John C. Gardner Books

John Gardner wrote many good works, the Sunlight Dialogues being by far the best. In it he captures the range of hope and anxiety that made the 1960s such a thrilling and tormenting time to be alive. Using the small town of Batavia, New York, Gardner plunges the reader into the life of a prodigal son of the most prestigious family in town and that of the dedicated police chief. And do the intellectural sparks fly! The illustrations by John Napper are reminescent of those from the Yellow Book in the 1890s, by Aubrey Beardsley. There is a lot of subtle humor ("take a gun of, say, x caliber...") as well as dead-on observation of what makes people do outrageous things for perfectly logical reasons.
It's a roller coaster of a novel, so hang on and enjoy the ride. You might even want to go back for a second trip. I did.

The Sunlight Dialogues_ is truly John Gardner's magnum opus, equaling and perhaps overshadowing _Grendel_, the book for which he is best known.

Grossly over-simplified, it is about the tide of discontent and change that came about in the 1960s, exemplified in the stories of a handful of people who live in the small New York town of Batavia. All of these characters' stories occur at roughly the same moment, and to a certain degree overlap each other; they all come into contact with one another at some point during the novel, and may even influence each other, but every member of the book's huge cast has his or her own story and denouement.

The primary one of these stories is the one that concerns Police Chief Fred Clumly and a haggard, maniacal drifter known as "the Sunlight Man", and the happenings of this particular storyline are the catalysts for the rest of the stories. "The Sunlight Man", whom we later find out is Taggert Hodge, the black sheep of the wealthy and powerful family the members of whom comprise roughly half the other characters in the novel, is the one who sets all of these denouements into motion with his seminal return to his hometown as a magician, hippie, murderer, and poet. His has been a life of disillusionment, loss, betrayal and unattainable wants, and he returns to Batavia to set into motion a sort of romantically juvenile plot to take revenge on the world and to mewl out his disappointment with the way things are, the latter of which he does through Fred Clumly(thus is the origin of the title.)

Gardner is remarkably adept at character development; Taggert Hodge, Walter Benson and Fred Clumly are among the best painted characters of fiction I know of. The author has a gift for articulating neuroses and flaws of characters, from miniscule ticks in their everyday behavior to major personality faults. And with a cast of roughly eleven major characters, making each and every one entirely unique in their drives and hamartias is no task to be scoffed at. However, the ability of John Gardner's I perhaps envy the most is that of taking a very normal, even pretty environmental setting, and turning it nightmarish and haunting. In the novel, the dense forests and century-old barns of Batavia are made into artifacts and ruins of an almost Lovecraftian caliber of queerness, and yet it does not serve to displace the small New York town from the realm of believable reality, but rather forces you to evaluate your reality on the same dark and weird basis as his authorial voice.

The sheer scope of the novel (that of several stories cycloning around a unifying theme and plot catalyst) at times threatens to tear it apart, however; the reader at times is left wondering why the author has switched point of views when the scenario he was describing previously had yet to be resolved. This is a mere annoyance, however, and is not really something for which I believe the novel should be faulted, for the rewards of its pages are vast ones.

Due perhaps to its relatively young age, it has yet to receive the proper "classic" status it so rightly deserves, and, sadly, it may never, for "Grendel" seems to be John Gardner's only remembered and widely read work, and is perpetually overshadowing the rest of the author's material, most of which are just as powerful and memorable as tale of Beowulf's tragic nemesis. In fact, some may even be better, as I propose The Sunlight Dialogues is, but until the higher-ups at Norton and the like get around to looking at this master of fiction as a master should, I advise any and all of the people reading this to purchase this book from whatever obscure publisher it has currently been tossed to.

Back in the 70s, I became fascinated with John Gardner, starting with The Wreckage of Agathon and Grendel. When The Sunlight Dialogues came out, I was hooked. I picked up a paperback copy and just fell into the story. After that, each new Gardner was purchased in hardcover, which I could ill afford back then.

About 10 years ago, I tracked down a fine condition copy of TSG and re-read it. Bad move, though, donating the paperback to the library.

I welcomed the arrival of a new trade paperback edition of the novel, and of one or two others by Gardner until I actually had the opportunity to hold them. The reprints were done without the original illustrations, which are integral to the books. Unbelievable!

For old times sake, I bought a used Ballantine paperback copy and am re-reading it. I have no intention of buying this new edition.

So, five stars for Gardner and the book, with a one-star demerit for this compromised reprint. The new introduction doesn't add much to the book.

I recently met a recent graduate of the State University of New York: Binghamton, an English major. He had never heard of John Gardner, author of the one American post WWII novel that stands comparision in scope and quality, if not import, with Middlemarch.

This novel is unabashedly symbolic, it's many characters each representing the dichotomies of order/chaos, love/hatefulness, light/darkness. But don't think that the work is heavy handed or didactic because of the obviously metaphorical quality. Rather, it is like other great metafiction, the reading of which is akin to entering a complex microcosm, and best of all, having a bird's eye view into the lives and minds of all the many characters. The multiplicity of narratives, some dramatic, others hilariously banal, is nearly perfectly balanced so that when one character might get tiresome, we are transported into another new and fascinating life. Most impressively, all these narratives are eventually woven together in perfect and beautiful harmony. Once you enter this work, you will not want to stop. I don't advice reading this unless you have some free time, otherwise all your other responsibilities will suffer.

I'm biased, as I had Dr. Gardner as a professor years ago before he was at Baylor, but I think this is one of the better poetry books I have read in awhile. The explanatory notes are very well done, the poems are organized well, and overall, it's a very strong book. I'm enjoying going through it.

This book is an excellent introduction to the religious verse of John Betjeman and is presented in a very easy-to-read style. The book introduces each group of poems with background details and light commentary on the poems along with biographical information on the poet which helps to explain the content.

The themes in the anthology include death, spiritual doubts and fears, belief, vanity and hypocrisy in the church and the church in society and include many of his most well-known poems including "Slough" and "Diary of a Church Mouse."

This is an excellent book for those who want to study Betjeman's religious verse or who want to read the thoughts of one whose faith was often tested and unsure but who loved the Church of England as a vital part of England.

"The book has three likely uses. First, it can serve as a quick guide for those who can remember any of the author's names for a key article, but need more exact information for location or reference. Second, it can enable those interested in quantitative literature analysis to test and verify much of the work in this area by the authors of this book. Finally, and most likely, the book can help professors identify the seminal works in specific areas of interest. This can be particularly beneficial in designing reading lists for graduate courses.

"The new edition contains three significant additions. First, four additional years are included. Second, the four categories and citation indexes for each article are given in Part I as well as Part II. Third, all indexed articles are listed in the Part II sections, yet readers who scorn the uncited will not be inconvenienced, since unreferenced articles reside at the bottom of each list.

"In summary, this is a significantly improved edition. This unique book shows which works in various areas have most strongly influenced recent academic accounting research. The book should continue to be especially valuable in preparing reading lists for accounting doctoral programs and seminars."
----Accounting Review
"The authors have added citations for research published during the last 3 years to the 22 years of citations contained in the first edition. There is an alphabetical listing of all articles cited, followed by a breakdown according to mode of reasoning, research methodology, school of thought and topical content. Accounting faculty and graduate students will find this to be a useful aid in locating information for their research projects."
---Journal of Accountancy

This is the first issue of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, which has been popular enough to continue even today, years after Asimov's demise. To start off with a bang, this first edition included works by some of the sci-fi fields best authors of the 20th century, including Arthur C. Clarke, Gordon R. Dickson, George O. Smith, John Varley, and Asimov himself. I recall buying this around the time Star Wars came out; I was already a sci-fi buff, and that was a great time for it!

This book was a gift for the man interested in investments!
He loves it!

You must read this book. And it's the only mutual fund investment book you need. I read it cover to cover in just a few days. Now I know exactly what to do with my 401k's, and my IRA's.

Investing in mutual funds? This book is the granddaddy of books that reveal everything you want and need to know about mutual fund investing. Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, delivers a knockout blockbuster here that you won't want to miss.

Very detailed and informative book. I still read it from time to time to keep my investment perspective. It lead me to index investing a number of years ago, and I've never been sorry!

This book reads like a college text (easier version from Bogle would be the little book of common sense investing) but it has all the information you will need to become a proficient investor of mutual funds. What impressed me the most was the use of data going back several hundred years for the case of asset allocation, the use of diversified equities, and cost containment.

this book was writting by a very good friend of mine. i have know her all of my life. It is very couragous of her to be able to write as much as she did but the good times and the bad. It is difficult to let people in your private life but i know she has grown from this experience. She is a beautiful person inside and out. The words are so vivid and you feel that you are experiancing the events right along with her. That is the purpose of writing. If a writer can do that then she has completed her mission as a author of this book and i feel that she has done this quite well.
sign
a good friend

Having spent 29 years in a profession involving daily dissection of my fellow citizens' "issues," and slogged through their troubles by the truckload, I have a certain tipsy weakness for books like this, for better or for worse. The profession, line of work, income level of the characters, the part of the good old USA they are from -- for that matter their race, religion, or whatever we all think is so damn important -- hardly matters or makes a jot of difference. We are essentially the same across our beloved fruited plains. The characters analyzed in this chronicle, John Gardner and Susan Thornton, are instantly recognizable, common currency of our wacko moment of history. More talent, more ambition, a jot of fame or extra $$ only fuels their insanity. These are indeed state of the art wackos, in love with the thrill of self-destruction. They are only able to feel alive when they are in excruciating emotional pain -- and who they dish it out to in the process is mere collateral damage. Indeed, if former spouses, students, colleages and friends get uppity about things, that only proves their moral inferiority in the eyes of our Great Sufferers -- who see such compadres as mere lesser mammals, incapable of Real Bigtime Cosmic Pain. Lesser mortals with less than the gigantic pain making and pain taking capacities of these so so special psychic suicides at large. Gardner and Thornton are here presented, doubtless accurately, as our cherished current hero types who live for passion and self-actualization, damn all else. And who thus most openly exercise, to quote the unforgettably wacko wisdom of Justice Sandra Day O'Conner, our greatest fundamental right as a people: to create, each single one of us, "our own universe."

Of course, if you attend places like Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, then you are certified by our corrupt literary and publishing establishment to (getting real solemn here now) "share" the experience, write "frank and gripping" personal chronicles in "carefully nuanced" prose . . . . To live out such craziness on behalf of all the rest of us, who vicariously, need whatever hit of the truly hard stuff we can get, from wherever . . . .

Yeah, I loved every word of it . . . .

The fact is, you can't condemn either of them for living it or her for writing it. Nor yourself, for that matter, for reading it. Indeed it is who we are. It is insightful and, coldly objectively speaking, useful. Who cares for fiction anymore, anyway? Life here in wacko land is so far beyond what anyone can imagine. And don't diss those big hair girls in the checkout line with their People Magazine, either. Us literary criterary all-American wackos need the same fuel too, just a more yupscale brand label.

Are we as a people capable of tragedy, anymore, or is it just bathos from here on out? Thornton's first person account begs the question. John Gardner's monumental talent, anyway, was quite obviously tragically wasted. I don't know what Susan Thornton might have become in that edgy vein of little magazines and writers' conferences, but on the evidence of this, she had some decent building blocks as a writer. The book is sort of a confession that the jig is up now, that she exchanged a grab at the golden ring for this, out of what she calls love. And of Gardner's earlier wives and "families," earlier "loves"? Well, no problemo, chillen' . . . indeed one of them was still around . . . why can't we go on as three? Let the booze flow, let the co-dependancy go terminal. One wonders if we're even worse off today than when Scott Fitzgerald -- another great self-destroyed artist and boozed out co-dependent offered up on the altar of passion and pushing the limits -- wrote, "There are no second acts in American lives." In America, your life itself is increasingly your artwork, apparently. Now, it looks like there are not even decent first acts. For God's sake, why even bother to create? You can get the same juice out of a bottle or by seducing an artist, living on the brink of exhilaration and despair.

Most paradoxically, Gardner's provocative masterpiece "On Moral Fiction" looms over this whole mess now like a giant runic curse, something out of his own medieval imagination. No, you cannot diminish an artist's great work by his later looniness. But I wish somebody would tell creative souls in this nation, especially the young, that to perform as an artist you don't have to be "different," crazy, odd, sexually berserk, plotzed on booze and/or drugs, wacko. Creativity is a normal and honorable human endeavor and perfectly sane and happy people can do it. Indeed they can be superior at it, especially if they exercise discipline, thoughtfulness, and hard work, and don't fall for the mob's cry for their blood for mass entertainment's sake. While I am thankful for Susan Thornton's at least partial honesty, and this record of our wacko times, I fear that something of the thrill of the wacko hunt is not entirely dispelled from her chronicle. This is finally my argument with the book, with myself for having read it -- like another trip to the liquor store. One wonders: if Susan Thornton would have been on that fatal motorcycle with Gardner, only lived to tell the tale, albeit maimed, what aftertaste then? Or is the American Dream now become so bonked out that not even a serious concussion can alter the ameoba-like, vacuous purity of the mush inside the personal "universes" of our skulls?

Four and a half stars, then, for Susan Thornton; I withold only 1/2 to reflect her own tacit honesty, that not only him but a big part of herself was killed in the process here documented. This is candor beyond what we usually get in first person chronicles of this nature. But I must still hold out for art -- yeah, stuff like Tender is the Night or O'Neil's Iceman. Only cold-eyed tragedy is purgative and speaks to the true universe -- a human society, a whole people, who connect well or badly but inevitably -- a matrix of relationships and influences that our insane concept of society as only a self-absorbed collection of "personal universes" in isolation increasingly negates. The loss of a writer and critic of the caliber of John Gardner -- and in these circumstances -- must be properly seen to impact us all -- not just himself and Susan Thornton.

Is there an artist in the house?

To me, John Gardner was egotistical, self-serving, and liked nothing better than the sound of his own voice. Ms. Thornton was nothing but a doormat, and a doormat who should have known better. Ms Thornton claims writing this book was therapeutic, brought closure, etc. Frankly, I don't think the book served its' purpose. She seems to be the same starry eyed person she was, when John Gardner first appeared on the horizon. And there is no doubt, that Ms. Thornton would have continued on her path of self destruction had John Gardner lived.

Two stars because it's readable, but there's little here that adds to Gardner's biography.
Any admirer of John Gardner who doesn't get that he was emotionally scary has missed something in the novels and may want to read this self-absorbed book, but Gardner fans may find themselves increasingly annoyed with Thornton to the point of nitpicking: looking for flaws such as the many redundancies, the failure to make either Susquehanna or Binghamton seem like real places (Gardner did Binghamton with a single phrase: "a beautiful old lady with her teeth knocked out." ) the freehand with which she condemns almost everybody else with close personal ties to Gardner, including his parents and his ex-wives, even the variations in time-length between the hospital scene at the opening of the book and its reprise near the end.
To some of us Gardner remains a literary giant, using his erudition as a literary tool in much the same way Conrad used the sea, and with the same meticulous attention to language. Books like this one remain peripheral.

This book describes a relationship all of us has either heard about or lived with on some level. It is a well-written, captivating story. I could not stop reading. The great man or woman seduces, lures or entices the innnocent, less experienced man or woman. Neither is aware of the entanglement thay about to begin with each other although it seems obvious to everyone on the outside. The downward spiral that Gardner was on was a tragedy apparently no one could stop. Susan was only one of the victims of Gardner's alcoholic odyssey. I was happy to read that Susan was able to rise from the ashes and put her life on a different road. I wonder how his children and other family members endured.

This book was more helpful for me than my professors' lectures! It is very helpful for all general chem students, including those who hate chemistry (I do not).

This is not a very good textbook and should not be considered if you desire to learn chemistry. The text is not understandable even though I have a masters in chemistry from CalTech.

The organization is not well structured and it's hard to believe that people actually like this book. The writers of this book try to "cram" as much information as possible in each chapter which is NOT necessary. It could be sucessfuly done if they spread out the information and concepts.

HOWEVER, he book problems are excellent. I'll give them that.

This book is very well written, with helpful diagrams and detailed examples. It is easy to understand and text and with this book it is truly not hard to understand chemistry and do well. I easily got an A in Chemistry I and I believe that everyone who failed the class simply didn't look over the book or their notes after class. It certainly wasn't the fault of the professor or the text- both explained chemistry very well.

This book is a leader in the chemistry field, superior to any I've seen. Its explanations are thorough, yet concise. If you are a student, and you have any doubts about the effectiveness of this book, expel them from your mind. This is a book for autonomous thinkers, as it gives you a strong footing in intermediate Chemistry, allowing you to think for yourself. The media companion is also helpful. It brings the book to life, helping those students who work best with visual stimulus. Perhaps you do not have a computer in your home, but take the time to use this tool at your school. As for the teachers, you may have my assurance that my time spent as a student using this book was made more complete only by my professor's lectures. Please consider this book a valuable addition to your Chemistry library.

I had difficulties solving chemistry problems I also bought many books but when I found this one in My local library I was extremely happy with the simplicity of the text problem examples
THIS IS THE BEST BOOK FOR CHEMISTRY CLASS EVER ....I HAD A D IN MY FIRST CHEMISTRY CLASS NOW I AM GETTING As AND Bs Every household should have one .... The best book by far

Maybe I checked this out from the library expecting not to like it. (The Raymond Benson ones I got I really didn't like.) But as soon as I read the first page, I was hooked. It felt like I was reading another Fleming novel, with agents mysteriously dying with means that would have been used in his day. The more modern era and the relics of the past (the CABAL network and what it's up against) are blended together seamlessly. It kept me hooked until the very end. If you like the Fleming novels and plot-changing surprises, read this. If you prefer the new-millenium Bond, well, I can't say much for your taste, but whatever floats your boat...

This was my first experience with the "modern' James Bond. I strongly suspect that the only people who like Gardner (or Benson) are the ones who have never read Fleming. This one dimensional book had a weak villian, the 2 key plot elements had no apparent connection, and an uncharacteristically dumb action by Bond which led to the deaths of 2 allies. This last was only a plot device to prolong the novel. And Bond falling in love with some incompetent woman he just me, get real. This Bond is just a poor copy. At least the movies are fun.

Beginning with the murder of two members of a VERY well-organized spy ring known as Cabal, Bond teams up with another MI6 agent to try and find out what happened to the remaining members of the organization and find out who was behind it.

Wow! John Gardner has a masterpiece this time. This is one of the best espionage novels I've read. Bond goes up against some of the most sinister and ruthless villains, and in this novel almost nobody can be trusted. The amount of double-crosses and plot twists is astounding, and unlike the more recent Bond movies, the plot is complex and (gasp) logical! As Bond unravels more clues as to who is killing Cabal's agents, he must use every means available to survive, and to stop a cataclysmic event orchestrated by a ruthless organization.

Because of the rich and twisting plot, Death Is Forever captures the more sinister elements of the spy world with nothing short of brilliance. HIGHLY recommended.

I'm not a "die-hard Bond fanatic" but I've seen the movies and read some of the novels, and after reading some of the other comments, mostly negative, about Gardner and his novels I thought I'd set down some thoughts on DEATH IS FOREVER. For me Gardner is as close as anyone's ever gotten to Fleming and not that far behind. DEATH IS FOREVER was an enthralling novel and the best Gardner I have read (with SCORPIUS a close second). Gardner's Bond, like Fleming's, is not a super-hero with rocket-boats and submarine cars never at a loss for humorous one-liners every time he kills a guy. He's a flesh-and-blood human being as vulnerable as anyone else who survives by using his head. Of all the movies, the two that are most faithful to Fleming's original conception of the Bond character are "From Russia with Love" and "Licence to Kill." In my opinion, needless to say, the two best Bond films. And this is the Bond of DEATH IS FOREVER and the Gardner novel series. As for the Benson novels, I've never understood why the head of the James Bond fan club was chosen to succeed Gardner as Bond writer and not an actual published novelist.

This is one of the most itrigueing and action packed Bond novels ever written! Bond is set against an old H.V.A. or Stasi officer(East German Intelligence)who can't except Communism's failure. It's action till the last page with all the women and gadgets that make Bond James Bond.

John Gardner was one of the country's most prolific writers: novels, scholarly medieval books & articles, opera libretti, poetry, plays, & children's books. He published more than 30 books before he died at 49 in 1982. Several of his novels made the best seller lists. Yet his greatest love was teaching, & even after he could have lived on book royalties, he continued to teach. Starting out as a medieval language & literature professor, he gradually shifted into creative writing. All along the way he gathered his plans & notes, later organizing them into notebooks for his writing students. His rants against modern lit & writers in ON MORAL FICTION berated fellow writers--whether they were friends or strangers--telling some of them that they were selling out. This made him plenty of enemies. However, THE ART OF JOHN GARDNER is a collection of some of the methods and exercises that he developed when he taught young writers how to write (California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Virginia, etc.).There is a generosity of spirit in this book that was missing in ON MORAL FICTION. Gardner was a dedicated teacher, and the concepts & ideas in this book will interest any student of writing and literature. His emphasis on rhythm and language has helped many young writers. Those who are working on form and analysis will find this book as compelling as it is original. These ideas and methods are intense and practical. Gardner's ideas have always been intriguing.

Unfortunately -- and this is not a fault of the book, but merely the way conversations are -- John Gardner is "less ordered" or "organized" here than in his writings on literary criticisms, since these are, after all, interviews, transcripts. (Actually, one or two or three pieces are articles based on interviews, which allow for the interviewers' reflections on the interviews.)

Very interesting, all the same, and, unlike prepared remarks, these conversations has Gardner in his own informal, everyday language. I don't think they helped me understand his works all that much better, necessarily, but I did get a better sense of the man and what he was like, and that helps, too, towards getting a handle on his works. Part of my continued fascination with Gardner, after all, is that he seems one of the few "philosophical writers" who talk about his works not in the language of a theorist but, mainly, in the language of a thinking reader, an intelligent reader. He discusses his works and the motivations behind them, but unfortunately of course it's all over the place; a "topical index" for his works would have been great (say, under "October Light" would be listed all the references to that title in this collection of interviews). As it is, it's a needle-in-haystack hunt if you're interested in some particular point or other: there's just no way of quickly researching anything here!

Still, a good book and a welcome addition to my library.