Prose Books

In the title essay of this collection Joseph Epstein takes a cruel, if comical look at what he sees when he emerges from the pool. He looks at his own aging body, and shows sympathy for his wife who has to sleep next to such a body, rather than to merely be 'in it' as he himself is. Age has not been kind, and relatively clean - living has not prevented the various saggings and shiftings of weight which are before him. As with his body so with many other aspects of life Epstein sees with a clear and tough eye many other aspects of reality. The focus in most of these essays is himself, his heart- bypass, his reactions to the for him less than wonderful change in the character of popular - music, the ins and outs of nap-taking, his disenchantment with much modern sport, his way of reading a book to the end now should it be at his age his last crack at reading it. Epstein is both a Bellow- like Chicago tough guy close to the sounds and sights of American life, and an intellectual of the first rank whose moral insights and musings have most often a foundation in solid good sense. He is one of those writers who I find it simply a great joy to read. And he is one of those essayists who like Montaigne in holding a mirror up to himself holds a mirror to mankind in general.
Just the best.

I couldn't agree more with the reviewer from Texas, so let me repeat the Texan: a formal indictment should be brought against Phi Beta Kappa for firing Joseph Epstein. The end of the American Scholar as we knew it was the first publishing loss of my young life; now I fully appreciate how lifetime 'New Yorker 'readers felt when William Shawn was dismissed. Anyway, I'm supposed to stick to the book. These essays, originally American Scholar columns, are a great pleasure. Thank you, Mr. Epstein.

Loved it. Have converted all my friends to Epstein enthusiasts

The melancholy title of this book alone is enough to bring back memories of that bleak afternoon when I read in the pages of my newly arrived copy of the American Scholar that my longtime never-met friend Joseph Epstein would no longer pay his quarterly visit to my home. For months, I could not bring myself to finish the originally published Aristides essay in which he announces his leaving of the Scholar. I felt as though I had been told of the death of a long time boon companion. I later came to realize that Mr. Epstein had, in fact, not resigned but had been pushed out. Curses! Curses I proclaimed upon the American Scholar (those curses, by the way, still remain in effect; I vigorously renew them every change I get). Yet Mr. Epstein, gentleman scholar that he is, has to my knowledge, handled the insult with all the dignity that Mr. Emerson would have wished for in the last true editor of this now ill named journal. He wrote one of the most eloquent and distinctive essays of his career. The entire book resonates with the feeling of this one essay. Perhaps this was not intentional, perhaps it was. Certainly the coming storm was visible on the horizon. One could even say that Mr. Epstein was steeling himself against the opposing armies surrounding his outpost on a literary Masada. Such things can be seen in the distance and the soul can do nothing else but to arm and defend. Mr. Epstein was killed, in the literary sense. His editorial armor was stripped and his body was left for the academic carrion feeders. Yet he survives. Perhaps he will not regain an editorial position; quality does not seem to be in demand in these days of Miss Brown and her ilk. The fact that books of this sublimity, wit, and style are yet published truly astonishes one when the weekly best-seller lists are examined. We can only thank God that Mr. Epstein is still alive, writing, and occasionally published in such journals as the New Criterion, Commentary, and other publications of like erudition and taste. Read "Narcissus Leaves the Pool." Read it with the understanding that it is the last chapter in the life story of a once great journal. Read it with the knowledge that it is not "With My Trousers Rolled" or "A Line Out for a Walk," it more complex than either of those fine collections. Read it with the hope that you will be allowed into the thoughts, both idle and collected, of one of the last great essayists left in the world. You will not be disappointed.

Joseph Epstein is out of step with the times; so much the worse for the times. But you wouldn't expect one of our best essayists to share the hyperkinetic spirit of our quick-cut, crisis-of-the-week, information overload age, malnourished as it is on fast food and fast thought. Epstein's readers, used to his erudite and soothing literary voice, will conclude that he's, square peg or no, comfortable in the world. Epstein is a clear, deliberate thinker and graceful writer who won't be rushed. He knows his way around an idea, an anecdote, a philosophical question. He creates intimacy, interest, and assent without being the least polemical or didactic (see above re one of our best essayists), and demonstrates that as well as being useful, intelligence can also be a sheer joy. Narcissus Leaves the Pool -- the sixth essay collection of Epstein's 13 books - will only add to his reputation. The 16 pieces here repay the serious and the playful mind (if the same mind, so much the better). In his surefooted style -- serious but not solemn, humorous but never trivial, deep but always accessible. Epstein ponders what distinguishes a point of view from a grab-bag of opinions; shows how the role of popular music has changed in our lives; counts the ways professional sports offend these days, ("Watching Monica Seles play Arantxa Vicario, two players who grunt with every stroke, I feel that I am inside a hernia testing center.") and laments how hard it is for one who's loved the games to chuck the increasingly hard to justify habit; praises napping and disparages name dropping. He comes to terms with turning 60 in "Will You Still Feed Me." The title of the book and of the lead essay means to suggest the writer has reached an age where the preening and overreaching are done, where possibilities are relinquished. He's not exactly asking what to make of a diminished thing, but conceding that the future, while still pleasing at 61, is contracted. He's reached the age where when reading a good book he feels obligated to do a good job of it as it's unlikely he'll read that book again. An age where every trip to the doctor's office carries the real threat that the doctor will find what he has been poking around looking for these many years. Epstein admits squeamishness, but denies being a hypochondriac, "..only your normal thanatophobe." He ponders the question of how to maintain dignity in the physician's office. "While respecting what they do and realizing the need for them, I have tried to the best of my ability to steer clear of physicians. I find that, given a chance, they discover things I would rather not know about." Once such discovery led to one of life's experiences Epstein would have as soon skipped, heart surgery. He describes it in "Taking the Bypass." Epstein might not think to label himself a conservative. In part because the breathless clamors that fill political journals -- elections, legislative maneuvering, the routine changes of government -- do not interest him much. He's aware of the overall seriousness of politics, especially where it's very bad. He is friends with people who lost family in Hitler's death camps. But his principle concern is the with the workings of the human heart, not with the routine insolences of office. His skepticism regarding all Big Ideas and his rejection of all causes that individuals must be sacrificed in the name of put him, literary temperament and all, on the right side of the angels. A conservative in all but registration. Not one to diminish literature by hitching it to any ideological wagon, Epstein has no patience with tenured Philistines who flog their agendas with the literary masters. In "The Pleasures of Reading," he nails these villains. "What wide reading teaches is the richness, the complexity, the mystery of life.I have come to believe there is something deeply apolitical something above politics in literature, despite what feminist, Marxist, and other politicized literature critics might think. If at the end of a long life of reading the chief message you bring away is that women have had it lousy, or that capitalism stinks, or that attention must above all be paid to victims, then I'd say you just might have missed something." Epstein takes his reading seriously (though not solemnly, as you'll see). He's amused by profiles of people who list reading as a hobby. "I should as readily list under my hobbies, tennis, travel, and breathing." Epstein notices how few grownups there are these days and parses this matter in "Grow Up Why Dontcha." No accident that Seinfeld and Friends became so popular in the land of the perpetual adolescent. Role models in arrested development come with the substantial tuitions at America's colleges in the person of paunchy professors, certifiably past fifty, wearing blue jeans, hiking shoes, and even in some cases, God help us, backpacks. "In our own day one still sees what are essentially sixties characters in their fifties, walking the streets, tie-dyed, long-haired, sadly sandaled, neither grateful nor dead, waiting for the magic bus to the past." Epstein manages to combine literary insights of the literature professor (Northwestern) that he is -- you'll encounter Proust, Montaigne, T.S. Eliot, and Solzhenitsyn in these pages -- with the acute observations of the street smart Chicago boy he also is. You'll also run across Joe Montana, Mike Ditka ( I did say Chicago), Floyd Patterson, and former welter weight Carmen Basilio. Epstein delights in all precincts of Vanity Fair. Epstein, like your average French desert, is pretty rich stuff and probably is better read an essay or two at a time. Those who've read A Line Out For a Walk, Once More Around the Block, With My Trousers Rolled, or The Middle of My Tether know this already. It probably wouldn't do anyone actual harm to read an entire book of Epstein essays at one sitting. But why take a chance? Larry Thornberry - Tampa LTBerrywtr@aol.com

Judy Stone is disarmingly engaging, a trait and quality that has endeared her to many of her fascinating subjects for attention in this thoroughly embracing and terrific journey of conversations and commentary with (incredibly!) 120 filmmakers, writers, and artists from every continent and culture. Reading the stories I felt an unusual intimacy, often forced or lacking in standard interview formats, with stilted questions or stock inquiries, which Stone adeptly avoids. She enables the person to reveal themselves without it seeming intrusive. Her remarkable, incisive curiosity and talent spans generations (from pre-WW2 to the present) and genres, revealing not only what we previously didn't know about the artist or subject, but also illustrating how a creative life is imperative. It is Stone's life that is the real revelation, however. As she writes about the playwright Jon Robin Baitz, he says "Ideas live. Ideas vibrate." So does this book! Get it to discover the astounding array of humanity inside its covers, get it to curl up with this national treasure, Judy Stone!
Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World

Judy Stone's Not Quite a Memoir is the printed equivalent of one of those late-night pub conversations in which the world's great thinkers get together and come up with viable solutions for all the world's problems. And right there in the middle is Stone's unflappable voice, asking the hard questions.

Judy Stone (the sister of I.F. Stone) has been writing these indispensable articles (now collected in an omnibus edition) of both American and international movies for the past three decades.

In between, she has conducted revealing and intelligent interviews (also in this book) with a startling array of directors, actors, and writers from every corner of the world, often traveling to do so. Stone's impressive body of work has actually been collected in two volumes, "Eye on the World" (1997) and this brand new book, "Not Quite a Memoir."

Stone modestly prefers to call herself a reviewer, not a critic, but if any film reviewer has a knowledge of the world as deep as hers and manages to show how films function in that world, I believe Judy Stone has earned the right to be called a critic.

Keep this book around, and you'll find yourself reading it each day, just because it's so much fun and remains so imformative about our world today.

For anyone who has enjoyed Judy Stone's perceptive articles over the years, this book is a feast: a look back at several decades of writing and filmmaking. The only problem is that it reminds you of all the books you wish you had read and the films you wish you had seen. But still, in a world where there is more culture than we can possibly take in, it's nice to have this kind of guidebook to the highlights.

"Not Quite a Memoir" flies around the world from the U.S's Gus Van Sant to Iran's Abbas Kiarostami, Israel's Amos Gitai,Spain's Carlos Saura, Chile's Isabel Allende, India's Satyajit Ray...At every landing, Stone creates a portrait of the artist as a force for social change. Intriguingly, the author backs up her portrait in words by capturing - with unassuming genius--astonishingly insightful photographs of her interview subjects...For medical reasons, Kiarostami never takes off those enigmatic sunglasses. Yet Stone's camera flash cleverly shines right through the artist's dark glasses to give us the first glimpse of eyes that revolutionized filmmaking with how they saw the world. Judy Stone's short interviews, like that camera flash, are just as clever and penetrating."
Ari Siletz, author "The Mullah with No Legs and other stories."

This is an excellent translation that reads like a smooth novel.

The thing that attracted me to this particular version of the Odyssey by Homer was obviously the translation by T.E. Lawrence (i.e.: T.E Shaw) - yes that Lawrence of Arabia. Apparently he carried a worn copy around for four years on his person and eventually produced this translation of the famous epic adventure. According to various Odyssy scholars this 1930 period translation remains important: "for it was the first translation which succeeded in offering both the spirit and the narrative of the Greek original".

There are a number of things about the book worth noting. The first is the introduction by Lawrence to his work. It is just a four page introduction but it makes one nervous since his writing seems to be in the William F. Buckley style where writers use complicated phrases and words to impress the reader or entertain themselves but make the whole reading experience somewhat opaque. But fortunately that disappears in the translation itself.

The translation is clear and highly readable like a Tom Clancy or Jack London novel or similar. The words just flow along and the 400 pages quickly pass by. It is an interesting and entertaining story and this translation is well executed.

Not being a Greek scholar or similar I found the first 10 pages or so slow going since I was not familiar with all the different Gods - such as Zeuss, Poseidon, etc and how these all came into play. But once that is absorbed, the story is like any other novel - but here of course the ancient tale of the trip by Odysseus home to Ithaca after battles in Troy, and his son Telemachus and his wife Penelope who stayed in Ithaca. It is the epic story of fights with Cyclops, the Goddess Athene, daring sea voyages, great feasts, singing, and many close calls with death.

A superb story that has lasted through the ages.
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This was my first attempt at Homer and I have to say, Mr. Lawrence's translation worked for me.

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) is an interesting person by his own right, and as the Introduction alludes to, we get his 'voice of experience' atop Homer's sublime poetry. If there is such a phenomena as 'Two birds with one stone,' this would have to be a good candidate for demonstrating same.

I am convinced by my own experience (as out of favor as it may be), that study of the Classics can be a Life Enhancing, and this book was essentially my first foray into this Truism.

Hope you find this review helpful.

T.E. Lawrence (the English officer who brought together the various peoples of the Arabian peninsula against the Ottoman Empire during World War I; better known as Lawrence of Arabia) called the epic poem "The Odyssey" by the Greek poet Homer "the oldest book worth reading for its story, and the first novel of Europe". The tale of King Odysseus, struggling to return to his home of Ithaca and his family after the Trojan War, is one on par with the finest of contemporary fantasy. Combining as it does a sprawling saga of a ten-year adventure with such fabulous creatures as the Cyclops Polyphemus, the hideous man-devouring Scylla, and the lethally-alluring Sirens with many of the gods of the ancient Greek pantheon (Athene, Poseidon, Calypso, Hermes, and others besides), one can even today marvel at its author's imagination and ingenuity. Then too there is the rich humanity of its mortal characters; the cunning Odysseus, his virtuous wife Penelope, his stalwart son Telemachus, the boorish suitors of Penelope, Eurymachus and Antinous, the august king Menelaus, and a great many more. It is a heady mixture. Lawrence's prose translation is written with a lyrical, romantic deftness. It harkens back to the high epic stories of Sir Walter Scott. But Lawrence never minimizes the sometimes brutal craftiness of Odysseus, nor his casual unfaithfulness to his wife, nor yet his still tender yearning for her and his son. And Lawrence glories in the ancient Greek tradition of "manly tales, manfully told", both in the novel itself and in Odysseus's recounting of his journey to his benefactors. Here indeed is a true flavor of those olden times. As wild and magnificent today as it was 2,500 years ago, "The Odyssey", in whatever form it takes, is still a story by which all other tales of fantastic adventure can be measured.

I have read the Odyssey several times in several translations, and this one, by the famed "Lawrence of Arabia" is the best of them all. No other translation that I have read makes this classic more readable and more enjoyable. Some translations plod, and obscure the excitement of the original, this one turns it into a real page-turner. If you've never read Homer and wonder which of the many translations to read, this is the one; I can recommend no other to introduce "newbies" to the classic world of epic fantasy and adventure.

I hesitated in buying this translation of the Odyssey having grown up with verse translations, most notably that of Fitzgerald. A prose translation somehow put me off; it seemed like the very meaning of Homer's words would be rendered into something different. One day, I read about the translation that T. E. Lawrence had made and, intrigued, I decided to read it for myself. I was very glad that I did.

Lawrence made his translation with an eye for the details and color of the text. He claimed that his experiences in the war in Arabia helped him to understand the writer of the Odyssey, and I think this did aid him in his approach to his translation. The introduction to this printing of Lawrence's translation provides an interesting comparison to another widely used prose rendering of the Odyssey, and one can instantly discover how much more vivid and faithful Lawrence is to the original. So, Lawrence's Odyssey is a translation I will return to in my future reading of this classic tale.

If you grew up on or currently live on a farm this is an interesting read. Even if a farm life is not your experience this book gives great insight to farm life before all the modern conveniences became common. You will enjoy it. Once upon a Farm

We bought this and "Christmas on the Farm" especially for our grandchildren who love farm animals. They thoroughly enjoy reading these books with Grandpa and talking about the wonderful pictures. What a great contribution to remembering things the way they used to be. Thank you Bob Artley!

Bob Artley is so talented and gives you the feeling you are back on the farm again. Brought out so many wonderful memories that I had forgotten. Great book!

My mother is in her eighties and her dictum has become (for gifts),
if I can't wear it, eat it or spend it, don't give it to me. I
broke the rule when I gave her this book for Christmas, and she
loved it so much it brought tears to her eyes.

Bob Artley came from a town not more than 50 miles from my home
town and his age is not that far from the mother's age, and since
my mother also grew up on a farm, going through the book was like
going back into her own very real time. Unlike Mr. Artley and
probably nearly all girls who live on farms today, my mother did
not do chores connected with the farm. That was a guy-thing.
Girls worked in the house. Period. But she certainly had
brothers a-plenty who did those very same things in very similar
ways as did Mr. Artley. The illustrations are wonderful,
so realistic you can almost smell the hay, and other things
not quite so fragrant connected with farms.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has ever lived on a farm, lived near a farm, driven by a farm. It is a document of
a way of life that is swiftly leaving the scene, more's the
pity. It should also be in school libraries.
Even very young children can get a real sense of what it was like
to live on a farm through the marvelous illustrations

This is a beautiful book written by a writer and illustrator who grew up on an Iowa farm in the 1930's as the "age of the horse" was giving way to the "age of the tractor." The author, Bob Artley, illustrates with detailed sketches and color drawings of such things as walking through the spring mud from barn to barn carrying a bucket of feed, a birds eye view of the farmstead, one of father and son cleaning oat seed with a hand powered fanning mill, planting corn behind a team of horses, milking a cow the old fashioned way, the details of a cream separator, threshers at harvest time and much more. Mr. Artley writes a description of the work they did, what was hard, what was fun and a few of his personal memories of the feelings that he as a child had living this life. It is a touching book written with love and realism describing a lifestyle that has passed by. I especially loved his description of the barn chores where each cow had her chosen place where they were fed silage topped with ground oats and linseed oil, and where they would bed down in the straw with their heads in the stanchions feeding on clover hay. Mr. Artley is not overly sentimental in his memories. He also explains the distastefulness of cleaning out the gutters, working in the cold and the heat etc. He gives us a balanced look at farm life prior to telephones, electricity and indoor plumbing. This is a wonderful book for both those who also experienced farm life in the 1930's as well as younger people like myself who are simply interested in the lives of an older generation.

"A jolly, laughing lady," those are the opening words of the biography.
The closing words are:
"To be able to share what I have learned with others is a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

In between those personal words, I got the chance to intimately share the life of Winnifred Eaton. Birchall opens the family vaults, secrets and intimacies; shares her deductions and her thoughts about Winnifred with me as reader; and writes in a zesty, tangy language that kept seducing me to read on and on.
The things I learned about the early filmindustry in Hollywood and the look behind the screens, are as fascinating as all the facts about the working conditions for women in the first half of the century in the USA

This biography by Birchall leads me to wonder and think about Winnifred as a human being and also about the culture and times that Winnifred went through in her life and tackled straight on, in her own inimitable style.
What more can a biography do?

Normally I am none too fond of biographies as genre. This one had me enthralled, qua content and style of writing.

Birchall's fascinating and beautifully written account of her grandmother's life is an important work for scholars in women's studies, Asian-American or American studies, Canlit, and the movie industry, and for the general reader seeking a compelling biography.

Other reviewers have mentioned Eaton/Watanna's background. I will stress instead the absorbing interest of Winnifred's successive reinventions of herself in societies that had no ready place for her. Like a brilliant slackrope walker with an increasingly awkward load, Winnifred managed to shift her balance not only to survive, but pulled off one tour de force after another. Her performances as a Japanese-American novelist, as a screenwriter and as a rancher doyenne would win applause from Daniel Defoe.

Eaton/Watanna has become a focal interest of American scholars in recent years. As her granddaughter, Birchall had informaitonal advantages in writing on her. Her graceful, well-considered book shows how glad we should be for Birchall's advantages.

I didn't mean to like Winnifred Eaton. After all, she was a bit of a fanfaronade and very much of a poseur, not at all the sort I wanted in my circle of intimates.

But Diana Birchall's sparkling biography changed my mind. Writing with unblinking honesty, Birchall describes the many lives that her chameleon grandmother lived, from journalist and novelist to story editor and screenwriter. Of most interest to me were the stories of her career as wife in two unconventional marriages and mother to four children. Birchall's graceful use of language is enhanced by her wit and intelligently ironic style. She concludes this delightful biography with the acknowledgment that sharing what she has learned about her grandmother has been a privilege and a joy. Surely it is no less a privilege and a joy for the reader.

In my library I have dozens of books inherited from my parents and my grandparents. We have been readers for several generations, and I grew up with many of these books. One of these books was a novel called "The Heart of Hyacinth" by an author mysteriously named Onoto Watanna. The author was unknown to me, but I thought the book was one of the most beautiful of all the books I'd inherited, with lovely Japanese-style illustrations and drawings.

But now I've had a chance to learn about the woman who lurked behind that exotic nom de plume. I learn she was not Japanese at all, but half Chinese and half English. Yet her true story seems to be as fully exotic as any of the character's lives from her books.

Diana Birchall has done a wonderful job of bringing her fascinating grandmother to life. The book give a wonderful look at a most unusual woman, and what life was like for young women at the turn of the last century. At least what life was like when the young women were as self-confident and gutsy as the young Winnifred Eaton.

"A jolly, laughing lady" are the first words of the bigraphy; the last ones are: "To be able to share what I have learned with others has been a privilege and a joy. Has not this journey been an enviable inheritance in itself?"

Inbetween these words Birchall indeed shares with the reader the life of Winnifred, in personal and intimate detail. Birchall also seduces the reader into not just reading, but thinking about the culture and times Winnifred faced in her own inimitable style, from her life in Canada as young girl down to the years of Hollywood.

Normally I am none too fond of biographies but this one enchanted me, by the content and by the style of Birchall's writing. Full of zest, lifely images and easy to read on and on. As non native reader I appreciated this very much; it was a joy and a privilege to share. Would that all biographies were such a good read!

Pamuk's autobiographical OTHER COLORS is an enjoyable book. These fragments or essays, sometimes a short story, an interview, or his Nobel lecture, show different sides of Pamuk's interests and introduce the reader to his previous novels and to the writer himself. If you have the time, you will want to delve further into Pamuk's oeuvre. An especially heart-rending chapter was the experience and the aftermath of the Istanbul Earthquake of August 1999, which may rival in desperation and detail Gaius Pliny's description of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 (Letters 6.20). If you enjoy classic literature, Pamuk writes several chapters of literary criticsm about Western and Russian authors (Sterne, Dostoevsky, Nabakov, Camus, Bernhard, Vargas Llosa, and Rushdie) and writes about a selection of their novels. His love for Istanbul and Turkey come through in the essay "Black Pen", a style of dark-ink drawing of which there are illustrations (this miniature is from the Topkapi Palace Library); speaking through the storyteller figure riding a donkey beside two companions, the tale is depicted in black and lavished with luminous colors. A different illustration shows a scene from the traditional story of Khrusraw and Sirin.
From where his title OTHER COLORS derives is a guess, but the answer is hinted at in the beginning, and has to do with the panorama of his creativity. His words in these fragments are as colors to paintings, an offshoot of his early affinity for oil painting and architectural design. At twenty-two, he turned to literature, and in these fragments one can quote what literature must mean to him. On p. 155, literature is "a deep logic governing the world [...that] we can only appreciate through great literature." Again, "writing -- if you're happy with it -- undoes all sorrows."

Not a moment or detail of life and living appears to pass Orhan Pamuk by without notice. This collection is breathtaking, both in terms of the wide range of topics he tackles and how easily he transitions between what might otherwise be considered mundane vs. majestic moments. The glue here is that Pamuk brings an incredible eye and humanity to everything he touches, leaving little to get lost in translation. Few writers that I have come across over the years capture the texture and tone of those often simple daily scenes more sparingly, vividly and memorably. Fewer still write as though literally every single word on every page matters. Here, they do, in the hands of someone who clearly loves everything about putting pen to paper. You can't help but read a book like this and savor the experience. What a joy--I finished it only a few days ago and I'm already looking forward to re-reading.

Other Colors contains a series of stories by the author
and Nobelist-Orhan Pamuk. He was born in 1952 in Istanbul.
The family worked in railroad construction. The presentation
has a number of interesting stories which provide a window
into life in Istanbul.

As an American, this interests me because
I have never visited Istanbul. There is a moving story
about a visit to the seashore with Ruya, as well as
a home with a lonely man. The book has a very detailed
description of an earthquake during August of 1999.
The ground shook in Sedef near Buyukada and nearly 30,000
people perished. The author describes memorable scenes
on the Istanbul Ferry in places like the Golden Horn,
Bosphorus Sea and Marmara. A strength of the work is
that the author makes the scenery come alive like a
multi-dimensional movie.

The work combines a biography with short stories.
Toward the end, the author describes how a building's
hominess issues from the dreams and aspirations of
the occupants. I enjoyed the presentation due to the
variety of stories and themes enunciated.
The style of writing is simple and conversational.

This work should be on a high school or college
required reading list due to the unique multi-cultural
perspective.

"Pamuk has two enduring loves: books and Istanbul. Often they converge as his journeys through his hometown come to resemble excursions through memory itself." Pico Iyer

I had the extraordinary good fortune to see and hear Orhan Pamuk speak at Dartmouth College about his life, his writing, his family and his books, on the first anniversary of his Noble Prize for Literature. Orhan Pamuk elicited total attention as he brought us from his education as an architect to a realization that his life was in writing. His life was not complete without books, paper and pen, and he spoke emotionally about his writing life. "It keeps me sane", he said. There you have it. In this day and age of stress and strain, as he said "I feel as if I have two souls, sort of schizophrenic". I understand this completely after reading his book 'Other Colors'. Like his country, Turkey, he is caught between two continents Asia and Europe. He sits at his desk looking out towards the Bosphorus Sea and writes about the land and the people he loves.

After Pamuk won the Nobel he was badgered by the press for new stories. He was used to writing slowly, a couple hundred pages a year, but now he needed to have 4 pages in two hours every week. These stories in 'Many Colors' are the accumulation of that time. He was also asked over and over why all his books had the titles of colors, 'The White Castle', 'The Black Book', and 'My Name Is Red'- thus, to satisfy his urge to put one over on the media, he titled this book, 'Many Colors'. This book contains so many fascinating stories. One of my favorites is that of the Ferries of the Bosphorous. When Pamuk was a boy, his father and his friends all chose one ferry that they could identify as theirs. As the ferries would come down the sea towards Istanbul, they could make out their ferry by one characteristic, usually the shape and size of the smokestack. They could then place their ferry, and it seemed their world was a little smaller. Those large ferries are gone now replaced by motorized, faster versions. And, Pamuk speaks lovingly of his daughter, Ruya. One year she did not like school and would spend hours giving her father reasons why she should not attend. He wrote down these daily messages verbatim, and into a story we can all relate to, we have been there. Pamuk tells us about his favorite authors. Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Camus, Bernhard and each author has a place in his heart. He reads them every day and it is because of them he became a writer. He relates his personal experience in an earthquake that took the lives of many of his countrymen. His books are his life, and he writes about book covers, his library, his to be read lists, the Freedom of the writer. Pamuk's guide to the Mediterranean, to the European bank, and the Views from the Capital of the World, New York City. His Interview by Paris Match is a must read, as is his PEN Arthur Miller Speech. And, of course his arrest for his speaking out about the Armenian tragedy. So much to read and to discover about this man.

"In "Other Colors," his first big assemblage of nonfiction, Pamuk gives us several of his many selves inta centrifugal gathering of memory-pieces, sketches, interviews and unexpected flights. The result is a gallery of Pamuks: here is the author of the haunted, half-lit inquiry into melancholy and neglect, "Istanbul: Memories and the City," with further glimpses of the "forest of secret stairways" that is his home; here is the man who so loves books that he wrote a whole novel." Pico Iyer

Orhan Pamuk is a fascinating man who is a writer of the extraordinary. He has taken the extraordinary of life and turned it into a 'resurrection of the ordinary',Marilynne Robinson's novel "Housekeeping" by way of Pico Iyer's"
so that we can better understand the day to day existence of his world. It is easy to fall under Pamuk's spell when he is talking about his writing and his country. I found this book so illuminating. Pamuk has a wonderful sense of humor and irony. He gives photographers 5 minutes to take pictures at the beginning of his lecture, he finds the flashes interfere with his concentration. At the end of his lecture when the question and answer period started, Pamuk would take a flash picture of each questioner. A roar of approval from the audience! Bravo, Pamuk!

Heartily Recommended. prisrob 11-01-07

"Other Colors," is a delicious, thoughtful read and a further opening of the writerly shell that insulates Mr. Pamuk from a world wanting badly for a bit order and deliberation. Perhaps this explains the scrutiny the author received as Turkey's author-on-trial-for-thinking-out-loud and Nobel laureate.

Orhan Pamuk is brilliantly able to bring that bit of order and deliberation to the fore writing handsomely from his interior. He describes his writing life with great insight and candor while discussing deliciously, authors he admires. I especially enjoyed the essays in the book about Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Nabokov among others).

Having set aside a rainy, grey Sunday to read "Other Colors," I felt a lovely, lonely empathy for the passages on book-mania. In one essay he describes dead-on, the odd reassurances that a book elicits, not merely as an escape mechanism but also as physical totem.

For those who read Orhan Pamuk, this essay collection is food for a book lover's soul. One story in the book is an evocation of his childhood memories of life with his abandoned mother. It stands out poignantly among the essays as he admits elsewhere in the book that she no longer speaks to him.

How curiously private yet opague is this important, gifted author. Hats off, Mr.Pamuk. As one of your "implied readers" I await anything your pen may put to paper.

PAPER TRAILS is a collection of essays. Some are hilarious, some are sad, some are outrageous, and all of them are thought provoking. The essays cover a wide range of subjects, from kittens to tractors to mentrual pads to evil boys who abuse dogs. There's something in the book for every taste. The writing is sublime.

It's a page flipper and difficult to put down.

Boy is Pete Dexter a good writer. This collection of his columns from, among others, the Sacramento Bee and the Philadelphia Inquirer are occasionally a little dark, but never boring, and cover a wide array of subjects. If you've never read Pete Dexter, you should, and this is a good way to get your feet wet; that being said, his novels are not to be missed.

Dexter's stories about life in America may be the most inciteful observations being written today. Spellbinding prose.

I remember Pete from his time at the Philadelphia Daily News. It truly was a different era. We still have columnists, but Pete was something special. Many of the columns collected here have the power to break your heart. Those that do not will make you laugh, or perhaps think. If you suppose that you can peg Dexter as a typical left wing demagogue then you must read his thoughts on the LA riots, and O.J. Simpson. This is a man who is dedicated to the notion of equality, and will brook no excuses for bad behavior. This book is like eating popcorn if you were eating popcorn that was extremely filling and had super nutritive qualities.

Dexter is truly one of America's greatest writers ... this collection is impossible to put down. If the first piece doesn't grab your heart, you don't have one. This is every bit as good as his novels ... and those are masterpieces.

I am almost finished reading this. I found the picture on the cover of "Paris Spleen" scintillating, with Baudelaire's debased-looking image peering out of the cover (my husband said it looked "honest"). I always thought of Baudelaire as a decadent and sardonic man of sorts, but after reading some of his writings here, I can say he was very sensitive and profound in many ways, and, like myself and others, he wished to "escape" the daily world and the daily rut of the city he belonged to. At best, his despair is something akin to the world-weariness of Poe.

This is a wonderful book -- Baudelaire's prose poems perfectly capture the spirit of 19th century Paris as it rushes into modernism. Don't be seduced by prettier editions of this book -- it is crucial to get the Varese translation! Also, Walter Benjamin's early to mid twentieth century critique of Baudelarie should not be missed.

The book that helped me overcome my prejudice against poetry--I carried "Paris Spleen" around with me for a couple of weeks after I first read it, and kept turning back to certain poems as I went about my daily errands. Even though it's nearly 150 years old it seems as timely and contemporary as it must have seemed when it was first published--absolutely top-notch.

Yes, Baudelaire, himself told to his friend Troubat:"These are The flowers of evil again, but with more freedom,much more detailes, and much more mockery". Noone before Baudelaire has ever concepted the poem in prose which would express so many special, original and protesting sensations. This urban, very personal poetry is a product of the metropolitan noisy atmosphere, and as it is surrounded with fog of overpopulated, but yet unexplored areas.This poetry expresses more than the actual meaning of the words is telling.Spleen is created of prose and pure poetry, of the reflection of the analytical spirit and intuitive introspection.The apostle of pain and depression,Baudelaire is the one who analyzes his own and other people's sins, expresses himself as a moralist in this book as well.

An elegant, accurate, and readable translation of this wonderful little book that can revolutionize your way of seeing and thinking. Some newer, and in some ways, better translations have appeared since this one became the "standard," but it's still a good buy and a sure bet for reading pleasure.

"Patience of a Saint" is a typical Greeley story. It contains some excellent images and metaphors of the Catholic Church, some good mystery, some sex, and some violence. It fits Greeley's perfect equation of what to include in a sell-able story. But even with all the expected story parts, it remains one of his better stories, delving into a person's growth as an adult. It is reminiscent of the Biblical story of Saint Paul's conversion, set in modern-day Chicago, with some contemporary images thrown together to show us what Paul may have gone through if he had lived in our time. An interesting idea, a good read, and if you take the time, a thought-provoking way to approach the Bible story as well as middle age.

Greeley is best when he is describing parish life in Chicago. Of his parish novels this story of a newspaper columnist's midlife crisis/spiritual rebirth is the best for my money.

I originally picked up this book because it was a mystery but was captured by this interesting story about a man who makes major positive changes in his life, much to the chagrin and disbelief of his own family. It was upon reading this book that I became an ardent fan of Greeley, his alter ego, Father Blackie and of course all of his wonderful characters (especially if they have a touch of the "fey" or belong to his extended Chicago Irish Catholic family). I have read almost all of Greeley's novels and always look forward to the next one. What a treasure he is and how deeply he has touched my life.

This is a wonderful book. The author suggests wonderful possibilities of grace and love for our lives. It is a book that restores faith and replenishes the soul. Oh, and it's a great love story. Not your typical boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back; this is a wonderful tale about a man who discovers the true depth and meaning of his love for his wife--with no small assistance from God. In a "cynical" age this book is a rare, complex, affirmation of true love and grace. This is my favorite Greeley story.

This is the story of Red Kane, a man caught in a dilemma of Love. After twenty years of marriage plagued by misunderstanding and bitter resignation, Red finds himself falling in love with his wife all over again - and at the same time, pursued by an implacable, attractive God.

Redmond P. Kane, a popular Chicago newspaper columnist and Pulitzer prize winner, smokes and drinks too much, neglects his kids, enjoys a mistress, is feared and hated by his colleagues, and has shared nothing but a bed with his wife for much too long. At 53, Red is an unhappy, disgruntled cynic. But soon, all that changes. On a Chicago street corner a speeding car, almost runs him down, and a moment of divine grace - one in which God and Red's green eyed wife are somehow identified with each other - almost knocks him unconscious. An then Red';s real troubles begin. They start with evil- plan old fashioned wickedness in the person of aging politico Harv Gunther. Red has come up with evidence that links Gunther to the disappearance of a newsman 20 years earlier and the recent murder of a teenage girl, but proving it can cost Kane his career. He's almost ready to close his files, go out for a drink and forget it all. Yet since his brush with death Red finds himself inexorably drawn down the path of saintliness and driven to always do the right thing. Being a good husband to his wife Eileen is at the top of Red's list. Without realizing it, he's whistling "You're Irish and You're beautiful and dreaming of going home, taking her in his arms, and making up for all the sins of omission accumulated over 20 years of their on-again, off-again marriage. But what happens when he does? Beautiful Irish Eileen think's he's having a breakdown, just as his newsroom co-workers are sure he's finally gone over the edge. Soon, a psychiatrist is trying to have him committed. God has turned Red's whole existence upside down. Must he choose between his wife and his god? Or have they joined in a plot to try the patience of a saint. As Red probes the depths of his new emotions and renewed commitments with the help of Msgr Blackie Ryan, he also digs into the dirty business of Harve Gunther and in the process gravely endangers the lives of everyone he loves.

I certainly qualify as an addict. For the last five years, in addition to my other reading, I have always been in the middle of one of the twenty Aubrey/Maturin novels. I'm now in my fifth (sixth?) reading of the series. These novels are so rich in period detail and characterization I can't imagine getting tired of them.

As other addicts know, part of the charm of the novels are the numerous obscure and offhand references to various "Persons, Animals, Ships and Cannon." Mr. Brown's handsome, very well written dictionary of ALL of those references is a delightful companion clarifying many nuances in in O'Brian's prose. Actually, it's a joy just browsing through the book without one of the novels at your side.

The book also includes two insightful summaries of each novel, one from Aubrey's point of view and one from Maturin's, as well as descriptions of O'Brian's rare inconsistencies and errors in plotting from novel to novel.

How on earth I ever managed to enjoy Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels before reading Anthony Gary Brown's wonderful dictionary is a mystery. Brown's book is a must have for all those who wish to get the most out of reading O'Brian's excellent naval stories.

This book is an astonishing piece of research, a listing and historical analysis of thousands of items--well, characters, animals, ships, and cannons--from Patrick O'Brian's series of novels. I cannot imagine how he did it, but what a delightful treat for the rest of us. This book is not just an indispensible companion to the Aubrey-Maturin novels; it's also a great pleasure just to leaf through and read. If you like the O'Brian's books you need to have this one too.

Anthony Gary Brown's "Persons, Animals, Ships and Cannon in the Aubrey-Maturin Sea Novels" is a wonderful resource for anyone who loves the nautical fiction of Patrick O'Brian. The depth and breadth of research evident in this companion volume to the Aubrey-Maturin series is truly awe-inspiring. Every "proper name" reference -- no matter how slight or obscure -- has been diligently tracked and, where ever possible the historical reality behind the fictional is revealed. Characters I had assumed to be merely creations of Patrick O'Brian's imagination are shown by Gary Brown to be based in actual persons. Whenever Stephen Maturin speaks of an obscure botanist or philosopher, Brown has explained who he or she was and what was the significance of their work. There are many, many hours of delightful browsing in this volume for any Patrick O'Brian fan.

I've been sampling this book for a couple of weeks and I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying it! For a fan of the Aubrey/Maturin books its almost as good as having a new POB come out! I think of someone I want to look up, then by the time I've read that entry I've been led to another, and then another and I keep stumbling on the most amazing facts and interesting historical stories.While just keeping track of all the names in the books is useful enough, the "enhanced" information - all the details about "real" people and ships and historical events - is the most exciting treasure for me.I can not begin to imagine the hours and hours invested in this masterpiece, though the careful attention to details and proofreading suggest it was a labor of love. All I can say is that I'm very grateful to the author for having written it. It will make reading and re-reading the Aubrey/Maturin books an even greater delight, and for me at least, it will lead deeper into the historical literature behind the series.Every bookstore in the country should stock this on the shelves next to the Aubrey/Maturin books so new converts will have it in hand right from the start.