Truman Books

Samuel L. Walker has written a half-way decent introduction to the subject at hand, but it is not as good as many of the other reviewers think.

Walker presents strong evidence that the use of the atomic bomb was necessary if the war was to be ended "as quickly as possible." So far, so good. When it comes to the question of whether the bomb was necessary to end the war 'reasonably quickly,' that is, within three or four more months, he uncritically accepts the claims of Paul Nitze that the Japanese would probably have surrendered by Nov. 1st, 1945, and certainly by Dec. 1st. This is rather odd, because, Walker cites Robert P. Newman's Truman and the Hiroshima Cult. Newman read through the interrogations of Japan's surviving wartime leadership conducted by the Strategic Bombing Survey, and found that they only one Japanese leader agreed with Nitze's estimated surrender date, and that one only when prompted (earlier in the same interview, he expected Japan to hold out rather longer).

Newman further reviewed the intelligence data available to the U.S. through July of 1945, and showed that the Japanese were making strenuous efforts to resist the expected amphibious invasion, while specifically rejecting the terms they finally accepted in August. (The U.S., British, and Chinese governments were convinced that a surrender on terms, a la the Versailles treaty, would likely lead to World War III in the 1960s or 1970s). Thus, even if Nitze's conclusion was correct, there was no reason for Truman or anyone else in Washington to believe it.

Finally, Nitze's conclusion of a surrender by December 1st at the latest, Newman showed, was formed around June of 1945, and was based on his assessment of the damage conventional bombing would inflict on Japan, and how he thought the Japanese leaders would react to that damage. Nitze had persuaded the Air Force to schedule an air campaign targeting Japanese transportation facilities, which would have disrupted both war production and food distribution, leading to a threat of widespread starvation. While this might have caused the Japanese government to fold, it might also have resulted in widespread relocation of civilians to rural areas, where they would have had ready access to food. Thus, the estimated surrender date was little more than a guess, unsupported by evidence.

Robert C. Butow interviewed those same Japanese leaders at much greater length for his book Japan's Decision to Surrender, which I highly recommend. His conclusion, as related by Freeman Dyson in From Eros to Gaia, was that there was no way to know when the Japan would have given up, because the Japanese leaders themselves didn't know when they would have surrendered.

When it comes the question of how many casualties the U.S. would have suffered if the U.S. had invaded Japan, Walker accurately summarizes the estimates presented to Truman in mid-1945, when there were only 350,000 Japanese troops present on Kyushu. Based on experience on Luzon, casualties might have been "only" about 17,000 killed, 53,000 wounded. As Walker says, preventing such casualties was itself enough reason for Truman to order the bomb dropped. But by August 1st, the number of Japanese defenders on Kyushu had grown to 900,000, as Richard B. Frank notes in Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire, another of the works Walker cites. Thus, 'Luzon percentage' casualties would have grown to around 43,000 killed, 137,000 wounded. And, as Frank further notes, Luzon's casualties levels were among the lowest of the Pacific War, when measured by casualties inflicted per Japanese defender. The experience of Okinawa or Saipan would have suggested at least double those figures, and casualties per Japanese defender on the scale of Iwo Jima would have led one to expect around 300,000 dead, 800,000 wounded among the Kyushu invasion force. The medical corps was expecting around 400,000 to 500,000 total casualties, about one-fourth of them dead. In fact, it was the position of the Japanese military that they would inflict such heavy casualties on any invasion force that the Allies would agree to precisely the surrender on terms the Allied governments wished to avoid, and there was substantial evidence of war weariness among the U.S. and British populations.

Further, D. M. Giangreco has since shown that higher estimates were circulating in Washington at the time, and that former President Hoover had written Truman that as many as half a million U.S. troops might die in an invasion of Japan. (See e.g. Harry S. Truman And the Cold War Revisionists by Robert H. Ferrell). Thus Walker's confident predictions of relatively low casualties in an invasion have little value, and his statement that Truman's postwar estimates of hundreds of thousands of deaths among the invasion force were not believed in 1945 is questionable, to say the least.

In addition, Walker completely neglects to mention deaths among Allied POWs and civilian internees held by the Japanese (tens of thousands had already died, and hundreds of thousands probably would have died if the war had continued much longer), Asian civilians who died in areas under Japanese control (perhaps 200,000 per month on the average, for the entire 97 months starting with Japan's invasion of China in 1937), Japanese civilians killed in air conventional air attacks (around 20,000 per month, excluding the Tokyo raid of March 9-10), expected Japanese civilian casualties in an invasion of Japan (over one million), expected British Commonwealth and Japanese casualties in the invasion of Malaya (scheduled to begin September 1st, 1945), and Japanese military and civilian deaths as a result of the Soviet invasion of Manchuria (scheduled to begin August 15th, 1945, but moved up a week after the Hiroshima bombing). When contemplating a war extending another two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half months, these figures lead to a conclusion that many more people would certainly have died than the atom bombs killed, probably have led to more Japanese casualties than occurred, and possibly have led to more Japanese civilian casualties than occurred in the atomic bombings.

And when it comes to the perception of the Japanese as "beasts," Walker completely neglects to mention the deliberate Japanese murders of POWs and civilians, or the documented Japanese biological warfare experimentation and use in China. If the description of Japanese conduct as "beastial" is too objected to, it can only be on the grounds that the adjective is unfair to wild beasts.

As a short introduction to a vast and complicated subject, this book isn't too bad. But it is highly limited, definitely biased against Truman and the U.S., and can not be taken as a last word on the subject by any means. It should definitely be supplemented by some of the works mentioned above for an accurate view.

I bought this book for school.. I have not read it yet but it arrived in perfect condition.. Very fast shipping.

One of the most complex, divisive, and nuanced debates in the history of the twentieth century is the decision by U.S. President Harry S. Truman in August 1945 to drop two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, thereby ending World War II. A traditional conception of the decision, indeed the one most often voiced by actors in the decision, was that it was done to speed the end of the war and thereby preserve American lives that might be lost in future combat. The revisionist interpretation, often identified with Gar Alperowitz, argues that the war was almost over and that the Japanese were on the verge of surrender anyway. The reason to drop the bomb, therefore, had little to do with the ending of World War II and was aimed more at impressing and influencing future relations with the Soviet Union. Another interpretation suggests that the use of the atomic bomb had more to do with American racism, and that the U.S. would have refrained from using such a horrific weapon on other Caucasians in Europe. Other scholars condemn the use of such a weapon targeting large populations, including non-combatants, as immoral and obscene. Subsequent historians have argued various permutations of these interpretations and the debate remains far from settled.

J. Samuel Walker's "`prompt & utter destruction': Truman and the Use of the Atomic Bomb against Japan" is a superb short discussion of the merits of each of these interpretations and an assessment of the current state of understanding on the subject. He takes an exceptionally even-handed approach, pointing up the strengths and weaknesses of each major argument and assessing how they have evolved over time. In the end, as Walker documents, five fundamental considerations played into the decision to use atomic bombs in August 1945.

First, the decision makers, especially Truman, sought to end the war at the earliest possible moment. They believed this new and terrifying weapon would do so and should therefore be employed for what they considered the greater good of ending the bloodshed. Wrapped up in this argument, although Walker thinks it a bit of side issue, was a widely held belief that bringing the Japanese to the surrender table would require an invasion of its islands. This would be, as those considering it believed, a costly and lengthy campaign that might mean the loss of thousands of lives on both sides. Casualty estimates of all types exist, and they have been used in the debate since then to justify or condemn the use of the bomb. Walker finds that those estimates, which are at best educated guesses that range broadly depending on the assumptions and the perspectives of those making them, are less useful in assessing what took place than the understanding that Truman was unwilling to accept any more casualties than absolutely necessary.

Second, Walker notes how Truman and his advisors were intensely concerned that they had to justify the enormous cost of developing the atomic weapon, and a decision not to use it once it existed would open them to significant criticism. As Walker states, "The success of the Manhattan Project in building the bombs and ending the war was a source of satisfaction and relief" (p. 94). In this context, Truman expressed great concern that should he decide not to use the weapon once he had it that every American life lost thereafter would have been wasted. As he explained to Secretary of State James F. Byrnes in 1947, "I believe that no man, in our position and subject to our responsibilities, holding in his hands a weapon of such possibilities for accomplishing this purpose and saving those lives, could have failed to use it and afterwards looked his countrymen in the face" (p. 94).

Third, at least one of Truman's advisors, Secretary of State Byrnes, realized immediately and argued to his colleagues that this weapon would be useful in helping to bend the Soviet Union to American wishes in the post-war era. Truman recognized this as well, but according to Walker this was definitely an added bonus and not the primary consideration in using the bomb. Walker concluded, "Growing differences with the Soviet Union were a factor in the thinking of American officials about the bomb but were not the main reason that they rushed to drop it on Japan" (p. 95). Gar Alperowitz's "atomic diplomacy" thesis, therefore, has merit however overstated it might have been.

Fourth, Walker asserts that there was a lack of incentives among those making these decisions not to use the bomb. "Truman," Walker notes, "used the bomb because he had no compelling reason to avoid it" (p. 95). While many people since 1945 have questioned the morality of its use, Truman and his advisors did not let those scruples--and they did exist among them--outweigh their goal of ending the war as quickly as possible. Indeed, by the last year of the war conventional weaponry had laid waste to so many cities containing thousands of non-combatants--witness the firebombing of or Dresden and Tokyo--that virtually no one in a senior decision making role in the U.S. questioned the use of nuclear weapons despite their destructiveness since they believed dropping these bombs would shorten the war and save American lives.

Fifth, Walker comments that "Hatred of the Japanese, a desire for revenge for Pearl Harbor, and racist attitudes were a part of the mix of motives that led to the atomic attacks" (p. 96). Again, this was not the primary consideration in dropping the bomb on Japan, "But the prevalent loathing of Japan, both among policymakers and the American people, helped override any hesitation or ambivalence that Truman and his advisors might have felt about use of atomic bombs" (p. 96).

Walker ends "prompt & utter destruction" with a series of questions still being debated about the decision to use the bomb. These include: "(1) how long the war would have continued if the bomb had not been used; (2) how many casualties American forces would have suffered if the bomb had not been dropped; (3) whether an invasion would have been necessary without the use of the bomb; (4) the number of American lives and casualties an invasion would have exacted had it proven necessary; (5) whether Japan would have responded favorably to a American offer to allow the emperor to remain on the throne before Hiroshima, or whether such an offer would have prolonged the war; and (6) whether any of the alternatives to the use of the bomb would have ended the war as quickly on a basis satisfactory to the United States (pp. 108-109).

These historiographical questions ensure that future study of this subject will remain contested; overlaying all of it, of course, is the question of the morality of Truman's decision. Walker offers no conclusion to the debate, instead inviting further inquiry and exposition as each scholar makes a contribution to the marketplace of ideas where positions will be evaluated and accepted, rejected, or modified. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the nature of the end of World War II and the beginning of the cold war.

Prompt and Utter Destruction carefully builds arguments in favor of the decision to use the bomb based upon correspondence, interviews, etc., then tries to demolish them with speculative opinion. Perhaps this was done in the interest of objectivity; however, the result is a difficult to read, conflicted narrative. It is certainly not the definitive word on Truman's decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan.

If you have a passionate interest in atomic age politics, WWII, and/or the Manhattan Project (as I do), this short book is worth reading, if just to have imaginary arguments with its author. However, if your interest is less intense, I can save you some time. The main conclusion of Prompt and Utter Destruction is that Truman had very strong reasons to authorize the use of atomic weapons, and no good reason not to do so:
(1)Atomic bombs might shorten the war and save American lives.
(2)Demonstrating that the US will use nuclear weapons would scare the heck out of Stalin, making him easier to negotiate with after the war.
(3)If they were not used, Congress and the American people would want to know why the government spent $2 billion developing them.
(4)Japan had it coming (payback for Pearl Harbor, the Battan death march, etc).
Against these reasons stood only the vague concern that maybe atomic weapons were immoral. Not a big concern to politicians of any era.

Ideology defined: The body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual, group, class, or culture.

If you have already made up your mind that the atomic bombings of Japan were wrong, you have two choices: (1) Don't buy the book and participate in the next demonstration against the bombings which will, again, make you feel morally superior; (2)buy the book and realize that it was not as simple a decision as you thought it was. Then ask yourself, what would I have done in 1945? Very challenging book. It certainly provides a very good understanding of the choices Truman had to deal with and the feelings in the US at that time.

One final point for the anti-bombing crowd: Check the stats on the casualties in the conventional bombings of German and Japanese cities.
And educate yourself about Japanese atrocities in China: 350,000 slaughtered in Sungchiang, and between 260,000-350,000 civilians murdered in Nanking. That's for starters.

This is my first encounter with a Margaret Truman mystery; I choose this audio book after reading her obituary. I did enjoy the experience overall - she had a very engaging writing style. There are spot-on descriptions of characters that fall into classic archetypes. And the book is full of rich detail on the Washington and arts milieu. I especially appreciated how facts about Lincoln's life and death were made relevant through various characters. However, I found the story itself serviceable; there were several plausible suspects to keep me guessing, but not much action or twists.

Johnny Wales is six feet, four inches. He is employed as a stage hand at Ford's Theatre. He trained as an actor and stage technician at the University of Wisconsin. He hears park rangers conducting tours of the facility. Next, Johnny runs into a dead girl, Nadia Zarinsky, an intern who worked for a senator.

Johnson and Klayman are partners in the police force. A homeless man, Joseph Partridge, claims he saw a man hit the woman. Mackenzie Smith is teaching a course entitled Lincoln the Lawyer. Mac's wife, Annabel, is a gallery owner. Her friend, Clarise Emerson, is the theatre director. Clarise has been tapped to lead the NEA. She is a former wife of the senator. Johnson and Klayman interview an English actor and employee of the theatre, Sydney Bancroft. Johnson is a scholar of jazz, and Klayman a scholar of Lincoln. In fact, Klayman has enrolled in Mac's class. Since Clarise's son is charged with the homicide and Mac and his former partner represent him, things start to get interesting.

In the end, Clarise withdraws her name from NEA consideration. The actual murderer is discovered in very vivid fashion. The couple of Mac and Anabel Smith are pleasant characters as are the twosome of Johnson and Klayman. The intelligence and taste Margaret Truman brings to the task of crime writing are welcome qualities.

Margaret Truman's mysteries get better with each new one that appears. In this one, she uses Ford's Theatre as her site. Anyone who has visited Ford's Theatre will agree that she picked a place with the right atmosphere for a mystery. Someone murdered Nadia Zarinski in the alley behind Ford's Theatre. She was an intern for Senator Bruce Lerner, and there are rumors of an affair, so he is a suspect. The murder also casts an unwanted spotlight on Clarise Emerson, Lerner's former wife, head of the Ford's Theatre Society, and presidential nominee to chair the National Endowment for the Arts. Aging actor Sydney Bancroft claimed that Jeremiah Lerner, son of the Senator and Clarise, had been dating the victim. A surly brat, he ran when confronted by detectives, and was soon arrested for the murder. Clarise begs law professor Mac Smith to help her son. Mac and wife Annabel, an urbane couple, are in many of Margaret Truman's mysteries. Mac agrees to help, and the real mystery unfolds until it reaches a surprising climax. This is a splendid tale, with real characters (not cardboard) and a nice pace.

This was not one of Truman's best books. I kept waiting for some action and mystery... and then it did not come. The other Capital Crimes book I read most recently (Murder at the Smithsonian; Library of Congress) had a lot more intrigue. I did like the many DC references, but those are in all of her books... hopefully Ms. Truman will have some better books to offer in the future.

In her latest novel, Margaret Truman stages "Murder at Ford's Theatre" with a cast drawn from recent headlines and past novels in her Capital Crime Series. The murder of Senate intern Nadia Zarinski, romantically linked to her boss, outside the historic theatre now run by the senator's ex-wife and Hollywood producer, Clarisse Emerson, who is preparing for her confirmation hearing as the next chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts sets off a media frenzy all too familar in the nation's capital. The case is so sensational that Truman's favorite Washington couple, George Washington University law professor Mackensie Smith and his wife Annabelle, are compelled to play leading roles once again. Supporting cast members and Lincoln buffs, detectives Klayman and Johnson, representing the Metropolitan Police Department, and Sydney Bancroft, aging British thespian and Ford Theatre artistic director, add colorful moments to this fast paced drama.

It is impossible for me to criticise Truman's work. Her attention to detail especially about local landmarks and legends in Washington, DC provides the reader with a sense of place that locals recognize and visitors remember. I don't doubt that Truman strolled the cafes and galleries of Dupont Circle sipping latte at Kramerbooks & Afterwoods researching the details about historic Ford's Theatre that she got correct right down to the spelling.

Above all, "Murder at Ford's Theatre" is first rate suspense. Whether you live inside the infamous beltway or not, add this book to your list right away.

I first met Lt. Col. Art Boyd on an airplane trip to Kansas City earlier this year. We sat across the aisle from each other and began to strike up a conversation. He told me he was on his way to give a speech at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo. He asked me if I would be interested in reading his speech and offer feedback. I had no idea that what I was about to read was about an amazing secret spy mission that kept our country out of a third World War.

Upon reading his speech which was the synopsis of his book Operation Broken Reed, I was speechless. The experiences that were revealed by Mr. Boyd in his speech had me fighting back tears. The act of bravery that Mr. Boyd and his comrades exhibited at such a young age was heroism at its highest form.

After reading the complete version in the book Operation Broken Reed, it touched me even more. To have kept all this inside for so many years had to be a living hell for Mr. Boyd. His desire to locate the families of his fallen comrades so that he can tell them about the heroism of their loved ones is to be highly commended. He wants to be able to locate and bring home the remains of these comrades. After meeting Mr. Boyd I feel certain that if anyone can accomplish this, he will. He has made it his current life's mission to do so.

I highly recommend Operation Broken Reed as a book for all to read. We should all applaud Mr. Boyd and his comrades for all that they did for our great country to keep us out of a war that we probably would not have prevailed. The book outlines the mission and the feelings and emotions of all involved with amazing detail. As a reader I felt like I was right there with them on the mission. I hope that the book is turned into a movie so that more people can witness the journey that Mr. Boyd has taken and hopefully provide a means to locate his comrade's families.

The author writes with much detail about the day to day experiences these men faced during their mission using humor and emotion to bring the reader closer to the story.

Please read my in-depth comment following the negative critical reader review posted by R. Axelrod. It is imperative that the reader fully understands and comprehends the fact that the Operation Broken Reed story was written based upon a factual event, not some mind-generated military intelligence mission. The nine Americans and sixty-six Nationalist Chinese military who died for their country demand to be honored by a grateful nation for their heroic deed. Had they failed, a third world war and a doubtless nuclear holocaust would have ensued, claiming the lives of millions. This story is not, as Axelrod stated,"a fraud." Abundant historical, circumstantial and presumptive evidence abounds, fully supporting the authenticity of the mission. Axelrod's review is a cruel and a disgraceful insult to the memory of my dead comrades. Axelrod, following outlandish and unsupported remarks, drove a nail into the heart of the story with a closing comment, "You can delight in a creative adventure story." One fact remains. Anyone may lay claim to being a "specialist" within any given field, however unsupported words from a self-made fake specialist will lay waste to any boni-fide claim, thereby revealing the non-existence of any true level of training, experience and expertise.

I have know Arthur, Nell, and Lanny Boyd since about 1995. I remember some time in about 1998, when Mr. Boyd came into my pharmacy and asked me how to dispose of a cyanide capsule. At first I ask myself why does this man have such a capsule, then knowing Mr. Boyd for the time I had, I figured he had been involved in some sort of highly classified work in his life.

I have absolutely enjoyed reading "Operation Broken Reed". The story was captivating and heart warming. I believe some long overdue recognition should be given to those men. This book would make an incredible movie that would share the story of these men and their mission that averted another world war and possible total nuclear destruction. This story needs to be documented and preserved for future generations.

I am convinced that Broken Reed is fiction pretending to be fact. Being an academic, I regard fraud as a serious office.
Here are some of the claims in the book that I find particularly implausible or nonsensical. I suppose in any true spy story there are likely to be a few implausible claims, but not nearly as many as this book has.
* Truman authorized the mission without telling the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
* The landing was made deliberately close to the front lines, and then the convoy set out along the coast road moving north away from the front line. As the author says later, being near the front lines is dangerous. No explanation is given for why the landing took place so far south when the first leg of the trip was to go north on the coast road.
* Several dozen Korean soldiers loyal to the South (and presumably "stay-behinds") could be assembled and moved to a specific place without causing alarm.
* The stay-behinds were able to capture two working T-34 medium tanks, as well as a half-track, a reconn vehicle, several trucks, plenty of ammunition, and hundreds of gallons of gasoline.
* The stay behinds were able to move all this equipment to a specific place in North Korea.
* The two most senior stay behinds for no specific reason identified themselves to the Americans as former bodyguards to Chiang Kai-shek. The book repeatedly makes makes two points: it was very important that none of the participants should be able to identify each other, and it was very important to conceal that Chiang Kai-shek's Taiwan was at all involved in Korea War.
* In 1952 the author was told that the mission would remain secret until would be declassified in exactly 46 years, i.e. 1998.
* No records exist about this mission, even after the mission was declassified in 1998 when the author started work on the book.
* The only piece of tangible evidence the author kept was a cyanide capsule he was issues, but then after saving it for many years he discarded it before he wrote the book.

I do not dispute that the author is a veteran of the Korea War, or that he is a good story teller. But the book needs a better editor, and a fictional classification. If you stop believing the events actually happened, you can delight in a creative adventure story.

Jane Bowles is, to me, unparalleled. I have bought at least 7 copies of this book to give to friends. While Paul Bowles' stories are great and creepy in an arid and detached way, reminding me of surreal Aesop's fables, Jane's seem throughly original, lived-in and lived-through. I can't think of a book I've enjoyed more than this one.

My Sister's Hand In Mine: The Collected Works Of Jane Bowles (1970) offers readers the rewarding opportunity of entering the strange but oddly homey world of its author. The volume contains Bowles' only novel, Two Serious Ladies, her single work for the theater, the uneven In the Summer House, and thirteen short stories and unfinished pieces. The book's real strengths are Two Serious Ladies and the long story Camp Cataract, works that compliment one another and successfully define the unique landscape of Bowles' vision.

Married to the more famous novelist, composer, and expatriate Paul Bowles, Jane was an apparently bisexual woman with strong lesbian leanings. Though her liveliness and wit were widely appreciated by other artists of the period, most of whom were also ardent admirers of her talent, Bowles' life was compromised by anxiety, and her final years were marked by severe illness and tragedy.

The individualistic Bowles was probably an introvert in Jung's original definition of term. Her character's fears largely revolve around the idea of "passage into the outside world," the states of existence that most people must inevitably face, embrace, and accept beyond the personalized state of the home and the nuclear family. But while confronting the outer world is a unpleasant necessity for most of Bowles' characters, family life, far from a paradise, remains a sentimentally idealized but claustrophobic circle in hell. Achieving and maintaining states of grace was also an important matter for the author, though her unsettlingly tragicomic approach to both these themes has historically kept her work from being widely understood and accepted as mainstream American literature. While other idiosyncratic writers like the vastly more prolific Muriel Spark have enjoyed decades of popularity and critical and commercial success and thus the opportunity to carefully evolve their personal vision, Bowles found the act of writing difficult, and her readership during her lifetime, in commercial terms, almost nonexistent.

Two Serious Ladies concerns Christina Goering and Frieda Copperfield, casual acquaintances who synchronistically strike out on no longer avoidable quests for personal salvation after meeting at a Manhattan party.

While Mrs. Copperfield seems to be seeking fulfilling love and all kinds of meaningful sensual pleasure, the independently wealthy Miss Goering apparently seeks spiritual development through material sacrifice, meager living, and confrontation with her fears in their social and public forms. Both women are simultaneously asexual and semi-consciously lesbian in their preferences; the married Mrs. Copperfield enthusiastically chases the love and company of other women in a Central American village, while the somewhat sheltered but more confident Miss Goering, who shares her home with both a woman and a man in an ambiguous arrangement, actively pursues first a failed businessman and then a gangster in the name of achieving her goals. Both women are weirdly naive, and Bowles never allows the reader a clear understanding of how knowledgeable, sophisticated, or self aware either character is. Both encounter and embrace a hilarious assemblage of oddball characters and misfits; like Miss Goering and Mrs. Copperfield, these eccentrics often seem incapable of objective or comparative perception, and may thus be doomed to lives of starchy parochialism. Only Mr. Copperfield, a figure unmistakably based on Paul Bowles, seems stable, clear-headed, and rationally self-motivated.

Unstable, indeterminate social conventions and mores haunt Bowles' characters. Routine train rides, visits to relative's homes, evenings out in taverns and restaurants, business meetings, and even the simple act of purchasing become comic war zones in which all present seem to enjoy a vastly different understanding of what behavior is appropriate and acceptable. Misunderstandings, breaches of etiquette, emotional hypersensitivity, and insults are common in The Collected Works Of Jane Bowles; fluid, trusting, easy, and healthy communication is sadly unknown.

The grueling Camp Cataract concerns a shrewd, secretive, and uncommonly self aware adult woman, Harriet, who is quietly and carefully planning a final break from her smothering and unconsciously incestuous sister Sadie. Unlike Two Serious Ladies, Camp Cataract contains surreal elements, fugue states, and odd flights of fantasy, but is also more far more specific about the intentions and inner workings of its characters: Harriet's desperate motivations are laid bear in a way that neither Miss Goering's and Mrs. Copperfield's ever are. During her alternately forlorn and energetic pursuit of her sister, Sadie is unpleasantly forced to confront the devouring public world she fears as well as the heavily repressed psychosexual underpinnings of her character. Though wildly funny, few works of fiction can cause readers to twist and squirm like Camp Cataract.

Throughout, the writing is simple, subtle, admirably crisp, and compellingly readable; Bowles is also a master of peculiar, perfectly timed dialogue, a talent she uses to great effect throughout. Also notable are A Guatemalan Idyll, originally a section of Two Serious Ladies, and A Stick Of Green Candy, in which a young girl learns that violating the fidelity of her creative imagination brings about the permanent end of innocent fantasy.

Jane Bowles is still an unfortunately neglected writer despite Tennessee Williams' statement that she is our finest American prose fiction writer. He wrote that in the early 70s, and it is still true today. She manages to surprise and fascinate and perplex and amuse in nearly every sentence. She is the kind of original our university writing courses and the 'searching for a hit' publishing industry are stifling.

The more of this I read, the more I reluctantly came to conclude that, to really enjoy Jane Bowles, one probably needs to be either gay or lesbian or intensely interested in women's studies.

I really wish I could jump on the bandwagon of singing Jane Bowles' praises, but I haven't been able to understand what all the fuss is about. "The greatest novelist of the century?" Whoa--this is not on my list of the top 100. I've long been a great fan of Paul Bowles--surely one of the most intense and talented writers of the last century--and Jane sounded interesting in all the reviews, but after reading both Camp Cataract and Two Serious Ladies, and several other of the stories, I was disappointed. Almost all are about odd, neurotic women with overpowering urges to escape their dreary lives of conformity, and/or who relate to other odd, neurotic women in strangely belligerant ways. All of the male characters are pathetic and superfluous, or are at least treated that way by women who have no use for them.

I found it frustrating that all of the characters constantly make decisions, or say things, that seem without any apparent motivation. It's very difficult to get a read on why any of the characters do what they do. A woman who seems to have been content all her life to live a staid, "respectable" existence decides she's going to be a prostitute. Why? Then she decides not to. Why? There's no explanation, in either inner monologue, dialogue, background plot, or anything--the characters just do things that seem...strange. I like strange--Paul Bowles, for example, can be very strange, and it's fascinating--but Jane seems to keep writing, I assume, about herself, in the obsessive manner of the narcissist who can't stop thinking and talking and writing about her personal concerns as though they were universal. And maybe they are universal, among lesbians, I can't say.

Paul Bowles is timeless--his stories could have been written yesterday. Jane's are musty and dated, as well as very unsatisfying. They may be very fertile ground for exploring Jane's psyche, but if that's not of primary interest to you, you may find yourself finishing one story after another saying "Now what was that all about?"

Incredible book. Jane Bowles has the unique characteristic of amusing and depressing us at the same time. Two serious ladies and her short fiction(Camp Catarat and Plain Pleasures are masterpieces) are unique. Her play is funny but she is not as good as in her narrative.
What you will find in this book is a complete diferent way of understanding live, you will encounter an original brain that expreses itself with the most personal sentences you will ever read. Jane stands alone in the whole literary tradition. Surrounded by her terror, obsessions and complete understanding of human heart what Bowles achieves is the perfect expression of human essence.

If you know Jesus personally, this is an encouraging book to read. Before I read this, I had no idea there were Christian civilians who were living in Iraq when Saddam was in power. Very colorful pictures, with heart stirring words.

Oliver North is one of our most undervalued American Heroes! He stood up to Congress and supported his President; in time showing the Soviet Union that we wouldn't be weakened internally.

Every television show or book he's involved with shows his intellect and understanding of America's fighting men and women! A must read book, but better yet to have in your library!!

Oliver North and friends helped arm the fundamentalist mullahs of IRAN back in the 80s. The fact that North is not locked up is a testament to the high level of corruption the U.S. government is bathed in. This guy should turn in his uniform. He was interviewed on Alex Jones awhile back and dodged questions on the scandal. He just wanted to promote his ghost written garbage books.

This is a beautiful book. I keep buying more copies so I can give to others. This is such a touching, soul-moving story of God's protection to a Marine Batallion who put their faith and trust where it could not fail. The experiences of these soldiers will 'blow you away'!

I loved it, it was a very moving experience. The photos were excellenet and the stories that went along with them were very touching and inspirational.
An excellent work.

The abrupt departure of writer Kurt Busiek didn't slow the momentum of one of the best comic books on the racks. Mike Mignola deftly handles the creepy "Hall of the Dead" adaptation following a very strong prequel story from Busiek introducing Nestor, the rogue Gunderman. Hall is a a weird story and very well suited to Mignola's strenths and minimalist scripting.
Cary Nord produces some of his best solo work in this volume, and even though this story arc was plagued by chronic lateness, the results make the wait worth while. Absolutely beautiful.
The final two chapers are written by new regular scribe Tim Truman and herald some good things to come. Here's to more like this!

If you buy this book you should have bought the previous 3 books, then you'll understand the art and the stories. You won't regret to have this one if you have the previous ones.

It seems that some poeple tend to think this was the lesser of this volume, but I think that is unfair. This is a excellent continuation that I feel has a great sense of building up for the next installment. A lot of things happen, and though you can certainly tell where Mignola contributed, it still feels like a true Conan story throughout. It just wasn't as rip-roaring as some of the previous ones. I eagerly look forward to the next installment.

This 4th volume will be hard to beat. Unlike a complaint I read that the art is not Cary Nord's best, that it's "sketchy", well I cheerfully disagree. In fact I'd say this was Nord's most solid looking work to date. The coloring affects created by Dave Stewart are also the best so far. These tales are an uncluttered stream of the closest attempts at Getting Robert Howard's feel into these stories yet. What's funny about that is that other than the fragment, "Hall of the Dead", an unfinished Conan tale that has been finished almost masterfully by Mike Mignola, there not a lick of Howard's prose in the lot. Kurt Busiek, sadly, finally comes into his own at the end of his run. His writing feels downright channelled by Conan's creator and author. Even Tim Truman delivers a gutsy tale of Nestor coming to Conan's aid when you least expect him to do such a thing. The focus on Mignola's tale finishing out the fragment was a natural selection. His Hellboy and BPRD tales are very evocative of H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror tales. Robert Howard was very much an admirer and also a colleague of Lovecraft's and this tale is one of the the best invoking that spirit of the ancient horror which Lovecraft loved to weave his tales around.
I have a prediction: despite the best efforts in the future I find it hard to believe this will ever be done better. I know that sounds pretty arrogant and cynical but this machine was really rolling despite having three different writers. The fact that these stories flowed so seamlessly is an example of a good vibe, a sound spirit and a solidly shared, creative effort.
For me this series could end right here and I'd be happy.
Here's hoping I'm proven wrong.

Robert E. Howard wrote a number of fantastic Conan stories in his lifetime but The Hall of the Dead was not one of them. Not that The Hall of the Dead isn't fantastic, but rather Howard didn't write it, at least not in full. Years after his suicide in 1936, numerous Howard material was found, which included a number of unpublished stories as well as various fragments and outlines for other stories. Among those was a brief outline for The Hall of the Dead. This story first saw publication in 1967 in Conan, the first in the series of paperbacks published by Lancer books and later reprinted by Ace Books. The story was credited to both Howard, and writer L. Sprague De Camp.

De Camp is a bit of an anti-hero among Conan fans...On one hand, he played a pivotal role in renewing interest in Howard's work in the 1960's. De Camp, for a time, was the overseer of Howard's works. Conan might have been a mere pulp footnote were it not for De Camp. On the other hand, De Camp set himself up as a posthumous collaborator of Howard's from which he benefited greatly. But he also took it upon himself to edit Howard's original work. Those Conan tales in the Lancer and Ace versions were not pure Howard, and it would still be decades before these tales would be reprinted in their pure forms for the first time since originally published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in the 1930's.

That now brings us to the Dark Horse version of the story, with its own unique take on the tale. Kurt Busiek, Mike Mignola, and Timothy Truman share the writing chores, while Cary Nord handles the art. For those interested in chronology, this story takes place shortly after the events in Tower of the Elephant, one of Howard's most famous Conan stories. This is fairly early in Conan's life, he's around twenty years old at the time and already has made a name for himself as a capable thief.

The story is set in spider-haunted Zamora and its infamous City of Thieves. Conan is fresh off a daring robbery of a rich magistrate and added insult to injury by sleeping with his wife. The Magistrate sets a trap for Conan but instead captures another thief, Nestor the Gunderman. Nestor negotiates his release by pledging to capture Conan which the magistrate enforces with a sorcerous bond. The two thieves eventually set aside their rivalry when they discover the ruins of a forgotten civilization, rumored to hold a vast horde of treasure. But the treasure has powerful guardians, and no one who has visited there has ever returned.

What Busiek and Co., have done is take the basic Howard plot and bookend it with a meatier beginning and end, all told collecting eight issues of the monthly Conan comic series. Mignola, who handles the middle portion of the story, infuses it with distinct elements of H.P. Lovecraft lore. While perhaps not intended by Howard, he was a fan of Lovecraft's work and wrote a number of stories that were heavily influenced by Lovecraft.

Nord continues to improve as a Conan artist and his work here is very solid and bolstered greatly by color artist Dave Stewart. Two minor complaints about Nord's art is the sometimes goofy facial expressions of his characters in close-ups which sometimes border on caricatures. The other minor complaint is the inconsistency of Conan's physique. He will sometimes look broad and brawny in the Buscema tradition and other times nearly as slender as Barry Smith's interpretation.

No one can ever truly say how Robert E. Howard might have completed Hall of the Dead, but Busiek, Mignola and Truman have given readers an epic, book-length adventure in the best Howard tradition.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

I have been collecting First Ladies' autographs as a hobby, and wanted to know more about the women whose signatures I was hanging on my office walls. This book takes the reader through an exciting, humorous, interesting, and at times touching ride through our country's history. Even though I am a long-term history afficionado, I can honestly say I learned a lot from this book. There are so many things that seem to have been glossed over in "traditional" history education, and this book helps to fill in many gaps by revealing a very human side to both the presidents and their wives. By reading this book, one not only learns about the first ladies, but also about the period in American history that corresponds with the respective husband's tenure as President. Of note, the information provided is mostly limited to the time spent as "First Lady", but does give a bit of background on the women's lives prior to their White House days. In addition, there is a chapter entitled "Is There Life After The White House?" which explores in more depth certain First Ladies' (Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, Ladybird Johnson for ex)travels and doings after their husbands were no longer president. After each chapter, I found myself looking up portaits online, and wanting to know more. Though this book does not cover every First Lady, and does not include the current First Lady (Hillary Clinton is the last), it is nonetheless a well-written, thorough book on the First Ladies that it does discuss, and is guaranteed to bring a new vantage point to the reader on American history, social life, and human perserverance. Of note, this is not a book with a feminist slant - it is objective, and intelligently written, with only slight opinion commentary by the author. Even the commentary that does exist is presented as an "aside"; in otherwords, the reader is not made to feel that Mrs. Truman's opinions are the only valid ones, but instead, the reader is allowed to form opinions from the facts presented. I highly recommend this book.

THIS WAS A VERY INTERESTING BOOK AND GAVE AN INSITE TO THE LIVES OF THE WHITE HOUSE FIRST LADIES. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

This book is a very well researched, excellently written piece of history. Highly recommended non-fiction when you're looking to learn something you didn't learn in high school.

From her unique perspective and personal contacts with many Twentieth Century First Ladies, Margaret Truman has told their stories in a most interesting way. The brief biographies primarily cover the years each of these Ladies resided in the White House, although their roles in getting there are not overlooked.

The concept of President and First Lady as political partners is central to the book. How and to what extent each First Lady fits into this mold is carefully examined. The influence that each First Lady has had on her husband and his administration brings some surprises.

We know of the public partners, such as Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton, as well as those such as Lady Bird Johnson, who would do anything to advance Lyndon's career, and Eleanor Roosevelt, the eyes and ears of Franklin, but there were others. Who would have thought of Julia Tyler, the young second wife of John Tyler who, in her year in the White House, orchestrated a whirlwind entertainment campaign to achieve the annexation of Texas. Another second wife, Edith Wilson, virtually ran the country during her husband's two year illness after his stroke. There were those, such as Julia Grant and Helen Taft, who wanted the White House worse than their husbands.

Margaret Truman does an excellent job at categorizing the First Ladies topically. Among the tragic topics are those who may have been killed by newsprint, Rachel Jackson and Lou Hoover. Maligned First Ladies, such as Mary Lincoln, and those who lived with domineering husbands, such as Grace Coolidge, get sympathetic reviews. No sympathies are wasted on the undeserving, prominently Florence Harding.

In this book Margaret Truman gives us a splendid introduction to one of the most crucial jobs in our country. I am glad that I read it. You will be too.

Thank you Ms. Truman for doing what our high school teachers never quite accomplished. You made the past come alive with colorful characters who changed the world. I have a new appreciation for our Presidents and their wives. You accomplished what your father wished -- you wrote the definitive book on the subject and spoke to our hearts. I would love for you to add a chapter about Laura Bush, who has been such an inspiration to us all since 9-11.

Shadows of a Vietnam Veteran: Silent Victims by Alicia J. Boyd is an amazing yet heart-wrenching book. It chronicles the life of a family and their trials and tribulations of dealing with the after effects of the Vietnam War. The author began up front saying she didn't use her real name or one of her children's but that everything else in the book was "true as I remember."

Having been previously married and with three children the author was surprised later on when she met her "true love" soldier. Once married they had three more children and the family blended well together.

The book begins with her new husband departing for Vietnam but then back tracks showing how Jack and Alicia met. Their first couple of duty stations together including a tour overseas. Then it was Jack's training for helicopters to get his wings and warrant officer bars. Shortly thereafter he received his orders "to report to the 1st Air Cavalry in Vietnam" in May 1966.

"The year seemed like an eternity." The family waited daily for his letters. When they arrived they were light and airy not delving into what was really happening. Likewise Alicia didn't report everything happening at home to Jack either. The family watched the news every night and worried about his safety knowing his unit was flying in very dangerous conditions.

When Jack arrived back in The World was when their problems began. The man they knew before his tour of duty in Vietnam was not the same man who returned to them. "Alcohol became his protector from the awful memories." At that time according to the author she "was aware of no counseling nor classes that the army offered to these returning soldiers or their families." Although he was now assigned as an instructor pilot he drank more and more. He finally turned to civilian life instead of chancing having to return to Vietnam.

Thus Alicia, Jack and their family began their journey of moving from place to place. They both held various jobs in different places. While there were good times, there seemed to be more bad ones. There were times when they "had no money, no jobs and no work prospects." Jack would go in and out of treatment programs. The children were affected, as was the marriage.

When really important things happened such as when one of their daughters was burned Jack was able to control himself and deal with the situations at hand. He finally got involved with the Post Traumatic Stress Clinic and that seemed to help-when he attended their sessions.

Throughout the book I kept waiting to read where Alicia and/or the children sought help for their own anguish. Unless I missed it, none of them ever went to an AL-ANON meeting. And while they weren't providing Jack with his alcohol they also didn't seem to be doing anything to make him stop other than take him to the VA Hospital occasionally.

This is a book that must be read. I know that many Veterans and their families have gone through similar events. AND sadly most everyone is too proud or afraid to ask for help. This family needed it. Had they gotten it right away perhaps their relationships wouldn't have fallen apart the way they did. I kept wishing that the author used her real name just because I know folks that might be able to help her and her family even now-years after the Vietnam War ended.

I read this book with great interest as my husband is also a Vietnam vet with PTSD. While Alicia Boyd's husband is certainly a victim of PTSD, he is primarily an alcoholic. I was saddened as I read the account of their life together and her husband's descent into the depths of alcoholism. I found little hope in this book and finished feeling that she needs to go to more alanon meetings and stop enabling his destructive behavior. I hope he finds recovery from the devastating disease of alcoholism.

This book is spellbounding. Very hard to put down. This family has endured and stayed together thru some extreme hard times. It is amazing to learn that this is how we treat our veterans. We all take our normal everday life for granted. This book shows us that we should count our blessings for our quiet normal life. All families would benefit from reading this book. We could all learn how to stick together and work through it. My praise goes out to this wonderful mother that continues on when it would have been much easier to just walk out. This is a sign of true love and commitment.

If you thought the Vietnam War was over, read again! Alicia J. Boyd boldly takes you to a different front line of battle and shares a gut-wrenching side of conflict tht many of us have never seen or want to admit to seeing. Deny it no longer: war is ugly, freedom is costly and we owe a tremendous debt to our veterans.

This is indeed a book you read in one sitting. You want so much to see the cliche's that your heart has grown to hope for. Not so in this book. It hits you like the private chill you get when a loved one opens their heart over a cup of coffee across your kitchen table. You know these people, you see them in the supermarket, at school functions with your kids and over the back fence mowing. You presume they have problems like everyone. You're wrong, and even as the story unfolds you're not sure you can handle the ride. You thought you'd buried Vietnam too when the terrible truth is the people we sent to fight it are fighting it still. I give this book 5 stars for Valor. The author isn't Tolstoy. She's still at War, she has no Peace. Didn't support our veterans the first time? Read this book and pray. Support them now.

I'll start with the few bad parts of Outlander. This graphic novel has such horrible binding that the first time I read it (and I take VERY good care of my TPB's) it fell apart in my hands. Darkhorse really needs to do something about this, as this is the second graphic novel that has fallen apart.

This TPB was very good in terms of its storyline, though. Ki-Adi-Mundi is sent to Tatooine to find out what happened to Sharad Hett, a Jedi who left the Order years ago. Hett was seen on Tatooine leading the Tusken Raiders in battle against the settlers. Ki-Adi-Mundi goes to find out what went wrong with Hett.

The art of Outlander was above average, as Ki-Adi-Mundi looked really weird in every picture. The story and dialogue was very good, which saved it from getting a 1 (because of the binding).
Still, Outlander was a very good read. Just make sure you have some super glue handy while reading it.

This is the best story of the Ongoing Series, it has loads of action and lots of plot twists from all different directions. Also a great introduction of the new character A'Sharad Hett. He will play an important role in the next story plus The Hunt for Aurra Sing and The Clone Wars. Also Truman does great stuff with Aurra Sing giving a us a sampling of her backround and her hatred for Jedi.

I bought this trade paperback after reading the excellent Aurra Sing story in the "Star Wars: Bounty Hunters" collection. I was disappointed that this comic was not drawn by Tim Truman, but his storytelling abilities still come through in this collection. "The Exile of Sharad Hett" follows the same style of frontier crime and rebellion plot that make the Star Wars expanded universe stories great. There are some interesting plot twists, epic battles, and Truman's take on Aurra Sing, always a pleasure to read. If Tim Truman had drawn this, it would have gotten five stars. The story, art, and characters are still good, and well worth adding to your Star Wars collection. If only the movies could be this good.

Outlander is one of those comics that is almost great in every respect---and precisely just why they named it the "Ongoing" series I have yet to ascertain.

Jedi Ki-Adi-Mundi is the star of the show, bounty hunter Jedi Aurra Sing the villain. And hold on to your pony, it's a race against time to find their target first: a reclusive Jedi hermit, missing for a decade and a half, now rediscovered. This story doesn't lack action, and action there is plenty. Never a dull moment, it doesn't hurt this tale actually has intrigue. Hett the Howlrunner doesn't reveal his self-imposed isolation from his fellow Jedi till the end, an end that could spoil you if you're silly enough to peruse the last page first!

Art quality is great, it just really is. Not as breathtaking as Twilight or anything from the Duursema/Parson illustartor-colourist ace team, and it does make a difference to have a comic this visually appealing. Not withstanding much of this is on Tatooine, where you just know yellow and tan colours are going to predominate on that dustball.

It was a pity, though, when the artistry team changed halfway, it just wasn't quite the same. On the plus side, the variation is so subtle that you'd really have to notice the changeover. Well done indeed.

Dialogue doesn't dare disappoint. The primary characters of Mundi, Sing and Hett have their own style of "voice." Fans of Jedi killer Sing will get a kick out of her lines, and her tendency to speak in that odd way gets extra points for creativity. She's overconfident, rude, impish and mean; and her presentation on page shows it.

You're left wondering who and what Hett is. Once a fearles Jedi warrior, now a Tusken tribal chief, his enigma will leave you guessing till the end what's really behind the disco dancing. Which will leave you asking why he just didn't enlighten his fellow Jedi kinsman sooner, but hey, you gotta wait.

And Mundi doesn't leave anything for the takers. After the obligatory conehead joke---okay, it had to happen sooner or later---he's all business and no humour. The only non-Master on the Jedi Council, this is one character who doesn't messes around. Standing there, alone, finger pointing at Jabba as he tells the fat Hutt what he thinks of him, that's just gotta smile your face. Mundi doesn't lack skill, too--from chucking an Empire Strikes Back Yoda demonstration to self-healing, he's not as passive as you thought he was from the prequel movies.

And as for the storyline the real mastermind behind the conflict is always the unexpected. With good humour scattered in and some nices touches, like that sociologist's name from the Children of the Jedi book, it was a nice tie-in.

Overall, Outlander's quality of art, dialogue and storyline is just too strong to pass up on, not with so many substandard comcis out there.

This is Dark horse comic called STAR WARS - REPUBLIC ISSUES 7 THROUGH 12 CALLED OUTLANDER - THE EXILE OF SHARAD HETT. It is also call STAR WARS: ONGOING, VOLUME 2. What ever the name of the month, I am reviewing Darkhorse TPB comic ISBN 1569715149 published April, 2001. One source says that this story takes place shortly after episode 1 and another than it takes place just before. I am putting it 32.4 years before NH. In any case it continues the story told in Prelude to Rebellion (Volume 1 of the Republic series).

This is the story of a promising Jedi who exiles himself among the tusken raiders. He fights Aura sing and has a son. This is a very different look at the tuskens that we know for almost killing Luke and for torturing Anakins mother. (For more detail and what she went through read the novelization version of Attack of the Clones since the movie edited out most of that detail).

What was important about his story is that Sharad Hett has a son named A Sharad son of Hett who is important to the next loop of the this story series (Emissaries to Malastare, Vol 3, episodes 13 to 18).

The artwork was still erratic, but not as bad as PRELUDE and the story was a bit better. But now we are up to 3 star art at worst and much of it is a 4 star.

I give this a 3.5. I recommend this particularly since it keeps getting better from here. Emissaries is even better than Outlander. Then we get into the two Quinlan and Villi TPB's which even better than Emissaries. So yes, I am recommending the first two so get you ready for the really good ones

This is a history lesson. It is well written and explains how the Kents came to Kansas and the hardships that occured during that time.
This is not a tale about Superman, but instead of Clarks Earthly family history. Nice change of pace.

My 11-year-old son read this first, as he is a huge Superman fan. Unlike most of the Superman books, however, with this one he lingered for a long time, really savoring the graphic novel. When he was done, he came to me and said, "Mom, you really HAVE to read this!" Then he read it again about a week later.

When I read it, I understood his absorption, and also why it took longer to read than most comics. First, there is a LOT of history squeezed into the book. While I agree with one reviewer that it strains credulity that the Kent family should encounter practically EVERY important historic personage of the period, I felt that it made excellent dramatic sense. As a homeschooler, I loved how it summarized the historic period for my son. Yes, it is a bit violent, but appropriate to the subject matter. There is no gratuitous violence; rather, the characters and events demonstrate the value of human life and decry the lives lost to war and prejudice.

The book is thought-provoking. The art is superb. All of the artists are wonderful; the change of artists did not bother me in the least. The fictitious Kent characters were well-rounded, much less one-dimensional than most comic book characters. I was heavily invested in the story of Nathaniel by 3/4 of the way through; I literally couldn't put the book down because I wanted to find out what happened to them!

The Kents is basically a pastiche of Civil War-era history, a name-dropping who's who that also tries to achieve the scope of The Sacketts. Tim Truman's artwork is great as always (his Bloody Bill Anderson and young Jesse James are both easily worth the cover price). In fact, the only problem I have with the series is its representation of Jonah Hex; he received the scar on the right side of his face AFTER the Civil War, when he returned to the tribe of Apaches with whom he had spent the latter part of his childhood.

An epic graphic novel with as much heart as Larry McMurtry's novel "Lonesome Dove." This book details the history of the family that would one day shape the attitude and spirit of Clark Kent.

This book is also enjoyable for people who have never experienced graphic fiction before, as my wife will attest.

The Kents is not about the relationship between Clark Kent and his father Jonathan. It is a mini series regarding Jonathan's kin in 1880's Kansas. It has very little to do with the Supermen legend, and there are hints of the BIG RED S thrown in .


John Ostrander has done his research. This western saga is well told. This could be told in a regular novel format, it is better as a graphic novel. Ostrander's storytelling ability is excellent. Even without the Superman family name, this could be the next best western on film, if some studio would take notice

The art of Timothy Truman is amazing, and I do not use that word lightly. The classic artistic style that Truman has used in previous westerns makes this graphic novel a force to savor and enjoy. His work seems to pop off the pages, like 3-D. I always get humbled on what he does with his art on his projects, including his turns on Jonah Hex graphic novels

good work...enjoy

Bennet Pomerantz, AUDIOWORLD