New York Books

I thought I was read all great writers for this misteries, crimes and all those, but Sanders has become one of my favourites ones (the first of course is Raymond Chandler). I'm going to read all his books!

Our eponymous hero returns in this second installment of the Timothy Series.
In the first novella, Run, Sally, Run, Timothy Cone has been specifically recommended to determine where leaks in a company, Pistol and Burns, are coming from. A Case of the Shorts begins with the assassination of John Dempster, CEO of Dempster-Torrey. Haldering and Co. is retained, and Timothy is drafted to investigate why the company is a target for industrial sabotage. In the last novella, One From Column A, Chin Tung Lee, of the White Lotus label, assigns the investigative team to discover why anyone would speculate in such a conservative company. Oedipal lust to unbridled greed actuated by hatred are just a little of what we see in The Game.
As usual, Timothy Cone cracks the cases with confidence and exaggerated bravado, leveraging on the knowledge of financial specialists, and his bevy of police informants. The whole cast from the Files are back, with some chaps added to compensate for the diversity of the new clientele.
Most Sanders fans when reading about this shabby detective are apt to compare him unfavorably to the dapper McNally. They might just be mistaken. Actually, both characters do have their similarities: their snitches in the police department who believe in quid pro quo, their emphasis on appearances and location, as well as their queer relationships, and controlled humor.
Yet Cone has his strengths. Here,the bad guys are unafraid to get their hands dirty; also, as each client is referred to Haldering and Co., there is a certain a continuity along stories. Moreover, since the focus is on financial institutions, a virgin forest in investigative fiction, we get to read a lot about the unheralded SEC.
In Timothy's Game, Lawrence Sanders delivers sizzling stuff that should be enjoyed in it's own right.

All the other so-called mystery writers should read Sanders' Timothys as Bible, but should not read any of his McNallys

This book is actually a collection of three stories about Wall Street investigator Timothy Cone. Originally issued in 1988, it was written when Lawrence Sanders was at the peak of his writing career (before he started insulting his fans by cranking out pot boilers). The stories concern various intrigues on Wall Street - insider trading, stock manipulation and short selling, and corporate takeovers and greenmail. The plots are well developed and well written, and the characters are interesting.

The best Lawrence Sanders I've read so far. Timothy is an engaging character, and I think that's why I enjoyed the book so much

Like its companion, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, Torture and Truth is an essential resource for scholars or researchers on this subject. However, because of its length (500+ pages)and scope it is an excellent choice for the more general reader. It is a compilation of reports and letters, mostly from the Bush Administration, on the Iraq War and torture issues. Because of its primary source components, it is invaluable for anyone doing research on the subject. It is well-organized, and will find a place in many dissertations in the years to come.

This book offers a chilling rendition of the events that occured at Abu Gharib. It fairly reviews the events through official reports, which are quite chilling! A must read!!

This is by far the best journalistic account of the torture of suspects at Abu Ghraib. This is also the best book to read after reading the books of documents, which give you the vital context for understanding Danner's book. Read them first and then this one - you will then be able to understand what really happened and why. British and US troops really did commit terribe acts against their prisoners, with tragic consequences for the reputation of both nations in the Middle East. Read Danner and the documents books to discove why. Christopher Catherwood (author of CHURCHILL'S FOLLY: HOW WINSTON CHURCHILL CREATED MODERN IRAQ: Carroll and Graf, hardcover 2004, paperback 2005)

The author strongly makes the case that the Abu Ghraib torture scandal was not caused by a few rotten apples on the night shift, but was systematic torture as policy. The Red Cross report and other valid reports are in the book so that the reader can see for himself that the torture at Abu Ghraib was certainly far more than a few rotten apples that were military police serving in the reserves that were sent to Abu Ghraib.

There was sadism at Abu Ghraib. There was a breakdown in law and order at Abu Ghraib. There was a breakdown in discipline at Abu Ghraib. This, of course, puts our entire Country and our entire military at risk.

Not only is the torture wrong, but, beyond that, torture is ineffective and many of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib had no intelligence value in the first place. Torture is very harmful to our Country politically speaking. It is certainly the case that any information that was obtained by torture would be overshadowed by the political damage caused by the activities.

I bought Mark Danner's TORTURE AND TRUTH several months ago from Amazon, and find it ever more relevant to current events. For the numbers of people detained and tortured in the War on Terror-- many of them believed by reputable individuals and organizations to be innocent-- continues to rise, and extends far beyond Abu Ghraib. The very fact that the majority of these people have never been formally charged with involvement in terrorist activity nor tried seems to prove their innocence, for it would be very easy to keep someone in jail these days if one could present solid evidence of their involvment in terrorism. Those who object that the tortures inflicted on these detaninees is not as bad as that which some totalitarian governments inflict upon their victims ignore the fact that the "soft torture" techniques in development since the end of World War II have been found to be more effective in "breaking" victims than simple brutality (see Alfred McCoy, A QUESTION OF TORTURE: CIA INTERROGATION FROM THE COLD WAR TO THE WAR ON TERROR). The suffering of these wretched detainees keeps me awake at night, yet to this day most people seem unconcerned about their plight. Danner's comment from the Introduction to his book still holds true: "Like other scandals that have erupted during the Iraq War and the war on terror, it is not about revelation or disclosure but about the failure, once wrongdoing is disclosed, of politicians, officials, the press, and, ultimately, citizens to act."

This book is a must for New Yorkers who want to learn more about their city and for out-of-towners visiting New York. The text, photographs, and maps are outstanding.

I adore the lower part of Midtown (under 34th St.) and this book is what I was looking for. Quick, concise but at the same time rich and precious is a work that covers comprehensively some of the most fascinating Manhattan's neighbourhoods. From the elegant Gramercy Park to the fashionable Chelsea, Touring the Flatiron is an amazing experience either for the native either for the visitor.

The research is impecable. The photographs are fabulous and the book is very easy to follow, whether you are walking the neighborhoods with it or sitting on your couch. Rarely do tour books include original research as well as challenge prior thought, as this one has. This is an indespensible guide for anyone interested in the history of New York and/or the history of the architechure of cities.

This author is incredibly well known in NYC as a city historian and has a supreme knowledge about the area. The book is organized in a logical manner and the photographs are excellent as well as interesting. A must have for anyone planing to tour, or live in lower manhattan. makes a great gift/Housewarming present! I look forward to her next book about the lower east side. I hear the photo research for that is amazing as well.

My grandma worked really hard on this book,and it is very good. The pictures are wonderful and it is very interesting with tons of facts and stories.

This book delineates the concepts of Abinavagupta's investiture of the heart or hridaya as metaphorically analogous to the centermost reality of supreme consciousness. This exposition becomes the vehicle for a foundational exploration into the historical development and conceptual underpinning of the Kaula lineage and its interweaving influence amongst the larger framework of non-dual Kashmir Shavism.

Mr. Ortega's extensive research and refined scholarship is clearly evidenced throughout this work. While the literary style is thoroughly scholastic in disposition, one could presuppose that readers less familiar with the rigors of this venue could find the linguistic constructs unduly pedantic and inaccessible. This work is implicitly conceived as a scholarly interrogatory into the numinous symbology of the heart, and the author makes no supererogative overtures to attitudinize this as a pedagogical guidebook of mediation or tantric praxis. While those with a predilection for the trance state will find ample catalyst for such while ruminating over the significance of the weighty subject matter, the kernel of this work is largely philosophical in nature and its potency relies primarily upon absorption into one's own conceptual fabric. The onus of methodologically deciphering and putting into practice the myriad of specific kaula oriented techniques employed and espoused by Abhinavagupta, which are by and large beyond the parameters of this work, remains squarely on the shoulders, if not the heart, of the reader.

This magnificent piece of literature contains wisdom so deep, so clear and so intellectually developed I am sometimes unable to read more than a sentence or two before I am plunged into a space of unrelenting power. Each sentence has been carefully worded as to not waste even one second of the student's time in speculation or controversy. It's as if Abhinavagupta, with his expert hands, surgically removes our ingorance of Shiva, in so doing, he leaves us unable to experience anything else! "The heart of Siva is not a static or inert absolute, however. In fact, the non-dual Kashmir Shaiva tradition considers it to be in a state of perpetual movement, a state of vibration in which it is continuously contacting and expanding..." The Triadic Heart pg. 82

Not only a rare and brilliant sanskritist, Paul Muller illuminates a once obscure mystical-religious tradition with the erudition of the most accomplished scholar. His rich background in the history of religion and familiarity with a seemingless endless variety of sanskrit texts show throughout his writing. He explains intricate spiritual concepts in straightforward terms and unearths the complexities of deceptively simple images, whose meanings might go otherwise unappreciated without his detailed explanations. Rock-steady in his approach, he somehow balances painstaking technical analysis with broad conceptual understanding. He traces around sanskrit words close to their sources, never straying far from the original texts. Moving beyond the literal, he also treats symbols as multilayered representations of human experience. His work exemplifies intellectual exploration and impeccable scholarship, but also packs rich insight and meaning. After reading more basic works, this is the one that will provoke new thoughts and a thirst for more knowledge about the complexities of indian religious and spiritual systems.

The Heart as a metaphor for the enlightened experience of consciousness was masterfully revealed by the great Shaivist sage, mystic and scholar Abhinavagupta. Abhinavagupta "taught from a level of complete spiritual awakening with the authority of one who was considered a Siva incarnate." The study of these teachings, for the student able to attain and maintain meditative absorption, may be the basis for a radical transformation in consciousness to spiritually awakened Being in nondual freedom of awareness.

This book contains priceless wisdom from a first-rate scholar, who, surely, must be an experienced tantric yogin! You could sincerely say that he has discovered & revealed the secret of the real holy Graal in these pages. It's very much a practical handbook on how to become immortal - like a lamp that lights the way to the god within.
I hope Mr Ortega publishes more material like this. Better still, I wish he were my Guru to learn from first hand....

Great indepth history of the beginning of flyfishing in the Catskills with biographies of the flyfishing legends...

Very informative, details very easy to understand. I am extremely glad that I bought this book.

This book is great, I can't imagine a more complete account of fishing in the area. Going back before the 1800s. Ed Van Put demonstrates over a century's worth of fishing in the Catskills, telling great stories along the way.

This book chronicles the history of the Catskill Mountains in New York through the ribbon of trout fishing since its inception in the US. It is a fascinating story told by the King of the Delaware, Ed Van Put. This story will hold the attention of ardent fisherman and history buffs alike. The photography is beautiful and I learned so much about the plight of the fish and it's environs through the last 200 years. Any fisherman would be thrilled to cast a line around this book.

This is a very interesting, informative and entertaining book. I live on the northern edge of the catskills and have fished many of the places mentioned. I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend it to anyone who loves trout fishing.

This brilliant little book (71 pages of actual text) records twenty days in which Hawthorne was in effect a single parent for his five year old son, Julian, during August 1851. Hawthorne's wife Sophia, called Phoebe in the book, and two daughters (seven year old Una and newborn Rose) go off to visit Sophia's parents. Hawthorne is with Julian for just about every waking moment of Julian's day, running from six or seven AM to seven or seven thirty PM. He records their days in his notebook; and, despite the brief and informal style of these notes (and they are notes and not a detailed chronicle), succeeds in evoking nearly the totality of a child's day. I doubt that any major writer has ever so completely and carefully focused on what a five year old actually does and what his life is like.

Hawthorne is also direct and frank. He gets exasperated (as all parents do) about the constant demands for attention, the nonstop childish chatter and the endless sometimes inane questions but only rarely rebukes Julian. On the whole, Hawthorne is remarkably patient. He is amused by Julian's battles with the monsters that appear in the form of thistles and weeds which Julian routinely and daily slaughters. He is fascinated by Julian's determined and uniformly unsuccessful fishing. He admires Julian's great good nature and his gusto. Hawthorne takes care of the boy's minor illnesses, injuries and accidents. He feeds, dresses, bathes and clothes him daily. He also tries to curl his hair. Some of these actions he admits are badly or clumsily done but they are all clearly done with love.

The book also contains a few insights into other aspects of the normally reserved Hawthorne. He is positively volcanic about his dislike of Massachusetts's Berkshire region and its weather and his contemptuous and angry references to a neighbor and to (of all things) the Shaker sect are painful to read. Also clear, however, is his deep love for his family and for friends such as Melville and his love of life generally. He goes to considerable lengths to rescue a kitten trapped in a cistern and does what he can for the well-being of Bunny, whom he obviously considers a rather dull creature. There are observations on the daily round of country life in 1851 as well, including the contents of meals (little meat but plentiful milk, vegetables and rice), interactions with others, visitors and other matters.

The prose is very direct and clear, a far cry from Hawthorne's complex, allusive and often indirect formal style. This is a record of parenting and of a child's life that is moving and beautiful. There is also a useful if perhaps somewhat overlong introduction by writer Paul Auster.

I had previously thought of Nathaniel Hawthorne as serious, stuffy, reclusive - as indeed many contemporaries thought of him. However, _Twenty Days with Julian_ show another side of the man - and the eternal joy and wonder of childhood.

While his wife and daughters were away, Hawthorne spent three weeks alone with his son, Julian. Chronicling their activities, you get a clear sense of the time and of the person Hawthorne was. But what was most pleasant - and surprising - was how similar 4 year old Julian was to children today. A joyful read that would make an excellent Father's Day present.

This is abrief book, but full of great writing. It's very interesting to see what has changed in 150 years - the food, the activities, the words, and what hasn't - how little kids behave.

Hawthorne really captures the boundless energy and joy of small children, as well as his own sense of bewilderment as a father.

Everything positive said about this book is true. But I would add this: Mr. Auster's introduction is excellent until he reaches a point where he starts divulging some of the best points in the diary. So buy the book and go straight to the diary. Then enjoy Auster's wonderful intro. Bravo to NYRB for publishing this as a stand alone book; what a great gift for a new parent!
CS

From July 28th until August 16th, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife Sophia took their daughters on a visit to her relatives, leaving her husband home to care for their 5 year-old son, Julian. Hawthorne kept a record of his time with the little boy in a journal, calling the episode "Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny by Papa". Anyone familiar with Hawthorne's exquisite, almost recondite writing style as exemplified by his novels and short stories will hardly recognize him in the guise of babysitter and chronicler of his jet-propelled kid's activities. Driven nearly to distraction by Julian's nonstop chatter and noisemaking (Hawthorne's wife had recently given birth to baby Rose, and the little boy was constantly being told to keep quiet), Hawthorne nevertheless decides to allow the child the freedom to be as noisy as he likes while the baby is away. This proves to be an exercise in forbearance for poor papa, as Julian proves to have no off switch, making it "impossible to read, write, think, or even sleep (in the daytime) so constant are his appeals..." Over the ensuing three weeks, the two take daily walks to fetch the milk, and to the lake where Julian fishes with furious, single-minded determination and catches absolutely nothing. Hawthorne struggles to figure out how his wife curls the kid's hair, and there are several unfortunate events - a bedwetting accident, a pants-peeing incident, the kid gets stung by a wasp, the pet bunny, Hindlegs, dies and is buried in the garden, much to Julian's amusement. (He hopes a Bunny Tree will spring up, covered all over in bunnies hanging by their ears.) Through it all, Hawthorne, in spite of his befuddlement with the finer points of child care, bears up gracefully, proving himself not only a gentle and loving father, but a genius at capturing the essence of childhood and the joy of witnessing,close at hand, his little boy's joie de vivre.

What most interested me in this brilliant collection is Bender's periodization of New York cultural authority. In line with other works on New York, but more cleanly and clearly articulated and supported with well chosen facts, Bender identifies three cultural authorities loosely suceeding one another after the Revolution.

First, The Patrician as exemplified by De Witt Clinton as both a powerful politician who 'qualified' as an authority, and who was a member of and directed cultural institutions. Next, the Common Man came during the Jacksonian era where cultural authority was seized by the common man a la Whitman. During this period, Barnum's American Museum offered all citizens the opportunity to visually inspect a 'promiscuous' collection of artifacts and allowed them to decide on its significance and importance. Commercial values predominated and, at least early on, this approach was a renuciation of the patriciate.

Then came as the Civil War drew closer, the era of the 'Professional Authorities' such as F.L. Olmsted and Samuel F.B. Morse (who as founder of the National Academy of Design as a professional organization in 1826, an early example of the doings of the "metropolitan gentry' who endorsed and promoted the Professional Authority. Other examples include E.L. Godkin, founder of The Nation and who decried the 'large body of persons' taught by common schools, lyceum lectures, small colleges,newspapers "who firmly believe that they have reached in the matter of social, mental and moral culture, all that is attainable or desirable by anybody, and who, therefore, tackle all the problems of the day." The result he insisted was "a kind of mental and moral chaos," presumably of the middle class. The Metropolitan Gentry who founded the Metropolitan Museum, by contrast, established clear categories on its objects -- unlike Barnum's populist American Museum. One supposes we're still in the era of the Professional Authority and the Metropolitan Gentry here in New York. More's the pity.

Bender's periodization was of particular interest to me, but there is much more here than the historical, including architectural, cultural and political perspectives, all of which Bender intersects in fascinating and original ways. Highly readable and insightful.

Whether you know nothing about New York, or think you know it all, this eloquent book will nourish your love and broaden your embrace of the City.

This compilation of essays about the culture, history, and concept of New York City is both thought-provoking and passionate. But be warned: this is no Introduction to New York History 101 book, and definitely should not find itself on the top of any coffee table. This is a studious and sophisticated account of Gotham's fluid and, as the title states, unending role in the modern world's intellectual and cultural history. Fortunately, Professor Bender's ideas are clearly and reasonably presented, making for smooth reading.

One of the major riffs throughout the pieces is that because New York City was relieved of the duty of being the nation's capital, and because of the new talent and diversity that free market capitalism attracts and needs, the city has always been at the forefront of America's and the world's aesthetic and technological development. These elements also make the city so chimeric that it's never the same city from one day to the next. (Unfortunately, the events of 9/11/01 would seem to refute this. Those terrorists and their backers saw the city as the fixed center of America's wealth, greed, and power. Professor Bender's introduction acknowledges that the effects to New York of that day are still unknowable.)

This critical examination into the world that is New York is not only testimony its greatness, but also to the pride and passion Professor Bender has for it.

Collection of distinct but companionable articles by Bender (Humanities/NYU) assessing New York City as a multiplicity of public places and institutions in flux and very much sui generis. New York, the author finds, sits outside the metropolitan idea. Unlike Paris or Vienna, it has not assumed national centrality and leadership in political and cultural matters; it doesn't realize and standardize the best hopes for the American polity. This, he figures, is because the city is continually in the making: unresolved, or resolved only temporarily. In its physical development and social organization it refuses a single logic, preferring a self-fashioned pluralism that is pragmatic, unpredictable, nonhierarchical. "The center has never held firmly in New York," Bender writes. "It has been continually undermined by fragmentation of the elite and by manifold rebellions." That has consequences for better and worse. Aspiringly democratic, polyvalent, and vibrant in architecture, politics, and art, the city is a place where, as Virgil Thomson observed, one group could argue "esthetics with intelligence and politics with a passion" while the other discussed "esthetics with passion and politics with intelligence." But New York lacks an image of itself as a collectivity; it has no representative institutions and lacks a civic culture in which "the public space is the terrain of the public as visual representation, while institutions provide a place for representative political deliberation." Bender (Intellect and Public Life, not reviewed, etc.) brings wide-ranging curiosity, literacy, and experience in urban matters to the question of New York, from the iconography of the Brooklyn Bridge and its rolein urban reconfiguration to the dialectical relationship between the city's horizontal, civic impulses and its vertical, corporate ones. There are persistent issues, including the city's racial divisions, but "New York's character is to be incomplete." A meaty and satisfying look at a great city, its multiple environments, and their unending transformations. (b&w photos throughout)

The Unifinished City (New York and the Metropolitan Idea) works as a series of independant essays (as it was written) but also pulls together beautifully as a major look at a city, specifically New York but more generically at cities in general in the book's final chapters. The author's, Thomas Bender, view is expansive and always intellectually sound as it ranges from architecture to Walt Whitman to cultural politics to Beat poets to democracy and to universities, and these are only a few of the ideas integrated smoothly into the book. Some of the concepts may be a little difficult for the uninitiated (myself, at times) but the writing is so smart and clear that the reader will fall into place quickly enough. A wonderful book and one of the best examinations of New York to be encountered.

Tess Slesinger's The Unpossessed (1934), her only novel, published when she was only 29, is so bright, so playfully and angrily intellectual, so intelligently experimental, so sharp and sensitive, satirical and forgiving, and unforgiving. It is a condemnation of the generation older than her, although it seems written by someone much older, and it is certainly not sympathetic to the younger. It is dark, and gets darker and darker, especially in terms of intellectuals and the wealthy they depend on, their isolation mentally, physically, and emotionally, even from themselves. It's such a tragedy that so wise a woman, who could write such incredible sentences,turned instead to screenplays, and then died young.

With her keen ability to delve into human psychology, Tess Slesinger is a worthy successor to Henry James and Virginia Woolf. Oops! I hope I haven't ruined this book for the general reader because--once you get beyond the first fifteen pages or so and catch on to what Slesinger is up to--you won't put the book down. In terms of literary Modernism and the writing craft, Slesinger builds on the accomplishments of Woolf and James, two of the acknowledged masters of interior psychological processes: Tess Slesinger adds wit, irony, and charm. And, she is thoroughly American in the pace and comedic timing of her work--the very *sound* of this novel is American.

To the general reader, I would say that The Unpossessed is not a consciously arty, literary novel. I'm convinced that there was no other way to write this work, no way to say what had to be said in any technique or structure other than the one in which Tess Slesinger wrote it. The author wanted to approximate reality, modern 1930's life (Depression Era, intellectual activism), and to exactly recreate each character's thoughts. To do that, Slesinger, like Woolf, had to master the use of parentheses and italics in order to show simultaneous thoughts, to show what characters are thinking when another character is speaking. Italics and parenthetical statements are necessary to give the reader the feeling of real life--as lived in the moment. And because every person is so mentally active, each has an interior consciousness which they bring to bear on the social predicament.

In Bruno Leonard, Slesinger has given us a university professor who is as idiosyncratic and witty as they come--the type of erudite, gentleman intellectual who has been largely killed off by mass delivery of education in the new diploma factories. And, in Elizabeth Leonard, Bruno's cousin, we have a young woman who is as engaging as she is sexy and mixed up. The "Black Sheep"--Emmett Middleton, and Cornelia and Firman--are as timeless as any intelligent, active college students frustrated with the times in which they live (with the poverty of the Depression Era, and the unequal sharing of wealth in the U.S.). They are genuinely hoping that the work of Karl Marx can show Americans a way toward a more just society. Emmett Middleton seems to be the stable, moral center of The Unpossessed.

In terms of language and style, The Unpossessed approaches poetry. In Slesinger's characteristically poignant and biting prose, she writes from inside Emmett's conflicted consciousness, "Emmett had hated the word 'business' since he was three years old; it came out of his father's mouth tobacco-stained and dry, slightly nasal; the combination of the zz sound with the n went the wrong way up his nostrils like burning sulphur off a kitchen match. 'He s-says I look too much like a girl scout for his racket anyway.' He thought with relief how since knowing Bruno he had relinquished the vain attempt to gain his father's approbation" (139).

Slesinger's willingness to let the English language carry her into poetic realms makes The Unpossessed soar above the polemical novel; her work has humor and grace in it. To be so young as Tess, so aware of the interior of the human soul, to write only one novel--and then to die so young!

And, dear reader, don't be led astray or fooled by Slesinger's at-times cool, emotionally distant prose. Underneath--and running throughout--is a plea from the heart: Intellectuals and activists must connect to life; while we are reading Engels and Marx and examining the direction of our nation, we must allow life to happen. Yes, be an intellectual with integrity, commit to a cause and be active with it--but go ahead, fall in love, get married, have a baby. These are not bourgeois concepts. They are life, too.

Finally, I don't know why this novel isn't on every undergraduate reading list along with Fitzgerald and Hemingway. This is truly a 20th-century masterpiece--and suitable for the times in which we live.

I knew within the first five pages of this book that I was going to love it. This is because Tess Slesinger's writing is beautiful and atmospheric. The narrator is third person omniscient, so we get a range of character's points of view in a flowing fashion. In this way it is similar to narrative like Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

The basic premise is that there are these Greenwich Village leftists who want to start up a communist newsletter. This, however, is merely the basis for the larger group interactions. There are also deep dysfunctional relationships between the couples that make up the larger group and the shiftiing dynamic between man and woman. This novel looks hard at the mind of a woman of the time and what it is that she wants and whether or not she even knows what she wants anymore. It also looks at the men around them and how they percieve these "new" and "independant" women. It is a fascinating look at the relationship between the sexes.

I recommend getting not this verison, but the Feminist Press version because the Feminist Press edition has a very interesting forward.

We read this book for our book club. The first half is tough--it was challenging to get into the rhythm of the glib repartee, double meanings and quirky jargon, much less get all the characters straight. Then, at about the halfway point, the group convenes for a meeting, and it's off to the races!! Slesinger has (OK, had) a remarkable flair for capturing the times, a remarkable ear for dialog, and a grand ability to skewer different "types" with deadly accuracy. The climax of the book is a party scene you'll never forget--picturing the shabbily dressed baby-communist collegians rubbing elbows with wealthy society mavens who are ignorant of the cause they find themselves supporting still cracks me up--a very rich and VERY funny novel.

Try this passage, not quite at random:

"`I'm the Bruno Leonard all-purpose one-man three-ring self-kidding self-perpetuating exhibitionistic circus divided like all Gaul into partes tres. One part sour grapes, one part wish-fulfillment, nine parts subconscious. And the greatest of these, according to the antediluvian Chinese, is the subconscious. This way, ladies and pessimistic gents, for the J. J. stream-line crooner, for old Doc Leonard the campaigning fool, watch hin frisk, watch him scamper, watch him catch his fleas in public. Don't feed him peanuts feed him opiates, buy your tablets at the gate from Miss Diamond who has given many years of service, who sacrificed her vacations, her virtue, that this firm might go on.' He subsided, to his own relief; collapsed into the chair that Nora drew up for him. `To sex and its many ramifications,' he said, and raised his glass."

Okay, it is out of context. But in context or out, I defy anyone to catch all the layers of meaning there, at least not on first reading. It's not precisely obscure (although I don't think I catch everything), not Joycean or Kafkaesque. It's more like a James Wood movie monologue: the narrator has no skin at all and she process on six channels at once, certainly the quickest-witted observer you could want to imagine. Or a "Simpsons" tape, where you know you will catch something new at second look, and some of the music gags will still go clean on past you.

Try it again for the rhythm. Can you get it? I cannot quite, but I am pretty sure it is there: all gnarly and snarky, all elbows and knees, a mind and a sensibility all its own. Just to get in the swing of things, I found I had to read it out loud, but no matter: it was better that way, and it lasted longer.

Tess Slesinger subtitles it "A Novel of the Thirties," and that it is: an attempt at clear-eyed observation of her cronies and adversaries among leftwing New York intellectuals at the bottom of the Depression. She dedicated it "to my contemporaries." Elizabeth Hardwick, in her introduction to the NYRB edition, calls it "a kindly act of intellectual friendship," and that it is not-indeed Hardwick's is one of the wildest misjudgments I can possibly imagine. It may be "friendship" in that she cares enough about these people that she wishes she could save them. But it is not in the least way kindly. Rather, this is an act of prophecy: a calling down of God's (if there is a God) wrath upon a wayward Greenwich Village by one who loved it a great deal but understood it - to her dismay - even better. It's rich, it's full of life and it is tainted with the acrid aroma of doom. What a talent. What a sensibility. What an experience, as energetic and refractory as any novel you will read for a long time. Tess Slesinger died in 1945 at the age of 39. She never wrote another.

This book chronicles a Brooklyn church and its community amid the crime, drugs and despair of the black community. However , faith and learning to believe in the Lord and his ultimate plan for an individual and his community makes this church an oasis amid the storms. It is a story of a pastor, with his own demons, trying to be resopnsible for the souls of his congregation and the thin ice on which he must tread. This book will make you look at the inner city and its churches in a different light.

This book was well written and well resourced and led me on a pilgrimage to this black Mecca.

Samuel Freedman has done a remarkable job in his chronicle of the story of Reverend Johnny Ray Youngblood, a pastor of a now-thriving urban church, St. Paul Community Baptist Church. This narrative covers the history of Youngblood from before his arrival at St. Paul's, a once-thriving but fallen-upon-hard-times congregation, through Youngblood's early struggles to turn the situation around, finally into their days of success as a growing centre of ministry.

Youngblood is not the typical African-American minister, and realises this in many ways. He is compared with other ministers of significant churches, with education backgrounds at Harvard and the like, and contrasted by Freedman with those ministers who feel all that is needed for effective ministry is 'the call'. Youngblood realises that education can sometimes be a distraction, and can sometimes get in the way -- the person in pew will want the answer to the question, 'What does this mean for me?' -- but should not be abandoned or discounted in its importance.

Youngblood experienced conflict as a central feature of his ministry: conflict within the congregation, conflict within his family, and conflict with society at large. Youngblood accepted conflict head-on in many instances -- he stood up to the leaders of the congregation from the earliest times (indeed, Youngblood says that in many ways, he tried to sabotage his own accession to the pastorate at St. Paul so as not to have to deal with their problems), and dealt firmly with people and issues, as is often expected from ministers in the African-American tradition.

Even from his seminary days, when he was forced out of a student-pastorship position, conflict seemed inevitable, such that the very idea of ministry frightened Youngblood in many ways. However, there was grace in the presence of Reverend William Augustus Jones, pastor of a Brooklyn church, and instructor on the urban church experience, particularly the church in the ghetto. It was Jones who drew Youngblood to New York City, and Jones whose gentle, astute mentoring shaped Youngblood into an effective minister.

One somewhat disturbing piece in this narrative is the absence of his wife and family for the most part; we as readers know a bit of the issues of family from Youngblood's perspective, but do not hear the voices of those who were, or at least who one assumes were, the closest companions in Youngblood's ministry.

One of the ideas that comes across in this book is that the process of ministry is a never-ending education, a learning on-the-job that never stops as long as the ministry is effective. It also shows that conflict and struggle are part of the very fabric of ministry, never to be eliminated, even if it is occasionally ignored. This book is not to be ignored -- it is a success story on many levels. Freedman's sensitivity and insight into a community not his own is remarkable.

This book takes you on a journey filled with the miracles of faith and power of prayer. You can feel each trial and tribulation in your heart. I have visited this church after reading this book and the warmth and love is all over the church. This pastor has endured much, in order to dedicate his life to his calling. I was inspired to reach out and believe me it was a rock for me as a child of Christ and I was able to dedicate myself to the cause of Christ. It is a must read for all, young and old. My children, and my childrens children will read this.

This book chronicles a Brooklyn church and its community amid the crime, drugs and despair of the black community. However , faith and learning to believe in the Lord and his ultimate plan for an individual and his community makes this church an oasis amid the storms. It is a story of a pastor, with his own demons, trying to be resopnsible for the souls of his congregation and the thin ice on which he must tread. This book will make you look at the inner city and its churches in a different light.

Used by my college bound daughter in her move to NYC. She says she has found some great vegetarian restaurants with this book

When I first started exploring NYC, I got a Zagat guide that listed only a handful of veg-friendly restaurants. Rather than curse the darkness, I bought this handy guide and use it all the time. I've used the book to find some truly unique vegetarian places.

As a falafel junkie, I liked the Top Ten Falafel list that the author gives. I think the guide could improve with a diversity of viewpoints (the Zagat method), but I imagine that will come with future editions.

Bottom Line: It's a well written and researched vegetarian guide to NYC. What more can you really ask for?

I'm a life-long omnivore but my boyfriend recently became vegan, I thought we would never be able to find a restaurant to suit both our tastes. Recently I came across this book and it is wonderful. Who knew there were so many vegetarian/vegan restaurants in New York City? The listings break down restaurants to their most minute details and make them approachable even to those who know very little about vegetarian/vegan cuisine. In addition to the ample information this book contains pull-out maps that make planning a trip even easier. I seriously recommend it for any vegetarian New Yorker, or for those dating one. Enjoy!

I have now bought a few copies of this book -- one for my office and three as gifts. It's super useful (even if you're not a full-on vegetarian): the author includes a lot of restaurants that serve a "full menu with vegetarian choices" as well as strictly vegetarian and vegan establishments. It's organized by neighborhood and offers highly-detailed reviews. Really terrific.

This book is part of a new series of vegetarian guides to major cities. The pocket or purse-sized guide is packed full of reviews and information about restaurants around New York-Manhattan and the five boroughs. The guide is organized by neighborhood, and includes a nice map of all the locations listed in the book. Within the neighborhood section, the locations are listed alphabetically, but there is an index by cuisine at the back of the book.

Each Restaurant is rated for quality and price and has a key to whether the location is vegetarian, vegan, or a conventional menu with vegetarian choices. There's a short description for each restaurant which provides useful information about the location, sometimes describing favorite dishes. Because the book was written by one person, Justin Schwartz, who reviewed all the restaurants himself (!), it is useful to read the introduction to get a feel for his style and what he likes and doesn't like. (For instance, he loves falafel, so there are endless choices of great places to find it all over the city).

There are many fantastic restaurants listed in Veg Out that I wouldn't have heard of otherwise, but the author also spends a lot of time describing one or no-star restaurants, when I think he simply could have listed the location with a caveat to stay away. The size, convenience and well-stocked pages of this guide make it a great book to carry on your next trip to the city. --Amy O'Neill Houck