New York Books

I randomly picked this book up at the local library not realizing how magnificent it would be. I wanted a breather from all the romance novels I've been hooked on lately and boy what a difference! It was a very depressing story. There are particular lines in the book that are still lingering in my mind. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but when Evan gets back with his ex-wife and they're talking of the past and he realizes the child she had with another man could have been theirs, but it wasn't.(please read the book and you'll understand) As a reader I felt his pain and misery for the mistakes he made that he couldnt take back, but was trying to mend. When I finished reading this book I could not stop crying; it's that touching!I read a review somewhere where the reviewer is saying this book is not depressing, but I beg to differ! It is very depressing and nostalgic, yet I got the message the author was sending. I highly recommend it.

I read this book over the past 4 days, and it is still with me. I found myself doing something I rarely do when reading... going back and re-reading certain passages because of the pure, simple beauty of Long's writing and clarity of his observations on love, live, and death. Evan Molloy is certainly flawed and not the most sympathetic character, but this is what makes him so utterly likeable... he could be you, me, our sibling, our neighbor, anyone. As his mother tells him early on, he has a charmed life - a happy childhood, education, meaningful work, and marriage to his soul mate, who he then wrongs in the worst way. Later, given the chance to love again, he is betrayed by his own mind, suffering from mental illness. His suspension between the living world and the afterlife, and his 'relationship' with the new owner of his home, 30-something Maureen, herself struggling to find her footing after leaving her job and fleeing a destructive affair, allow him to reflect and uncover the mysteries of his own death, and ultimately for him to be free.

The premise of a lonely ghost observing life going on in the house in which he died is what attracted me to David Long's novel. But that idea is actually a rather slight portion of this story.

For reasons neither he, nor the reader, ever understand, Evan is doomed to remain in the house in which he committed suicide 10 years earlier. While the premise is fantastical, the tone of the novel is not. We see Evan's life is fragmented, almost swirling snapshots, which seem appropriate for a lost soul still piecing his recollections together. Long writes beautifully in a very literate style and much of the story is Evan reflecting upon his life. And the events of his life are rather prosaic and mundane. He meets his wife, marries her, has an affair, is divorced, reunites with his wife and her troubled daughter. Perhaps Long's point is that life is mundane. But Long's elegant, somewhat melacholy prose holds the reader more than the story itself.

There's a slightness to the narrative. And Evan's connection to Maureen, the woman living in 'his' house doesn't seem fully fleshed out. What is it about her that touches him more than the previous tenants in the house? (She seems to most resemble the woman with whom he had an affair, but that connection is never made explicit.) We follow Evan's mental collapse leading to his suicide in the flashbacks, but it feels a bit arbitrary. There's a slightly aloof quality to Long's story and prose and Evan remains an oddly generic character. It's clear long before the reader gets to the end of this book that there will be no tidy conclusion to this story. And there isn't. And since the emotional impact of the ending hinges on Evan's connection with Maureen, it's puzzling that this connection is what is slighted for much of the novel.

This is a lovely novel -- readable, if not entirely compelling, but perhaps not what many readers might expect from its other-worldly premise.

I have not, in the past, felt compelled to write reviews on the internet, but this book is so haunting, smart, poetic, and strange, I can't help myself from asserting to potential readers: read it. This is an author who has such a sense of the nature of human beings, their motivations, the depths of the psyche--it changed the way I'll ever again see some of the people in my life. While I was reading it, I found myself talking to its characters, recalling its details, singings its praises to strangers. It entered my dreams! I'm not doing it just, but will say, you won't find another novel like this, and you won't forget it.

Evan commits suicide and returns 10 years after his death to his Seattle area home where he tries to understand "why" he did it - he reflects on his life and his quest for strength to escape his battle with depression and failed relationships. The book is dark and often foggy and rainy like its setting in winter in the Pacific Northwest. However, it is beautifully written and places the reader in the shoes of one where if your DNA was off-kilter just a tad - you can imagine that it could happen to you...

THis book is awesome mix of "Don Quixote," "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy," and the "Colloquies of Erasmus." ... With a dash of Rabelais and Boccaccio for good measure.

In other words: playful bawdy post modern meta narrative where carnivalesque stories weave in and out of each other. Ive read a few things by Diderot and this is my fav so far.

I'm a big fan of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa - so its shocking to learn that it leans so heavily on Jacques. I found Jacques to be more entertaining than Sterne's work.

It may be your destiny to read and adore the pithy wit of Diderot. At a time when the novel was new as a genre as a contemporary of Sterne and Richardson, Diderot confronts the religion and philosophy of his day entrenched in the idea that man's fate was written on a scroll on high and that man only acted out a bit part devoid of real choice in his slavery to destiny. Pre-destination did not sit well with Diderot and Jacques is the novelist in this "dog's breakfast" he has served up railing aginst his own genre to assert his humanity and freedom on his picaresque journey to nowhere. "Does anyone know where they're going?" certainly sounds like Beckett who lived in France and may well have read Diderot. Jacques is forced to conclude that people think they are in charge of their destiny when their destiny is in charge of them. What choice does the fatalist really have except to resign to his fate? Because life is a series of endless misunderstandings, it isn't easy to be captain of one's own soul. The epigrams are deliciously well phrased: "Virtue is an excellent thing. Both good people and wicked people speak highly of it." Or this: "I think there are some very odd things written up there on high." The wicked fable of the Sheath and the Knife is certainly memorable. Jacques is genuinely hilarious in many places and despite Diderot's scathing complaints of the early novel, he wrote wrote an enduring classic beloved because of its pure wit, audacity, irony and uncanny phrasing. I urge you to read this great early novel destined to foretell the promise bound to follow for the genre.

This book is amazing. It will make many of your conceptions of where things belong in the history of the novel fall apart. Not coincidentally, that is one of the points of this book, being an exercise more than a message: that all apparent armatures of order are one more perspective away from disintegration. This book is really quite sneaky as well. In the beginning, the constant references to the inscriptive certainties in the heavens seem silly. But then little explanations come along (like the geneology of Jacques' crazy horse), and the novel heads down a dark, yet very enchanting road, into a fuzz that's every bit as modern as any you've read. This thing alternately looks like Bunuel, Zola, Stendhal, Faulkner, Kerouac. The picaresque, the uncertain narrator, the structuralists, all seem to be swimming around in this amazing book.

Surely many writers and artists from this era (like Goya) depicted the nobles as effete and incapable of carrying out the governance of the most basic requirements of existence, but here, they also appear (in the image of the 'master') as so withdrawn from the world as to be blind. If you take away all the stories that are told, the only thing that's left of a plot here is the master having his horse stolen right from under his nose while Jacques was gone and then Jacques finding it for him at the end in a beautiful, mock sort of deus ex machina.

Two centuries or so before "modern" writers began writing experimental novels, Denis Diderot, the force behind the Encyclopaedia effort, wrote this strange and indeed very "modern" novel in which the author leads a conversation with the reader, asking him where he (or she, of course) would want to go and what to do with the characters and the story. Here we see the author in the very process of creation, exposing his doubts, exploring his options, and playing with the story.

There is really no plot as such. Jacques, a man who seems to believe everything that happens is already written "up on high", but who nonetheless keeps making decisions for himself, is riding through France with his unnamed master, a man who is skeptic of Jacques's determinism but who remains rather passive throughout the book. Fate and the creator-author will put repeatedly to test Jacques's theory, through a series of more or less fortunate accidents and situations, as well as by way of numerous asides in the form of subplots or stories.

The novel is totally disjointed and these asides and subplots blurb all over the place, always interrupted themselves by other happenings. The most interesting of them is the story of Madame de Pommeroy and her bitter but ultimately ineffectual revenge on her ex-lover.

Diderot confesses to having taken much from Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" and Cervantes's "Don Quixote". This last novel's influence seems obvious at two levels: Cervantes also talks to the reader, especially in Part Two, and also reflects abundantly on the creative process. Moreover, the tone and environment of the book is very similar to the Quixote: two people engaged in an endless philosophical conversations while roaming around the countryside and facing several adventures which serve to illustrate one or antoher point of view.

Diderot's humour is bawdy and practical and the book is fun to read. The exact philosophical point is not clearcut, but it will leave the reader wondering about Destiny, Fate, and Free Will.

Yeah. Believe all the reviews below. This book really is amazing. It would feel like it was written yesterday, if it was more derivative -- but it's fresh! The language is incisive, no waste, and the pacing and structure are brilliantly fluid. It's smart and funny, too, and completely unpredictable, filled with weird offhand bursts of bewildering narrativity. And yet balanced, apparently sane. I truly enjoyed reading it. It's great.

GET IT. It was a good one. I picked this book up with no expectations and found myself drawn into the world of law enforcement and the pressure of what I can only imagine being in the main character's (Ray Dolan)position. Lots of twists, you will try to figure it out chapter after chapter! A good reminder that everyone is walking through a minefield of temptations.

While there is nothing truly original here, this is nevertheless a very well done noir novel in the classic mold: as the back cover says, a cross between Body Heat and The Postman Always Rings Twice. Very true. This is a gripping read for sure; Kelly does know how to make you keep turning pages.

Officer Ray Dolan lives just down the way from the Travises, a very wealthy couple--Lance and Sheila--and their teenage daughter Brie. Dolan, single, has ambivalence about his job, possibly stemming from his father, also a cop, having committed suicide. But he gets along well with his fellow officers, especially Frank Kaiser, who, after many years of marriage, finds his wife having an affair. Also on the scene is Leanne Corvino, a local TV news anchor.

Dolan and Corvino hook up briefly, but after catching sight of his sexy neighbor, Sheila Travis, Dolan forgets about Corvino and develops serious hots for Sheila. Needless to say, complications ensue. Turns out Sheila's husband has questionable morals. Turns out Sheila is not happy with Lance. Turns out Sheila and Ray (Dolan) get something going.

It also turns out that Sheila, Lance, Frank, Ray, and Leanne all have stuff going on involving each other that does not seem apparent initially and that definitely makes for noir-themed fiction at its best.

This is a great read for those who like their noir juicy and involving. Yeah, I liked it a lot.

Jack Kelly explores sexual obsession and how it leads good to become evil in this sharp and moody novel. The characters are thoroughly modern (a girl named Brie can only happen in modern America), their situation as timeless as Adam and Eve. The writing is funny, acute, and poetic. Ray and Sheila propell the plot to its cathartic conclusion, completely believably. This is a writer who knows how to combine the best crime writing with the best literary writing. Don't miss it.

Line of Sight is full of classic noir-cop-detective elements, so I thought I was nestling into comfortable fiction territory as I settled into reading the book. But Jack Kelly has written a book that is simultaneously familiar yet new, nostalgic yet fresh. Kelly's characters are familiar with a twist, predictable yet surprising. His telegraphic style at first seemed choppy and awkward to me, yet by page three his concise words were painting vivid scenes of landscapes both psychic and physical. I thoroughly enjoyed the synthesis of familiar and new in this book. Its images and emotional mood will stay with you for a long time.

"Nobody's innocent," says Sheila, one of the key characters in Line of Sight.

Ain't that the truth?! In fact, plain, ordinary, law-abiding folks can easily be drawn into a wicked web of lust, intrigue, greed, and power. The beauty of this book is in the way that Jack Kelly explores how any of us can be tempted to cross the line.

A Living Lens is a wonderful collection of photographs that not only demonstrate everyday life of Jews throughout the United States but it is accompanied by a rich text authored by witnesses to this history. Of all the photography books about the Jews of the 19th and 20th centuries thids one ranks at the top. A must see and read.

This collection and commentary was great....and more than met our expectations. It sits now on our coffee table for all to review and reminisce.

Beautiful book, well written. A book for anyone to share with their children to teach them an important part of our US history.

As the grandchild of Polish / Ukraine immigrants who read the Forvitz, this book lovingly captures the memories of a time long gone.

Earlier this year, I had participated in a tour, including the old Forward Building in Lower Manhattan, with our guide being one of the photographers for this beuatiful book. I was so happy with the book which arrived in exellent condition.

Thank you.

Renate Stone

This book was excellent. Any Italian cookbook with Aglio Olio in it (pasta in garlic oil with cheese) has got to be OK! This was a favorite dish of mine while growing up. The tomato sauce recipes were worth the price of the book alone! The author is a skilled writer in spite of what one reviewer said. I found the stories entertaining and interesting. And the recipes were as authentic as any my Sicilian mother or aunts had ever prepared. I love this book!

Great book. Great read. Just love the stories and folklore from Sicily. This the food my grandmother made and I never could find the recipes. Well, they are in this book. The sauces, pizzas, fritattas are great. Francesca Romina just won the contest in Newsday for the best Sesame Seed (Regina) biscuits in Mangia Little Itay. They were terrific and easy to make. There are recipes in this book that I have never seen before and great hints and tips along the way. The author seems to go to great lenghts to be specific for her readers. These recipes work and are well tested. I'm buying several copies for my family members.

The recepies in this book remind me of all the wonderful dishes that my Grandma used to make. I have found the pizza dough recepie tastes very close to my Sicilian Great Grandmother's pizza dough. I tend to agree that Italians keep these spicial recepies to themselves which unfortunatly die with the generations. This book brings them all back to life along with the wonderful stories and pictures that go along with them. I'm purchasing another copy for my father, who loved mine so much! I just couldn't part with it!

After so many copies of Italian books that I've thrown out, this one works. It was recommended to me by several professional cooking teachers. I made the Cassata cake, the mother or all Sicilian cakes, and it was fantasik. Romina's 7-Hour Sunday Sauce is the best I've ever made. The family went crazy with the results. I even found pizzas here I have only heard about, such as "Sicilian Christmas Pizzas" stuffed with pork and spinach, and Salted Sardine pizzas. These recipes are impossible to find, and they all worked. I also made her Lemon Cakes which has that homemade taste in the crust topped with cinnamon that I remember Grandma making. This is a book you can read for folktales or cook with. That is rare. I particularly loved the author's tips called "Secrets of Success" on the side of the pages, it helps to make cooking easier. So if you want to make an authentic Lasanga the way it was at the turn of the century or a real Sicilian pizza, the way it's made in Sicily, this is the only book that I've found that is the real thing. Bravo Francesca Romina!

This book brings the Sicilian Kitchen to every home. It's a style of cooking that is rare in my area of the country, but memories of Sausage & Peppers and fried meatballs on Sunday made my childhood complete. Some of the items here I've never even seen in print before. A little slice of Grandma's house teeming with garlic!

This is a phenomenal resource for the Mikado. The piano reduction is imminently playable, and the libretto includes the spoken dialogue between each of the vocal selections. The chorus parts are included, so this little score is the whole show in a complete package, with the exception of not being scored for the orchestra. Unless a person would want to alter some script, or lyrics (such as is commonly done in certain songs, i.e. I've Got a Little List) This Dover Vocal Score ranks right up there with the Stratford Video Production from 1982 - which is one of the best productions of this Gilbert and Sullivan classic.

This well-priced score is a great edition for student productions because it's legible and affordable!

Well, I don't know if it is perfect or not. However, it does have bar numbers, which is more than can be said for most of the vocal editions out there. AND they match the published full scores.

When you are rehearsing or doing any type of serious work with the music, being able to reference bar numbers is invariable. "Second bar of third system on page #148", just doesn't cut it.

Great for learning both dialogue and vocal score for anyone who is taking part in this production or who is just considering auditioning.

Being a serious fan of Gilbert and Sullivan's work and a performer in several of their collaborations, this is a wonderful score. It has every piece of dialogue, every song, and a great cover. If you are ever going to be in a production of 'The Mikado', buy this score!

"Mountain Shadows" is a bittersweet story of true love and endurance.

Joe Devlin's unselfish love for his tuberculosis stricken wife, Alice, first sends him trekking through the snow covered Adirondacks on frost-bitten feet to reach Saranac, New York. She has been sent to this cold and refreshing clime to seek the "rest cure" prescribed for T.B. patients in one of the areas' curing cottages. Later, in order to pay her continuing medical expenses, Joe is forced into a life of illegally running bootlegged liquor from Canada during the prohibition era of the 1920s.

The descriptions of the old-fashioned cures for tubercular patients are fascinating and the characters are all exceedingly well-drawn. The beauty of the surrounding countryside comes alive in this well-written and heart wrenching novel. I loved the book and will certainly give it a second read.

Having just read Mountain Shadows and being the principal of Lake Placid Middle/High School, all I have to say is "Wow! What a Book!" I look forward to having Brooks speak at a dinner meeting of our Adirondack Book Club, a group of male community leaders. In the past, we have heard from Russell Banks and Brian Mann. Brooks will also speak to several classes of history students, where Mountain Shadows is assigned reading.

This historically-accurate novel is a wonderful exploration of both the natural and cultural environment of the Lake Placid/Saranac Lake area of New York's Adirondacks during the 1920's. The enjoyable story of a couple that is introduced to the region by necessity also provides a glimpse into the area's rich heritage, and illustrates to those of us that live in the Adirondacks that some aspects of that time period remain the same today.

Brooks presents a well-researched description of Saranac Lake's tuberculosis cure cottages and the affluent nature of Lake Placid during prohibition, from the working-class perspective of a young man who finds himself immersed in the conflicting settings of both.

In its exploration of the cure cottages, the book provides an accurate account of this very important time period in Saranac Lake's history, and it showcases many aspects of the High Peaks of the Adirondacks in a different era. However, to those of us lucky enough to live there, it is clear that some characteristics of the mountains in the story haven't changed much.

As the main character makes his way to Lake Placid on foot after his Model T breaks down less than 100 miles away, the reader is taken to a time when the winter made what is now a short drive into an epic journey. In the book, the beautiful, yet remote wilderness is contrasted by the warmth and hospitality of the region's inhabitants.

Today's technology allows easy travel through the mountains; a great advancement from the impassable winter roadways of the prohibition era. But the residents of the region still abide by the same conventions with respect of hospitality as the welcoming rural folks in the book. Though eighty years have passed since the time in which this story is set, that remote wilderness is still there, forever wild, to be enjoyed by visitors and residents alike. And, although the development of antibiotics eliminated the need for the tuberculosis cure cottages, visitors continue to travel to the region seeking a different kind of cure. Today, the High Peaks region blends a rich Olympic history, countless outdoor recreational opportunities, and the chance to get away from it all.

The historic significance of the tuberculosis cure, in the context of such a well-written, heartwarming story, would translate beautifully onscreen, allowing a much larger audience to learn about this important part of our region's past. And, the largely unchanged geographic surroundings here in the Adirondacks would make a spectacular backdrop for a project of that nature. As the President of the Lake Placid/Essex County Visitors Bureau, I am pleased to have had the opportunity to read and endorse this book as a wonderful resource that enhances our efforts to promote the heritage of our region.

We just got back from a wonderful "Mom's weekend" in Lake Placid. All 12 of us had read the book for bookgroup and just loved it. Coming up to Lake Placid and Saranac Lake brought out all of the questions and interests we had had from reading the book. After all, a five hour car ride with 6 Moms per car can bring about a lot of discussion. One of our highlights of our weekend was actually discussing the book with Patricia Brooks. What an honor it was to hear about how she so thoroughly researched all the aspects for the book. Our curiosity was so high that after our discussion we actually drove around Saranac Lake and found Helen Hill and while in Lake Placid drove past where Joe worked at the Lake Placid Club. Mountain Shadows was a wonderful read and I highly recommend it. It brought about more discussion than any book we have read.

"Mountain Shadows" is a delightful read. I am impressed by the sensitive and often dramatic treatment of historic detail. Even those of us who thought we knew a lot about the unique story of Saranac Lake, during the half century that we were the premier place in the Western Hemisphere for the treatment and cure of tuberculosis, found new insight and understanding in the telling of a very personal story. The reader learns of the shifting emotions of patients as they see friends improve and return home, and others pass away and leave in coffins at nightfall. We see the strains on family life when one member is sent to Saranac Lake for the cure - some families writing, visiting, sending packages, others distancing themselves from the feared contagion. The supportive and encouraging attitude of residents and caregivers in Saranac Lake toward the thousands of tuberculosis patients who stayed here comes through as well, the positive attitude that surely helped many to survive the "White Plague." "Mountain Shadows" tells a story that is relevant and inspiring today as many struggle with serious illness or strive to provide for the emotional and physical support of loved ones who are ill.

First, Kropotkin discusses mutual aid among animals. His first point is that Darwin had nothing to do with Social Darwinianism. In fact, he quotes Darwin as saying, "Those communities which included the greatest number of the sympathetic members would flourish best, and rear the greatest number of offspring."

He gives numerous examples. One of his examples is about the crested screamer, a bird species which holds massive song recitals. Would Lorenz agree that those birds are chirping merrily? Or would he insist that they are marking their territory?

Next, he discusses mutual aid among savages. Note that he uses a word which is scientifically unacceptable today.

Since K. cannot travel back in time, he surmises how our earliest ancestors lived by observing how isolated tribes today live--which is in clans. Although such tribes are still called "primitive," there is some question of whether or not these tribes live like our prehistoric ancestors did.

Since isolated tribes tend to live in clans, Kropotkin claims that the marital bond is not as strong as in the nuclear family system. In the appendix, he debates Westermarck on this matter.

Next, he discusses mutual aid among barbarians--another taboo word. According to K., there was a wave of migrations in ancient Europe, in which "races were mixing with races." The social institutions seemed to be wrecked as a result, but K. assures us that they instead "underwent the modification which was required by the new conditions of life."

Next, he discusses mutual aid in the medieval city. Now we are up to the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. Our next institution, then, is the professional guild.

Finally, he discusses mutual aid among ourselves. He sees a faint vestige of mutual aid today. K. sees the union as the successor of the clan, the village, and the guild, so he calls for more and better unions. K. also speaks highly of organizations with special interests, such as garden clubs and glee clubs.

However, K. cautions us against the "reckless individualism," or "the war of each against all," which he sees as prevailing today.

Kropotkin's discussion, persuasive as it is, can be counterbalanced with arguments in favor of individualism and competition. I wonder how Kropotkin would respond to the famous anecdote about the Jamestown colonists.

One can also question Kropotkin's claim that only the most sociable animal species prosper. The feline order is renowned for the aloofness of its members, and the lion has been dubbed "the king of the beasts."

I would like to close this report with an ad hominem attack against Kropotkin himself: If individualism is so reprehensible, what is he doing writing a book by himself and claiming credit for it by himself?

Anarchist classic, rooted in observation of natural phenomena and history. Challenges the conception that capitalism is a natural progression of Darwinism at work in the wild. The author cites numerous examples of compassion and innate goodness at work outside the bounds of a structured power-based society. The study covers cooperation among animals, instances of non-hierachical interactions from primitive tribes to mediaeval cities, and on to his contemporary labor unions. It has been some years since I read it and I plan to revisit this title soon.

This book, which appears to be about the only surviving scientific text from Kropotkin's work, is very interesting and insightful. The first two chapters which deal with animals I found most interesting, because they address the roots of the falsehood of social-darwinism. Kropotkin then proceeds to move through the different stages of human society and describes the mutual aid a compassion fetures therein. It is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it. It is a scientific text, but it has major political implications and is very accessible.

Este libro es uno de los pilares fundamentales de la teoria del anarco comunismo tan desvirtuada por el imperialismo, y nos da la esencia que el anarquismo, lejos de lo que se cree comunmente es una doctrina que se basa en el amor y la ayuda mutua, quitando las barreras de desigualdad entre las personas y haciendo un recuento de cómo la ayuda mutua es un factor de evolución hcia una sociedad más justa.

Peter Kropotkin is one of the most noteworthy anarchist thinkers over the last two centuries. As with other political thinkers, so, too, with Kropotkin--his analy¬sis of human nature is critical for understanding his overall philosophical position. For his view of human nature, "Mutual Aid" is a key for understanding his views. His work is a harbinger of more recent studies of sociobiology, many of which explore the roots of altruism--human and otherwise.

Much of his thinking on the nature of society was formed when he was observing the behavior of animals in Siberia. While assigned to a Siberian regiment of the Russian military, Kropotkin did innovative original work on geography and geology as well as the study of animal behavior. His observation of animals led him to respond to Huxley's assertion that natural selection was based on keen com¬petition among animals with the following statement: ". . .wherever I saw animal life in abundance, as, for instance, on the lakes where scores of species and millions of individuals came together to rear their progeny; in the colonies of rodents; in the migration of birds which took place at that time on a truly American scale along the Usuri; and especially in a migration of fallow-deer which I witnessed on the Amur, and during which scores of thousands of these animals came together from an immense territory, flying before the coming snow, in order to cross the Amur where it is narrowest--in all these scenes of animal life which passed before my eyes, I saw Mutual Aid and Mutual Support carried on to an extent which made me suspect in it a feature of the greatest importance for the maintenance of life, the preservation of each species, and its further evolution."

He synthesized his observations of animals within a species cooperating with one another and concluded that, in the struggle for life, cooperation was at least as important as competition. Kropotkin did not argue that competition was unimportant in the natural selection process. However, he did emphasize that mutual aid was a factor that many Darwinists (although, as Kropotkin made clear, not Darwin himself) ignored. The data that Kropotkin utilized came from many different animal species.

Kropotkin goes on to speculate about the survival value of cooperative behavior. He states that: "Life in societies enables the feeblest insects, the feeblest birds, and the feeblest mammals to resist, or to protect themselves from, the most terrible birds and beasts of prey; it permits longevity; in enables the species to rear its progeny with the least waste of energy and to maintain its progeny with the least waste of energy and to maintain its numbers albeit a very slow birth rate; it enables the gregarious animals to migrate in search of new abodes. Furthermore, cooperation facilitates the development of intelligence, since that quality is so important for social life among animals."

Kropotkin is not content to rest his case at this point. He subsequently indicates the likely course of human evolution and the role played by cooperation. He adopts the method of using existing societies at differing levels of socio-cultural complexity to speculate about the course of human socio-cultural evolution. Kropotkin argues that, at each stage, mutual aid is apparent and important for humans. Even in the period dominated by the great states, the present for Kropotkin, mutual aid institutions still flourished despite the state's intimidating presence.

Thus, Kropotkin's view of human nature is, ultimately, that it is inherently good, i.e. cooperative toward his or her fellow. What of this assertion? Is Kropotkin's view of human nature completely inaccurate and confounded by the available evidence? That is where each reader must evaluate his or her view of humanity's nature and render a judgment on "the anarchist prince."

This is a well-crafted, very modern story about the joys and sorrows of friendship. Cant wait to read more from McKinnon.

I loved this book. It dares, which is more than I can say for most of the novels I've read in the last few years. Fiction has become all the same thing, seemingly meant to make both writer and read feel good about themselves. This novel isn't about that. McKinnon's writing is alive, her characters are vivid and her story is wickedly fun. Reading the other reviews, it is clear that the author's refusal to tell the reader what to think has [upset] some readers and perplexed others; the smart ones, though, know that she purposely encloses you in the suffocating point of view of a narcissist--here's what it's like to live in the skin of a vain, short-sighted, self-glorifying young woman 24/7--as if to say you'd better watch out, world, or this is what we'll all become. But Becky is not a mouthpiece, she is a character whom McKinnon embodies fully and without flinching. I can't wait to see who and what she'll take on next.

Recently, we've been bombarded by the fiction publishing industry with woman characters that are ambivalent about their independence and obsessed with the desire to be all things to everyone (especially to men). The women of Narcissus Ascending cannot be reduced to these banal caricatures. Instead, Karen McKinnon, in her darkly ironical first novel, gives us two rivalrous characters - Becky and Callie - whose complex, obsessive, self-delusional personalities jumps off the page. The seeming authenticity of these characters makes them fascinating to read about. This is a unique and wonderful book that I highly recommend.

Narcissus Ascending, the initial novel offering by transplanted New York psychologist and writer Karen McKinnon is exactly what you expect it to be when you first see it on the bookstore shelf. And it is things you never expected it to be.

The title of the work and its modest size (214 pages) may lead you to believe it contains the usual dose of pretentious self-indulgence that often accompany a first novel, which this one does. Two of the first four words in the opening paragraph are "I" and unless you are among the most voracious and academic of readers, not a few times will you find yourself reaching for the Roget's to get a handle on the sometimes reachng vocabulary. But don't let that keep you from picking it up. This look at the relationships between a group of late twenty-something friends that don't spend their lives huddled in a New York City coffeehouse immediately grabs hold of your interest and rarely lets go.

Written in a unique "diary-like" narrative from the perspective of the main character, Becky, McKinnon's writing structure here is perfect for the subject matter and is a large part of what makes this such an enjoyable read. The lack of dialogue punctuation and the often combined thoughts and sentences make the reader have to work a little harder, but helps to stay atuned to the story line and each of its subjects.

The story is centered around four friends wrapped up in the melieu of New York's East Village who, aside from the day-to-day travails of Manhattan life are each dealing with the mental residue deposited by a fifth character, Callie, whom, though we don't actually meet until the last 80 pages of the book, we come to know and loathe...and fear, but are anxious to meet. The setting is well written and through the interaction and thoughts of each character, we are given a look into four distinct lives and points of view; neurosis, desire, ambition and all. McKinnon walks us through their relationships, individually and collectively, and as we progress, have no choice but to make comparisons with our own lives. Their private thoughts, personal battles and betrayals and the rationalizing of sexual indiscretions and desires are upfront and honest, to the point we are left to wonder how many of the characters and experiences are autobiographical or if the writer is just this good.

McKinnon does deserve a little slap for not reaching further into the character Dahlia and how her life as an incest survivor fuels her thoughts and actions, but should be highly praised for her research into modernist artist Becky. If we didn't know the writer was a psychologist, her depth of detail regarding her artist's struggle for professional self-definition and the art world itself would have us looking forward to her next show at the MoMA.

The storyline focuses largely on the angst and fears of its main players and their shallow, adolescent need to acquire revenge for past deeds done them by the protragonist Callie. But there is an unspoken subtext you can not help but delve into, questions about the foundative solvency in today's society you can not help but ask. Because most of the character development is so thorough and well defined, we can't help but wonder if present-day adults are really this [messed] up and whether we fall into one of two categories; those as equally disfucntional and in need of therapy as the characters we're reading about or those who are fortunate enough to have grown up.

A quick-paced, cozy-up-on-the-sofa-for-an-evening novel, Narcissus Ascending is a fun read that takes an naked, revealing look into the self-centered aspects of the human condition we all enjoy...or suffer from. But don't believe for a second that after you close the cover, it won't have you thinking.

Perhaps more than you'd like to.

I came across this debut novel recently and on cracking open the cover I didn't look up until I had finished all 200 plus pages several hours later. McKinnon's style of writing is impressive and her ability to render the novel's characters into flesh and blood is mind-whirling. The examination of the complexity of friendships that form when self-absorbed people (and aren't we surrounded more and more by them) find each other is sobering...and, I hate to admit it (and so will you), familiar. I can't wait to read more of her writing.

An amazing collection of New York City's most stylish inhabitants by a photographer with a keen eye for the extraordinary. Highly recommended.

The Book is a wonderful document of what the city is all about:
Be yourself and express it with creative confidence!

This is a great book for anyone. Visually the images capture the the personality of New York, and each subjects bio is as diverse as their fashion style. Once you pick it up you can't put it down. Makes for a great gift!

A very New York look at fashion and people and style. Great interviews. Gee I miss NYC

If you love New York and New Yorkers, this is your book. The essence of New York Street Style beautifully photographed by Jake Chessum and ready to uplift any homesick New Yorker abroad. A collection of one of my favorite New York Magazine columns now available to embellish the display on any expat coffee table. If you're in New York, get up, walk the streets and enjoy the real thing, you won't need the book.