T. S. Eliot Books

Northrop Frye's introduction to T.S. Eliot is a valuable book, both for those who are not familiar with Eliot and for those who are but just devour all the information about him that they can (like me). This is a very slim volume, about 100 pages, and divided into five sections. The first section gives the reader a brief biography of Eliot, just to lay out the landscape. The second section progresses into Eliot's beliefs both spiritual and literary, giving one an idea of the issues he was most concerned with and which therefore influenced his poetry. The last three sections deal with the poems themselves, first giving an overview of Eliot's style and common themes in his work &etc., then getting more in-depth with the individual poems. As always with Frye, there are many outstanding insights, some I've never heard or read anywhere previously, and others I have, but never quite understood till he explained it in that coherent way he explains everything- then it all finally makes sense! This book has added to my pleasure of reading Eliot moreso than any other introduction or collection of essays on Eliot has. Those psychoanalysts and post-structuralists have done Eliot a disservice by their attempts at criticism and biography- the way they write about him makes him sound so prosaic and unappealing! Frye obviously knows his subject well, and he writes about him in a lucid, engaging, unpretentious fashion, helping the reader grasp concepts in Eliot's works which would otherwise prove daunting. Everyone who loves Eliot needs to own this book. Also, if you're a student struggling to understand Eliot, do yourself a favour and find this volume! It is out of print, but you may be able to purchase a copy on the 'net. If not, your local library or used book store may have it.

One final note: this book is not necessarily helpful if you're looking to understand a specific poem of Eliot's and that's it. This is more of an overview of Eliot's poetry and a study of its evolution, or as one reviewer put it: "Frye's study takes a more holistic view of Eliot's career; and it's especially successful in relating Eliot's literary theory to his practice and various works (written in different periods) to each other."

Most of us are afraid of poems because as we read it, we can't seem to make head or tails as to what we have read. Therefore, for those of us who have "poem-phobia," I recommend this delightful little work.

In this work, Eliot ask the question of what is poetry and the use of criticism in poetry as well as the relationship between the former and the latter.

Eliot proposes to start the enquiry by reviewing the history of criticism starting from Elizabethan era untill that of his time. Through the course of the exploration, I was enthralled by Eliot's insightful opinion of critics and their opinion as to what is poetry and its uses.

I was particularly drawn to the final chapter of his work which does not offer any final word to the questions which he posed but rather giving us advice as to how to read poems (in particular the modern poets, i.e., 20th century). I was very glad to have read this work because it sure beats reading a heavy college text on how to read poetry.

This is more than the texts of a lecture series. There are eight lectures given by T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) in 1926, "On the Metaphysical Poetry of the Seventeenth Century with Special Reference to Donne, Crawshaw and Cowley." Then there are three lectures, "The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry," given at The Johns Hopkins University in 1933. There is an Author's Preface which is more like a note of the author to himself, on "the intention of the author to rewrite these lectures as a book." (p. 41). That book "is intended as one volume of a trilogy under the general title of `The Disintegration of the intellect' " (p. 41).

This book is edited and introduced by Ronald Schuchard, who has provided information about the circumstances in which the lectures were written and given, additions and corrections noted on the manuscript, literary context, translations of quotations, corrections of mistranslations (some of which were noted on the manuscript), notes on similar themes in other works by T. S. Eliot, and in Appendix I, a French translation of the lecture on pages 93-117 published as "Deux Attitudes Mystiques: Dante and Donne" in 1927. (pp. 309-318).

Dante ? A great poet, is mainly of interest in this book as a philosophical poet, as recognized in the book THREE PHILOSOPHICAL POETS by George Santayana, which T. S. Eliot "had read and mastered at Harvard, a book that had stimulated his theory and that was to become a central document in his Clark lectures." (p. 2). T. S. Eliot also accepted as a definition of metaphysical the conventional identification of poets and critics familiar with the great anthology, METAPHYSICAL LYRICS AND POEMS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY by Herbert Grierson. In addition, an example of great poetry, Sappho's `Ode to Anactoria' (c. 600 B.C.) is printed in full in a note where it is mentioned by T. S. Eliot as "a real advance, a development, in human consciousness; it sets down, within its verse, the unity of an experience which had previously only existed unconsciously; in recording the physical concomitants of an emotion it modifies the emotion." (p. 51).

The first lecture attempts to establish the function of poetry, but students of Freud's "Psychopathology of Everyday Life" will be interested in how often the quotations on the fly by T. S. Eliot have been modified by his memory to apply specifically to him. On page 52, he substituted necessity in place of nervousness for the reason two characters, "not from good will, Marched along shoulder to shoulder" in THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK by Lewis Carroll. On page 53, "When Shakespeare says `Man must abide'" he is quoting from KING LEAR, v. ii. 9-11 which says "Men must endure." On page 56 the same line is compared with some lines from PURGATORIO by Dante, after asserting, "If you recall my tentative division of the three types of philosophical poetry, you will see at once that Dante is the great exemplar not only for the type which forms the theme of these lectures, but of every type." (p. 56). The translation of the Italian in the notes does not attempt to inform readers of what the few Italian words misremembered in the text might have indicated in a Freudian analysis.

There is an Index to Editorial Material on pages 335-343, following the Index to the Lectures on pages 327-334. Items not included in the indices include the lists of lectures given in Appendix II and Appendix III, indicative of a range of scholarship at the highest intellectual level, mentioning a 1992-3 series on `Three Models of Truthfulness: Thucydides, Diderot, Nietzsche.' (p. 322). People who find that exciting might also discover that they missed `Irony and Solidarity' by Richard Rorty in 1986-7. How close is this book to real philosophy? The historical approach to its subject matter includes: "Not only a diversion of inquiry; it is rather as if, at certain times, the constitution of the human mind altered to adapt itself to new categories of truth, and new elements of thought." (p. 79). "But dissolution so frequently begins within, that I think that the Jesuits had a great deal to do with it: their fine distinctions and discussions of conduct and casuistry tend in the direction of a certain self-consciousness which had not been conspicuous in the world before. I am here more concerned with defining clearly the difference in point of view, a true Copernican revolution which occurred centuries before Kant was born, a difference which marks the real abyss between the classic scholastic philosophy and all philosophy since." (p. 80). Nietzsche shows up as the author of a motto in a work "which TSE told Hesse he would have published in translation in the `Criterion' had it been shorter (L1 [THE LETTERS OF T. S. ELIOT] 510)." (p. 81, n. 38). "Mankind suddenly retires inside its several skulls, until you hear Nietzsche - pretty well tormented in his cranial lodging - declaring that `nothing is inside, nothing is outside'." (pp. 80-81).

The combination of poetry and philosophy in these lectures is leading to consideration of a minor poet. "Jules Laforgue was a young man who died at the age of twenty-seven in the year 1877. . . . His poetry, and even his prose, is immature, rough and sentimental. . . . He had an innate craving for order: that is, that every feeling should have its intellectual equivalent, its philosophical justification, and that every idea should have its emotional equivalent, its sentimental justification. The only world in which he could have satisfied himself, therefore, was a world such as Dante's." (p. 212). Similar information is given at the beginning of the final lecture on pages 281-282. As an example for poets in our time: "One positive contribution towards poetry is all that one can hope to make; beyond that it does not matter whether one is Shakespeare or Jules Laforgue; whether one is `original' or `derivative'." (p. 289).

Professor Gish's book provides a clear, section-by-section analysis and explanation of the symbols, sources, techniques, and themes of "The Waste Land". In contrast to many Waste Land books that seem intent on expounding incomprehensible literary theory, this book brings the poem to life as Eliot's great work of "memory and desire".

Ms. Gish does a superb job of challenging unsupportable (but often repeated) notions of the use of myth in the poem. She explores how the final version of the poem was composed out of a series of poetic fragments, written over a long period of time. By showing that the Grail and Fisher King myths apply to only a small part of the poem (mostly in the final section), the reader is forced to re-think the themes and structure that bind the sections together. While never forcing a particular interpretation on the reader, with the help of Ms. Gish's insights, specific examples, and well-written commentary, a "mystifying" poem gradually begins to reveal itself.

For students trying to come to grips with the meaning of "The Waste Land", I can think of no better place to start than this book. For people who have already struggled with Eliot's masterpiece and have been frustrated with the cryptic essays written by many so-called literature experts, this book will be a wonderfully refreshing, extremely helpful, and thoroughly elucidating work, a "Rosetta Stone" that will unlock many of The Waste Land's mysteries.

As someone who has personally struggled with "The Waste Land" for many years, let me express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Gish for producing her 'must-read' book, "The Waste Land: A Poem of Memory and Desire".

After going through volumes of literary criticism of Eliot by luminaries like F. R. Leavis, Edmund Wilson, Northrop Frye, and I.A. Richards, Denis Donohue's "Words Alone," (along with an outstanding but out-of-print biography of T.S. Eliot by the great poet Stephen Spender) is, I think, among the best books on Eliot's poetry. Read especially his definition of the symbolist use of words, contrasting its use by Eliot and Yeats.

Disregard the above review by Publisher's Weekly. Eliot's anti-Semitism is tired and old and not especially interesting to those who understand that anti-Semitism in Europe those days was as flagrant as, say, anti-Americanism is today.

Not only Eliot but many poets of his times like Pound were anti-Semites, perceiving Jews as detriments of classical, if high Greco-Roman culture they so admired. Eliot, said Wilson, was the most chiseled person he met and if you trace his lineage from his ancestral Unitarianism (one of his forefathers was a Salem judge), his youthful New England Puritanism, his later English Anglicanism, and his lifelong disdain of "barbarism," you needn't strain too hard to understand his anti-Semitism, agree or no.

And unlike Pound and Woolf, not to mention the French Symbolists before him and Plath and Millay after him, Eliot was too intelligent to end up so tragic a figure, embracing Christianity--the "prodigious responsibility"--late in life. He devoutly prayed the Rosary everyday and met his second and much beloved wife after writing his Christian poem "Journey of the Magi." (Valerie Eliot heard the poem recited by Sir John Gielgud on radio and resolved at once to meet him. In Eliot, Dante met and MARRIED his Beatrice.)

If you want to see the effects of Christianity on a great person, simply read Eliot's oevure's of poems in chronological succession and track the progress of his life, going from a poet deeply ingrained with "religious sensibilities," like all true poets, and feeling very ennui to full-blown devout Christian and feeling very happy, unlike most poets.

"In the juvescence of the year Came Christ the tiger..."

But if you TRUELY want to split hairs, read Eliot's critical essays to better understand how he became "a classicist in literature, a royalist in politics, and an Anglican in religion." (And lucky are you who are about to read them for the first time.)

Mr. Donohue presents illuminating stuff--far removed from "intellectual conceit" and academic jumbo-mumbo, it has the flavor of the New Critics, ushered in by the figure of towering Eliot.

My grandson is participating in a rendition of 'Cats' at his elementary school and I wanted the book to show him how productions like 'Cats' are based on literature. In this case he was thrilled to be able to read the original poems and then see how they are staged for an audience. The product was delivered in perfect condition in a very timely manner. I would recommend this to anyone.

This is a must have for anyone who loves the broadway musical "Cats". Totally delightful!

I had read this book before and loved it, but when I met Boris, a real, live version of Rum Tum Tugger, I had to buy a copy to show his owner.
It is amazing how little had to be done to turn these poems into a great musical comedy. I am, of course, talking about Cats. Most of the poems went directly into the show without any change whatever in their wording, and only three songs were added. Let's give full credit to Mr. Webber, It took a musical genius to do that, and one of the added songs, Memories, could stand alone as a masterpiece in any company, but most of the delight of the show comes from the wonderful feline characters created in this book.
Jennyanydots, Old Deuteronomy, Gus the theatre cat, Spindleshanks, Bustipher Brown, McCavity, Mr. Mistofflees, Mungo Jerry, and Rumpleteaser all moved effortlessly from page to stage with no changes. That has to be some sort of record. If you loved Cats (the show) you need to read this book. If you love cats (the critters) you'll want to read this book. If you like poetry, you should read this book. If you like dogs, read the battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles. (You can skip over the part about the intervention of the great rumpus cat.)
It was written for his godchildren, but it's a great read for everyone. It's not expensive, so get it to read to your children, but read it for yourself first.

Great book for any cat lover

author of "Hobo Finds A Home"

Read the book if you want to better understand the acts of the play CATs

Memories...CATs is one of the longest running plays of all times. A must see if you ever get the opportunity - take in this show.

I read a review that said the pictures were crisp. I ordered the book and found the pictures to be blurry and unprofessional. They look like they were taken from the front row during a performance with the wrong film speed and light setting on the camera. I was very disappointed with the pictures and overall quality of the book. This is not a high quality book of the musical, but I can't seem to find any other book about the broadway musical that contains pictures. Too bad.

Well There's Not much to it...
Some info about T. S. Eliot, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Others
Lyrics from the Songs which i like
And Pictures of the Original Broadway Cast
A bit pricey for just that...
Still A Good Book...

I am a big fan of Cats(we're talkin' realy big!I know all the lyrics and dances)and I found this book a great addition to my Cats Collection,which includes greasepaint, Old Possum's Book, T-Shirt,hat, sweatshirt,ORIGINAL BROADWAY COSTUME WORN BY CYNTHIA ONRUBIA(VICTORIA), fan-made costume, A WIG WORN BY VEERLE CASTELYN(JEMIMA), 5 CDs, Video, 2 DVDs, ticket stubs, autographs, program, magnets, letters from actors, and a WIG WORN BY CYNTHIA ONRUBIA THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY VICTORIA. This book is wonderful and added to my huge collection. It might not be as valuble as the two wigs or the costume, but it is still a cool book!

I loved the stage musical and didn't understand a word except for "Memories". And I love the video to death. But this book is no way a companion to the video, unless you're just looking for the words to the songs. In that case you've spent way too much (the lyrics can be had on the WEB)! The cast in this book is different than the Video and if you have young kids who love the video like mine do, they are going to ask (and say)"Why daddy does Gus look different, or that's not Gus". The only worth while text is from Andrew Llyod Webber and it happens to be the shortest article of the 4 included. I was disappointed to say the least and in hind sight find that 99% of the reviews are "irrationally" positive and not at all realistic.

T.S. Eliot is a genius. The Wasteland is, by far, the best poem I have ever read. It is a bit difficult to get through, but I'm sure if you are thinking of picking up this book you are not looking for light reading. Also, of all the editions I've read, I think this one is the best. The notes on the reading are helpful and explain the text fairly well.

I think perhaps the wasteland has been to long interpeted as a lament, our a lecture, or even a statement about disillusioment. To me it seems to be the story of a non commital spiritualist lingering on the edge Nihilism, confused in pain and feeling empty as if no philosophy has prover satisfactory in his thirst for truth. I have known the morbid and dark mindstates Eliot describes, and I think that is what the wasteland is: a portrait of intense mental and spiritual torment, embellished with symbolism and shifting voices. But that is essentialy what it is, though each voice is distinct it seems to me that the torment of one man leaps between changing but always hinting that they are all his. It is in a way a dramatation of the utimate feelings of man between rationalism and Nihilism and hating both. Feeling that they are frauds and that the only truth is in the empty tired nothingness.

The Waste Land

From the listing this item appears to be a recording of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, read by the poet himself; but it's not, it's a performance by another reader, and therefore it had (to me) no interest; it was not what I wanted or needed. I suggest that the product description should be made clearer, so that other customers do not make the same mistake.

This volume includes T. S. Eliot's Prufrock and Other Observations (1917), Poems (1920), and The Waste Land (1922), and thus provides readers with a fair introduction to the work of one of the twentieth century's greatest poets. The American expatriate was a genuine original, bringing forth a new Modernist voice at a time when the movement was at its beginning and Edwardian poetry still carried the day in England.

Clipped, dry, angular, and intellectual if still emotionally sensitive, Eliot's vision of deserted midnight urban streets, ever-present enveloping yellow or brown fog, doubt-obsessed social misfits ("Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?" "Do I dare disturb the universe?"), and city dwellers quietly ensnared in a mundane round of workaday routine had an enormous impact on the cultural scene of the period. If the poet doesn't strictly focus on the ugly, he does focus on the unadorned and mundane detritus of civilization in the immediate: "morning comes to consciousness / of faint stale smells of beer / from the sawdust-trampled streets." He speaks of "grimy scraps" of "newspapers from vacant lots," "broken blinds and chimney-pots," and of "raising dingy shades / in a thousand furnished rooms," as if the inexorable void of outer space was present in the next flat and steadily closing in. Even "the evening" "is spread out against the sky / Like a patient etherized upon a table."

Human consciousness and human nature are hesitant at best and deeply troubled, in any number of ways, at worst: sleep reveals "a thousand sordid images" of which the "soul" is "constituted," and the palms of "both hands" are "soiled." The poet states that "There will be time to murder and create," and 'Sweeney Erect' describes the act of sexual intercourse in desperate, awkward, unfulfilling, and bestial terms. In fact, nature in all its manifestations is largely repugnant to Eliot; 'Sweeney Erect' literally describes female genitalia as the vagina dentata: "This withered root of knots of hair / Slitted below and gashed with eyes / This oval O cropped out with teeth." Nor are the seasons a source of comfort: "April is the cruellest month, breeding / Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing / Memory and desire," he says, and suitably, most of the early poems speak only gravely of autumn and winter. The "soft October night" mentioned in 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' startles, since the image it conjures slightly betrays traditional associations of comfort and perceived beauty.

During the period in which the poems were written, Eliot was in the throes of a very troubled marriage to the mentally unstable Vivienne Haigh-Wood, which explains much of the revulsion and guilt-ridden despondency expressed. Eliot was projecting and transposing: history has shown that the poet frequently acted without responsibility and integrity towards Vivienne and their severe personal problems, and thus the vengeful Furies that appear among the dramatis personae in a later Eliot drama were real forces in the poet's psyche. Eliot's inability to cope with Vivienne resulted in moral and ethical failures on his part: the real waste land was Eliot's own perception of his life and reaction to it.

But in his later work, Eliot's fervent religious beliefs would blossom to the fore; much of that poetry would be underscored by a starkly expressed belief in Christian salvation and the potential resurrection of the spirit.

Eliot was not an admirer of the Romantic school, and thus his urban landscapes are neither post-Romantic nor decadent environments, but simply sterile cityscapes devoid of any quality that genuinely support the promise inherent in human existence. However, though Eliot decried the solipsism of the Romantics, his own early work is often pinched, parsimonious, and reductive to the point of constriction.

'The Waste Land,' which is accompanied by five dense author-imposed pages of tedious explanatory notes (which ostensibly insure that the reader understands the poem contains dozens of references to the Bible, Ovid, Sappho, St. Augustine, Dante, Milton, Shakespeare, Baudelaire, Frazer, and even Herman Hesse, among others) is particularly obscure, and therefore solipsistic in its own fashion: its intended audience was not the common man on the street by any means, but the clever, educated, well read, and competitive armchair intellectual of the kind that populated the literary circles in which the author then moved. Aptly titled, 'The Waste Land' is a tedious academic game and a triumph not of poetry but of marketing, with multiple lines like "Weialala leia Wallala leialala" and "Co co rico co co rico" that are guaranteed to lock its audience out.

Eliot may have shunned Romanticism, but he never escaped the powerful romantic elements in his own nature; this is apparent right at the beginning of his published work with 1917's 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,' which famously ends with "the mermaids singing, each to each" and Prufrock observing, "I do not think they will sing to me." "I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floor of silent seas" can also be interpreted in terms of romantic, even rebellious, longing: the tone is different from that broadly found in Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Byron, but the desire for unrestricted freedom, even oblivious freedom, is actively present nonetheless.

Even if intended ironically, 'Rhapsody On A Windy Night' is romantically titled, and the later 'Marina' ("What images return...O my daughter"), 'Ash Wednesday' (1930), and 'Four Quartets' would be thoroughly suffused with longing, desire, and sense of loss. In fact, some may interpret Eliot's fervent Protestantism as the final manifestation of this restless trend in his personality.

Since in his early work Eliot's poetry is more satisfying on a line by line basis ("Webster was much possessed by death / And saw the skull beneath the skin"), a more complete portrait of the poet and his work is available in The Complete Poems and Plays 1909 - 1950 (1971).

I found this edition by Penguin to be very useful for a casual reading. The notes on the poems, in particular "the Waste Land," are detailed enough to give the reader a perception of Eliot's vast literary knowledge and its effect on his poems. However, the notes are inadequate if your purpose is to deeply understand the background of Eliot's complex and difficult poetry. So if you are looking for deep insights, I would recommend the Norton Critical Edition. For the normal reader, this is satisfying and straightforward.

Recently in this space I reviewed Allen Ginsberg's modern 'beat' classic Howl. I have in the past written admiringly of the metaphysical poet John Donne and of my hero revolutionary Cromwellian Commonwealth political activist/poet John Milton of Paradise Lost fame. All poets in their ways different but held together by one common bond-the ability to sense the beauty hidden in the English language and to put it in symbolic form. Eliot is in that company. To a great extent, at least in the modern era, T.S. Eliot's little poem is the one that permits all following poets including Ginsberg to explore and explode the possibilities of the language. No bad for a bank clerk, right?

I remember first reading, halteringly, Wasteland in high school straight up without notes. We spent a lot of time on the arcane references Eliot sprinkled throughout the poem and we collectively had a project to dig out all the unfamilar symbols buried in the lines of the poem. That, my friends, was serious work. In fact one classmate argued that the Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail was child's paly by comparison. We definitely could have used the copious notes provided here to speak nothing of the various critical interpretations presented. Well done. With the availability of this reference work do not, I repeat, do not fly solo with the Wasteland. It is too important a poem of the modern age to lose its meaning for lack of knowledge of some arcane references.

I'm not really qualified to review TS Eliot. First of all, I couldn't be impartial---I made a special trip while in Somerset to visit the man's grave (actually a little plaque). Secondly, the corpus of his work represents one of the greatest pinnacles of the English language. I'll let Oxford dons review Waste Land.
This book of essays, however, was extremely helpful to me as I studied this poem, this monument to our decaying culture. I really think that it was instrumental in allowing me to reach a certain level of understanding, a level of comfort, with one of the most dense poems in English. However, it's not cheap, and no easy read in itself. You have to want it!
If you are serious about your Eliot, pull out the VISA and go to town. If you are just passing through, your local library has a copy you could check out before spending the money.

I read The Waste Land and find that most poetry that comes after it is self-indulgent, limpid nonsense. The Beats? Who are they? Rubbish, all of it. Philip Larkin? Wimpish nonsense. But TSE and Ezra Pound, there you have the meaning and message of modern poetry. Since them and then, poetry has gone downhill into the personal, the confessional, the onanistic. Poetry MUST be difficult, not accessible, not transparent and easily understood after one reading.

Norton Critcal did it right with this edition. With enough essays and criticism to help anyone get a deeper understanding of Elliot's poem, this edition is a must have. Rainey's essay on the publishing of the poem is particulary interesting.

One reviewer claims that this is marred by some of Eliot's unfurtunate preducices. But how come you don't say something like that about O' Henry. We can't just stop reading authers because you we don't like their views. Someone calls hemingway looking forward? If that's looking forward I'de rather look backward. Hemingway has no concept of lyricism what so ever. Most of the people that reviewer named justly loved Eliot. Eliot is not looking nesscarily towards the past, but towards what we have made out of the present. In name of progress, we have destroyed nature and good part of our souls. To call Eliot Conservative at the time he wrote the poem would be redicoulous, the first draft according to one of Eliot's biographers, was absolutly a expression of Relavtism. One critic accused him being a Nihilist.

On the Poem itself Eliot is truly a master at evocating mode and tone, not to mention his brilliant use of Imperfect rymthe. So it doesn't have the crepty sentimentalism and redicoulous forays of expression of eariler and later poets. So he looks at his poetry with a sense of hard classicism, we could use more of that. Yet what he doesn't right he evoces through mode and tone, giving us truly one of the best poems of this, or any other century.

The author takes the reader on a poignant, beautiful adventure into a realm where spirit touches matter -- a landscape that has become increasingly lost to contemporary humanity. De L'Autin rescues this dimension, bringing it alive in the characters and events in his book, reminding us that the human spirit is as alive today as it was ages ago.

I was not at all prepared for the effects this novel had on me. Let me begin by saying that most of my reading has been very purpose-driven. I read to learn something new, to clarify my understanding of a subject, or to help me get something done. Since college, when I spent a semester reading classical Spanish literature, I have rarely taken the time to read strictly for pleasure or entertainment.

When I began reading Reach to the Wounded Healer I at first had some difficulty following the dialog between the characters. Mr. de l'Autin presents the dialog without using introductions like "Paul said," or "Mim said." While this makes it a bit difficult to follow at first, once I learned who the characters were, it actually made the reading much more fluid and natural - as though I were actually there listening, rather than reading a transcript. The use of regional dialects furthers this illusion, and helps to enrich the sense of "being there".

I soon found I was unable or unwilling to put the book down! The rich descriptions of the scenes in each chapter created such vivid mental images that I almost felt as though I were watching a screenplay. I was hooked!

This book combines elements of romance, adventure, and religious mysticism. I was raised as a Roman Catholic during the turbulent period immediately following Vatican Council II. My Catholic education included plenty of studies of apparitions of the Virgin Mary throughout Church history. However, until reading this novel I had never before connected these many individual events together into a common theme or message.

Don't let the book's basis in "Catholic mysticism" deter you if you happen not to be Catholic. The emphasis is clearly on ecumenism, and the common basis of the world's great faiths. Its message of the need to care for one another - whether as family, friends, neighbors, or simply as inhabitants of the same planet - transcends any single religious doctrine.

After finishing Reach I was left with a feeling that I knew Paul and John, and I wanted to know what became of them.

As I said earlier, I rarely read for entertainment. This book entertained and engaged me as much as any stage play!

I knew Mr. de l'Autin when he was a chemistry professor back in the late 1980's; not only was he a teacher, but also a friend. When I found out that he was a published author, I wanted to find out if he was as gifted a writer as he was a teacher. I was not disappointed.

Reach to the Wounded Healer was so easy to read, so hard to put down. Captivating in its detail, he describes South Louisiana in a way that shows the world what a special place it is. Intertwined with this are mysterious visions the protagonist has, beginning in childhood, which only adds to the beauty of this tale. I loved all the characters so much that I really want to know more about them. But that's what happens when you are a good writer -- your readers always want more!

Buy this book -- you won't be disapointed!

Loss, fascination, and curiosity spark Paul de la Moret's pilgrimage. Reach to the Wounded Healer asks how one finds his life's purpose while living in a modern world. The result is an inspirational and contemporary fable that cannot be easily categorized. Ernest de l'Autin has written a book for those who want to explore truths relevant to their lives while at the same time refusing to be bored. While spiritual self-help books teach how and autobiographies explain, Reach is a brand of literature that transforms. Although Autin takes great pains to create verisimilitude through faithfulness to detail and regional dialects, the novel's poetic power never diminishes. This vivid novel is filled with action and high stakes. And, Autin uses the edge of the sword in order to create realistic and memorable people rather than static characters. Moreover, because Reach skillfully entertains life-purpose questions, it compliments Paul Coelho's The Alchemist, the worldwide classic of personal fulfillment.

Paul de la Moret leads a life that is both enchanting and tragic. After he suffers the loss of loves ones, a mysterious lady visits him in dreams and visions and tells him, "I choose you." In searching for answers to the visitations and the statue of the lady, Paul journeys from his native Louisiana to the Ukraine. His captivating transformation from pilgrim to healer blends humor with poetry and inspiration. Through his own woundedness, Paul carries the message of comfort and healing to those who suffer around him. In this way, Paul learns his life's purpose.

Reach is also a charming story about the value of friendship. The interactions between Paul and his childhood friend John show how valuable comic relief and love are, especially to a young man trying to find himself. Their friendship strengthens and encourages Paul to continue his pilgrimage. John helps Paul to quote his inspiring poem of old written by St. John of the Cross. Once Paul is strengthened, Paul and John together survive and thrive through the high adventure and suspense of their worldwide trek.

Reach is a comforting novel because of how realistic it depicts the support Paul receives from his loved ones and the lady. Reach becomes a poem, a devotion, and a prayer.

Despite Reach's entertaining quality, loss makes Paul's soul ripe for the lady's spiritual help. But love and forgiveness become the most powerful healers. A Ukrainian woman Olga tells Paul, "Wery heavy heart. Lady know people like you." This key statement summarizes Paul's situation and is a reminder that God is near those who suffer. Yet, as Paul learns, sometimes it is harder to be human than it is to be "spiritual." His pilgrimage is not automatic; he must forgive those who cause some of his losses.

Paul sums up his story at the end, saying, "[St. John of the Cross] has shown me that we must reach to others through our woundedness. In this, we find the courage to reach in love rather than hate, to rejoice in hope rather than despair, to live in grace rather than guilt."

While Paul is guided by the lady, she is no mere plot device. Paul is, at times, a doubting Thomas, an impulsively mouthy Apostle Peter, and a rebellious Jonah. He must learn to follow the lady's guidance. Therefore, readers can relate to him. And Reach does not preach to readers, but offers Paul the spiritual guidance he needs when the story most requires a renewal of his strength. Reach can also be enjoyed by people of all faiths or those who are looking for faith.

Reach shows readers the power of dreams. Because Paul's dreams are prophetic, the level of detail that Autin provides is important. Divine foreknowledge must be accurate by definition, or no one could believe its message. Autin also uses setting to link the natural and the divine through Paul's dreams and visions. This gives the events and places the spiritual tone that is central to Paul's pilgrimage.

I feel somewhat uncomfortable writing this review, though I feel compelled to. This is generally not the kind of book I would normally read, so any review seems a bit unfair for that reason alone. It's highly religious, an adjective I would not use to describe myself. While not adverse to religion-influenced writings - after all many of the world's greatest books are heavily influenced by it - faith-based books are another matter entirely.

This begs the question, why did I read it? The answer is simple. I was approached by the author, who offered to send me a free hardcover in exchange for a review. I accepted, warning him I would be brutally honest. Given my review rating, I'm not sure it makes a difference. But these first 2 paragraphs are what they call full disclosure.

Why did I not like the book? As mentioned it's purely faith-based. That's an issue, but not something which garners a 1 star review alone. It's more than that. Author Ernest De L'Autin's work comes off as having been written by someone who feels he should force himself to write even if the words don't flow freely. Based on discussions I had with the author, this seems a highly personal work which serves as an outlet for his emotional pain. I feel for the author, but have to be fair in saying it reads as if he forced himself to put words on the page when there were none to be had.

Aside from these problems, there are any number of other problems with the story and the writing, some of which I will illustrate below. The use of regional dialect is an issue. I don't want to decipher the text while reading. The southern and Ukrainian dialects are difficult to get through, making the pages drag as one translates the text. The accent could have more efficiently been conveyed without the heavy handed manner the author takes.

Another moment comes on pages 57-58, when the main character finds out his father is dead. We are subsequently led through a series of inane minutia that does not help the story along, shed any light on the character's mindset, or seem to serve any purpose whatsoever. Kurt Vonnegut once wrote something to the effect that anything you write should either help develop the character or move the story along. De L'Autin does not subscribe to that adage.

It seems we see a white egret every time the landscape is being described. Every time John sees Paul, the conversation revolves around something being wrong or Paul's lack of sleep. This gets tedious by page 100. We literally read the word "pal" about 300 times in their conversations. When they do have an actual conversation, they're unnatural, impossible to embrace, far too forced.

The book suffers from a decided lack of flow. The narrative is jerky, jumping from one unimportant minor event (saying grace) to the next (looking at a painting). Again, none of these events moves the story one iota. The author feels the need to bridge every temporal gap, describing exactly what happens between saying grace and eating the dinner, that looking at a painting is crucial in the story.

Something that happened 2 days ago is being referred to as yesterday. This is a detail, but given the number of details we're piling on, these things jump out while reading the book. At this stage it was hard to continue reading, since I would have normally put the book down. But given I accepted the book in exchange for a review, I kept at it.

The random event towards the end of the book is so out of left field & undeveloped it marks a total turn in the narrative, something not supported by the story at hand. I understand the author needed to plunge Paul into an abyss, but you would think the 5+ dead friends & relatives would have been sufficient. Later, we realize this was the icing on the title of the book, which makes the plot twist that much harder to swallow. This 80's movie scene in the middle of the Ukraine is mostly ridiculous, oddly ringing of the movie Spies Like Us.

The author uses too many clichés. His word choice is unvaried, something that will even torpedo good writing. In a 2 page stretch, the author uses the word crevasse 7 times. Speaking strictly from an editor's point of view, this is awful.

These crevasse scenes are reminiscent of anyone who has ever picked up a pen and decided that, "Today, I am going to be a writer!" Ernest De L'Autin appears to have decided that he was going to be a writer. I have to hand it to him, he got to the end of his story, no matter how difficult the road was to get there, which is more than most would-be writers end up doing.

But finishing a book, no matter how personal or therapeutic, doesn't mean it's a book worth reading, or publishing for that matter. While I do think that the pure faith-based direction of the book doesn't resonate with anything I read, there are many more aspects that leave it far short of a novel worth looking into. The other reviews on the page should be disregarded, since a terse investigation shows not a single one has reviewed any other book, and each text read as of a friend who felt obligated to submit.

Granted, every book and review is subjective. So maybe you'll like it. I wish nothing but the best for the author, who seemed a very nice person and appears genuine, based on the correspondence we've had, a disposition that will likely change after reading this review. Hopefully, he learns and grows from this experience and puts together something I will eventually find impossible to put down.