Bowles Books

As a middle school language arts and literature teacher, each term I use Emily Dickinson to initiate my poetry unit as well as to generally elevate vocabulary and metaphoric concept in my classroom. And, as one who is a personal devotee of Emily Dickinson, her life, and her work, I've spent countless wonderful hours in the embrace of her poetry and her letters, and have become an avid student of her biography as put forth by authors such as Sewall, Wolff, Smith, Leyda, and Buckingham, among others.

This book and author, I find, are not numbered as deserving inclusion in my "among others" category. To begin with, the writing is so poorly fashioned that I would not, in general, accept it as a final effort from even a seventh grade writer. Additionally, Mr. Arnold's proposed solution to the "Master" question appears to be based more on salacious fantasy than on solid literary research.

The book is not worth the time, and certainly not worth the asking price. To rate it with one star is overly generous.

This is great book for poetlovers. I got mine at amazon. It teels me all i need to know bout the poet. She has got so many good pomes. My but i don understn the nasty rightups some people write. Book makes good cents to me. i wsrite pomes to.

Dickinson is a difficult poet, and one of the main purposes of this book of the life of her and critiques of her poems is to
try to clarify any and all points where the meaning would not be perfectly clear to a reader of reasonable intelligence.
Bill Arnold makes use of poem variants recorded in the Johnson editions which had not come to light. His pages are full, detailed, and extensive, and in addition offer full commentaries on all her love poem. He tells us that his aim was to create a new understanding for the general reader, which would bring these cryptic poems to readers both in America and abroad. He offered, "The untold story of Emily Dickinson's 'Secret Love' can now be told in its entirety. She disclosed their affair and his name via acrostics and anagrams in the tradition of the French court-love poets." It does that and more. As sometimes exasperatingly obscure poems hit you, Bill Arnold details exactly which code unravels the mystery of who was the Master in her life. The poems are preceded by interesting prose passages and the book is rounded out with a biography of the author. It's a compact easy to read book and pleasant to handle. Now, readers can know that her secret love was Sam Bowles, a publisher of the Springfield Daily Republican, and an intimate of her brother Austin. In a book of this nature the problem is always that of trying to strike a balance between giving the reader too much help or too little. Bill Arnold is a Dickinson scholar who has put sufficient details to prove why the scandalous relationship did not surface in Emily Dickinson's lifetime. As the author comments, "Thus, the reason Emily Dickinson remained unpublished in her lifetime becomes self-evident." The secret-love affair is not so shocking as revealing of what her poems mean, and her anagrams do "now make sense." Although Bill Arnold may have given some readers a bit more help than they need, on the whole he seems to have struck a nice balance, and most readers will probably find most of his notes and commentary to be both helpful and illuminating. It is an excellent introduction to those who know little of the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson.

My boyfriend gave me this book. He bought it for summer reading when we go up to the cape. But he liked it so much, he gave me to read. Recommended for all women, if you like poetry like me. Really helped me understand the love story poems.

Emily Dickinson wrote POEMS, not autobiography, not history, but POEMS. She is a great American, now globally triumphant, and her writings deserve to be treated with far greater sensitivity, intelligence, and respect than is shown in this book, a book that reduces them to the level of cheap pulp fiction. So please don't waste your money. Buy her poems in a good edition such as those of R. W. Franklin or Thomas H. Johnson and read them. And if you would like to read about her life, read the excellent biography by R. B. Sewall, a scholar who gets his facts straight and who does not indulge in idle, foolish, and sensational speculation. But whatever you do, stay away from the present book. Emily Dickinson has much more to offer the world than the cheap thrill of an imagined romance.

As with most of Bruce Weber's books, his style is the same from the beginning and had not changed a bit. Though I admire many of his good works (and in fact had purchased a lot of his expensive books), a good 70% of images in his books were the same type of images we discard at photo school developing labs and the same type of images our instructors at Photo 1 asked us to improve. Reasons: out of focus, bad composition, low quality grainy and muddy images. Well, it's the name that sells, you know. It takes a lot to be Bruce Weber. Honestly, his works for Abercrombie and Fitch were much better than the books. If I were to make a name like my idol, my works will sell, as well. And I am not kidding.

As a photographer who really looks up to and loves the work of Bruce Weber, I know I have a strong bias for anything he does. However, this book is a great look inside Weber's world and is godo with the interviews as well. My only problem is the price, ... there are probably better books for those that really get into Weber photography and are looking to maybe buy just one book, such as the out of print Chop Suey Club, etc., that even cover his work with Abercrombie and Fitch, and are cheaper at the same time. I would only recommend this book for someone who wants to know more than your basics about what Weber is about, and price is not an issue, otherwise go for it!

Through a series of short stories, Rey Rosa introduces us not only to a scary world beyond, but also to a new line in Guatemalan literature. Also, interesting mixing of scenaries. Even though, it was Rey Rosa's first work is strong and provocative. It makes you want to keep track of this young writer.

Martha wakes up in the hospital to discover her husband, John, and one of her newborn twins has been killed by a drunk driver. She experiences indescribable grief and feels frustrated by the fact that the other driver left the scene of the accident.

With the assistance of her family and friends and an unwavering faith in God, Martha begins to heal. She is able to take her surviving twin home and she begins what is to be a difficult journey -- living the life she and her husband had dreamed without him.

Time begins to heal her broken heart and she is able to put aside her pain and anger. Her life is changed for the better by her friendship and subsequent relationship with the detective who investigated her accident.

Julie A. Bowles does a good job of bringing the reader into the painful world of grief. She brings the true meaning of God's love to the forefront of this story, and in so doing, teaches that with God's love all things can be overcome. Despite the few editing issues left untouched by PublishAmerica, I believe Ms. Bowles' storyline will garner her a readership.

This is the tale of how English PR executive John Blake foils Korean billionaire Sool Kay-Sheen's crazed efforts to revenge his dead mother's honour by bringing down the Japanese economy. I admit this superior example of an 'airport novel' kept me turning the pages. Yet Graham Lancaster's smooth ear for dialogue and knowledgable descriptions of numerous global locales fails to conceal the unreality of his characters' motives and the superfluousness of numerous plot twists. Even he seems unconvinced of a subplot involving the killing of young Japanese women. At this price, I would advise waiting for the (inevitable) paperback edition.

E. A. Bowles book, MY GARDEN IN SUMMER, is part of a several part series of books he wrote describing his garden at Myddelton England during his tenure in the early part of the 20th Century.

I bought this book because I enjoyed books written by Beverly Nichols, an English writer who moved to the countryside after WWII and rebuilt the garden surrounding an old house. Nichols has the help of an excentric gardener, and all sorts of adventures with his cats and kooky maiden neighbors. I thought Mr. Bowles would prove to be another Brit gardener with a wry sense of humour but he is not -- at least in this book.

I am also a fan of Elizabeth Lawrence, a horticulturist with the N.C. State government who practiced her craft in the latter part of the 20th Century, beginning in the 1940s. Ms Lawrence referred to Mr. Bowles books in her own books. I love Ms. Lawrence writing because she not only provides the scientific particulars of each plant, she shares the gardening experiences relayed to her via her correspondance -- with Mr. Howdyshel in Ohio and gardeners in other parts of the country. Ms. Lawrence also provides the reader with many anectdotal bits about the plants, as well as the history of the plant. Ms. Lawrence is factual, sometimes amusing though not funny, and I find her books entertaining.

If MY GARDEN IN SUMMER is a fair sample of Mr. Bowles writing, his book will appeal to no one but the avid historical garden enthusiast with an in-depth knowledge of plants and curiostity about another gardener's experiences with various plants at different times in the last century. Or, someone who intends to visit Myddleton Garden in England, or has visited it might enjoy the book. Being able to see the real thing often helps, and the gardens are being restored--probably why the book was republished.

Mr. Bowles book contains a dozen or so black and white photos of mixed quality. For some reason, about half of them appear in the section he wrote on sedums and succulents. One photo in particular is very pretty, showing a long terrace with about 30-40 pots of various succulents. I'd like a blow-up of that photograph for it's aesthetic properties. You won't be able to identify many of the succulents in the pots, however.

An appendix in the back of the book provides the reader with the current names of the plants Mr. Bowles discusses. In spite of this update, I found the sections of greatest interest to me a bit deficient. On my next visit to England, I will visit Myddleton Garden, and then I'll reread the book -- or sections of it. That should help me better appreciate it.

The book was fine, but I thought it was coming with a CD.

This book gives a true-to-life account of Paul Bowles life in morocco. It gives examples of the things that go on there that you wouldn't expect to find in an ordinary travel guide. I'd reccomend this book to people that were going to Morocco so that they could get a taste of the dark underside of the area. It was a good book and for the most part easy to read. The stories, like most of Bowles work, stick in your head long after reading them.

I didn't like this book because the author really tore Disney down. Being a big Disney fan I didn't like that very much. This guy obviously didn't like the show. If you want good reading read The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book.

This "where are they now" book about the Mickey Mouse Club stars was published in the mid-1970s and is a good snapshot of what their lives were like some 15 years after the Mouse Club. Obviously, much has happened since then - Annette is gravely ill with multiple sclerosis and Karen is a paraplegic, to mention two examples. Still, for those of us who rushed home every afternoon after school to commune with our Mouseketeer friends, Jerry Bowles' midlife memoir is worth reading.

This book is a backhanded compliment to the original Mouseketeers and all their fans! Yes, there is a lot of information in it, and especially the first chapters where Bowles writes about what the world was like in the 1950's-that's pretty good. After that, there is a real meanness to the things he writes. It's as if he really believes that the Mickey Mouse Club was some sort of pathologic TV. In a sweet, almost harmless appearing way, he makes the Mouseketeers look bad, except maybe Annette. The Mouseketeers couldn't have been happy when they saw this book in print. This is the kind of take you'd get if TV's "Inside Edition" or "Hard Copy" did the research. This book is mean, cynical, and cruel. The Mouseketeers and we, as readers and fans of the show, deserve better.

He bad mouths Disney as a corporation, which is fine if he wants to do that and he tells the truth objectively. But then he attacks individuals. He makes Walt Disney out to be a micro-managing tightwad who couldn't draw, and Ruth Dodd comes off as Mrs. Jim Jones instead of Mrs. Jimmie Dodd. Nasty. Every time a Mouseketeer says they're happy with the way their life has turned out, he overtly doubts their sincerity. This is similar to the spiteful and vindictive book written about John Lennon after he wasn't around to defend himself. He even has an interview with Mickey Mouse, which obviously never took place, just so he could prove his point that Walt Disney was a back-stabbing crook who stole fame and fortune from Ub Iwerks! Lorraine Santoli's book, "The Official MMC Handbook" is much better written and more satisfying reading. Bowles could have taken a few lessons from her.

Amazon found this book quite handily for me from a used bookseller, but after reading it, I'm glad it's out of print.

From 1923 to 1956, a coalition of European powers governed Tangier, Morocco, and called the city "The International Zone of Tangier," which William Burroughs referred to as the "interzone," a word he later used as the title for one of his manuscripts. During its years as an International Zone, Tangier became a notorious magnet and haven for smugglers, spies, outcasts, artists, and expatriates-a place where nations, languages, and cultures could mix wantonly. In the years following World War II, Paul Bowles, William Burroughs and Alfred Chester left America and eventually settled in Tangier (Bowles permanently; Burroughs and Chester temporarily), where each of them wrote some of their major works.

In Colonial Affairs, Greg Mullins reassesses the "interzone literature" of these three writers in relation to queer and postcolonial theory. Each writer receives an entire chapter's worth of analytical scrutiny, with close readings of their major texts, in which Mullins purports to find evidence of what he refers to as "colonial desire" and "colonial nostalgia," as well as other examples of "colonial discourse." A fifth and final chapter, "Translating Homosexuality," deals with Paul Bowles's collaborations with Larbi Layachi, Mohammed Mrabet, and Mohamed Choukri. Here, Mullins raises some interesting points about translation and the issue of "authenticity," but he comes to questionable conclusions, such as "The Bowles translations can best be understood as an erotic exercise in their own right, an exercise that reflects the patron/client model of sexual commerce between West and East in Tangier."

The arguments that Mullins advances are both compelling and intriguing, but his attempt to map the rigid coordinates of postmodern theory onto the slippery and erratic topography of these six highly eccentric writers falls short of being totally convincing. To say that Bowles, Burroughs, and Chester perpetuated or embodied "the structures and stereotypes of colonial discourse" seems far fetched at best; in the act of turning their backs on America and immersing themselves in the crucible of Tangier, where the demarcations between language, culture, nationality, and sexuality were in constant flux, their project (and common denominator) was primarily one of self-discovery, or even a deconstruction of the self altogether, in order to get to a place beyond, the true "interzone" of the subconscious. That the work of these three writers "variously celebrates, critiques, and attempts to evade the double bind of colonial sexuality" seems moot in this light, while the fact that they "reordered reality through their writing" is a given that hardly warrants further discussion. As for Choukri, Layachi, and Mrabet, their entrepreneurial savoir-faire and large doses of egomania about their literary endeavors hardly jibe with the "patron/client model of sexual commerce."

Originally begun as a dissertation, Colonial Affairs frequently veers off into totally unrelated terrain (such as the roots of postmodernism in the work of Burroughs, Freudian fetish theory in the work of Chester, etc.). Nonetheless, Mullins has provided us with an engaging portrait of these three writers and their lives in Tangier, and an intriguing reinterpretation of their legacy, which has more in common with Rimbaud's "disordering of the senses" than the "horror" that Mr. Kurtz lamented in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.