Arkansas Books

This book was published first in 1835 but as 19th century novels go I found it fairly well-done, and holding my interest. There is a lot of melodrama, and the Indians are portrayed with some balance. There are some racist-like views, and a silly scene where Hector, a slave, begs his good master not to set him free. But the account is fast-moving and event follows rapidly on event. The scene is 1715 in South Carolina, and involves an Indian insurrection which actually happened, tho it is pretty hard to find much about it in history sources. Some of the speeches put in the mouths of characters in the extremely stressful situations in which they find themselves are not without humor to today's reader. It is said this is the best of Simms' novels, and knowing that makes me think some of his other novels might be fun to read--this one is.

In "Trasformations," one of the poems in her latest book, Zoo, Alice Friman writes "My resident spider/sways in the silk grocery of her wheel,/weaving another language than what I know...." Luckily for us, Friman's language is poetry, and what she observes of the human condition is worth listening to for its newness, its visceral surprises. It is a language textured rich and sassy, sometimes painfully poignant as in Mary's Boys and Wrapping Up the Lost, the middle sections of the book dealing with ancestry, the loss and love of family. Friman's Zoo also takes the reader from the landscapes of Indiana to the plains of Africa and the coastal waters of Hawaii in poems layered with history, the natural violence of the animal world, and all the metaphorical wonders therein of a skillful and, at times, wondrous poet. In my opinion, the women are outdoing the men these days in the realm of poetry, and Alice Friman is one of the great doers in a very prolific period of publishing.

Sugar 229pgs.
by Bernice L. McFadden
Review by Shannon Upperman

Though I've never been to Arkansas, nor have I experienced segregation on such a national level, novelist Bernice L. McFadden makes me feel as if I have in her novel, Sugar. Set in the Jim Crow era of Spring 1940 through Fall 1956, Sugar is a tale of friendship, love and the hardships of life.

The story begins in Spring, 1940, in the small town of Bigelow, a rural black community. A young black child, Jude, has been brutally beaten and murdered, her womanhood carved from her body and thrown to the side. As her mother, Pearl, views the misshapen creature that used to be her daughter, life as she once knew it ceases, taking on a darker meaning.

Fifteen years later, a storm blows into Bigelow, a storm "on two legs in spiked, red patent leather heels," wearing a bouncing blond wig with a Lucky Strike hanging from her painted lips. This storm goes by the name of Sugar Lacey. Now, the people of Bigelow consider themselves to be highly religious, overly spiritual, so when this storm arrives, the gossiping begins. The women turn their noses up, refusing to acknowledge Sugar, while the men turn their heads, ogling her proportions as she walks by. Though it is thought, and later revealed, most of the townspeople believe that Sugar is a prostitute.

Sugar moves in next door to Pearl, who, for the past fifteen years, has been attempting to piece her life back together since the death of her only daughter, Jude. With the assistance of her husband, Joe, "a simple man, enjoying simple pleasures," and her two sons, Joe. Jr. and Seth, Pearl has slowly begun to see life having any meaning. As soon as she sees Sugar, however, her heart skips a beat because Sugar "looked everything like her Jude. Sweet, sweet Jude..."

The friendship between these two women is more than enough reason to read this novel. Not simply because the chemistry between Pearl and Sugar begs you to come inside, but moreso because McFadden has lent realistic voices to both of these characters. I could easily see Pearl as my grandmother, attempting to keep me on the "straight and narrow" without getting too far into my "business", and that made me fall in love with her. My favorite character, however, is Sugar because I often find myself rooting for the underdogs, and in this novel, Sugar is definitely the underdog. Yes, she is a prostitute, but there is always more than meets the eye, and she brings it.

Throughout this tale, Sugar regresses to her past, her introduction into prostitution during her childhood in Short Junction, Arksansas, and her life in St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit. As an infant, her mother dropped her off at a whorehouse in Short Junction, another rural black community, where she grew up under the reigns of three of the Lacey sisters - May, Sara and Ruby. In St. Louis, Sugar met another mother figure, Mary Bedford, who also ran a whorehouse. This is yet another reason to pick up this novel. The interaction between Sugar and her mother figures further pulls you into this novel.

This story is, phenomenally, a great read. Perhaps it is the Afro-American courses that McFadden underwent that lends the realistic voices to her characters; or perhaps it is the courses on creative writing and journalism for which McFadden signed up that lends the vivid imagery and the colorful environments found throughout this novel. Whatever the case may be, she has definitely delivered, and I recommend this tale to those who are interested in Southern lifestyle, history, life and love.

Both Sugar & This Bitter Earth are great books! I read a lot of fiction and it's been a while since I've felt so attached to a plot and characters. The books are too long to read in one sitting, but I guarantee you'll try it anyway. Can't wait to read more books by this author. Oh and one last note, make sure you order both sugar and this bitter earth at the same time, otherwise you'll go thru withdraw waiting on the sequel to be sent to you after you finish the first one. ;)

From reading over the reviews, I see that I'll be in the minority but I am currently reading this book and it is a bit frustrating. There are great endorsements by writers of prominence in the African American community and I'm wondering if they read the book or the excerpt. The latter is excellent and I thought the storyline was great but the writing is disappointing. The transitions and dialogue between the characters don't jibe and I'm finding them to be unbelievable. I'm not connecting with them. While I understand this is a first novel, I have read much better.

I finished this book feeling realy disturbed. This is definitely not the kind of book you read if you're looking for a pleasant book with positive energy and happy ending. I do not reccommend this book for anyone.

Wow, First of all this story was very good hate it taking me so long to read this novel.Ms Mcfadden did a very good job on this story about sugar.This tale take us back 15 years ago when they find a little girl in the wildflowers died.a Murder that left the mother without life until she meets sugar and her live change forever, a friendship that means alot to both of these ladies.A love that every friendship should have true friends.

The story of Melba Patillo Bates' struggles as a part of the "Little Rock Nine" to integrate Central High School serves as a haunting reminder to the American public, especially the South, which sometimes turns a blind eye to its unpleasant past. In the book, Warriors Don't Cry, Patillo relies on her own personal first-person narrative to tell the tale of the years 1954-1960, even including entries from her own diary that her grandmother purchased for her at the age of twelve.
The action of her story begins with the day of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, which also happens to be the first time violence affects Melba. Her class is dismissed early out of fear of violence, and on her way home, Melba is attacked by a white man. She later writes in her diary some of the most powerful words in the novel, "I have to keep up with what the Supreme Court Justices are doing. That way I can stay home on the day the Justices vote decisions that make white men want to rape me."
Unfortunately this is only the beginning of a tale of violence that causes the reader to be desperate to find one decent white character in the tale. Simply reading the novel makes the reader to wish that the setting was some far away country like Afghanistan, where they could write this injustice away as some other society's doing.
Although the bulk of the plot follows Melba during her first hideous year at Central High School, in which she is attacked with fists, glass and acid, much of her story surrounds the family that supported her through the year of 1957. Melba's relationship with her grandmother, India, is a central focus of the novel. Grandmother India supports the fifteen year old Melba through her troubles, but also teaches her how to be a warrior in the face of the adversity from people who truly would rather see her dead than attend school with their children. This advice is written with the rawness of Beals' revealing something so obviously meaningful in her life.
Beals' work is significant because it forces us to come to terms with what some of us may want to forget, some never knew, and something we all just wish never happened the way it did. Beals refuses to hold back for the sake of making the reader comfortable and refuses to settle for any story but the occasionally repulsive truth of our country's history.

Warrior's Don't Cry is about a young girl faced with challenges larger than life. At the age of 15, she is chosen to be one of the 9 students to integrate Central High in Little Rock Arkansas. It is the true story of Melba and her 8 African American classmates as they face all of the challenges of being placed in the all white classrooms of Central High.
The book starts off with Melba's first day at school. We all know how stressful it is to start our first day in High School. These 9 students were never able to have a successful first day because of the hundreds of angry people surrounding the school, yelling "2-4-6-8 We don't want to integrate!" Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, takes the bus to school. As she gets off of the bus, she is faced with an angry white mob. She tries to circumvent them but they move along with her, creating a human barricade preventing her from going to school. This was during the times when people were hung from a noose by angry white mobs. Throughout the ordeal, Elizabeth keeps her head up and tries to get away. Melba and her mom concoct a plan to distract the hundreds of people and create an escape route for Elizabeth. Finally, she escapes and returns home safely.

Don't let the non-fiction genre intimidate you. This book is full of all the drama of a teenagers' life. This true story shows us how scary and difficult it was to be the only black students in a gigantic school. Every chapter gives you a look to the obstacles the Little Rock Nine had to face. On Melba's first day of school, she is called out of her name on numerous occasions. Even her teachers encourage her classmates' racist behavior. Students yell the N word at her in the middle of class and the unnamed teacher ignores it and just kept on teaching. During P.E., Melba is tripped and falls to the ground. A group of her own classmates attack her and kick her while she is down. Her clothes are in tatters and she is slightly bruised.

Melba's school experience is far from a normal, boring one. After her first days of school, the state militia is called in to mediate the transition. Each one of the Little Rock Nine are assigned a state militiaman to guard them and escort them from class to class during the day. This might seem to ameliorate the situation, but we know that it's not the solution when Melba is choked during a school pep rally.
What would you do if your classmates were out to hurt you and your teachers and principal and vice-principal could not properly protect you? Would you give up or would you keep trekking on? Read Warrior's Don't Cry to find out how Melba fares out in the end.

Excellent book. So hard to read though - people can be horrible. I hope we have come a long way since this.

Title: Warriors Don't Cry
Author: Melba Pattillo Beals
Summary: Warriors Don't Cry is a book about a young African American girl named Melba integrating into an all white high school. It describes her journey through segregation and the hard times that Melba and her family had to go through. She enters Central High with 8 other African American students, not knowing the physical and mental abuse that they were about to endure. Melba sticks through it and fights like a warrior to make it though an entire year.
We enjoyed reading about all the exciting events that happened to Melba , and the 9 other African Americans. It was really interesting learning about integration and knowing it was all a true story made it even more impacting. Having it written by her was empowering because she was there to witness these events. We wished that some of the more exciting events were described more in detail because it would have made the book more suspenseful to see what would happen next. If you want to learn about historical event we would recommend this book to you. Its not the kinda of book that you get a good laugh out of or a good unrealistic story.

I read Warriors Don't Cry for school, and when I began reading it, I knew I would enjoy it. Yes, I enjoyed it, but it is actually very terrifying to read. Everything that Beals writes is based on fact, and it is very terrifying to imagine that this is what she and the other young black students faced when segregating into an all-white school.

This is a must-read, and is a well-written, terrifying look into the world before blacks and whites could be as one in a school. It's a must read!

The author has a way of keeping the reader informed and not overwhelmed. With so many names and locations, a huge amount of confusion is likely but doesn't happen.
I feel well informed about a troubling case. I highly recommend you read this book.

I wouldn't read JUST one book and decide if three convicted teenagers were innocent, but I could (and will) make a good judgment on all the adults involved in this case of three teenagers accused and convicted of murdering three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Ark. All the adults should be ashamed of themselves--including the police, the lawyers, the judges, the parents, and a couple of the witnesses.

And certainly the three convicted teenagers deserve new trials.

Leveritt's story is good, although I believe that a good TIMELINE of all events would have served the reader better. I used a calendar to note dates of events on each character in the story and some of events make no sense. However, that said, the police did not make a case against the accused. Their chief witness was another child named Aaron Hutchinson, who supposedly witnessed the crime, although he was spared death. And he was never called to testify. The other evidence was the confession of Jessie Misskelley, an angry, confused young boy of seventeen, whose outlook on life was that of a eight-year-old, too.

What lies beneath all this mess is Ignorance, Poverty, and Pain. The three murder victims were killed in a wooded area near their homes, yet, even with all the writings, we do not know how they were really killed. Who could re-enact the crime? Who could explain a timeline of events on how these children were killed, their clothes stripped, their bikes dumped. Two drowned. One bled to death. But how? They don't even know when? [There are some great photos of the crime scene online.]

And what is the timeline on the accused and convicted? Where were the three accused when the murder victims were let out of school. How did they get to the wooded area without being seen? How long did it take the accused and convicted to carry out the events, how did they, and then make their escape, without being seen or heard, in a small wooded area that is more or less about 2 acres of land between a subdivision and an Interstate service road.

The emotional pain that all of the children in this story suffered is a crime in itself.

This whole case needs to be redone, not just for those convicted, but for the murdered boys, for the self-respect of a police department that was unable to serve its community, and the JUDGE!--who still sits in judgment on this case after all these years! Let someone else make a decision.

All the boys, the accused and convicted and the three murder victims need a fresh look. I live in north Mississippi. After reading this book, I've decided to go take a look at the scene myself. Whatever really happened, the trials were indeed like witchhunts, along with hysteria, and some of the evidence being who owned how many black T-Shirts!

Lastly, the why? That's too long a post. But why did this all happen--the murders, the shoddy investigation, the trials with talk of Satan, Sodomy, and black T-Shirts?

A must read for anyone that is familiar with this tragic story. Very well written. FREE THE WEST MEMPHIS 3 and find the real killers of these little boys.

Since I watched Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, I have been learning what I could about the case of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelly ("The West Memphis Three"), and Mara Leveritt's book compiles a vast amount of information on the case-- a case that just gets stranger at every turn.

The major drawback I could see was that Leveritt seems to assume the three are innocent. I lean toward thinking that they are, but there are still some odd facts that need to be resolved for me to completely believe that they are. She hints at the fact that there is evidence pointing to the teens' guilt, but also points out that, frustratingly, the police investigators who hint at this refuse to speak openly about it. Whether or not they are guilty, the amount of secrecy, bungling, and prejudice surrounding this case is infuriating, and all but unbelievable in a country where citizens, if they are to be sentenced, must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Leveritt also weakens her argument by focusing on John Mark Byers, stepfather of one of the victims, as one of the only other suspects. Byers has certainly lived an outlaw's life, and made many bizarre and self-incriminating statements (for instance, that he himself had been tortured as a child in a way that was very similar to the way the three 8-year-old boys were murdered). However, recent DNA evidence seems to link Terry Hobbs (stepfather of another of the victims) to the scene of the crime, but he is hardly mentioned in Leveritt's book. In all fairness, she couldn't have foreseen this development, but I hoped that she would investigate each of the victims' families in more depth.

I highly recommend this book, mostly because I would like people to know about the case of the West Memphis Three, but also because the case is well-told and highly interesting.

If Damien looked like Franken-Byers instead of the lead singer of Good Charlotte, not one of these "activists" would have lifted their heads from their soy lattes to take a second look at this case. Not that they looked at the facts anyway.

The novel A Secret Word, written by Jennifer Paddock is a book about three different girls; Leigh, Sarah, and Chandler that face realistic challenges through daily life.
The book is narrated by the three girls in their own point of views.
Leigh, Sarah, and Chandler were really good friends in high school, but when their friend Trey dies in a car accident that they feel they could have prevented they grow apart and go their own separate ways. Through the book you see each girl trying to cope with this burden that they each have inside them.
Chandler and Sarah have been friends since they were eight. They both play tennis together and get good grades. Their families are pretty well-off and they are both beautiful and theatrical. Leigh is the tough girl; she smokes and is completely different from Chandler and Sarah. She doesn't play tennis and keeps pretty much to herself.
I connected to this book in so many ways but something I really connected to were, the feelings that each girl goes through after their friend died. I myself have had to cope with death. Although it was out of my control, I still felt many of the same feelings, such as sadness, anger, and grief.
There was one passage that I thought was very significant on page 12 it says: "Sarah and I walk in to the school, and I'm wondering how long it will take to forget this walk. It seems quiet. There should be commotion in the halls. Others saw what we saw but classes have already started, and are going to be late." I thought that this was a significant passage because this is what triggers the whole emotional aspect of the book.
This book is a fantastic story about friendship, family, secrets, growing up, and growing apart. This book is about how well you really know another person and the secrets that we keep from our friends, family, and most of all ourselves.

A Secret Word is a wonderful book. I really liked the unique structure and the connections between the characters (especially the scenes between Leigh and Mr. & Mrs. Carey). I also liked the last chapter a lot, where the girls are in different physical places, but they all seem like they are in a similar place in life and moving on in a positive way to the next stage of life. I also thought there was a strong sense of place with Arkansas, D.C., Italy, and New York. The writing was energetic and poetic and honest. And the chapter with Savion Glover was incredibly moving.

This book was excellent--filled with heart and beautiful writing. It made me think back to what life was like in my twenties--the job that wasn't what I thought it would be, the bad boyfriends, friendships that would come and go. I related to all the characters, but probably to Chandler the most, who is the main character. I look forward to reading more from Jennifer Paddock.

While reading Paddock's novel, I kept hoping it would get better. Sadly, it did not. Paddock began with a great premise for a story -- three girls brought together by a tragedy. However, poor narration, weak character development, and lack of actual story line made this book into the mess that it was. She tried to make the characters realistic, but was unable to develop them in a span of 15 years. She tried to intertwine three separate story lines in just over 200 pages, but wasn't able to do that either.

I generally have a great appreciation for "chick lit" type books, but this was terrible. I didn't connect with the characters. The characters did not connect with each other. I think that Jennifer Paddock got lucky that her publisher liked this book, because I did not find much in this novel that would entice me to buy another one by her.

Jennifer Paddock's novel, which is her first incidentally, is as powerful as it is beautiful. She taps into every emotion. The range is amazing, and partly because there are three main characters instead of just one, with three plots that overlap in unexpected ways, and at unexpected times. I thought at first that the character of Leigh was going to be my favorite. She comes from a working class background and has no father to speak of, has never met him, so all she has is her mother who works as a waitress at a catfish restaurant and then as a cosmetics clerk at a J.C. Penney's (until she's fired). So Leigh looks up to the more privileged characters of Chandler and Sarah. What Paddock does so brilliantly, however, is turn the tables on Chandler and Sarah. A family tragedy shatters Chandler's perfect world; it humbles her, makes her more sympathetic, more empathetic, and the way in which she copes with this unspeakable loss is no less than masterful writing. Chandler is living in New York at this time, and she escapes her pain by going to a musical featuring Savion Glover, and he becomes her savior, with the cathartic art of his tapdancing, his music, his loud focus-grabbing noise. And then there's Sarah, who I never thought I'd completely embrace, but the more you learn about this rich girl is that she is truly impoverished, even more than working-class Leigh, since her family is so dysfunctional, and since she can't seem to find someone to love her. There's no long-term relationship for her as with Leigh, or any short-term passionate ones as with Chandler. Sarah, because of her seclusion and depression, is perhaps the smartest character. But all the girls are smart, and they each make amazing insights throughout this magical novel that touch on every subject important to women everywhere. I read a lot, and this book is better than anything else I've read lately. Paddock's A SECRET WORD is truly awesome. When you get to the end of the chapter called "Rhythm," when Sarah is holding the fragile blonde shell of a cicada in her hands and you realize what that empty shell is a metaphor for, when you realize how simultaneously smart and emotionally pure that comparison is, you'll know that what I'm saying isn't exaggerated. You'll know you have happened upon a rare talent at the beginning of what I'm sure (and hope) will be a long, illustrious career.

Of all the people who have hated Bill and/or Hillary Clinton, only one will he not shake hands with anymore. That is Kenneth Starr. This book illustrates the depths of what this man will do for political reasons, at the tax payers expense. It is despicable.

It is now 2007. I bought this book in Feb. 2003. Even now, if someone were to ask me who I would list among the most couragous individuals of my generation, I would place first Susan McDougal.

Yes, there are many lately who have actually died, but I am impressed with Susan because she could have gotten out of it so easily and she chose the narrow path.

Many people here have said that every American should read this book. I agree, but want to go one step further. This should be REQUIRED READING in every high school in America, with discussions of students/teachers about what happened and why. We don't seem to understand anymore that this Democracy/Republic we have is a fragile thing and is premised on the balance of powers-each section balancing and working together for the good of all.

We don't have to agree, but WE DO HAVE TO PLAY NICE. Playing nice is exactly what DID NOT HAPPEN with the Republicans during the Clinton administration. Susan's experience should be an historic example of what can take place, even in a Democracy, when there is enough money and power at stake and the people don't use their own eyes and voices.

We must all be vigiliant that one party does not get the sort of cart-blanche that the Republicans enjoyed for so long. Please people, everything we stand for is at stake.


... and no, I am not a Democrat.

Robert Fiske, the original independent counsel, found no evidence of wrongdoing by Bill or Hillary Clinton, and being a man of integrity, he so reported. The Republicans then had him replaced with Kenneth Starr, who cared little about the truth in his quest to nail the Clintons.

Susan McDougal was between a rock and a very hard place. The Office of the Independent Counsel (OIC) was demanding her testimony against President Clinton, and made it clear that only testimony incriminating Bill and/or Hillary Clinton was acceptable. Because Kenneth Starr's OIC was interested only in nailing the Clintons, Susan was led to believe that she would be charged with perjury if she told the unacceptable truth that she knew of no wrongdoing by the Clintons.

Faced with the choice of telling the truth and being jailed for perjury (since her lawyers were no match for the OIC's), or committing perjury to gain her own freedom, she refused to testify, and was jailed for civil contempt, and when she had been in jail for nearly 18 months (the maximum time for civil contempt) the OIC charged her with criminal contempt and obstruction of justice in retribution for her refusal to commit the perjury they wanted.

The story of Susan's jail time, and her reasons for believing that the OIC intervened to make her jail conditions as cruel as possible, should be read by every American.

watziznaym@gmail.com

This book is an autobiography of McDougal, tracing her family life, her 8-year marriage at 20 to then 35-year-old Jim McDougal, her divorce, her ongoing conflict with the Office of the Independent Council in the investigation of Whitewater, her time in jail, her trial in California for theft from Zubin and Nancy Mehta, and the brief aftermath of her court- and jail-oriented life.

Whatever the reader believes McDougal's guilt to be in Whitewater, Madison Guaranty and the Mehta cases, she seems to have a bigger problem of attaching herself to people who need her, but don't care about her. Her husband, an untreated manic-depressive for his adult life, was an entrepreneur, mostly, it seems, because he couldn't keep his attention on anything long enough to settle into a long-term endeavour. He was constantly starting up businesses, real estate deals and companies, banks and financial institutions, losing interest and committing himself to something else just when it was crunch time. Leaving Susan in charge against her will, and apparently against her natural abilities, the businesses would fail due to lack of attention and follow-through. According to the book, the Clinton investment in Whitewater, was a partnership in just such an undertaking. The $300,000 small business loan she signed for from David Hale, she writes, was another example of what she usually did: she did what Jim McDougal told her to do and believed it was the right thing to do. With Nancy Mehta, she writes, she again attached herself to someone needy and mercurial, and who would, when it suited her, turn on and betray the author out of spite and malice.

The book traces the Whitewater investigation in some detail and Jim McDougal's part in the issues at hand, and I am not going to do that here. Where this book resonates is in how she seemed to be maliciously prosecuted by Starr and the OIC. They insisted that she offer them information on the Clintons, and if she did, they would give her "blanket immunity," which included the Mehta charges in California. Though she considered giving them what they wanted to hear, others had and had been paid "walking around money," etc., and had many of their crimes forgiven, a friend told her, "Susan, if you do this, you will be lying for the rest of your life." And that's why she went to jail for civil contempt for 18 months and then withstood a trial on criminal contempt after the impeachment trial of Clinton was over.

The interesting thing about this book was highlighted to me when I told a friend about what I was reading, and he said, "Why would she testify against her friends?" People seem to have an idea that she was staunchly protecting the Clintons, who were her close friends, but that is not the case, according to her book. She knew them through Jim McDougal, who'd been an Arkansas political operative, but she was not close to either Bill or Hillary. She does not maintain contact with them after her marriage, and, frankly, never got along that well with Hillary, whom she found to be withdrawn and perhaps cold at times. She heard about her presidential pardon for the Whitewater guilty verdicts on television. She refused to testify, not to help them but because she felt it would be wrong for her to lie to the OIC to save herself, because she didn't know anything that the Clintons had done wrong, and because she had seen what the OIC did to people who didn't testify in the way that they wanted (perjury charges, etc.).

The time that McDougal spent in jail is well detailed and focuses on the women in jail and their sad situations. She found most of the women to have come from violent and sexually abusive situations, where they had left home or been taken from their homes and had become a kind of detritus of humanity. She writes movingly of the sad case of an Arkansas woman who was convicted of killing her children and was executed, presenting a human and loving picture of the mother, that reminded me of Sister Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking.

This is all an underlying theme to McDougal's book, her religious beliefs based on love and charity, rather than heavy "justice" and judgment. The religious hypocrisy of the OIC attorneys and associates sickens her, as they make "the walkin' around folks'" lives miserable and then speak in press interviews about how they pray whilst jogging, etc. Whatever you think of McDougal, that she was a serial grifter, that she hooked on too hard to people who weren't worthy of trust and was manipulated, that she is "spinning" her own part in all these issues, a lively and compelling portrait of a woman who cares for "the least among us" surfaces in this book in an amazing way.

Because I live in Arkansas, I found the book to be loaded with "local color" and information. I recommend it.

I was disposed to like Whitewater figure and Kenneth Starr nemesis Susan McDougal before I ever read her book and have long felt that a justice system which rewards those who tell prosecutors what they want to hear (immunity, plea bargaining) and penalizes those who insist on their innocence or their right to a jury trial, is flawed. So I'm not exactly unbiased. But who is?

The first part of McDougal's emotionally engaging narrative covers childhood, then marriage to real estate developer and founder of the ill-fated Madison Guaranty S&L, Jim McDougal. The Marriage and various businesses failed and she embarked on a romance with Madison Guaranty employee then lawyer, Pat Harris, and a claustrophobic employee/friend relationship with Nancy Mehta.

Outgoing and shy, loud and retiring, depending on the company, McDougal does not come across as the sort of person to go to jail rather than answer questions. One minute her life is going along willy nilly, from one controlling, needy, demanding personality to another, when wham! Suddenly neurotic, vesuvial Mehta is charging her with grand larceny and the Office of the Independent Counsel is offering dire threats and deliverance from all - including the Mehta charges, which hardly seems within their purview. Friendly and likable, McDougal seems primarily characterized by her optimistic naivety. She even looks forward to her first session with the OIC: "I felt that there were a lot of false statements and ridiculous rumors, particularly about Madison, that I could help clear up."

But her get-out-of-jail-free card comes with a catch - testimony against the Clintons. McDougal does a fine job of describing her flabbergasted outrage and her dawning awareness of the trap closing around her. Aghast after the first Whitewater trial when she was convicted of things "I was not even aware had happened until ten years later," McDougal begins to fear the OIC will stop at nothing to get Clinton. It was not bravery, she says again, that made her clam up, but the certainty that Starr would indict her for perjury if she insisted on the truth - she didn't know anything bad about the Clintons. She knew she might go to jail for contempt, but she never dreamed it would be for the full 18 months allowable by law.

The second half - prison - is riveting, horrifying and inspiring. Her first jail was easy, comparatively. The food was lousy, but she made friends. The worst hardship was lack of reading material - the only book inmates were allowed was the Bible. But no sooner does she say on the phone, " `I could do the whole eighteen months here,' " than she's whisked off to a mental ward in a federal facility and from there to lockdown (23 hours a day solitary confinement) on "Murderer's Row". There were seven prisons in all, but however bad things got (sadistic guards, overflowing toilets, body cavity searches, sensory deprivation) McDougal always found some interest to sustain her - usually one or more of the inmates who, needless to say, all had lives immeasurably worse than hers.

On her release, the OIC filed criminal contempt and obstruction of justice charges against her and she still had the Mehta charges to face. Triumphing against both, McDougal spares an ounce of sympathy for Nancy Mehta, but her flush of victory against Starr and the OIC is unadulterated glee and great fun to read. In the end, McDougal says jail was good for her. She still hates the people who put her there and believes they were behind many of the special humiliations and privations she endured, but "there's no doubt in my mind that I'm a far better person than I was before."

Spiked with emotional peaks and valleys, McDougal's memoir is compulsively readable - and believable.

One of the best works of fiction of the post war era. Williams does not get his propers. He is a little-known literary giant who deserves wide readership.

Annotation of John Williams' Stoner


In his novel Stoner, John Williams' title character is the epitome of what I'm going to call an `American Tragic Hero' (Look for action figures, coming Summer '08). As opposed to the tragic hero in the classical sense, not much personal action drives the story of his life, but instead it is existential inaction that leads to his emotional downfall, if not premature death. What at first seems like a novel in the tradition of a bildungsroman, a novel of personal development, it soon gives way to an irreversible lull in Stoner's life, feelings of regret and imposed self-sacrifice. With quiet yet affecting language, Williams portrays relationships in Stoner's life as reaching their peak at the point of introduction, and deteriorating, almost organically, from that point on.
The novel begins as a story of growth, detailing his early years in college, the years in which we believe to lay our foundation for the future ahead. With the urging of an influential, yet world-weary professor, Stoner decides to turn his studies away from agriculture and move in the direction of literature. This decision may not be the most important in Stoner's life, but, literature and his profession becomes an outlet for escaping the difficulties born out of his other choices. From this point on Stoner acts, or in some cases fails to act, so as to maintain the status quo in both his professional and personal life, regardless of the emotional detachment he feels from each.
The existential voice of sobering reason in the story comes early on from his colleague Dave Masters, who leaves Stoner's life just as quickly as he entered it, nevertheless leaving an indelible impression on the back of Stoner's mind, a place reserved for the fundamental questions Stoner has about his life. Here, Master's keenly observes the tragic personal conflict that will plague Stoner throughout his life:

You think there's something here, something to find. Well, in the world you'd learn soon enough. You, too, are cut out for failure, not that you'd fight the world. You'd let it chew you up and spit you out, and you'd lie there wondering what was wrong. Because you'd always expect the world to be something it wasn't, something it had no wish to be...you're too weak, and you're too strong. And you have no place in the world (31).

In very direct language Williams lays out the definitive problem that Stoner faces, only it is posed as more of a condition than a problem. For what does it mean to be too weak yet too strong in this world? Not surprisingly it's an existential conundrum, the solution also being the problem. Should one accept the fact that they "have no place in the world", then they in essence lower their expectations of life with cool detachment; should they deny and insist on participating in this world then they open themselves up to regret and failure. Here then Stoner's intellectual stoicism is at odds with what is considered the `good life' in this country: Good job, good kids, good wife. In all these aspects of Stoner's life, Williams shows how easily inner turmoil can quickly manifest itself into the physical world and the lives that populate it. Stoner chooses life, at least his ideal conception of it. When he looks upon his wife and child he chooses to hold fast to the ideal versions of them, despite how things really are. In this manner does Stoner participate in the world, with futile bravery, allowing himself to get "chewed up and spit out."
John Williams' writing style recalls that of post-WWI realists, using stripped down language and objective prose to capture deeply subjective moods. Williams doesn't attempt to color the prose with descriptives and adjectives; the writing is bare and the emotion raw so that the reader reacts to the actual characters and not the language that describes them. In this way, Williams brings the reader closer to the story and distanced from the writing. One of the more striking passages in the novel comes when Stoner is on his deathbed staring at his wife, reflecting on a marriage that amounted to a subtextual standoff, neither party willing to fold in to their emotions. Williams writes, "Almost without regret he looked at her now; in the soft light of the late afternoon her face seemed young and unlined. If I had been stronger, he thought; if I had known more; if I could have understood. And then, finally, mercilessly, he thought: if I had loved her more (272)." Stoner has come to terms with his failures in life, as his old buddy David Masters predicted, "Lying there wondering what went wrong." Even near death Stoner remains the tragic hero, still believing in love and its transformative powers, even though a sort of existential fatalism has trumped throughout his life.
Stoner is a novel that thrives in its quiet simplicity, striking emotional conflict with the characters' actions in equal portions to their inaction. Williams shows the futility of asserting "right" or "wrong" choices in life; rather, it's the act of making a choice that makes one a participant in this world, and its regret that affirms their love for it.

Beautiful, unaffected, elegant writing. Pacing like a thriller. Unblinking nihilism. And a sense of classic tragedy. I read it in two sittings and felt like I had been mugged by a ballet dancer.

I cannot believe I never heard of this masterpiece until this past year. I do not usually like books that are this sad, but "Stoner" grabbed me from the first page and never let go. The writing is unadorned yet elegant and the story, although sad, is so compelling and real.

Stoner is a man who never achieved much in life, with a failed marriage and not much success as a faculty member at the university. But he never gave up on life. He worked hard at his teaching and became the best that he could be. His life was one constant struggle, with much self-sacrifice, but he kept on trying despite one disappointment after another.

It was amazing to me that Williams made me care so much about this man whom some would call a "loser". As the New York Times reviewer said "a perfect book"....a fascinating story of a man and how he lives his life.

William Stoner is the only child of Midwestern farmers struggling to eke out an existence. One of the local elders mentions that the University of Missouri is offering a college degree in Agriculture and he suggests that the son consider it. Never having traveled outside of his farming community, William decides to attend college in 1910. He lives with relatives and pays for his room and board by feeding the animals and slopping pigs in the morning, going to school during the day, back to back-breaking farm work when he returns from school...and then staying up late at night to do his studies. He takes a mandatory literature course in his second year of studies which opens his mind and heart to learning, higher education and life's possibilities - and Stoner both finds himself and loses himself in books, literature and eventually teaching.

Stoner's storytelling is crisp and visual:

"He buried her (his Mother) beside his husband. After the services were over and the few mourners had gone, he stood alone in a cold November wind and looked at the two graves, one open to its burden and the other mound covered by a thin fuzz of grass. He turned on the bare, treeless little plot that held others like his mother and father and looked across the flat land in the direction of the farm where he had been born, where his mother and father had spent their years. He thought of the cost exacted, year after year, by the soil; and it remained as it had been - a little more barren, perhaps, a little more frugal of increase. Nothing had changed. Their lives had been expended in cheerless labor, their wills broken, their intelligences numbed. Now they were in the earth to which they had given their lives; and slowly, year by year, the earth would take them."

The death of his parents - a failed marriage - a mentally unstable wife who takes it out on William and their Daughter Grace - a vindictive Department Head of Literature who makes Stoners' professional life miserable - - and on and on as captured beautifully by Jefferson in this phrase:

"The years of the war blurred together, and Stoner went through them as he might have gone through a driving and nearly unendurable storm, his head down, his jaw locked, his mind fixed upon the next step and the next and the next."

This story of an ordinary man who finds his passion in his professional life and yet is still beset with challenges within that life and in living.

John Williams wrote this novel in 1965 - it still merits the "perfect novel" acclaim attributed to it by many reviewers. This novel is deeply moving.

The book took a nostalgic look at the small town South. However, the small town main street it celebrates left a lot of the town's members outside with their noses pressed to the windows. These are the people who don't understand how they are harmed by the invasion of Wal-mart and other corporations that don't pay local taxes, don't invest profits in the community, don't support local newspapers and don't provide opportunities for job mobility or real skill training. They just know the prices are cheaper and not controlled by the small town royalty. Overall:
1. This book began well and was interesting.
2. The middle sagged and wasn't helped by a cheap sob turn that reminded me why I hate 19th century French literature.
3. The end presumes a level of tolerance not to be found in any real Arkansas town, I'm afraid.

I picked this book up because I love Paris (France), and I bought it because I grew up in the South, called off a wedding and was interested in the plot. I expected to like Duff, and didn't. I knew I would not like Milan...I adored her quickly. Other than tiring of explicit descriptions of intercourse, which I find unnecessary, the characters and the story charmed immensely. I was very regularly surprised by plot twists. I don't often read fiction, but I am disappointed that Jeter, Mavis, Slim, etc are not on my street.

Well written and multi-layered, but that is the problem. There are so many characters you need to keep a list to remind yourself who's who and so many layers the book lost its punch. Hardly a page tuner, I finally starting skimming toward the end.

I loved this book. Ms. Thomason developed her characters little by little until the reader feels they're family as well. We have Wood, who I would say the story centers around, who's going through a mid-life crisis. His beautiful wife, Milan, who, presents the image of a perfect southern woman to everyone but no one knows what's going on inside of her. Then we have Mavis her best friend, a single woman who owns the bakery and is a great cook; Jeter, one of Wood's best friends and high school football teammate - a quadrapalegic; Brundidge, another of Wood's best friends who owns the liquor store and who is an impeccable dresser. There are others, Wood's mother, Slim, Sidney, Frank Lanier - and then there's Kathleen and Charlie, Wood and Milan's children. Duff is Wood's old flame and her son, Luke.

It's a small world. Elizabeth meets Luke in college and they fall in love and want to get married. Imagine the surprise when everyone finds out that Luke's mother is Duff, free spirit and Wood's old flame. You see, it's common knowledge especially to Milan, that he never got over her. Wood got Milan got pregnant when he and Duff had a temporary breakup. Wood married Milan, but he always thought she got pregnant purposely. They made the marriage work because Milan worked at it - not Wood. In 20 years, Wood always harbored that resentment. After all, Wood and Duff were sole mates. They read the classics together and read poetry out loud to each other.

Milan came from the white trash family in the neighborhood and she just happened to be beautiful. When she married Wood, she knew that she had to work very hard to do things right because she came from a family of outsiders. Needless to say, infidelity is the name of the game. Wood sees Duff and after a while, they take up where they left off, but as time goes on, Wood realizes that what was exciting and spontaneous at 18 seems ridiculous at 40 and their relationship is not without consequences.

In general, I can say I loved all the characters, but Milan touched my heart. Everyone thought of her as superficial, but at the height of her husband's infidelity, even though she never outwardly acted insecure, she thought to herself, "....I know something they don't...I know that you can never really clean brain tissue off concrete...." You see, her father committed suicide right in front of her, but it wasn't something she spoke about - including all the hard work she had to do to take care of her sick father before that happened and all the embarrassment she had to endure because they were the white trash family. When Wood finally realizes he's a jerk and approaches Milan and asks if can ever hold her again, she tells him, "I love you and I won't waste one minute of that."

There are so many other life-changing events in the book, with Mavis, Jeter and Brundidge, Slim and Sidney, some of which are heart-warming, upsetting, funny, but overall, I didn't want the book to end. What about another book about the next generation, Linda??

I almost didn't get into this, but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed the charactors and stories.

Truly the only single-volume Pacific theater history one needs. Spector is well documented in his history and historiography, presenting and evaluating differing schools of thought on the Allied campaigns on the Second World War. The primary focus is US grand strategy and the internal struggles that came with it, but the author never fails to hail the men at the pointy end of the spear. Most importantly, Spector is accessible, achieving an academic work that's a pleasure to read.

Anyone seeking a thorough, well-written and objective account of the U.S. war against Japan should add Ronald Spector's "Eagle Against the Sun'' to their reading list. Spector tackles with obvious verve a difficult task - compressing a four-year war that stretched from the Aleutians to India into 560 pages. You have to admire a historian who uses exclamation marks out of sheer enthusiasm. As someone who is more or less a novice on the Pacific War, several things struck me: I was surprised by the speed with which the allies put Japan on the defensive after Pearl Harbor and started taking back the territories she'd seized. And I was astounded by the extent to which both Japan and the allies were crippled by mistaken intelligence and assumptions - reconnaissance planes misreporting the number and type of enemy ships, Japanese commanders believing their own side's propaganda -- and by bureaucratic wrangling between the branches of their militaries (and, in the allied case, between countries with different priorities). Spector does a good job evaluating commanders' decisions, always taking into account what they knew and which of their assumptions were reasonable even if ultimately wrong.

I came to the book with little knowledge of naval warfare. So I wished early on that Spector had told us how many seamen were lost whenever ships sank. I was stunned by sheer tonnage of shipping that fell victim to bombs, shells, torpedoes and kamikazes; but I didn't know whether to assume that all or most of the crews died when their ships went down. Only occasionally did Spector mention the human toll at sea. I suspect this omission was just designed to avoid cluttering the copy with repetitive information. Elsewhere in the book - describing the experiences of the average GI in the Pacific, for instance - he clearly shows empathy toward the human beings, military and civilian alike, who suffered and died. Another complaint: The version I read contained no maps - a serious handicap for a book covering so much unfamiliar geography.

Upon finishing this book, I immediately started Spector's sort-of sequel, "In the Ruins of Empire.'' "Eagle Against the Sun'' was a not a fluke. The guy's good.

I was led to this book after reading the author's more recent "In the Ruins of Empire",which greatly clarified my understanding of modern Asia. Eagle against the Sun was daunting in its length and scope but Dr Spector writes with great clarity and momentum; the narrative is never lost and when one does manage to put the book down, one returns to it with pleasurable anticipation always wanting to know what would happen next. The best book of military history that I have ever read. I echo another readers complaint about the miserable map.Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan

This book is a pretty good read. I am writing at this moment to complain about the missing pages, 295-342 are missing. This would be a discussion of the Marianas campaign. This is the paperback version, purchased July of '08. Beware the missing pages! Otherwise it is a pretty good read, but for me I prefer a deeper look at each battle, rather than an overview.

I read this shortly after the first edition came out. I was taking a year off to travel around the world and I was going to spend a good six months in the South Pacific. Although I had read a lot of history on the war prior to this, I wanted a good general history to tie everything together. I wanted one as in-depth as I could get. From this volume I made again launched into a more detailed reading on individual battles and campaigns.

This book was both admirable in its sweep and it is well written and researched, with a very good attention to detail that one does not often find in general overview books.

The downfall of America and her island-hopping campaign is told with very good balance between the macro-polical objectives -- the machinations, intrigue, inter-service rivalry, and horsetrading -- is balanced nicely wiht the battles themselves and the individual sacrifice of the American soldiers.

The carrier war is a point well described with Spector taking as much time to describe the Midway Battles as he does for the later Marianas "Turkey Shoot." One area I was very pleased to read was the small bit on the American Black troops in the theatre.

The book does not cover America's very limited contribution to the mainland war in Asia, but it does give a very good overview on the discussions and different visions the Americans and British had in the Pacific as a whole. With it being over 40 years since these horrible events unfolded it is worthy to note the Spector also deals with some of the unseemly side of the American war in the Pacific, how it migrated very quickly into a racial war with its concommitent valuation of the Japanese as less than human. From the Marine penchant for killing the few prisoners that were willing to surrender, to the wholesale destruction of Japanese cities by conventional and then Nuclear bombing. All of this said while not loosing sight of the very ugly aspects of Japanese Imperial tyrrany in Pacific and its treatment of other Asians as well as Allied Prisoners of War.

A good meaty read from cover to cover and a very good jumping off point for the study of individual campaigns and battles.