Christopher Golden, John Ostrander, and James Reasoner, to name just a few. What is immediately obvious is that these writers were all fans of the show and understand the Kolchak character very well. Kolchak was an average guy. Unlike most central characters of TV shows, Kolchak was older, middle-aged in fact. Not especially handsome, nor athletic, and not particularly brave. His courage grew out of his need to always be able to get the story.

One unique characteristic of the TV show was that Kolchak (played remarkably by the late Darren McGavin) often voiced over certain scenes in the show in a first person perspective, usually a scene where a pretty girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many of the stories in this book, and frankly my favorite ones, are told in first person point of view and it made me feel like I was sitting around my parent's living room on a Friday night watching the show again. They've not only captured Kolchak's character but also that of his irascible editor Tony Vincenzo, and fellow INS reporter the squeamish Ron Updyke.

While the TV show was set in Chicago, the stories in this book are set in California as Kolchak and Vincenzo have moved on to the Hollywood Dispatch. Allowing the writers some poetic license, they acknowledge the Chicago period yet these stories are set firmly in the present with mention of modern day technology such as computers and cell phones. Kolchak will encounter the spirit of a bloodthirsty Aztec priestess, a lake-dwelling creature, an inhuman grave robber, a ghostly diner, spectral pirates, and other denizens of the night.

One of the most poignant tales, Alternate Endings by John Ostrander, finds Kolchak back in Chicago and visiting the boarded up local tavern he frequented with an old flame named Cassie who was murdered by a serial killer. Walking through the door of the long closed bar, Kolchak is transported back in time with a chance to save his one time love from her terrible fate.

The series may have ended over thirty years ago but Kolchak lives on thanks to Moonstone books.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON