Reviews Books

I purchased this text book for my sixth grader to use with a private Spanish teacher. It is a very comprehensive and well compiled textbook. It covers all necessary topics (grammar, reading/comprehension & writing) in a organized and easy to understand format.

If you had Spanish in high school but it's been a while since you've used it,then this is the perfect book for you! It begins with the simple present tense then progresses to the more complicated preterite and subjunctive. At the end of the book you will find interesting cultural tidbits to enhance your experience of learning the Spanish language. Have fun!

Although I agree that this book is certainly a bargain when compared to the standard textbook options that often cost 3-4 times as much, I was disappointed to find that no solutions to the exercises are provided. One must purchase ANOTHER book before the exercises in this book can really be said to be useful. I am a firm believer in immediate correction when it comes to language review and acquisition--spending time on exercises without knowing which you did wrong will only reinforce what are your misunderstandings of grammar. However, if you are willing (and able) to buy the solutions manual along with this book, then it will make a good review--though it won't be the bargain that it at first appeared.

As a Spanish 2 and 3 teacher I highly reccomend this book. I use it as a reference myself because it has great explanations and the order of the grammar structures is useful. I would reccomend getting an answer key along with the book. This is a great book to refresh your memory on grammatical structures.
I am glad I bought this book!

Repaso was used as my school textbook for higher level Spanish courses in high school. Everything is great about it. The instructions are in English which makes it even more compatable. The book is able to review old concepts, but has enough to teach the little proper things about Spanish. It is a great purchase for any student that is just learning Spanish or has been taking it for many years and needs a reference.

Roeper writes very well for a journalist (ha-ha), and this book was both funny and captured the essence of being a White Sox fan. He takes you through his personal experience of being fan from his childhood in the 1960s to attending the World Series in 2005. The book would be a fun read even if you were not a White Sox fan as Roeper includes a lot of jokes about pop culture such as movies and music, and many of the stories of being a fan are universal regardless of the team.

Fantastic recap of decades of Sox lore! This book was a quick and interesting read, containing trivia, stats, and facts all interwoven with personal anecdotes and memories. Terrific for new or old fans - a must have for all who know and love the Sox!

Thank goodness the White Sox have southside Chicago native Richard Roeper as a fan! The Cubs and other more popular MLB teams have a much longer roster of both author/fans (e.g. Stephen King and the Red Sox) and A-list celebrity/fans (of which the White Sox have none - sorry Jerry Springer, you're B-list). But the White Sox, with their long, interesting history and their amazing 2005 World Series run, needed someone to step up to the plate and deliver what the fan base needs: a book documenting what it means to be a White Sox fan in the four decades up to 2005. Roeper delivers a solid home run, albeit not a grand slam.

Roeper deftly interweaves three main storylines in "Sox and the City": the highlights of the past 40 years of Sox history; Roeper's own personal experiences as a fan attending more than 1000 Sox games; and the highlights of the 2005 season and World Series run. Along the way Roeper provides a personal, often humorous view of the main topics in Sox history: the different Sox teams that have been assembled over the years; what it means to be a Sox fan in what will always (unless the demographics of Chicago change radically) be a Cubs town, including especially the Sox/Cubs rivalry among the fans (which, because of geography is more passionate - at least on the Sox side - than any other intercity major league rivalry); Harry Caray's move from the Sox to the Cubs; Bill Veeck's attempts to generate excitement (and bring in paying fans) on the southside; Disco Demolition Night; the move from Comiskey to the Cell; and much more.

There is so much White Sox history that it is impossible to capture it all in a single volume, but Roeper hits all the highlights. His prose is very accessible, humorous, and direct. "Sox and the City" is likely to become the definitive guide to what it means to be a White Sox fan in the present day.

Why only four stars? Roeper's done an admirable job in all areas of the book except two: explaining precisely what made the 2005 team different than all other White Sox teams, and capturing the excitement and impact of the Sox's 2005 World Series victory on the city of Chicago. Perhaps the latter is an impossible task to translate into words - you had to be there.

All literate White Sox fans should read this book.

"Sox and the City" is a great read for any baseball lover, but particularly White Sox fans. They say that as a baseball fan you are wedded to one team for life, and live and die with them each season. Or to paraphrase one of those east coast baseball fans, baseball is not life or death, but the [White] Sox are!

"Sox and the City" will most interest Chicagosns, of course. But all baseball fans might enjoy it. After all, being a White Sox fan in a city with more than one team, and an ancient generational rivalry (I won't name that OTHER team) is an experience few living baseball fans still know. the annual highs and lows (and finally triumph) that made the suffering all worth it. Only perhaps New Yorkers share the experience (and even the New York Mets are stand-ins for the old Yankees-Dodgers-Giants rivalry).

If you love baseball, pick this one up!

Give movie critic Richard Roeper "Two Thumbs Up" for this upbeat look at rooting for the White Sox in a city where the more-popular Cubs have the advantage. Roeper describes his lifelong attachment to the Sox, recalling past baseball games, seasons, players, etc. He shows that the underdog White Sox typically draw smaller crowds and less media to their plainer arena on the city's non-glamorous South Side - add losing seasons to that mix and you can see why the Sox nearly moved to Milwaukee (1968), Seattle (1975), Denver (1980) and Florida (1988). Ironically, these hardships and the fortitude of Sox fans to endure them are rarely mentioned by a national media that fixates on the big-money Cubs and other glamour teams. Roeper concludes by describing part of the magical 2005 season, when the White Sox finally broke through and won the World Series - their first title in 88 years! That triumph cheered Chicago's long-suffering fans and attracted much-desired national attention.

This lively and often humorous narrative could have been longer than 197 fast-reading pages. I felt the author underestimated how many people in Chicago root hard for both teams, but this is still an entertaining read for baseball fans here and across the nation.

It's no wonder this short little novel stood in the Argentine bestsellers list for about 27 WEEKS. I too read this book in one sitting, but not because of its lenght,(even though it helps)but but because its so good and so well written that I literaly went out and bought a copy for each of my friends for christmas last year and each one stated that it was the best gift they had recieved. The cover might be a bit tacky but hey never judge a book by its cover. there are so many things to say about this novel that there isn't enough room to write about it. All I have to say is buy it, it's worth every penny.

No wonder the novel won the price for best novel in 1983 in Mexico....it is superbly well written, misterious, erotic and captivating.

Read this in one sitting...Wonderful plot and great characters. This is what finding new authors is all about.

I have read in the longest time . I was going to write that he is the best writer form argentina , but that statement does not do him justice . I too read this book in one sitting and since then giardinelli has become one of my favorite writers . I own every one of his books . The ending is surprising and also genius. Get this book you definitely will not regret it .

I love short books that pack a wallop, pull you in and just refuse to let you go, demand that you read them at one sitting - I think of "The Bridge of San Luis Rey" by Thornton Wilder, "Night Flight" by Antione de Saint Exupery, and "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink. I have now added "Sultry Moon" by the Argentine writer Mempo Giardinelli to this exclusive club. This is a gripping tale of one man's fascination with crime - a fascination which leads him to commit several crimes during three days under the hot "sultry moon" during December 1977, in the early days of the Argentine military dictatorship, which is a background to this story but not its central focus. Ramiro, the central figure of the story, is drawn into a vortex of crime, conscience and punishment as ineluctably as was Raskolnikov in Dostoyevksy's "Crime and Punishment". Looking for something a little bit off the beaten track to grab you one rainy (or even sunny) afternoon? Go read this extraodinary book. I think you may be repulsed but you will definitely be fascinated.

After seeing a 60 MINUTES interview with Judge Scalia recently I wanted to know more about the Supreme Court. This was one of the most interesting books I have read in years. I read it in just a few days and would highly recommend it to anyone. It talks about the evolution of the Supreme court and their most important decisons, decisions that effect us everyday. Also it is written in plain english so you do not need to be a lawyer to understand and enjoy it. Great book!

From Marbury v. Madison to Gore v. Bush, this book covers the most important cases in Supreme Court history. It's very clear and concise, an absolute delight to read.

Sure, you've heard of many of the cases in this book. But do you know what the legal underpinnings of "Roe vs. Wade" actually are? Do you know how the court derives its power?

I've been talking to everyone I know about this little gem, because it is so darn readable, and so relevant. Yesterday my local paper ran a story about filtering software the local library may soon install. And this morning I finished the book after reading about the cases that are directly tied to this course of action. So I can speak more intelligently about this issue, and I can read the paper with a more informed perspective.

Many of the cases are introduced by discussing a logical framework that parallels the facts of the case. The case is then introduced, and the arguments and reasoning that drove the court are discussed. Wow, that makes it sound really boring. But on the contrary, its a fun read and each chapter is short and encapsulated. Highly recommended.

I bought this as a gift, decided I'd better preview it first, and now I don't want to give it up. I'm ordering another one. Believe what the other 5-star reviewers have written.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It is by no means a definitive legal dissertation on the landmark cases of the Supreme Court. Nor it is especially informative about the law.

What this book does is give a general audience something to think about. Thirty-four somethings to be exact.

The author goes over the cases with broad brushstrokes. The prose is easy to understand and consciously avoids the legalese that would turn off most readers. Instead, the purpose is to get the reader thinking about the ramifications of each case and how it affects our lives (for better or for worse) today.

Alex McNeill's "Total Television" is one of those reference works which is useful both for settling trivia arguments at parties and for helping those engaged in serious scholarly study of television programs and their impact upon popular culture. As of this review, "Total Television" is in its fourth edition.

The book is basically an alphabetical encyclopedia of thousands of television programs in every possible genre: dramas, sitcoms, game shows, cartoons, and more. Each entry lists the series' air dates, principal performers, and other relevant data.

In addition to the main body of encyclopedic entries, the book includes a wealth of supplemental features: lists of Emmy winners, a chronological gathering of one-shot specials, and more. Particularly interesting are the programming grids, which show the nightly lineups on each network for each night of the week. You can turn to a season (say, 1951-52) and see what choices the American TV viewer had each night! This feature is great for historians.

Although most of the entries on each series are brief, McNeill spends more time and space on certain series of outstanding impact. These extended articles on "All in the Family," "CBS Evening News," "Dallas," "The Ed Sullivan Show," and more are truly fascinating.

TV has been derided by many with such epithets as "the Boob Tube" and "The Idiot Box." On the other hand, it was praised in an episode of "The Simpsons" as "teacher, mother. . . secret lover." McNeill captures TV in all of its facets: from the depths of inanity to the heights of cultural significance. This book is a great achievement whose reputation, I believe, will increase with future editions.

This reference is superb in it's completeness. Anything you want to know about any program broadcast from 1948-1996 is in this 1251 page book. The 88 page index of names of performers appearing during those years is unbelievable. It includes specials, miniseries and the top 20 rated shows for each of those years. I use this reference at least 2 to 3 times a week.

Where this book is not as easy to use as Brooks and Marsh's "Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows"(see my review for this one), it offers more-as far as the addition of daytime shows and more explanation of the entries. I like the other guide mainly because it's a good quick reference for prime time. However, if I'm really interested in detail or, again, a daytime program-like some Saturday morning cartoon of my childhood-then this is the one to get. I have both books, actually-for reasons specified here.

First, we might note that "... To the Present," in the book's title, means through late 1995. So nothing in the last ten years is included. For years, I have enjoyed "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present" by Brooks and Marsh. I prefer the format of the Brooks and Marsh book to that of the NcNeil book--e.g., the cast is in list form, which makes for easier and quicker reading; the showing time is also included. The chief advantage of the McNeil book is that it includes daytime TV, which the Brooks and Marsh book does not.

Alex McNeil's "Total Television" is the Mother of all TV reference volumes. If you can't find it here, it ain't worth knowin' about. How he was able to compile all this information covering 50+ years of TV is beyond me. Crack open this book at any page and you will be reading for hours, probably days.

Seriously, I think a lot of this book. The artwork is wonderful; the story is wonderful. We had to buy this copy because we wore out our first one.

Another great book by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson. Nice story and great artwork. Recommended if you already own and like Ferdinand.

So glad it's back...this classic book on how different people can get along. Not just for kids.

"Wee Gillis" is a classic of children's literature, and this is an excellent new reprint. There is no dustjacket, but the book has a very strong cardboard cover and good quality paper.
The book combines an interesting commentary on the cultures of the Scottish highlands and lowlands with a simple and rather old-fashioned story of how a boy takes his place in the adult world.
The black and white illustrations complement the text beautifully, and almost tell the story on their own.

Originally published in 1938, this one is a delight to see back in print thanks to New York Review Books. The Scottish setting is charming and the central message, to be who you are, is important. Not content to be a hunter like his father's family or a farmer like his mother's family, Wee Gillis finds his own place in this world as a bagpiper. Baby boomers will be familiar with Robert Lawson's illustrations from such children's classics as Rabbit Hill, Ben And Me and The Story of Ferdinand, also written by Munro Leaf. I adore this book so much I named my dear and very independent Cairn Terrier puppy Wee Gillis.

"When there is wind on the moon, you must be very careful how you behave. Because if it is an ill wind and you behave badly, it will blow straight into your heart, and then you will behave badly for a long time to come." These words uttered by Major Palfrey, Dinah and Dorinda's father, is a foretelling of a year's worth of naughtiness for the two girls. With their father gone, they do their best to make mischief as when they try to do good they end up getting scolded anyway.

First the sisters eat too many pies, steaks and bread to blow themselves up into the shape of balloons. Then, after the village kids prick them with pins to see if they would burst, they cried themselves thin. Their real adventures begin with thoughts of revenge.

With the help of Mrs. Grimble, they bewitch themselves into kangaroos ("I have often wondered what I shall be when I grow up, whether a teacher of dancing, or a circus rider, or a mother of ten, but never, never, never did I expect to be a kangaroo."). With kicks, leaps and bounds they terrify the village people. But their rampage is short-lived. Lassoed by the zoo's owner and caretaker, they are caged and tended as other zoo animals. Here, they solve the mystery of lost Ostrich eggs and free two beasts who become their loyal friends.

Their appetite for naughtiness and cleverness whetted, they turn their attention to freeing their beloved dancing teacher from the county jail. All this is just preparation for the greatest escape adventure of all, rescuing their father from the castle dungeons of a far country.

Eric Linklater's humor shines and the plot zigs and zags unexpectedly. Dorinda and Dinah will be the envy of any child who yearns to take their naughtiness to a higher level.

Caution: Some sentiments in the book may be offensive to some: that fat people are ugly or a person whose face is blackened by dirt looks like a 'negro'.

Overall it is a fun romp with two very naughty girls. Just one thing boggles this reader's mind: Why doesn't their mother ever notice them missing for days or weeks at a time?

This was one of my favorite books as a child. I found it in a dusty corner of the library, and I think I was the only one to have checked in out in years. When I was a teenager, I found it in a booksale at the same library and bought it for 50 cents. I later realized it's a copy from the first printing. As such, it's in really bad shape - especially having once been a library book. I was so glad to hear it was being reprinted.

This story is just magical - I remember getting lost in it. It's one of those classics like the Narnia Chronicles and Harry Potter - a story you can literally sink into and forget where and who you are. These are the types of books that instill a love of reading in kids. I hope to one day give the Wind on the Moon to my own children.

Great Children's book It's now available in U.K. You can get it from Amazon.co.uk

As a child living temporarily with my mother in London, four books got me through: The Wind on the Moon and also The Pink Ballet Slippers by Evelyn S. Dehkes and Ballet Shoes and Theatre Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. However, as others have commented, The Wind on the Moon is the one I've reread the most. My old hardcover edition is well-loved, and it is probably no coincidence that my all-time favorite book also is about two sisters: The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett. It is wonderful to see The Wind on the Moon back in print and to give it as a gift for today's children to discover and enjoy. It is absolutely magical.

My Mum gave me this book when I was about ten. It had been given to her when she was a girl by her sunday school group for attendance. I loved it!
I lost it though, and have grieved quietly for the last 20 years. This is an unreal childrens book, and one that I look forward to reading to and with my children. I just wish I still had the original hard cover that belonged to my late Mum. It was something we shared.
My favourite bit was in the back of the specially packed lorry where they had their own house amongst the furniture. I used to rearrange our loungeroom, and Mum would help stuffing cushions and towels and draping tablecloths until I had my own little world.
I'm not going to spoil it by giving away the storyline, but it was written with real imagination and a fantastic sense of childhood adventure. An absolute must for any classic collection.

I didn't participate in law review or any other extracurricular activities. Since I didn't want to work for a big firm or a judge, I figured my time would be more rationally allocated by reading books on trial and appellate advocacy. I've read most of F. Lee Bailey's books on how to investigate and try various cases, I've attended several trial skills CLEs, and I've studied the closing arguments of the greats. I've also read just about everything by Bryan A. Garner.

Thus, going into my last semester of law school, I knew a lot about persuasive and analytical writing, but almost nothing about scholarly writing. I had avoided "paper classes."

Unfortunately, my desire to take a certain class was outweighed by my aversion to academic writing: I was in a class where the entire grade would be based on one paper. Thus, I turned to Volokh's Academic Legal Writing.

The date my paper was due severe formatting glitches caused me to lose 4 - 5 pages of text - the guts of one of my "Roman numeral" arguments. I spend several hours fixing the formatting that could have been spent doing final polishing. Although able to fix the footnotes, I never recovered that lost text.

Nevertheless, I earned the second-highest grade, missing the top score by only 2 points. In earning this grade I bested several law review editors, and many of the top 10 students.

Had I not read and employed the principles in Academic Legal Writing, I am confident I would not have done so well.

One principle I learned was to demonstrate to the reader early in the paper why the paper is necessary. The best way to do this is to show that your paper picks up where another article left off, or that your paper covers an issue previously ignored. Thus, I began:

"Although the federal bribery statute's scope is sweeping, covering conduct well beyond the "the most blatant and specific attempts of those with money to influence governmental action," it has been given scant attention. Legal scholars and political scientists are, in Professor Lowenstein's words, guilty of "sins of omission" for ignoring bribery. Little has changed since Professor Lowenstein's 1985 article. Thus, this Article seeks to fill one of the many gaps."

To those of you familiar with scholarly writing, making this point would seem obvious. But it was not obvious to me. Volokh's book taught me many things I did not know, and I suspect even experienced writers will learn something worth the investment of time and money in his book.

It's also likely that those of you fluent with academic legal writing learned things piecemeal. Volokh's work is systematic: You will fill in gaps of our own knowledge.

Go buy a book here.

Former clerk to the Supreme Court and Professor at UCLA Eugene Volokh has given a remarkable gift to the legal community that would be a bargain at twice the price. It delivers pragmatic and thoughtful advice in a remarkably clear and lucid style. Moreover, it is not simply clear for law books--frankly, a low bar to pass--Volokh writes for the ordinary public daily on his eponymous blog (where you can read the first chapter of this book), and the skills required for that task manifest themselves in this work.

Academic Legal Writing is also extremely systematic. Every aspect of the paper is taken into consideration, from the approach to research, to avoiding off-putting humor or politically charged language, time tables for submissions, and so on, even including how to draft letters to professors and law reviews asking them to look over your work and to consider it for publication.

Academic Legal Writing is really in a class by itself. That said, perhaps I can indicate its greatness by invoking a few other names. Academic Legal Writing is a perfect companion volume to Bryan Gardner's The Elements of Legal Style. It is as clear and concise and accessible as Marvin Chirelstein's Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts, and it deserves to be as ubiquitous and is certainly as valuable, thoughtful, and comprehensive as Joseph Glannon's E&E Civil Procedure and Erwin Chemerinsky's Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies. If you know these books, you should be going "wow." If you don't, and you are going to law school, I advise reading all of them. (Also Getting to Maybe, which I never found compelling, but am in the distinct minority view on.)

I read Elizabeth Fajans and Mary R. Falk's Scholarly Writing for Law Students, which is also good and which Volokh recommends. Academic Legal Writing appears to be a very conscious next step beyond that book. In a perfect world, buying and reading both would be advisable. In the real world, I read Scholarly Writing once, Academic Legal Writing many, many times. Academic Legal Writing is your desert island pick.

Please do yourself a favor and read this book. If you don't, you will simply be doing all of your competitors a likely unrequited kindness.

One final note: Professor Volokh is a conservative of the thoughtful and sober variety. I am a liberal of the sort who avidly studies the Endangered Species List to see if "Thoughtful Conservatives" have been listed yet. This is not an issue: Professor Volokh's political beliefs are discernible in this book only by the most careful parsing: in some of his examples, he points out the misleading use of statistics in gun violence, an academic preoccupation of his. You could then do the math and figure out that he has at least one conservative leaning. Otherwise, his politics would be utterly inscrutable. And, frankly, this book would be on my bookshelf even if Professor Volokh had say, written a memo arguing that the Geneva Conventions were outdated and pointless. John Yoo, your path to redemption is clear.

Succinct, straightforward, info not available elsewhere (as easily), time-tested advice. Clearly worth having.

Volokh's book has many helpful tips about submitting articles to law journals. My co-author and I found the last portion of the book useful in timing our submissions. Also, the book was a great aide with how to negotiate with law reviews to get favorable terms, etc. As a side note, our paper was accepted by the UCLA Law Review and will be published in Feb. of 2005.

It would be foolish to attempt the daunting and complex feat of writing a publishable law review article without frequent reference to Professor Volokh's excellent book. Unlike many how-to books in any field, Academic Legal Writing doesn't waste time recycling conventional wisdom or dabbling too much in abstract talk of standards. It is full of fresh insights and eminently practical advice about the whole process of academic legal writing, from thesis selection to publication. An under-praised but no less valuable advantage of Volokh's book is that it channels a genuine enthusiasm for legal scholarship that I found completely contagious. Writing a law review article is a grueling, difficult, and sometimes tedious process. I can be sure that the quality of my article improved drastically simply because Academic Legal Writing kept me motivated by holding up the image of a superb article and its value to the writer and to the scholarly community. This book should be required reading for every member of the nation's law reviews, and if I felt uppity enough, I might even recommend it to my law professors.

I find that I agree with all of the positive reviews, but indeed what most haunts me about Mutis is his deeply introspective writing style. I read the book in Spanish (my native language, btw) and the language is enthralling and personal... If you took away the background, most of Macqroll's fears and feelings are rather universal, and as you read the book (especially that WONDERFUL! first chapter) the book becomes an introspective exercise, made bearable simply because Mutis takes you there with the gentleness of his writing, the magic of the geographical settings (and their descriptions) and the company of the most human and flawed characters (Ilona being my personal favorite).

Ah, this is a wonderful book for a sunny or rainy day. It is so perfect in all does. The stories are fascinating and amusing -- often poignant. You will never forget ANY of the characters, especially Maqroll. And Bashur. And the Mirror Breaker. And Jamil. If, since childhood, you have dreamed of tramp steamers and ports around the world, as I have, your ship truly has come in in this book. Well, I could go on just spitting out adoring adjectives, but, like all the other reviewers here, I enjoyed this book immensely. It won't be long till I pick it up and read it all over again. A book I'll always remember. A classic.

Alvaro Mutis wrote several superb short novels about the travels and trials of his creation, the wandering sailor Maqroll, gathered here in one volume in an excellent translation. Adventure, friendship, obsession, loyalty, bad judgment, and hilariously (sometimes tragically) desperate situations play out in obscure and exotic locations. "Maqroll" is an excellent companion for your own world travels.

It is densely written and discursive . . . relentlessly so, for 700 pages. Perhaps you will find this poetic, profound, or even titillating. Perhaps not. Perhaps, instead, you will think that Mutis is a brilliant, verbally gifted man in need of lithium and a good editor, or both. In all fairness, he gives plenty of warning up front. Page 17: "Our mistake is to think it's going somewhere, . . ." Page 19: "makes his sentences difficult to understand until we grow used to the rhythm of a language intended to conceal more than it communicates." Page 20: ". . . filled with long, rambling circumlocutions that made no sense." I think this award winning "emperor" is feeling a bit chilly, but laughing his chillies off.

Yes, I agree with the other reviewers who have asseverated that this is a great book. But they don't seem to want to spell out why exactly it is a great novel, or, rather, series of picaresque adventures. - Perhaps they're simply tired due to the 700 page literary trek. - But, come now, a great novel because of tramp steamers and the sea? While the sea is certainly the element in which Maqroll feels most at home, there are, literally, hundreds of novels about the sea and the love of it (In particular, there's one author who's made himself into a multi-millionaire by churning out these books like a sausage-machine).

No, what makes this book great is the underlying fatalism of the work sweepingly on display in Maqroll and the several other characters, and in the finely wrought passages on what this life offers us, picaresque vagabond or not. Many comparisons have been made to Don Quixote. - But not in the right way - Maqroll is Don Quixote's Twentieth Century doppelganger, or spectral double: Spectral, as is the case with many doppelgangers in fiction, in that he is the Knight's opposite. Where Don Quixote is chaste, Maqroll is licentious, where Don Quixote is naïve, Maqroll is instinctively wise to the ways of the fallen world etc. etc. --- In literary terms, Don Quixote is a Romantic. Maqroll is Tragic.

I wonder, reading the other reviews, if the other readers may have just possibly skimmed over the philosophical passages that glower at one on every other page or so. It is these passages, these lyrical, defiant, essentially dark reflections that make this much more than any mere sea novel or rollicking picaresque.

For Example, for starters:

"...it's not worry I feel but weariness as I watch the approach of one more episode in the old, tired story of the men who try to beat life, the smart ones who think they know it all and die with a look of surprise on their faces: at the final moment they always see the truth - they never really understood anything, never held anything in their hands. An old story, old and boring." P.24

And again:

"He thought that the real tragedy of aging lay in the fact that the eternal boy still lives inside us, unaware of the passage of time. A boy whose secrets had been revealed with notable clarity when Maqroll withdrew to Aracuriare Canyon, and who claimed the prerogative of not aging, since he carried that portion of broken dreams, stubborn hopes, and mad, illusory enterprises in which time not only does not count but is, in fact, inconceivable. One day the body sends a warning and, for a moment, we awake to the evidence of our own deterioration: someone has been living our life, consuming our strength. But we immediately return to the phantom of our spotless youth, and continue to do so until the final, inevitable awakening." P.261

And again, and again, and again...

Yes, there are mad illusory enterprises throughout the book- And jolly fun they are to read - But, like a requiem continually droning in the background, we are given, in Maqroll's reflections, that he is aware exactly how mad and illusory these enterprises are.

Fatalistic literature has never been popular, in America especially, which was founded on principles contrary to it, and where the recurrent mantra is, "You can be anything you want to be." This book shows, time and again, that you can't. It's no wonder Maqroll is enamoured of, among others, the Ancient Greeks.

Summing up, this is a great book because Mutis does the seemingly impossible here, giving us the pleasurable, lilting melodies of the sea yarn and adventure story, all the while beating the steady drumbeat of mortal doom.