New York Books

This is one of my favorite books and also of my daughters. The illustrations are beautiful, and the heart warming story of family visits, appreciation and love just makes you feel good. I like this book so much that I will add more Cynthia Rylant books to our home library.

We're from a large family and the images and descriptions of the family reunion really touched home. I've given it to two different sets of nieces and nephews, and hope they'll have the same great stories to tell about our family that Cynthia Rylant relates.

I bought this book to use for a discussion about how authors can paint pictures with their words. My first graders loved this book and we were able to talk about our favorite parts in the book and all the children can relate because they have either gone to visit relatives or relatives have come to visit them. They loved the pictures and the story!

I love this book, especially for kids with big families. As an adult from a big family it is equally fun to read. This account of the journey and the visit at the relatives' house is written from a refreshingly honest child's point of view. A completely delightful read-to book. I bought a copy for all my kids with children.

This story is about some
family members from Virginia came down to some other relatives that lived
far away and the family from Virginia was staying for a couple of weeks. They finished with eating, playing, and hugging. At the end of the story, the family from Virginia goes back to their house, and wait `til next summer.

I liked this book because the book was about family time and this book will be good for any kid at anytime.

A very enjoyable read and inspirational. I went out purchased a sketch pad and started drawing after finishing the book!

This is a great book! I read it in an hour and a half. I enjoy knowing the process people take in order to deal with life's occasional hiccups that knock the world out from under you. It helps to know that you're not the only one sometimes. It's always a relief when the person works it out positively and thinks enough to want to share it with others. Thank you, Danny!

love it, love it, love it !!!!
a wonderful inspiring little book.
perfect smaller size (6"x8") to carry along with your sketchbook to keep you encouraged in your drawing.

I suppose I had some misperceptions of this book. I was assuming there would be more inspiration that would cajole me into journaling and artwork. I also thought is was he who was disabled - it was his wife. There was little mention of how his wife's diability figured into the whole pictue of his life. As a disabled person, I thought there would be some insight into overcoming disability to do what you want. I do however, love the way he draws and journals. In the end I saw this as a simple journal that anyone might have done. I still have his other book and I have higher hopes for that.

i loved it! i recived the book for valentines day and finished in a day...its very intresting to examine dannys drawing and learn about his life in nyc..

I am new to large format photography. This book is extremly informative and focuses just on negative construction, manipulation and b&w processing. An excellent and timeless resource! Excellent for all formats!

If film shooting is interesting to you (and you should; I'm 26 and grew up with cameras, then I move to digital, and recentlly, I discovered the wonders of a darkroom and BW prints) then this book is a MUST Well, the whole series)!!! there aren't enough words to emphasize my feelings over the 3 books of Ansel Adams (camera, negative & print)

If you don't believe me, then please take a deep look at Ansel's master BW work... that should convince you!!!

This is an excellent book that will help experienced and newcomers in photography. Pay attention to the Zone system that Adams has devised. It will realy help you take total control over your pictures with a helpfull and very creative perspective. The last part of the book (developing negatives) might be ommited by the person who is into digital, although it helped me comprehend a lot about the various Adobe Photoshop features and relate them to classic photography.

One little remark I have to make is for the publisher. The book is printed into gloss paper (all the three books in the series) with a high reflectance index. This results in dificulty reading the book at certain angles.

A must read. The explanation of the zone system is outstanding. I had taken a number of skyline photographs of Austin which when reviewed by professional photographers got 2 thumbs up. After looking at them with a critical eye on exposure and armed with my new understanding of the zone - I retook those same pictures and WOW. What an amazing ability to move your camera off of matrixed metering and know how to really set the exposure for what you want to show. Also helps you understand the tradeoffs the camera is making in it's exposure settings so you can be more purposeful in changes you might make. A critical read if you also intend to ever move into large format photography.

Ansel Adams was a master of photography but not the most exciting storyteller , in my opinion.

This book is one that you should read as part of a complete education in photography, but there are some long sections in it. The parts of the book explaining Adams' zone system are very worthwhile and great stuff. Much of the rest of the book is only interesting if you are shooting film (not digital), as it deals specifically with darkroom processing.

Read about the zone system here or somewhere else, but learn it. If you are a film photog, read this whole book. For digital shooters, you might want to read only the sections of interest.

I purchased this book based on its recommendations, and I'm not sorry I did. It's been 25+ years since I touched a sewing machine, and this book definitely helped take the fright away. Perfect for new seamstresses of all ages.

I have the Rip It! book and love it. I just got this book for my niece for christmas. She wants to learn how to sew and I know this is the best book out there for her. It's very easy to understand and comes with patterns for her to learn with. I'm also getting her a sewing machine from www.sewfastseweasy.com
I love giving! She is going to be so thrilled!

I bought this book for my daughter and she has taken to sewing extremely fast. She's so proud of what she makes. Her enthusiasm for sewing now is almost too much for me to keep up with. This book was was easy for her to understand and the illustrations were very clear. She's been playing around with reconstructing her clothes so I'm thinking of getting her the Rip It book as well. I'm happy to see her involved in a positive hobby that she truly enjoys and gets satisfaction from.

I just bought this book because I wanted to freshen up my sewing. I knew how to home sew from my mother but I didn't know much about sewing techniques or terms or sewing notions and how to use them. This book was very easy to understand and explains everything I need to know about sewing and using notions and patterns. It's now my sewing bible! If I get stuck on something I grab my sew fast sew easy book.

The book is great it even comes with patterns. The book is easy to understand and has lots of detail. I would definatly recommend it.

One of the best business books I've ever read. Danny really "gets it" as far as treating his employees and customers like family and VERY important people. THIS is why he is so successful with the top restaurants in NYC. A MUST read for anyone in sales or who deals with customers and employees on a daily basis

A great book that describes how to create customers for life, with "enlightened hospitality", creating an outstanding customer experience, based on a dialog with the customer. As he puts it "picking up the rocks" (to find the info) and "connecting the dots", a process that could and should be copied for every business.

His passion for food comes across the written page, its contagious.
I'm not a wine drinker but his passion made me want to give it a try.

I never been to one of his restaurants but I now see a trip to New York to visit his restaurants.

Highly recommended not only for restaurateurs, but for every business that has contact with customers.

This is one of the best books I have ever read on the hospitality business. Given that it is the industry that I am in, I probably found it more entertaining and insightful than many may who are NOT in the industry. Either way, a great read.

I was about to leave for vacation, and was looking for a beach read. Danny Meyer had been generous enough to supply an endorsement for my book, The Art of Client Service, so the least I could do was buy his book.

I am very glad I did.

Setting the Table certainly is a book on how to provide superior hospitality to customers, but it's more than that: it's the best book I've read on what it means to provide service to clients in ANY business. Its candor, humility, and generosity of spirit are reflected in all the lessons Danny learned, applied, and now recounts as he grew to be a leader.

My only quibble, and it is a small one, is that the book lacks an index. I assume this was a conscious decision on Danny's part, possibly because he does not view Setting the Table as a "how to" guide. But the reality is, the book is loaded with practical advice on how to build and sustain enduring client relationships. An index would help readers refer to lessons that inspired or motivated them.

My one regret is that I failed to include Setting the Table in my book's annotated bibliography of the 20 titles advertising people should read. I will, however, add it to the Art of Client Service website. And most important of all, I will recommend the book to all my advertising industry colleagues.

Love it, love it, love it. Finally an empowering business book for those of us who don't believe you have to be a soulless, emotionally retarded cheeseball prick to succeed in the business world. Danny Meyer's financial results give ample validity to his approach, so while you can still get rich the "traditional" way, his experience supports the fact that you can also get rich AND make the world a better place. Gets a little blah towards the end, but all of my stars, underlines and dogears throughout the beginning and middle parts more than make up for that. Others will do a better job of dissecting and analyzing the book in detail, so that's it for me. If you're tired of getting the beat-down for having the gall to have "feelings" at work, you'll love this book.

Just one read of Peter Miller's book, "Author! Screenwriter!" will broaden your horizen of writing possibilities. Don't just think screenplay, but consider formating that same story idea into a novel as well. And when you consider the odds, 100,000 to 200,000 books published per year, as compared to only some 1,000 stories produced for all of the Network Television, Motion Picture, Cable and DVD industries, Mr. Miller argues an interesting point. With over 30 years experience managing and producing writers, he gives insights into the industry that few others have even touched upon.

Definitely worth any writer's time and money. But regardless of one's writing goals, this book gives that big push every writer needs to encourage perfection and perseverance.

If you're serious about realizing your potential as a writer, this is the book you buy. Having successfully managed hundreds of books, Peter Miller truly is "The Literary Lion", and Author! Screenwriter! has left a huge impact on me as a professional writer.

Need an inside guide on how to write the perfect proposal or understand the delicacies of contracts? He's got you covered. Or maybe you really would like to take a look at some sample inquiries, be inspired by some success stories, have a better understanding of the do's and don'ts in a profession where millions of writers compete for the interest of professionals in the industry. Trust me, if you read this book it will never be far from your hands. Buy Author! Screenwriter! and you'll go back again and again to Mr. Miller's wellspring of experience and insight.

If you're like me, you want to be armed with the truth as a writer, and Peter Miller delivers. Read it, cloak your talent in its wisdom, and move forward. You'll agree that it's more than a book.

It may well be the key to your future.

The book is a must-have for a writer's bookshelf. But a companion DVD is also available with practical and pointed interviews that is well-worth seeking out.

Peter Miller's Author!Screenwriter! is direct and to the point, so I shall be also. This beautifully organized exposition provided me with more insight into the Book and Film industry than I have found in any other source. I could write much more, applauding the great chapters on the mysteries of film deals and the most helpful examples of project proposals in many genres -- but the bottom line is simple Author!Screenwriter! is definitive, the most helpful book on the subject.

I purchased Peter Miller's book at the recommendation of a colleague who knew I was in the process of writing a book proposal. Peter's book and DVD provide the reader/viewer with such clarity and direction. Peter provides wisdom and insights for the experienced and the novice writer in how to maneuver their way through the challenges, obstacles, politics and subtelties of the publishing industry. By the time you are finished reading his book and viewing his DVD you have a very clear picture of what lies ahead - no rose colored glasses, advice for the dedicated writer; you are clearer than you ever imagined you could be about what lies ahead. Buy this book if you are serious about our writing career.

I have spent some time in NYC before but had always been with a city resident and hadn't ever needed a guide. But when the opportunity came about for my husband and I to spend a long weekend there, I absolutely took it. I love the city (in small doses, couldn't ever live there), but hadn't ever had a chance to do any touristy stuff. So I read some reviews and picked up this guide.

I spent a few days reading over it, and after my trip, I would say it's a great guide if you don't know what you want to do, or how to structure your days, because it has very specific suggestions for stuff like that. It has a section for each part of the city, at the end of which is a run down on a sample day one could spend in that neighborhood.

But as far as a comprehensive while-you're-there guide? I wish I had gotten Not For Tourists. This was a great planner, and had street and subway maps that were incredibly useful, but when you're looking for a bookstore nearby to kill an hour? Nada. Also, because of the setup of the book (chock full of Top Ten lists, duh), it jumps around a lot. One museum is mentioned in four different places, and vital information is only on one of those pages, but from the index there's no way to tell which one of those pages has something important like the hours of the place, for example, so you have to check every page.

Again, great for planning, less great for a carry-along for your trip.

Great subway map! Just don't forget to read the signs in the subway, some trains only run certain days/times. AND if I remember correctly PATH is not really in the book.

For those traveling to New York City this is an essential guide to bring with you. The restaurant recommendations are top notch. The maps are detailed and a pocket subway guide is always helpful. Whether you are going in for a week or a weekend this is the guide you want to carry with you when you are out and about. You may want to use another guide if you are going in for a longer period of time for planning purposes but again this is the one you want to carry with you when you are in the city.

I've used this guide several times on trips to NY and it is absolutely terrific. Pocketable, beautifully illustrated, wonderfully organized. We went to two of the restaurants recommended and were totally pleased. Very easy to use and filled with useful information. Will add a lot to a visit.

I visited NYC for the first time a few weeks ago. I took only three books about this city with me: this guide, the "Lonely planet NYC Guide", and "The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide". Truth to be told, this guide is probably the only one I couldn't have done without.

"Top 10 New York" is an extremely useful small guide that doesn't have as much information as the "Lonely planet NYC Guide", but that has the essentials, and excellent fold out maps in color that are more easily understandable than those of other guides. I would like to highlight the fact that even though I am very absent minded, I could easily find my way in NYC thanks to those maps. And if I can, everybody will be able to do that!

From my point of view, this guide is ideal for those tourists that don't have a lot of time, and want to see as much as possible during their visit to NYC (specifically Manhattan), if possible without a tourist guide. "Top 10 New York" points out quite a few places you simply must go to in the city, but also tells you about different neighbourhoods, and their history. There are many photos in color that help you to decide what you want to do, and historic data that allows you to learn about this city.

Moreover, most visitors will find the insider tips for tourists helpful, and the planned walks and itineraries a good option. Other useful sections in this guide are, for example, "Best shopping districts", "Best hotels for every budget" (I found my hotel through Internet, though), "Best restaurants in each area" and "Most fun places for children". What is more, "Top 10 New York" is almost pocket-sized, so you can carry it with you everywhere, even if your purse is tiny (not my case!), or if you have bought too many things and your handbag is rather heavy (yes, that often happens to me).

All in all, I am very happy I bought this guide, and I strongly recommend it to you :)

Belen Alcat

I've read other books by this author and liked them, especially "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." Perhaps I didn't read the emailed Amazon promo carefully enough because I had no idea that this book was written 35 years ago. It is a story of a druggie living in NYC in the '60s. Although I was part of that culture, I really didn't know anyone as deeply into weed as this character so it was hard to relate. Was the story supposed to be happy, funny, or just sad? It was hard to tell. And how DID the chorus get all those fans?

There has been a lot of counterculture literature since the rise of the Beat Generation in the 50s. Much of it fails to measure up to the standard of Kerouac, Ginsberg or Burroughs. There are some writers who have managed to rise up to the occasion with classic or near classic works. Terry Southern would be one that comes to mind. Another writer who has produced some fine works is William Kotzwinkle. Before, "E.T. The Extra-terrestial", Kotzwinkle was noted for producing counterculture literature. One of his most famous works is the 1974 novel "The Fan Man".

This novel chronicles the sleazy misadventures of the self absorbed hippie Horse Badorties. He is typical low life East Village for that time period, man. He knows the score and will always find the door for a quick out. He avoids things like rent and pays for commodities with rubber checks. Surely this is a time piece cause many of his ideals wouldn't fly in today's climate.

The title is derived from his continued attempts to be a salesman of small battery powered fans. He consistently uses them and tries to sell them in any store or business he enters into. It is all part of his grand scheme. He even envisions utilizing the fans in his Love Concert that will be presented at St Nancy's Church. (I am wondering if this is meant to be the famous St. Mark's Church in the East Village which conducted poetry readings for decades.)

Kotzwinkle endeavors to capture the thought process and speech pattern of an East Village post hippie lowbrow. In this, he is very successful. The narrative moves along in a hazy stream of consciousness. Horse Badorties is a slob who is no stranger to the herbal pleasures of Mother Nature. The novel begins with Horse waking up in his filthy pad. Kotzwinkle is very descriptive in detailing the encrusted, greasy condition of this pad. It would probably not be too appealing to squeamish stomachs. I found myself thinking, "Man, and I thought I was a slob." Horse Badorties is not only from another era, he seems to be from another universe.

Badorties is full of big ideas and cons. He doesn't pay the rent and destroys the pad with his junk and filth. He is trying to conduct a love concert which will feature a chorus of 15 year old girls, most of whom, he tries to bed down. He has music sheets which he claims is church music from hundreds of years ago. Suspension of disbelief is required to take seriously anything Horse Badorties says.

The narrative is written in the first person, and we get a lot of "mans" sprinkled throughout the text, man. Like, man, after awhile, it can get pretty unnerving, man. In this respect, it is similar to a novel like Huck Finn where Twain attempts to capture the slang and accents of 19th Century Missouri. Kotzwinkle is very successful in this endeavor. He manages to tap into that vein of consciousness from Badorties viewpoint. This can be frustrating to the reader. If you consider how annoying it can be to listen to a person who overuses the word man in their speech, man, well, it can be just as annoying reading this text. Some readers would probably get lost in trying to follow the narrative. You almost have to try to put yourself in Badorties shoes. That is not a pleasant proposition. Kotzwinkle is very successful in capturing this stream of consciousness.

My impression is that this book is meant more as an adieu to the hippie era and the summer of love mentality that the 60s rock exuded. This is really about the crash, man. This is when people began to drop out without tuning in or turning on. In reading the book, I get the sense that I am listening to the voice of a man whose time has passed. He is left to wallow, in his own words, in putrified wretchedness. There must have been quite a few real life people like Badorties populating the East Village during those years. Perhaps there still are a few dinosaurs and relics there today. All in all, this is a very amusing, entertaining and irreverent book, one that will certainly make you laugh. Yes, it's a fun book. Pick up a copy! Along with this novel I'd also like to recommend another East Village novel called The Losers' Club (Complete Restored Edition) by Richard Perez.

This classic captures both the sense of the drugged-out sixties--when the prevalent youth drugs were less dangerous and addictive--and the quirky character who is the narrator. I recently read a book, also funny, but more serious--by which I mean deeper--that covers the same time and place: I Think, Therefore Who Am I? Both protagonists are similarly afflicted by the short attention span that characterized pot- and acidheads of that era. But then, that book, "Memoir of a Psychedelic Year" is clearly a memoir, and Kotzwinkle's book is only putatively so.

At any rate, The Fan Man is an excellent book. One of the funniest you'll ever read, if you like pothead humor--as I do. Sadly, Kotzwinkle never reached this level of hilarity again. I Think, Therefore Who Am I?

I read this book at the age of 12! It somehow made it onto a shelf of the St Rose of Lima school library in suburban Toronto. I read it cover to cover and for a short time it was cooler than porn for a few boys on the school hockey team. I returned it without mentioning it's subject matter to anyone in a authority. It could still be there. Maybe somebody was pulling pranks, or maybe Miss Heitzner, the soon to retire librarian was more progressive than she was ever given credit for! It's been a long time, 28 years or so, but I always remembered Horse and his anticts. In particular his getting laid and the school bus scam. Let's say it made an impression.

I read this book in my youth, and try and read it every couple of years. I rank it right up there with a confederacy of dunces, another classic. horse and ignatius are two of my favorite characters to come from the world of fiction. I came of age in the late 60's and early 70's, being a former hippie [ now my politics are just to the right of atilla the hun ] this book captures that era perfectly.

Like the mood swings of its central characters, this book took me to giddy highs and pensive lows. Wimmer takes you on a great ride with fellow travelers you come to care about as they search for love and their place in the world.

Dick Wimmer gives us a world and a set of characters vibrant with life and humanity. Seamus Boyne is as endearing as Joyce Cary's Gully Jimson and twice as irrepressible. This book is a sleeper. Why doesn't everybody know about it?
--Doug Ramsey

Wimmer's look at life,love,and laugher is not to be missed.He touches on every aspect of all that life has to offer,and along the way leaves the reader rolling in the aisles.You get so caught up in his unique characters,that you forget about the mad romp this gem of a book takes you on. Drop whatever you're reading now and do yourself a favor, pick up The Irish Wine Trilogy, you will not disappointed. More than any other novelist in recent memory, Wimmer gives us a story that makes us glad to be alive. You will laugh out loud, over, and over, again. Bravo, Mr. Wimmer. You are a treasure.

Irish Wine, by Dick Wimmer, is a stunningly lyrical, achingly funny trilogy that presents some of the brightest, yet most flawed, characters I've encountered. Wimmer portrays the Artist, in various incarnations--the frustrated, the famous, the obsessive, the unrecognized, the paralyzed. These characterizations are poignant, yet completely irreverent. As a result, Wimmer creates an unexpected literary delight: fast-paced poetry that you can't put down.
What an accomplishment!
As an added bonus, no male writer I've ever read, has written better about sex from a woman's point of view, than Wimmer. Bravo!

Dick Wimmer's beautiful, high-energy writing took me on an adventure filled with all of the things that make life delicious: love, joy, passion, risk and lots of laugh out loud humor. I found myself adoring the larger than life painter,Seamus Boyne, from the beginning of the first novel and growing to love him more and more as his passion fueled the craziest of situations. His love for his estranged daughter, Tory, was deeply moving and provided terrific emotional glue for the wonderful zaniness found in the second novel. The third novel was very different, but equally rich and satisfying - a story about moving through fear to claim one's joy. Wimmer's style is completely unexpected and utterly enjoyable. I loved it!

The Indian mutiny of 1857 sees the cantoment of Krishnapur besieged by sepoys. For three months Mr Hopkins (the collector) galvanises the British community in resisting the onslaught...
This book is superbly written and often reminds one of the style of George Elliot. It is both witty and profound and wonderfully researched and charactorized.Like the best of Elliot,Farrell uses his narrative to inform on other topics-the great cholera debate;the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace- and questions the basis of what culture actually lends to civilisation.
Books like this just don't get written these days.

Paul Scott wrote in his RAJ QUARTET that it was in India during the last days of the Raj that the British came to the end of themselves as they were. In this superb Booker Prize-winning novel written concurrently with the QUARTET (and which casts a similar cold eye towards the British imperial ambitions in India), J. G. Farrell shows how the Raj itself was formed and how it already carried within it in embryo the seeds of the destruction for the entire Empire. The novel takes place in a city in Northeastern India during 1857, the year of the Great Sepoy Rebellion: the British stationed in Krishnapur hear vague rumors of what they will call "The Mutiny" from faraway towns but are mostly unwilling to take them seriously. The ensuing siege they endure carries on for months as they wait for help to relieve them; though slowly forced to an absolute subsistence level--and then to even less--, they refuse to relinquish the habits of social conditioning that have made them already who they are. Social snobbery, physical modesty, gender segregation: all remain firmly ensconced even as their physical conditions start deteriorating so greatly they start dying in large numbers.

The novel's subject would seem to suggest that the novel would make for almost unbearable reading: oddly it does not, because the characters of the novel (who are almost entirely British) maintain such a droll and uncomprehending attitude towards their conditions, no matter how desperate things seem. Thus, since Farrell focalizes his narrative mostly through his thoughts, everything seems unreal throughout the entire siege and not quite so nightmarish as it might have been had he used a more distanced narrator. The work is in part a parody of old-fashioned "Mutiny novels," so you should know that the ending is very much in keeping with those kinds of novels (which proliferated throughout the Empire during the latter half of the nineteenth century); characteristically, however, Farrell puts his own intelligent spin on things, so even if the ending you had been expecting does occur it doesn't in the way you had expected. This is the second, and perhaps most famous, of the three superb works of Farrell's "Empire" trilogy which beautifully illustrates the conditions of Empire described in another nearly coeval work, Jan Morris's famous PAX BRITTANICA trilogy. It's exciting, amusing, intelligent, and greatly worth reading.

This is an excellent novel about the Sepoy Mutiny in India in 1857. The focus of the story is the siege of the British Civil Service enclave at Krishanpur (historically this was the siege of Lucknow). A group of Sepoy soldiers was given new rifle cartridges that were wrapped in greased paper, and the paper was removed by biting it off with one's teeth. The word spread was that this grease was animal grease, which was an insult to religion. The sepoys mutinied, killed their superior British officers, and started marauding across India.

Hearing about the mutiny the (tax) Collector in Krishnapur had ramparts built around the British buildings in Krishnapur. Shortly afterwards the Sepoys attacked in waver after wave for a period of several months. Surprisingly author Farrell describes the sufferings of those besieged with a good deal of humor, humor that pricks holes in the pompous beliefs and attitudes of 19th century British colonizers. We bring them progress, a superior civilization, yet they turn on us marvels the Collector. The condescension doesn't stop with the Indians. At one point the Collector speaks to the British women in the enclave, and silently thinks that in reality women are really useless creatures. It is the men of the world that shoulder the responsibility of getting things done. The padre runs around telling everyone that God is punishing them for their sinful behavior. A new school and an old school doctor constantly disagree over medical treatment. In perhaps the funniest scene of the book the old doctor contracts cholera, and instructs his aides to cover him with mustard plasters. The young doctor, who is aware that cholera victims die from dehydration, initiates a saline IV every time the old doc sinks into a coma. The IV brings him around, and he immediately pulls out the IV and insists on getting his mustard plasters, following which he soon sinks back into a coma. Back goes the IV and the doc becomes conscious again. This cycle goes on and on and becomes hysterically funny.

The British thought they were doing wonderful things for the Indians, but the harsh reality of it is they were creating harsh lives for their colonial subjects. The sepoys, for example, were paid near starvation wages. This is an important novel about the misguided philosophy behind imperialism. Perhaps there is a lesson here for us Americans. Should we really be focused on bringing our way of life to other countries?

"The Siege of Krishnapur', the second of J.G. Farrell's now classic works on the British Empire, (see also Troubles (New York Review Books Classics) and The Singapore Grip (New York Review Books Classics)) is a fictionalized account of the Siege of Lucknow during the Great Mutiny of 1857-1858 (aka the Sepoy Rebellion). The mutiny or rebellion, depending on one's point of view, was ultimately defeated by the British and led to the replacement of East India Company rule by direct British governance under the Raj.

Farrell masterfully recreates the insular British upper-class life in India - and the siege only intensifies this insularity. As the siege drags on and on, the inhabitants strive to maintain expected standards of behavior and decorum. Farrell populates his book with interesting characters who debate and dispute morality, religion, progress, and civilization.

Excellent introductions are a hallmark of the New York Review of Books Classics and the introduction to this volume by Pankaj Mishra places the book in historical and cultural context and adds significant value.

Highest Recommendation.

At the climax of this magnificent novel, the book's protagonist, Hopkins, the British civil administrator or Collector of Krishnapur, finds himself trapped in a Union Jack whose flagstaff has been shot down, knocking him to the ground. He recognizes it as the scenario of a persistent nightmare that had been troubling since his small enclave had been put under siege several months before. But it is also a symbol for the entire book.

The initial set-up here is similar to that of the author's TROUBLES: a group of British colonialists crammed together in a decaying building while the threat of native rebellion comes closer. But this is larger in scope, with a bigger cast of characters, grander themes, and a rebellion which is much more than some background disturbance. Unlike the violence in TROUBLES, which is seen at first hand only in the hallucinatory final chapters of the book, this one (the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857) takes center stage about a third of the way into the novel, leading to harrowing scenes of death, starvation, and disease. On the level of a simple war story, these events (based on the siege of Lucknow) make for a stirring story of heroism and courage -- especially where these qualities are unexpected, is in the formerly stuffy Collector who discovers hidden talents for generalship and strategy, and the young poet George Fleury, fresh out from England, who proves to have a strong practical streak and a remarkably cool head.

Also as in TROUBLES, there is a pervasive eroticism to this book, centering around three of the younger woman besieged in the Residency: the debutante Louise, chaste belle of Calcutta balls; Miriam, George's young widowed sister, tired of being assigned to stereotypical female roles, and Lucy, whom everybody knows as a "dishonored woman" although nobody is entirely clear as to the extent or agency of this dishonor. As the siege persists, the courtship conventions of colonial society are turned on their head by proximity and deprivation. There is one almost surreal scene in which Lucy, attacked by a huge cloud of otherwise harmless flying beetles, rips off her clothes and promptly faints, leaving two young men to scrape the insects off her, in the process discovering the differences between a real female body and a marble statue.

For, despite the bloodshed, Farrell's characteristic tone of comedy is present here too, but now his targets are as much institutional as personal: the hypocracies of colonialism, trivia of class and culture, and Victorian attitudes towards faith and science. As we meet the cast of characters, we find many different points of view: the Padre who believes that the rebellion is God's punishment for sin, the cynical Magistrate who is a confirmed atheist, the Opium Agent who believes only in profit, rival doctors from older and newer schools of thinking, bluff soldiers who do not think much at all but who can yet be excellent at their jobs, the aesthete Fleury whose first reaction to being under fire is to assemble phrases for an epic poem, and the Collector, who believes in progress, but attempts to strike a balance between all points of view. And to a remarkable extent, the author also manages to retain that balance. The siege is a crucible in which every kind of received attitude may be tested, and for the most part found wanting. But Farrell is never preachy or polemical; he does not make everything subservient to a single point of view, even the anti-colonial one. His great gift is to keep you thinking, even as you turn the pages with bated breath. A brilliant achievement!