Richard Wright Books

Reading this book in 2003 is to peer into a vanished era of the 1980s. It was published in 1987, when Japanese growth seemed endless, having essentially risen monotonically since 1946. The book is typical of its time. Handwringing about how Japanese financial companies, from banks to brokerages, were going to overwhelm their American and European counterparts.

It cites how the Japanese savings rate (then at 17% of disposable income) was the highest in the developed world. This let their banks and brokers amass huge amounts of capital, giving them the firepower to storm overseas financial markets. And of course there was also the Japanese trade surplus. All combined into a "tidal wave".

Logically very impressive. Yet two years after this book was written, their economy peaked and has since endured three recessions in ten years. The supposedly unstoppable banks were discovered to have squandered fortunes in Japanese real estate speculation and in manufacturing overproduction, just as China was ramping up far cheaper factories.

Why would you want this book, then? Its main value now is as postmortem fodder. If you are an economics researcher, it has appeal as a cogent, well argued text of its time. You might get a Master's thesis out of a point by point rebuttal of its claims. Though granted, you would be doing this with perfect hindsight.

If you are interested in Trinidadian birds this is a good purchase. The plates are not very good (the author wanted new plates for the new edition) but the text, with descriptions and distributions is very helpful.

I read this, and looked at the pictures in Hilty's "Birds of Venezuela"

I took this book to T/T on a bird watching trip and found it mildly useful. I am not a professional birder, so take that into account. The colors in the plates are not very true in many cases and the separation of plates from descriptive info is not helpful. Compared to such books as The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America it is a not very useful. Apparently not much else is available.

I got really shafted on this purchase. This is apparently the 1991 version of this field guide (which is not that great), recently reprinted in Britain. I could have bought the same version printed in the US for half what I paid for this version printed in Britain. The 2003 date on the description in Amazon is a reprinting date, not a revision date, which I thought it was. False advertising.

An excellent field guide to Trinidad & Tobago's avifauna, the ffrench has been around long enough, & loved well enough, in its various editions, to be considered a classic of its kind. I've used it everywhere from Port of Spain's Botanical Gardens to the forests of the Northern Range to the Pointe-a-Pierre Wildfowl Trust to my own back garden & never failed to identify the specimen in question (& I am no more than an enthusiatic amateur). This book, for me, is the model of a natural history field guide.

I used ffrench's guide for a month of birding on Tobago, and found many mistakes. The plates are incomplete and inaccurate (the chachalaca, Tobago's national bird, is not given a color plate), the "range and subspecies" descriptions are confusing, the English names are not up-to-date with current ornithological classifications, and it is just plain difficult to use. I give it two stars instead of one because it is pretty much the only guide for Trinidad and Tobago birds available, so if you plan to do any bird watching on Trinidad or Tobago, you're better off with this book than without it. One of the biggest problems is that ffrench often does not include plates of common North American birds (the broad-winged hawk, for example), so if you are not familiar with North American birds, I suggest you also bring another field guide, such as Sibley's or Peterson's.

All I want to say is this book is so boring. All I wanted to do when I was reading it was shoot myself in the mouth with a pistol to end the constant eternal boredom. I think all it was trying to do was impress a few academic kooks who live in an academic bubble. Yeah well its boring.

...American Dreams in Mississippi is cultural (not economic) history. It is not about the reasons for poverty, but rather what it MEANS to live in a state that is perpetually impoverished while also living in a nation that bills itself as the Land of Opportunity. In this book, Ownby seeks to redefine the very concept of the American Dream. As his title suggests, there are in fact many dreams. Young and old, men and women, blacks and whites, rural and city folk all experience these dreams differently, and Ownby gives a voice to them all. With all due respect to the late C. Vann Woodword (who I am certain Dr. Ownby has the highest regard for) American Dreams in Mississippi goes beyond the boundaries of conventional history, asking questions historians have never asked about the South and using new kinds of sources like clothing, furniture, cars, and song lyrics as well as literature, general store ledgers, and obscure state documents to break new ground. The chapter "Men Buying Cloth" reveals the important discovery that Mississippi women, contrary to the national stereotype, were historically not consumers. The section on slave purchases is, to my knowledge, the only study of its kind, and the discussions of blues culture and Civil Rights boycotts add a fresh perspective to those topics.

If some parts of this book require a little effort on the reader's part, it is only because Ownby's research and documentation are so thorough that he provides not just one but many examples to back up each point. As Ownby lays out in his first chapter, the book is also grounded in solid theory. More works of history should be so "dry." I urge all readers of this book -- especially graduate students in history looking for an excellent example of their craft -- to stick with it. It is well worth the journey.

Dr. Ted Ownby of the University of Mississippi has attempted to explain the social patterns of Mississippi from 1830-1995. In doing this, he has focussed on the buying patterns of the state's public. Through analyzing extensive sources and census records, Dr. Ownby has attempted to show that the buying power of poor Mississippians and the state's econommic caste system led to political differences between black, poor white, and wealthy white Mississippians. In analyzing buying power, Dr. Ownby has failed to take into account C. Vann Winwards famous essay on Race and Economics (1956). In Winwards address he stated that the caste system was much more racial than class. The buying power of black Mississippians was not effective because they were poor, but rather they were poor because they were black. Dr. Cecil M. Cooper's 1989 groundbreaking analysis : Dollar's and Cents Segregation : Black and Green in Rural Mississippi, speaks along the same lines. Dr. Cooper has stated that Black Mississipians and poor white Mississippians had little access to wealth. However, poor white Mississippians had more access to credit. Credit was denied to African-Americans for the most part. If not denied black credit was used agaisnt black poilitcal efforts. Although Dr. Ownby's work attempts to tackle a very important issue, race and economics, he fails to give a coherrant documentation on buying power froom 1830 -1990's. His reasons for choosing those dates are also unclear. It is one in a long line of academic books that fails to drive at the real reason for race division: social class. More research and documentaion are needed for this book to successfully overcome its deficiencies.

Don't read this book either, its worse than Saint's Rest. With writing like -- "Emboldened by her candid admiration, Merlin was able to take a fuller inventory of her charms. Rosa Lustig had a kind of natural, unforced beauty that crept up quietly on a man... but it was her sophisticated pertness that really hooked him." Very few readers will be hooked.

Here's an intriguing pseudo-historical mystery involving the irrepressible character and speech of Frank Lloyd Wright, "America's Greatest Architect" (although, typically, he would dispute the necessity for "America" in the sobriquet--and may have been right!). FLLW doesn't appear often enough, more's the pity, because he struts through his scenes in all his arrogant super-perceptive glory, putting Our Hero, Merlin--a randomly wimpish/aggressive budding architect come to worship Wright--quite in the shade. Wright seems authentic in speech and attitude, the architectural passages are perceptive and accurate (although I missed having a good picture of the innovative and glamorous Biltmore Hotel [an actual resort]). The characters are fairly well-differentiated, particularly Tom Vernon, Wright's unctuous chief apprentice, and mysterious Rosa of the ambiguous virtue who befriends Merlin. Merlin's character wanders a bit, his motivation is clear but not psychologically convincing; maybe the intended point is he's just a confused young man. Then again, this author makes more attempt at humor than at profundity. Setting a mystery among architects is fascinating, but how a greenhorn foreigner (Merlin) can do better policing than a pair of veteran Arizona cops is not made believable. The plot is well-constructed, and vital coincidences are not glaring, although Merlin's oft-mentioned (but absent) Welsh harp seems to be a loose end, set up for the second novel in this new, quick-reading series by an average author. I'll read the next one, too.

When I recently discovered the existence of this book, I was overjoyed! In addition to being a creation of a master at historical mysteries, it appeared at first glance, to be wrapped around four of my major loves: mystery, history, architecture and music. Unhappily, it doesn't really deliver on any of them.

There is a bit of everything in the original promise, but what's there is rather weak. The dialogue tends to be stilted much of the time, and is remarkably similar, no matter who is speaking. It does little to develop any character other than the Navajo, Yazzie, who is only present for perhaps 20 pages.

Set in Arizona in the late 1920s, when the famed Arizona Biltmore Resort was being built, there is somewhat of an aura of history here. However, other than the occasional mention of a Saguaro or the sand in the desert, it could just as easily have been set anywhere. To me, it read very much like a contemporary novel. Clothing, cars, accessories--everything could have come from the pages of a novel set last year. Thankfully, there was no television or computers to intrude, but not enough was made of the few historical elements that were there.

Frank Lloyd Wright is a presence, although seldom in actuality. Mostly, he's referred to as being `somewhere' in the vicinity. He is at the heart of the mystery--as is his architecture--and it's no doubt a valid point, but is it serious enough to have caused two deaths, and so many vicious beatings? May be, I don't know. I didn't figure it out, and I doubt anyone else would either, as it was so esoteric in nature.

Merlin Richards is a young architect from Wales who idolizes Wright, and leaves behind his known world and family to come to America on the off-chance he'll be able to meet and perhaps work with the master architect. He brings with him a Welsh harp that's been in his family for generations, but after his pocket was picked in New York, he's compelled to pawn the harp in Wisconsin, for money to continue his trip to Arizona. So much for the music element! We never hear it or see it again, although in the final pages he admits to missing it.

Finally, I must admit to cringing frequently at the crudeness of many of the male characters presented here. It's hard to believe they'd come on so strong and so coarsely to total strangers, especially those who were representatives of law and order. Maybe they did.

The architectural elements that are here are wonderful, however. If you have even a remote knowledge of Wright's work, it's very easy to conjure up mental images to accompany the words on these pages. It's also enough to prompt you to want to visit those buildings of his that we still have in this country.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. However, I will definitely read the next book in the series - Saint's Rest. After that? Who knows?

Richard Wright, author of NATIVE SON, BLACK BOY, and THE OUTSIDER, is a major American writer. He desrves a major biography.

RICHARD WRIGHT: DAEMONIC GENIUS by Margaret Walker is more like a major hatchet-job.

Dr. Walker is a noted author in her own right, with the bestseller JUBILEE to her credit. She was also friendly with Langston Hughes, Frank Yerby, and James Baldwin. And she had a three-and-a-half year friendship with Wright himself, beginning in 1936.

Much of DAEMONIC GENIUS is based upon Walker's memories of that relationship. That the friendship ended badly (according to Walker, due to Wright) seems to be the central theme of the book. It's also its central fault.

Walker spends pages and pages describing her feelings over the break up. She then analyzes every relationship Wright ever had in the light of those feelings. Along the way, she sprinkles in biographical passages almost as an afterthought. If your interest is in Walker's perspective on Wright's psyche and how it affected his work, this might be fine. If you're interested in an objective presentation of Wright's life and work, you will find Walker's pontifications downright annoying. It might even occur to you that Walker is getting even with the man for some perceived wrong 30 years after his death.

Such are Walker's feelings about Wright that she seems inconsistent in her conclusions. The first few chapters of her book gloss over Wright's upbringing by referring to BLACK BOY, implying that the 1945 work covers those years authoritatively. Yet when she comes to discuss the book itself, she describes it as, "not a book of purely factual and verifiable incidents." There are many such paradoxes in the narrative.

Too, Walker details many unkind psycholgical insights about Wright's widow, Ellen. Much has been made of the fact that Ellen tried to put a stop to Walker's book through court action, claiming violation of copyright. I personally think she could have made a better case for character assassination.

In short, then, the definitive biography of Richard Wright has yet to be written. And students of Wright would probably be better off giving RICHARD WRIGHT: DAEMONIC GENIUS a pass.

This book was hard to keep up with at first I thought it was a biography on Richard Wright.After reading and really getting into the book I then realized that she had a right to speak and write of their relationship. I felt that the book was informative and helpful in understanding a different side of Richard Wright. Everybody has more than one side to them.

Richard B. Wright is a fine writer. Sadly, this is not a good book.

Quite possibly, "Adultery" could have been written in such a way that the reader might side with its protagonist, might feel that Daniel Fielding is being unfairly maligned and misunderstood by his family, colleagues, and the media. Instead, the author apparently seeks to convince his readers that extramarital affairs simply happen to the best of us, and that after a given amount of time, one's spouse and loved ones ought to come around, to forgive and forget. Feed me another porky-pie! Throughout this book, I kept wondering, where is the Giller Prize winning author who wrote "Clara Callan"? Is this the same Richard B. Wright? Unfortunately, it is.

Not content to be at the top of his career and his industry, Daniel Fielding one day decides to escort a junior colleague - a bit of a young floozy at that - to a romantic beachside resort in England. Not just any resort, but the one he happens to visit on special occasions with his doting wife. He and his mistress have dirty backseat sex, and then she is brutally murdered while he enjoys hours of carefree slumber. Fortunately the killer - an appropriately angry-faced and long-haired parolee - is quickly apprehended before the story can enjoy any benefit of a whodunit element. This allows for a much less interesting tale to lumber agonizingly through the pages that follow.

The reader is left to focus - to hope, presumably - that Fielding will win back the tattered hearts of his dear wife, his teenaged daughter, and even the family of the murdered girl. Please! One expects literary fiction to focus more on character development than on plot, but this book fails miserably in attempting to redeem a man who seems overwhelmingly undeserving of redemption, despite his many tedious yet inadequate acts of remorse. Fielding is a good man, Wright wants us to believe. So why the affair? Fielding's problem is not, as the jacket copy suggests, anything at all like having a child stolen away in a brief moment of inattentiveness or losing all to a chance house fire. A weekend of illicit sex doesn't merely occur when one is not watching. The only sympathy I was able to feel at any point was for those harmed by Fielding's actions. Too bad this does not appear to be the book's objective. I am an American, but having lived in Toronto for five years in the late seventies, I still enjoy good Canadian fiction - which this in most certainly not. Hopefully Wright has gotten something off his chest, and can return to writing great books.

Not a book to read on a rainy day. Well written, but I found the plot, extremely, bleak.

Wright puts a good foot forward and has a good outline of text but rapidly deviates from science into biased politics. I reviewed this text for a new course we are developing but found too much politics, which you can discern from these quotes (of many):
"Significantly, the United States, led by the Bush administration, has reneged on its pledge and has withdrawn from the Kyoto process." (p. 6)
"The two dominant political parties in the United States - the Democrats and Republicans - have very different views on environmental issues. When Republican George W. Bush took office in 2001 (Fig. 1-14), his administration and his allies in congress began a process of policy redirection that the New York Times has called the ""perfect storm"" for wrecking environmental programs." (p. 18)
"The hopeful news is that the vast majority of people really do care about the environment and will resist the way the Bush administration is acting to roll back several decades of environmental progress." (p. 22)
"On the political front, the Bush administration has relaxed (read, weakened) rules designated to protect streams, swamps, and other wetlands from being developed, dredged, or drained."
"Instead, the Bush administration and Congress have acted to reduce U.S. support of UNFPA and the entire ICPD Program of Action!"
"the work of the council [President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development] has been ignored by the Bush administration."
"To put it [president Bush's foreign aid pledge] into proper perspective, though, contributions in 2000 from religious organizations, foundations, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and individuals provided some $33.6 billion in aid, far outstripping our ODA [pledge]."
"(Kofi) Annan stated, ""We need a new ethic of stewardship"".
"Changes in administration (i.e., Bush) and in the control of congress have resulted in many serious reversals of environmental policy decisions."
"Although it is clear that the United States and Britain will not simply commandeer the Iraqi oil, U.S. and British oil companies are likely to be part of the anticipated effort to stimulate a renewed Iraqi oil industry - and the United States and the other oil-hungry Western countries will be ready consumers for the oil once it begins to flow again - at acceptable prices."
"...arguing that citizens' appeals were stalling forest thinning projects, President Bush ruled that environmental reviews and judicial oversight would be restricted."
"The Cheney report, the basis for the Bush administration's energy policy, recommended ways to meet the rising demand with fossil fuels..."
"The Bush administration has formulated an energy policy...however reveals the first disturbing thrust of the new policy. It is to develop the oil in a wilderness refuge, the ANWR..."
"W Steps In. George W. Bush identified himself as an environmentalist during the 2000 presidential campaign and, at that time, promised to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in an effort to combat global warming. Shortly after his contested election (over irregularities in Florida's electoral process), President Bush began what was called by one commentator as an ""environmental meltdown in the White House"."

Many of these statements are not supported by facts, are expected to stand as absolute truth for our impressionable students, and were not referenced. I was looking for the science of environmental protection and sustainability and found politics instead.

If you look at the list of Environmental Organizations in Appendix A you will find many political groups including "Planned Parenthood Foundation".

As a wetland scientist I was disappointed at the lack of attention to this major environment. His definition of wetlands reads "Especially marshy areas along coasts that are regularly flooded by tides." Not quite!

Look to the other publishers (Wiley and McGraw) or get a subscription to Newsweek instead.

Bart Baca, Ph.D.