Atlantic Monthly Books

William J Bernstein's "A Splendid Exchange" is another insightful, decisive and highly readable piece in the picture of the world's growth and development which he started with "The Birth of Plenty" his first work of this type. The sheer competence and professional nature of his story telling is matched perhaps only by "the other Bernstein" - Peter.

Like Peter,

William has a brilliant turn of phrase and a great way of settling on apparently trivial incidents which serve to make crucial points.

The analytical strength of the work is the way he elaborates the ubiquity of trade - not through simple assertion with anecdotal back up - but through assembling stories which let the reader see the components and processes which were the meat and drink of the ancient, the medieval and the modern world. The coverage is comprehensive, the reach daunting.

The most innovative treatments for me are:

1. The great story of the "margin versus volume" business model which lurked behind the Dutch success in profiting from spices contrasted with the later English success with the volume model which allowed tea to generate comparable profits.

2. The relentless manner in which rational and logical pursuit of profit sees businessmen throughout time and from culture to culture twist and turn from free trade to protectionism and back. It's a wonderful history of rent seeking. One underlying lesson is that the institutional arrangments these events unfold in are critical in determining outcomes.

3. A third lesson is the vital roles played by price and value. Bernstein's historical documentary shows the way alterations in scarcity coupled with changes in factor costs - especially through technological change which is itself propelled by profit seeking - value identical resources differently and consign the same players to different and differently valued roles.

From the perspective of writing and as a commentator on the wider canvas perhaps Bernstein's greatest accomplishment here is his ability to be realistically depressing while simultaneously expressing awe and optimism. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his discussion of the benefits of free trade relative to protectionism. Some
will quibble with the conclusions. None will be left unchallenged.

Thoroughly recommended on every count.

For those who like their history on a broad canvas, this book will certainly satisfy. William Bernstein, who has written books on finance and economics, including The Birth of Plenty : How the Prosperity of the Modern World was Created, takes a look at global trade from ancient Sumeria to the present day. He has written in the words of David Landes a "big history," taking one idea or observation and tracing through the ages.

That trade has always existed and that it is beneficial is not exactly a new idea, but in Bernstein's account he gives it a new primacy. Trade can be said to be war by other means. Countries can acquire goods and materials peacefully rather than belligerently. Bernstein emphasizes that trade has always been and always will be a great deterrent to war. If wars have loudly made history, trade has done so quietly in influencing its course.

This book can be read a resounding defense of the principle of comparative advantage in that trade always benefits all parties involved. (Granted that this principle is still debatable.) It shows how countries, regions, and individuals sought to possess goods and resources that they could not produce or acquire locally. The history of global trade is vast, but Bernstein focuses mainly on the pre-modern age, dealing more with the commodities of the pre-industrial world.

Toward the end of the book, Bernstein discusses some of the issues of global trade today. He concedes that globalization has not benefited everyone uniformly, indeed many of the workers of the industrial world have lost their jobs to offshoring. However, in the aggregate, trade has created economic growth and wealth. It is still better than protectionism and isolationism. The eponymous splendid exchange has brought a bounty of goods and reduced the chances of war. Not a bad deal when one considers the alternatives.

Unfortunately, this is not a serious work of history, and is full of contradictions of 'facts' in addition to mistakes. The list of references is impressively long, but often irrelevant. There were many passages in which the author seemed to have suspended incredulity of his references. The subtitle "How Trade Shaped the World", while perhaps not chosen by the author, leads the reader to believe that the explanation will be found in the book. However, those expectations were dashed. There are major international trade goods that are not even mentioned, nor is there any attention given to the development of currencies and the impact on the barter system of trade. It also becomes apparent that global trade and transportation are joined at the hip, yet the author doesn't seem to understand how sails and ships operate, contradicting himself regarding the merits, and thus trade advantages of owners of square-rigged ships versus dhows (relating to the ability to sail into the wind, very important for 2,000 years of sailing). Then there are the nitpicking things that a good editor should have caught, like rounding the Cape of Good Hope and sailing westward to the Spice Islands.
Great theme, but not well executed.

What could be more boring than a book about the history of trade? This may well be the thought that passes through most people's minds when they contemplate the rich cover of Bernstein's latest tome. Yet such an expectation turns out to be totally incorrect. A Splendid Exchange is also A Splendid Read.

Bernstein has a remarkable ability to inter-leave arcane details with big-picture perspectives and the result is a work that delights as it informs. I personally learned something new on almost every page, even though I thought I was already fairly well informed about several of the subject areas covered in the book. Second-rate writers often try to impress with displays of recondite learning or excessive verbosity; Bernstein does neither. His prose is light and assured and carries the flow of his thesis forward as on a bubbling ever-cresting wave.

He superbly illustrates a general historical point with the specifics of an individual life, as when he notes almost in passing that the first human to circumnavigate the globe was not a well-known historical personage such as Magalhaes (Magellan) or Drake, but rather a slave who has hitherto largely remained absent from the annals of nautical history.

As Bernstein points out, humans are the only species to engage in trade. It is a fundamental characteristic of our species, and all the rest of human nature comes into play in its furtherance. The rapid expansion of Islam is partly explained by the fact that Muslims were under religious injunction not to pillage fellow believers, but could consider pillage an almost blessed act when perpetrated on non-believers. Not surprisingly, upon learning of this useful distinction the non-believers rapidly converted, thus sparing themselves further depredations - but forcing the might of Islam to push its boundaries ever-forward in search of new people to loot and slaughter. And lest we fall into the lazy trap of equating Islam alone with violence and intolerance, there's a salutory chapter of the Portugese expansion into the East, which amply demonstrates that no religion, nationality, or ethnic group has any monopoly on repellant behavior.

Equally interesting is Bernstein's observation that the Boston Tea Party, far from being all about "no taxation without representation" as faithfully portrayed in the Disneyesque world of American school text books, was actually cant to disguise the protection of middle-men and thus ensure the continuation of overly-high prices for the hapless American consumer of tea.

Despite the catalogue of stupidities, atrocities, and double-dealings that is inevitably a large part of any history of humanity, this book ultimately is an optimistic work. Trade, as Bernstein enables the record to show, has been almost single-handedly responsible for the fact that the vast majority of humankind no longer has to grub roots out of parched ground nor resort to trying to bring down the occasional ruminant with wooden spears. Just as today finds no shortage of anti-globalisation protesters, so throughout history people have complained that this wicked invention called trade has been upsetting cozy monopolies and creating social unrest. In the process, it has also created opportunity and wealth and well-being for the vast majority of humankind. This really should be a basic text book for anyone at undergraduate level who has any curiosity at all about why humans have been able to construct this modern world in which we live.

If there were only three books I could take into exile, this would be one of them. The other two would be The Constitution of Liberty by Hayek and the History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides. All three shed important light on the human condition in realms both large and small, and all three are a pleasure to read and re-read at one's leisure.

It is not often that the history of the world is told by an economist in such a readable and entertaining fashion.

Much of popular history is written for us from the point of view of political power, military conquest, religious conversion or ideological domination. The roles of consumption and trade in shaping the course of history is often forgotten because economic historians rarely produce popular reading and popular historians rarely mention economics.

Bernstein's book is a wonderful journey through time and the basic trading relationships between civilisations - silk, porcelain, coral, coffee, opium, tea, sugar. It also shows us how control of the trade in these various commodities led to wars, the movement of slaves (of both caucasians to the east and negros to the west) and the rise and fall of the wealth of nations.

Many of the criticisms in the reviews seem focused on factual errors, non-standard conventions and accusations of political bias (curiously enough, of being both left and right). Bernstein has played it loose in his story telling style and there is no way one would mistake this book as an attempt at a thorough and conservative piece of academic work.

But it is the often speculative nature of the narrative and the attempt to pull together a grand picture that makes this book so engaging. Many of the criticisms have missed the forest for the trees I'm afraid and there few books that tell the tale of the economic history of the world in so engaging a romp.

I really wanted to love this book. It came highly recommended. The first 15 pages were great--I thought this would be a seminal read. But then things took a nosedive. Ultimately, this book felt to me like a self-indulgent intellectual ramble, and excuse for author to vent her bitterness toward Amherst College and get even by airing her story. (Which she has every right to do, but I thought I was reading a different book.) In the end, my only takeaway is that wearing multiple hats, perhaps in succession, can be a positive thing. I still don't understand what the plight of the homeless has to do with figurative improvisation. Perhaps I'm just not smart enough to appreciate the nuances--but I definitely didn't. Original? Yes. Uplifting/inspiring? Nope. I really tried!

I agree with the previous reviewers that mentioned the scope of the book is narrow focused, in that it certainly deals with the life of 5 successful women all middle to upper class. Still, if you are in the situation of dealing with multiple tasks at the same time - and so many women nowadays are, independent of the country where they live or how they came into it - this book is really helpful in giving a different and flexible approach to the way we ought to view our career and marriage choices, and what not to think when faced with adversity.
The novelty for me (and the help in it) was the author's approach in the fluidity of our choices, and how deleterious the idea that we should always be doing the same thing (job, marriages, etc.) might be. The main point of the book is that change and fluidity are the normal standards for a succesfull and fulfilling life in the 20 (21) century, and how the idea of always doing the same thing for the rest of one's life is generally doomed to failure. So, the author focuses on the changes these women have made to come to terms with their (very succesfull)lifes. Very interesting read.

This book examines the lives of five of the author's friends, all highly educated, high-achieveing women from the East Coast who went through the normal ups and downs of life that the rest of us share. It is well written, but the focus is so tight--how many of us get entangled with academic politics at elite Eastern colleges?--that is tells more about the writer and her choice of similar friends than about the rest of us. It does a fine job of focusing on issues of gender and race of 20 years ago.

How refreshing - a book about 5 entrepreneurial women who had 'normal' lives - marriages, children, divorce, earning an advanced degree in their 40's! This is real life - and each of the stars in this book invited life to get in the way rather than lamenting how life's events prohibited achievement of dreams, goals and aspirations.

A great read for every woman contemplating her future!

Susan Bock
Business Coach
Susan Bock Solutions
[...]

This book was, I'm sure, timely 20 years ago, but you will struggle to get anything out of it this day in age. Plus, the author states in the introduction that she is not bitter about her time at Amherst, but the text of the book makes her seem extremely bitter.

The book was a gift. I listened to it on tape, and didn't know which way it was going. It was smart and insightful. Fascinating. I had no idea how she was going to end it; pull it all together. I found the ending acceptable and bought two for gifts.

I was up way too late last night reading this book. It was both enjoyable and well-written. The author does a wonderful job of character development for the most part (definitely with Vida and Peter, thought Tom could have used a little more fleshing out). Various scenes also seemed so real - the dialogues in Vida's classroom and her private thoughts and reactions as a teacher, the party scene with Peter and his adolescent insecurity. I will look for more books from this author.

I couldn't put this book down after I got a third of the way through. The undeniable intersection of Vida's past with her brand-new present was stunning and painful and true, as was the depiction of the newly merged family. This novel is a joy for anyone who truly loved English class or felt out of place in adolescence. It's also extremely well-crafted, and the shifts between points of view are seamless. I am still thinking about this book days after finishing it.

Lily King's second novel is called THE ENGLISH TEACHER, and that's what her main character, Vida Avery, is. And that's about all Vida is; it's her whole identity, what she's built her life on. Fifteen years ago, Vida came to Fayer, an island off the coast of Maine, pregnant and with a terrible secret trailing her all the way from Texas. She got a job as an English teacher at the island's prestigious private school, and she gave birth to a son, Peter. For fifteen years, mother and son live in isolation (isolated from each other, and isolated from the rest of the world), until one day, a man named Tom Belou, a widower with three children, enters their lives. He asks Vida to marry him--and although she wants to refuse, she says yes. Peter, for his part, couldn't be happier about the marriage. For years, he's been trying to understand his mother, to forge some kind of relationship with her, to be a family with her--and he believes that, with the addition of a father figure and three new siblings, he and his mother will finally become a real family.

But Peter hadn't counted on the lingering presence of the former Mrs. Belou in their new home; her picture still graces the bathroom wall, her clothes are still in the basement, she lives on the lips of her three children. Still feeling isolated, Peter slips into daydreams of Mrs. Belou--of what it would have been like to have her for a mother, instead of his withdrawn, unstable one.

During the first month of her marriage, Vida begins teaching TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES to her sophomore English classes. She's taught the book for fifteen years, but suddenly she's seeing the parallels to her own life clearly. Vida, paralyzingly scared of living life, collapsing from within, retreats farther into a comforting bottle of bourbon; but rather than seeming farther away, her past seems to haunt her even more--and now Peter's demanding to know the devastating truth about his father.

THE ENGLISH TEACHER is startling in its simplicity, yet astonishing in its depth. It's an intense character study and a study of the complicated relationship between a mother and her son; it's Peter's coming-of-age story; it's the story of Vida's renewal. Both of King's protagonists are brilliant creations, and she keeps her focus tightly on them throughout the novel. Peter is an endearing teenage boy, confused and sexualized and curious, trying desperately to fit in with his stepsiblings and his peers. Vida is angry, detached, and desperate, a woman who's more attuned with the characters she reads about than her own life. Like the Iranians who are taken hostage on Vida's wedding day in 1979, Vida is a hostage, trapped in her own life. Vida has her alcohol, and Peter has his dreams of Mrs. Belou; but the one thing they can't escape from is each other.

King prose is understated but powerful, intimate, almost sensual. Her parallelism is brilliant. THE ENGLISH TEACHER is a novel rife with allusions to other novels and just the right amount of metaphoric language. While I would have liked to see more focus on the relationship between Vida and Tom, I thought King's portrayal of a blended family was spot-on. Her characters are perfectly nuanced; her prose is beautiful. THE ENGLISH TEACHER is definitely a novel to be reckoned with in the contemporary women's fiction genre, and I'd definitely recommend it. Lily King has captivated another reader, who will wait with excitement for her next offering.

Here's another winner from Lily King, author of The Pleasing Hour. Her second book doesnt disappoint. At first I thought it would be about the difficulties of merging two families in second marriages--which to an extent, it is. Vida marries Tom, but she seems terribly uncertain about it, while he couldn't be more sure he's done the right thing. Vida teaches English at a private school, and her seniors are learning Thomas Hardy, specifically Tess of the d'Urbervilles. All of Hardy's books are dark, but Tess is the one that will really send one reaching for the antidepressants. The students get angry when Vida seems to take an unsympathetic attitude toward Tess. As the story goes on, Vida's life is revealed as paralleling that of Tess in many ways. Vida can't deal with what really happened, and is happening to her, and this causes tremendous problems for her teenage son Peter, who is demanding to know who his father is. At the end, everything comes to a head, but unlike Thomas Hardy's books, the story ends on a hopeful note. The only criticism I have is that the book could have been longer and gone into more depth about some of the other characters.

This is a difficult book to recommend. The problem is that the author's tone is painfully self-conscious and at times off-puttingly pretentious. Adding insult to injury, her writing style is awkward and convoluted, and her love of breaking up already lengthy sentences with ellipses only exacerbates the situation. She plays fast and loose with some of the historical facts she tosses out, too. And some of her observations seem so far-fetched that I swear she's just making up some of this crap for dramatic impact. I mean, I've been to Italy several times, and I've seldom encountered shop-clerks who are as outspokenly rude and negative as those that are depicted in abundance here. I found myself skipping occasionally large passages of her self-indulgent, meandering drivel in an attempt to stick to the meat of this book, which can actually be somewhat compelling.

When she is able to put a lid on the pretentiousness and unengaging cynicism, the book paints a colorful and vivid (and brutally honest) portait of Italy, its society, and culture. Some of her thoughts and observations are truly poignant. Basically, with some hardcore Occam's Razoring, this book could've been profoundly improved. It almost reads as if it simply wasn't edited. I'm kind of surprised it even got published. As it stands, however, lengthy portions are a rambling mess seemingly aimed at pseudo-intellectual snobs brimming with unchecked ennui and bile. Which is sad since some readers might let that get in the way of the passages that really are worth reading.

I've never been promt to write a review until I read this book. I have read 79 travel and historical books on Europe, 36 on Italy. This is the only one I've disliked. I would give it zero stars but that isn't an option.

This book came very highly recommended, and I have to admit, I was disappointed. I found it self-absorbed and opaque, inscrutable. Grizzuti Harrison's Italy sounds like a place I would never want to go -- indeed, nothing like the place I've been to -- full of peevish storekeepers, American-hating townspeople, predatory men. I found nothing to love about the Italy depicted in this book and couldn't imagine why the author would subject herself to further months spent there.

The writing is very strange. The sentence structure loops archaically, and the asides that are often inserted into the sentences not only make the reading more difficult, but do nothing to enlighten the reader.

I also took issue with the book's tone and diction. Grizzuti Harrison spends pages and pages on high-flown quotations -- so many that it seems like she's padding her book because she has no thoughts of her own -- yet brings the reader crashing down from these utterances with a few strangely-placed "f-words."

I didn't understand this book. I prefer my own memories of Italy to this author's.

The first two-thirds of this book is a superb travel guide to Milan, Venice, Rome, and Campania. Barbara Grizzuti Harrison is very conversant with the best travel literature of the past (and thoughtfully provides us a useful bibliography) and -- more rare by far -- has a great deal to add as an Italian-American confronting the land of her birth.

After her chapter on Naples and Campania, the book takes an entirely different tack. The author goes to visit what remains of her family in rural Molise and Calabria. Big mistake. You can't mix pleasure with unfinished family business and expect to get anything other than heartsick.

I remember taking a visit to Hungary and Slovakia to visit my relatives some years ago. Their reaction: Why haven't you visited us before? Why aren't you staying longer? When are you coming back? Let us introduce you to your third and fourth cousins! It was interesting, at times even exhilarating, but it was no vacation. And you need a vacation from your vacation when you return.

Although Harrison's family visits break her book in two, it conveys a sense of truth missing from most books of the sort -- especially of the nefarious Tuscan villa genre. Our ancestors left their homes for a reason. They may not tell you the reason; but those left behind nursing their grudges will gladly set you straight -- possibly to your intense discomfiture.

So in the end, I have nothing but praise for this book. Especially if you are an Italian-American going back to the "Old Country" for a first visit, you must read this book. Like the author, take your vacation first -- then go face the music with your relatives.

After reading "Italian Days" I feel as if I actually know Barbara Harrison. I enjoyed reading about the travels of someone of my own age and sex, who notices and enjoys the same things as I would if I were lucky enough to make a trip to Italy. She generously reveals much of herself in her writing. Through her stories, I also feel as if I have experienced Italy, tasted the food, crowds in Rome, natural beauty, art, architecture and people. The book is thick and full of sensuous detail. Reading it made me hungry for the wonderful food she described.

While I enjoyed this book, I found that it could have used more history and less travelogue: Each specific historic locale is mentioned in terms of its relation to the various highways of Northern Britain. Helpful if you're planning a vacation and want to see historic Scotland, but irrelevant from a point of view of actual history. I'm also not sure what Magnusson's connection to Sir Walter Scott is, but he's obviously very fond of him: Every chapter begins with a quotation from Scott (mostly from his Tales of a Grandfather), and chapter 29 is actually a mini-biography of Scott himself!

I purchased this book after I was fortunate enough to visit Edinburgh, Scotland. As I walked the streets of Edinburgh my eyes laid upon one Scottish flag after another and graffiti calling for freedom from England covered buildings. I became fascinated by the country's culture and yearned to learn more about its history. I came back to the States needing to know more about the Nation of Scotland.

This book does a marvelous job at giving an objective view of Scotland's history. Going through its monarchs and constant fighting with England. You come to understand this country has fought for century's to rid itself of British rule. A fight that is still not done.

If you love history, this book is for you!!

The book was delivered in good time and was well packaged. There was unfortunatly some staining on one side of the cover. However it was a good buy.

This is the most comprehensive view of Scottish history that I have read. Having grown up and being educated in the Scottish Education system this book filled in the gaps of my education.

The 3 degrees of separation between Scotland, England and Central Europe including the systems of government/religion/monarchy are an eye opener. This historical overview highlights the in breeding amongst the powerful family's and the ties that they had. No wonder the English royals are all mad as hatters Check out the moview " the madness of king George" if you are uncertain!

Great book

The book is wonderful. I would recommend two items to help clarify locations and relationships for the reader - a GOOD foldout map of Scotland so the locations of the actions, castles, cathedrals, and routes decsribed in the book can be better understood (I ended up gluing one inside the back cover myself), and a genealogical tree(s) showing how individuals are related to each other, including the major characters.

Frank Deford takes you there. This book is definitely about baseball and it's evolution around the turn of the century, but it also sits you down in the early 1900's. Historical descriptions of the Manhattan of the day are fascinating. You feel as though you're reading the headlines of the day one minute and sidled up next to the personalities of a very tough time in American history the next minute. If you're interested in baseball this book takes you there. It's so well written you can almost taste the dust in the air sometimes. However, don't be afraid to give it a read for it's historical presentations of New York and Baltimore in the early 1900's.

This was a well written history of New York Giants at the beginning of the 1900's. However, I didn't feel it told me much more that I've read over 50 years of reading baseball history.

This is the first book by Frank Deford that I have read. As a newish baseball history buff I have enjoyed the book. Listening to Frank Deford on NPR for many years now. I enjoy his writing as well.

It took my a while to get into this one. Deford writes the same way he reports on NPR, wordy. It seems that he loves to play with words and at first I was put off by this in print form. However, I got used to it and really enjoyed this book. It's a great read about a great time in the history of baseball. The story and it's characters are interesting by themselves and since it revolves around my favorite sport, I couln't ask for more!

What I liked about the book was that Deford gave the reader credit for knowing baseball and knowing the times of the story. The background information built upon that knowledge. To say this was a glorified article can only be made if one knows that Deford was a sportswriter for SI and others. It was not and many baseball books have taken small subjects.

One suggestion (and this covers almost all sports bios) is to give a page of stats for the subjects. It does not have to be extensive, just the teams, records and years played. Just like a photo section, it is something that the reader can often flip to.

Despite the small size of the book, and the author, who has written such funny, but notably stupid movies as Dumb and Dumber, and There's something about Mary, this book effected me like no other has. i am a sophmore in high school, and my dream was always to move to arizona, much like Tim Dunphy. this book has completely changed me. my previous favorite book was IT by stephen king, and despite the 800 page difference i would have to say that i have a new favorite. for some reason i simply clicked with this book, i was the main character, and so many of his problems were so relatable, i highly recomend this to any adolescent who is looking for a good easy read, or looking for any kind of read at all. i read it in two days, and it's messages are something i will never forget. Amazing is the only word i can use to describe Outside Providence

This entertaining book shows a contrast of two very different worlds: the hard life of the suburban Rhode Island blue-collar world, and the blessed life in a New England prep school (although as we find out, it's not so blessed).

As a prep-school graduate myself, I had a lot to relate to in this book. It did read like a screen play, but a very good one with interesting characters and honest humor.

I thoroughly recommend this book. It made me laugh and cry, but oh how it made me laugh.

If you don't read this and laugh you must be dead!

It should remind you of how you looked at life as a teenager.

There are so many books and movies about prep school life, but Outside Providence is by far the best. It is a wonderful exaggeration of what life is like coming from a lower class background and jumping into the strange and unique world of prep school. I have never read such an honest book in my life and I think that every person who goes to prep school should read this book. It puts things into prospective. Since I am a prep school kid, I can relate so easily to everything that Farrelly writes. I'm not so sure how much people outside of the prep school world would enjoy this book, but I don't see how anyone wouldn't!

i saw the movie like a year ago and it became one of my favorite ever since. i didn't figure out that it was a book until a couple months ago (yeah, im stupid) and i wasn't at all disappointed with the book. i did enjoy it, but there were parts in the movie that i thought were hilarious and became attached to (i guess you could say that) but then they werent in the book. they werent necessary parts, so i guess it didnt matter. another thing is that i saw the movie and only viewed it as good entertainment whereas the book i think has some meaning but i didnt catch it cuz i was just trying to be entertained and had it set in my mind that it was just supposed to be funny. still...i recommend reading the book and seeing the movie (in that order) they were both well worth my time.

The Quantity Theory of Insanity is a fabulous debut collection of stories by the genius English writer Will Self, who has written so much since then that this first collection is in danger of being buried underneath the mountains of prose - both fiction and journalism, Self has emitted since then.

The stories are dark, satirical, and wickedly funny and heartless. They are the product of Self's youth - middle class, intellegensia, hence the parodies of academia that run through the stories, but also with a dark, unstable and addictive mental life.

The stories are awash with brilliant ideas - a dead mother living in suburban Crouch end, the notion put by an academic that there is a finite amount of sanity in the world, and increasing levels in one area results in a decrease elsewhere (told by a narrator blissfully unaware just how insane he is himself). There are some stories here that pitch right into the banal, routine of modern urban life - Waiting unfurls as a stream of consciousness traffic jam monologue; and the Ur Bororo are a tribe of remote South American peoples who, it is obliquely revealed, have rather a lot in common with some sectors of middle England society.

Heartless, misanthropic, but never without lightness and humour. These are black satires in the vein of J.G. Ballard, but in Self's own unique voice. The only downside is that the drug infused writing gets a little wild and uncontrolled sometimes. I personally think Will Self's writing revved up a gear once he cleaned up.

Will Self is perhaps the most cruel, heartless writer of contemporary British fiction today. He has an immense encyclopedic intellect, but cares little for his characters, subjecting them to merciless metaphorical beatings (witness the one he gives Janner, an anthropologist, in the opening paragraph of "Understanding the Ur-Bororo," the third story in Quantity Theory). Character development and plot for Self becomes secondary to his obsessively overcrafted Johnsonese prose, which owes more to writers such as Max Beerbohm and William F Buckley, than to his friend Martin Amis or his surrealist hero James Ballard. Thus his fiction lacks tragedy, and even meaning, relying instead on gimmicky plots and a hybrid of quirky Woody Allen-esque humor and clever-clever sarcasm (often out of place). Without either, Self would accurately fit Utah Senator Reed Smoot's description of D.H. Lawrence after reading Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover--a man with a soul so black that he would even obscure the darkness of hell.

Will Self is That Guy from high school. The one who drove backwards on the LA Freeway at 100 miles an hour to catch an exit he'd missed. He's the one who made you leap from the car (when it finally slowed down), screaming "Are you *&%$ing NUTS??!!??" Yes, he was, and he still is. But, now he has a vocabulary, and an even more twisted sense of the world.

The stories in The Quantity Theory of Insanity will sometimes make you want to jump out of the car, but you won't. You'll be laughing too hard. Each one of the stories revolves around the central premise--expressed in hilariously pretentious academese--that there is a limited quantity of sanity in the world. Self demonstrates this fetching, and entirely plausible, proposition in stories about people who "aren't waiting for the Apocalypse", whose dead mothers reside in Crouch End, and who leave endowments for anthropology students to study the most boring people on earth (and who somehow bear an uncanny resemblance to Self's own countrymen).

The writing is sheer manic joy! Once again the British remind us that they invented English, and aren't afraid to use it. A dictionary will do you no good. Will Self's lopsided jaunts into the English language require an altered state of mind to fully appreciate.

Will Self's 'The Quantity Theory of Insanity' overflows with (unsurprisingly) dark humor mixed with academic flair. The stories often seem to lack a clear and definitive finishing point, as if one is reading a manuscript of a story half-written. This, of course, may be a purposeful attempt; that by not offering conclusion, Will Self is in essense prodding the reader into personal deliberation over the concepts presented. Unfortunately, if this be the case, these same concepts have seen so much activity in modern psychology that for the author to not thoroughly conclude his own insights leads one not into pondering personal beliefs in the matter, but what the author might have been trying to convey. A fruitless task as Self, undoubtedly, tries to be as enigmatic as possible.

Luckily Self's mastery of language and metaphor, even during points where one might feel unsatisfied with the content, makes this book hard to put down. He easily achieves the daunting task of having a work sopping with verbose floridity while still being both easily readable and completely coherent. The development of his characters and concepts is quite clear and clean, an intimidating feat while having to develop both observations as well as descent into 'madness' on the same pages. Self is able to portray lunacy with impecable flair, often times the feeling of madness transposing itself from prose to reader with every turn of the page.

'The Quantity Theory of Insanity' should be read for it's unequaled portrayals of the subject matter as well as the interesting, albeit fragmentary, social commentary. Positions and answers however, should not be sought here.

The sheer volume of fantastic ideas contained in this collection of short fiction sets one's neural bulb a-boggle.

The story on the theory of waiting alone, will have you pondering your very existence, to such a degree of mind-numbing scrutiny that a painstaker will think you're persnickty.

Admittedly there are quite a few tangential stories that take you so far off the beaten path that you soon begin to wonder what exactly it is that your reading other than a random series of words, broken by sharp wit, and cunning humor.

But, many stories throughout, will a- and be-muse you.

Keep a dictionary close at hand.

I actually contemplated calling in sick to stay home from work and finish this book. That is high praise indeed. Other reviewers have recounted the plot twists and turns. Why did I find this book so compelling? First, Lawton's evocation of place. I now live in a city where it rarely rains, but I remember summer downpours in England, when the rain bounces off the pavement soaking you from below as well as from above. Lawton brought that back to me. He also beautifully conveyed the strangeness and tranquility of "the vast Georgian pile that was Mimram House," Troy's country estate. Second, Frederick Troy is my favorite kind of protagonist: flawed and perfectly believeable. He is cynical, sexy, smart, gullible,and rebellious. He also has a wacky family as a supporting cast, including weird and creepy twin sisters. Lawton does a better job with male characters than with female characters. I actually detested Tosca and couldn't wait for something bad to happen to her (not that I'm saying it does...). Third, I was fascinated by the historical context -- post-War, Cold War Britain, which was so different from the United States. I always wondered how spies like Kim Philby were recruited and what motivated them. Now I know. I cannot wait to read the other books in Lawton's Frederick Troy series. I need to go back to "Black Out" and find out what happened to Diana Brack.

I like books that have a sense of time and place. "Old Flames" has both in plenty. The book takes place at a time when the world was still fascinated by happenings in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev visits the UK and a supposed undercover operation sets murder in motion. Inspector Troy spends a night out on a pub crawl with the Soviet Leader, while a former "flame" reappears - Larissa Tosca. Troy navigates the demands of family and politics in a novel steeped in atmosphere. The cold war is just beginning; the British Empire is in its wanning last days, and the Soviet Union is a power to be reckoned with. Troy is a character utterly unimpressed by position and power, and he solves crimes no matter who may get "dirtied" along the way. Troy is also fairly a-moral and completely a-political, which makes him the perfect character to be in the midst of a political thriller.

I like John Lawton quite a lot. The Inspector Troy series is hard to follow (heck, Troy himself changes jobs many times in the course of the series). The books extend from WW II to the early 1960', but the novels were not published in order. To make matters worse, his books are published under different titles in the UK and the US. Arrrrgh. Nonetheless, Troy is a unique and enjoyable character - well worth the effort of sorting the books and publication dates out. The novels are all set in London, ranging from t he 1940's to the 1960's. There is a significant amount of historical material - and quite a bit of historical license as well. These are, after all , novels. I highly recommend this book, and all of the other Inspector Troy books.

This would have been a great book had Lawton removed about 100 pages and stuck to the main story more. Having said that, the story itself is a good one and says alot about England in the middle 1950s, dealing with the loss of Empire and the destruction to their infrastructure in WWII.

Frederick Troy, who we met during WWII in "Black Out" is now an inspector and head of the 'Murder Squad' at Scotland Yard. His brother Roy, is a Labour MP, and shadow Foreign Minister. When a need for a russian speaker to 'assist' Special Branch in listening in on Kruschev during a 1956 visit, comes about, Troy is convinced to help out. Here is where a lot of the story could have been cut.

When the Russians claim that they were under surveillance by a frogman, his body doesn't turn up for five months. When Troy is asked by his 'widow' to prove the body isn't that of her husband, a series of events begin to enfold that will lead Troy to revelations he wished he never had to uncover. To say more would give away the best part of the story, which is well developed and presented in a believable manner.

Lawton, also has the distracting habit of putting ideas into the mouths of this characters that would be prescient if the book was written in 1956, but since it was written in 1995, the only ones who would be amazed are the other characters in the book (so why do it?). Lastly I find Lawton's treatment of heterosexual sex, and especially his ideas as to how woman look at sex to be a cross between Nabokov and a twelve year old. When reading some of his scenes, I have come to wonder if the man has ever had sex with a woman, or to that matter anyone other than himself. Just MHO.

I came late to this book. I'd read the one that came first (Black Out) and the one that comes after (White Death). This is the best of the three. But if you're reading it for the thrills you're wasting your time. Reading Lawton for thrills or worse for the 'whodunnit' is like reading Kurt Vonnegut and complaining that his sci-fi is nothing like Star Wars. Who dun it isn't even on the map. These books are the most sophisticated literary historicals to come out of England in 25 years. His dialogue fizzles, his metaphors meander, his characters bring history roaring to life. Old Flames takes as its plot the events of 1956 - when Britain invaded Egypt - a low tide in the Special Relationship between Britain and Uncle Sam. This is 2004. What, in letters 8 miles high, could be more topical?

i read a few espionage novels each year, in amidst many mystery/police procedural novels. this is the best in the past few years. i liked a recently read alan furst novel, but i'd have to say this one was more satisfying. furst is good. lawton is very good. i didn't know the history, so the author's liberty with it didn't bother me. but i enjoyed the history and the author explains at the end that while he takes some liberties, he's not distorted events.

more cerebral than deighton; akin to le carre.

Decent job of getting some insight on the connections, but overall just not that good.

This is not a bad book, but it isn't going to be a dog-eared favorite, either. The main problem is that there is no continuity. The author jumps around from character to character, story to story, with no way of knowing how (or if) anything is connected to anything else. The behind-the-scenes gossip and backgrounds of the major players in Thoroughbred racing was interesting, and the writing was smooth and graceful, but I became more and more frustrated the more I read. Maybe the audience best served by this book is made up of people who like horses but only read during five minute bathroom visits.

Drape took on the task that all of us outside the world of racing should be grateful, that is, giving us an inside look at the horses and connections that take a 2 year old colt from Derby wannabe to Triple Crown contender. What I found disappointing was the lack of detail in the races themselves. Drape sufficiently builds up the Derby and details the race, but the other prep races, Preakness and Belmont are slighted. I guess I am used to William Nack's detailed descriptions of Secretariat's races. You won't learn anything new about Lukas or Baffert here that you haven't already read. You will at least learn a little about Todd Pletcher, Neil Drysdale and Jenine Sahadi.

Forget Seabiscuit. This is the racing book of 2001. Drape has taken an otherwise foregttable year in racing, and crafted a rivetting, memorable, behind the scenes look at the personalities, egos, hopes and dreams that live on the backstretch. Drape offers the well earned insights of a man who not only has pushed a bit of money thru the windows at tracks across the world, but has even owned a hard-luck pony of his own. I loved this book!

In my opinion, this book did not live up to its fantastic reviews. I am a huge fan of Fusaichi Pegasus (...)And also, the other Big Red-Man o' War-was better.), and enjoyed reading the chapters on FuPeg. However, as a previous reviewer posted, this book was like a giant list of names. Name after name after name appeared, it could confuse even an expert at horse racing, which I do not claim to be. Overall, an average book, though it depicts the connections of each horse quite well.