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I found the Spanish easy to understand, though his philosophy went over my head!

Aunque no estes de acuerdo con todas las ideas de Octavio Paz, las reflexiones y los analisis de esta mente birllante ayudan a entender nuestra magnifica raza. La escritura lleva al lector al pasado y al presente, para poder entender la condicion de Mexico y su gente. Todos los Mexicanos deberian de sentarse a devorar este libro que clarificara las costumbres de nuestra gente y nos ayuda a entender que tiene que cambiar en nuestra politica para tener un pais mas prospero.

Paz, el ganador del Premio Nobel de 1990, escribo tantos libros destacados-Sor Juana, El arco y la lira, pero este representa el cumbre de su poder artistico. El escribe sobre el hombre mexicano en todas sus formas y tribulaciones. El libro es, al mismo tiempo, un ensayo(o mejor, un libro de ensayos), un analisis, una historia, y, sobre todo, una pregunta-en que consiste este hombre cuyo origen forma parte de la conquista de America, un proceso ya en proceso.

Empieza la obra discutiendo "el pachuco"-una figura del medio siglo XX que representaba la ambiguedad y la frenesi del hispano en los estados unidos durante ese periodo. Despues de esta discusion, continua explicando la cultura hispana desde la epoca precolumbina hasta la revolucion mexicana. Termina la historia con este evento, y la unica cosa que le hace falta a la obra es un analisis de la historia contemporanea.

Este seria el primer libro que le recomienda sobre Mexico al nuevo estudiante.

Octavio Paz, el escritor que haya definido nuestra vida como "olvidado asombro de estar vivos", nos habla de sus ensayos escritos más que hace cincuenta años. Su "La Dialéctica de la Soledad", uno de sus ensayos más destacados, presente sus puntos de vista sobre la soledad no solamente mexicana, sino también la de hombre presente mismo. Paz trata varios temas ensayísticos con la cristalina claridad y persigue un proyecto casi filosófico: muestra la alma mexicana con sus raíces aztecas, su plaza en la vida antigua y contemporánea y, finalmente, su visión de "soñar con los ojos cerrados". Justamente por este ensayo mismo atrevo a recomendar todo el libro tratando de la soledad, cuya presencia en nuestra vida diaria es tan obvia. Además, un interesado en la obra de Octavio Paz debería leer su discurso que había pronunciado en el año 1990 con el motivo de agradecer el galardonar de Premio Nobel. Leyendo Paz, uno descubre que Paz ya contestó muchas de nuestras cuestiónes inquietantes ...

Octavio Paz wrote the definitive sociological book that deciphered the Mexican character. He correctly diagnosed that, in fact, the Mexican was stuck in a labyrinth and condemned to find a way out, and in many respects is still trying to find that way out. He understood that he would receive harsh criticism and he did. However, he stayed true to his calling as a man of letters and delivered a book that must indeed be read by anyone wanting to understand the make-up of the Mexican or the serious scholar searching for understanding in the field of Mexican history. I strongly and without reservation recommend this book, it will change your outlook on this important country and most importantly on the inhabitants and descendants of it forever.

I was in the bookstore yesterday and saw this book reprinted with new cover---a sign that it's been doing great in the market! that says a lot about it's content. I got this book over two years ago; from time to time I took it out from the shelf and it always entertains and brings great romantic feelings! I really hope the editor could do more of this kind of book! I have compared this book with other books of love poems---the unique collection of poems from all around the world, modern and ancient, make this book so much more special. The poems seem to use very effective language and words and put together the most sensual pictures with very little words. Very entertaining and enjoyable! BUY THIS BOOK AND CITE ONE A DAY TO YOUR LOVER LIKE I DO! DO IIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!!!!

186 pages filled with amazing poetry. This book connected.... to both thought, and pleasure.

Poems from Walt Whitman, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Shakespeare, William Blake and Pablo Neruda are just some of the poets listed in this anthology. Out of my 25+ poetry books, it is the one I reach for first if I am looking for something romantic or erotic. Included is a little notation about each poet listed. It's a wonderful little paperback that has gotten re-read often at my house.

I purchased this book as a bon voyage gift for my new love who had to leave the country for a few months during the throes of our blossoming romance, and it has done a tremendous job of helping keep the home fires blazin'! He says it's the best poetry book he's ever read. The poems perfectly capture all aspects of the longing, lust and yearning of lovers throughout the ages. If you're looking for the perfect romantic Valentine's gift for your partner, this is definitely it. A must-read for die-hard romantics everywhere.

Erotic love is one of the highest forms of contemplation. ~Kenneth Rexroth

The Erotic Spirit is a collection of beautiful poems mingling together in a land of sensual nirvana. The minute you enter the pages of this stunning anthology, you will find you have entered a sacred sanctuary of desire. You may find yourself startled by the mirroring of emotions. When Sappho (6th century BCE) wrote: "Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain shaking ancient oaks," did she imagine women in the future knowing exactly what she was talking about?

Sam Hamill has included moments of beauty to blur the distinction between spirituality and sensuality. The two become one in a swirling of seductive soul expressions.

When I think of you,
fireflies in the marsh rise
like the soul's jewels,
lost to eternal longing,
abandoning my body

~Izumi Shikibu (970-1030)

Rarely have I read a "Preface" so profound in content and so enlightening in regards to poetry. The "Notes on the Poets" section is also essential to your enjoyment and I was so pleased Sam Hamill included information on each poet. Suddenly a poem becomes all the more significant when you read about Sappho jumping from a cliff because her love was not returned.

Sam Hamill is a poet and the author of over thirty books of poetry, translations and essays. He shows a deep understanding of erotic love and has included poems of longing, passion, compassion, sexual love, adoration, devotion and ecstasy.

There are poems from Egypt, Greece, China, Japan, Turkey, India, America, England, Thailand, Mexico, Spain, France, Lebanon, Pakistan, Estonia and Costa Rica.

Featured Poets: Sappho, Anakreon, Asklepiados, Praxilla, Rufinus, Marcus Argentarius, Catullus, Philodemos, Ovid, Petronius Arbiter, Tzu Yeh, Agathias Scholoasticus, Cometas Chartularius, Paulus Silentiarius, Li Po, Otomo No Yakamochi, Yuan Chen, Li Ho, Ariwara No Narihira, Li Hsun, Ono No Komachi, Izumi Shikibu, Liu Yung, Samuel Ha-Nagid, Ou-Yang Hsiu, Mahadeviyakka, Jelaluddin Rumi, Francesco Petrarch, Ikkyu Sojun, Kabir, Vidyapati, Mirabai, William Shakespeare, Bihari, Robert Herrick, Anne Bradstreet, Se Praj, Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, William Blake, John Keats, Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Antonnio Machado, Yosano Akiko, Anna Akhmatova, Pablo Neruda, Kenneth Rexroth, Hayden Carruth, Denise Levertov, Carolyn Kizer, Robert Creeley, Adrienne Rich, Roberto Sosa, Robert Kelly, Lucille Clifton, Jaan Kaplinski, Sam Hamill, Gioconda Belli, Olga Broumas, Maurya Simon and Dorianne Laux.

Within these pages there are poems by an Indian Princess who became a saint, poems by one of the most influential poets in history and even poems from a woman who is considered to be the first poet in America.

Poems to Adore:

Plum Blossoms - A poem describing longing while lovers are apart. The clouds become love notes as a poet drifts in an orchid boat.

Yuan Chen's Remembering - Passion, daydreams and mountains keeping lovers apart.

Fires Run Through My Body - An anonymous Kwakiutl poem describing love as pain. There is a similar theme in Yuan Chen's Remembering where pain is embraced.

The Erotic Spirit will make you breathless! Some of these poems stir up such deep emotions it is as if the poems burst from the pen in order to experience a union with the page on which they were being written.

100 Stars!

~The Rebecca Review

(Official Apex Reviews Rating: 4.5 Stars)

The Front Porch Prophet opens on Eugene Perdue contacting his best friend, A.J. Longstreet, after several years of non-communication. He needs A.J. to be with him in the final phases of his life after he is diagnosed with cancer, and A.J. readily obliges. The reunion leads to entertaining stories about the men's past, beginning with their childhood and moving through the years until they became young men. Through the tales shared from A.J.'s perspective, the reader is introduced to both men's families and individual pasts, and the large cast of unique and charming characters makes the overall story truly special.

The Front Porch Prophet is a humorous and emotional look into life in Sequoyah, Georgia. While embracing southern culture and showing the quirkiness that small mountain town residents possess, Raymond L. Atkins does a brilliant job of taking what could have been a depressing story about cancer and turning it into a colorful, compelling story that will draw readers in and makes them fall in love with the characters. Highly recommended to all readers, because no one should miss out on this touching tale of friendship, family, and southern culture.


Brooke Carleton
Apex Reviews

I grew up listening to Garrison Keillor every Sunday morning on the radio, and I love his gentle, easygoing narratives of small-town life. Sequoyah, Georgia, Raymond L. Atkin's quirky town, is the Lake Wobegone of the South. The rural community is populated with a never-ending stream of strange characters. There's Hoghead, a cook who proudly makes the world's worst coffee and proudly posts the Daily Special in the front window every morning, as well as a cheerful Christian message. Unfortunately, he isn't too good at separating his thoughts, so you might see advertised "THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH COUNTRY-FRIED STEAK" or "CHRIST DIED FOR THE BEST FRIED CHICKEN IN THE COUNTY." A.J.'s wife Maggie is pretty normal, except that all of her family members are named after famous authors, so her full name is Margaret Mitchell Callahan Longstreet, and her children are named Emily Charlotte (named for BOTH the Bronte sisters in a break with tradition), Harper Lee and James Joyce. Police officer Slim could be the twin brother of Hazzard County's Sheriff Roscoe. But everyone in the town basks in the glow of small-town friendliness, and the community happily takes its turn irritating and taking care of each other.


Part of the way Eugene amuses himself is by writing letters to all the people he knows to be sent after he dies. There's an excerpt from each one at the beginning of every chapter. Some of them are sweet, most of them are sarcastic (Being dead is not that bad. There are a lot of people here I know. In fact, most of them were your patients.) All of them hare hilarious.

The joy of this book comes from the variety of characters and their tangled relationships. It's really a fun read; page after page made me laugh like a hyena (I even snorted within hearing distance of some clients; that was embarrassing) but at the end I may have been sniffling a little bit. It's very authentic and comfortable; if The Front Porch Prophet were an article of clothing it would definitely be a soft, worn, slightly dirty brown leather jacket that's been heated in the sun so that it's snug and warm and has that perfect old-leathery smell to it.

Raymond Atrins
Medallion Press, 2008
ISBN: 9781933836386
5 Stars
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com
You do not have to be a Southerner to enjoy a quirky Southern story. The setting for The Front Porch Prophet is Sequoyah, Georgia . Unique characters, southern charm, and a gripping story make this book an excellent read. Eugene is battling a fatal disease and must face his mortality. He seeks help from his estranged best friend, A.J. Together they look back on the past.
The Front Porch Prophet will make you laugh and will make you cry. Raymond Atrins is an extremely talented author. He developed a plot that peeks at southern life, approaching death, and friendships. The secondary characters make this book. Their quirkiness makes them appealing. The writing style is pleasant, fast-paced, and rewarding. I suspect this book will be a best seller.

A.J. Longstreet and Eugene Purdue share a colorful past. They grew up together in the mountains of Sequoyah, Georgia, and got into their share of trouble. The best friends had an alcohol-induced falling out three years ago and haven't spoken since. In the opening scenes of The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond L. Atkins, Eugene initiates contact with A.J. with some bad news. Eugene has terminal cancer and a matter of months to live. He needs A.J. to be present in the final phase of his life and good-hearted A.J. readily obliges.

Thus begins the reunion between what must surely be two of the most charming and entertaining characters in rural Georgia. As A.J. steps back into Eugene's life, the past comes flooding back. As events and characters unfold, Atkins presents A.J. and Eugene as boys, teenagers, and young men. He introduces their parents, grandparents, wives, children, neighbors and colleagues. It is a large and eclectic cast of characters, and they are what makes this story special.

If a terminally ill man suffering through his last days sounds like a depressing premise for a story, don't worry. This compelling tale is anything but. Atkins is a master story teller and his anecdotes, all told from A.J. Longstreet's point of view, draw the reader in while the tongue-in-cheek way he presents them will make you smile. The narrative tone is dry and humorous, but at the same time warm and tender. It lovingly embraces the quirkiness of the residents of Sequoyah and pokes gentle but loving fun at the culture of the Deep South.

Atkins' writing is impeccable and he is clearly in his element with this wonderful piece of Southern fiction.
One of the strong points of this novel is the way in which he builds a very strong sense of place, not only with descriptions of the physical setting but with his characters, through descriptions of their personalities, daily lives and interactions. Even the rough and tumble ones who drank entirely too much whiskey and carried on love affairs with their firearms, were so likeable. And in the end, they show us that no matter where you're from, family and friendship are ties that bind and endure despite our mistakes and inadequacies.

The Front Porch Prophet tells the story of lifelong friends AJ Longstreet and Eugene Purdue. Growing up together in Sequoyah, Georgia the two were friends through thick and thin. Pulling pranks on unsuspecting townsfolk, trying to loose their virginity, playing football, they are thick as thieves until a falling out over Diane (later to be Eugene's ex-wife) and the boundaries established by adulthood lead to a long term estrangement between the two.

Raymond L Atkins has crafted a quirky, humorous tale of the friendship between two men and the lengths one will go to help fulfill the final wish of another. AJ only reenters Eugene's life when he finds out his friend has terminal cancer and suddenly their arguments seem to be beside the point.
Eugene has asked AJ to help him at the end, to put him out of the misery of hiss illness. Eugene counters with the observation that there must be many others who would appreciate and look forward to the opportunity. Eugene wants his friend to be the one ...and although AJ has doubts, he tries to humor his friend. As he wrestles with Eugene's request, he must also face a lifetime of regrets and his own mortality.

The back and forth between the old friends/combatants does not mask the seriousness of the request and the inevitable end result. The two men have an easy back and forth that is common between old friends. Atkins is familiar with the rhythms of small town southern life. He develops believable characters, pulling back from the brink of ridicule and infusing them with humanity. The author has an ear for southern dialect and the easy rapport between men. The ability Atkins has with words made this a pleasure to read and many times I found myself nodding my head in recognition and appreciation. I was presently surprised by The Front Porch Prophet.

James Baldwin is a tortured soul. He pours his whole soul onto every page. This makes him one of America's greatest writers. His word pictures take you into the church, on a picnic, into a country farm house and into the lives of all his characters. Long Live James Baldwin. In our hearts.

James Baldwin is one of the best writers
of all time. This semi-autobiographical
collection of short stories about different
male protagonists going to meet "the man"
which is different in every story is one
of the best story collections of all time.

Even today, after reading it, I could see
where there was a lesson to be learned from
each story. I wish James Baldwin was still
alive so I could tell him how much I love his
work. If you don't read anything else by James
Baldwin (although Giovanni's Room, Tell me how
long the train's been gone and Another Country
are also brilliant) read this, particularly Sonny's Blues.

The first story I read in this was "Sonny's Blues" and I realized there was more to it than just a story- and that the blues is more than just b5ths but a greater understanding of life - highly recommended.

James Baldwin is known primarily for his essays and his first two novels ("Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "Giovanni's Room"), but I often tell readers that the place to start is with his first story collection, "Going to Meet the Man." Baldwin's short fiction is more straightforward and accessible than are his essays (which are indeed excellent); each of the eight stories presents a different aspect of Baldwin's worldview; and unlike his early novels, where racism is treated as one aspect in the lives of characters, several of these stories confront the "racial issue" full on.

Baldwin's short fiction may be easier to read, but it does not avoid uncomfortable truths. In fact, some of Baldwin's most heated writing can be found in this volume, which was first published in 1965. It contains work written over a 20-year-period, including "Previous Condition," the first piece of fiction he ever published (in Commentary Magazine in 1948). A fledgling actor is torn between the black world of Harlem ("perfectly in his element, in his place, as the saying goes") and the white neighborhoods downtown. He stays at a friend's apartment in lower Manhattan, but has to hide from the landlord and leave the building at odd hours to avoid being seen by the other residents ("Why don't you go uptown, where you belong?").

Each of the other stories is unforgettable in its own way, but my two favorites open and close the volume. "The Rockpile" is an early (yet different) version of an episode in "Go Tell It on the Mountain"; two of Baldwin's strengths are his ability to capture the memories of youth and to present the complexities of family life. The incendiary title story that ends the volume depicts a white police officer whose racial attitudes were formed by a lynching he witnessed as a child. Baldwin pits the very real horror of the police brutality experienced by a young man who attempts to register to vote against the officer's wholly imagined fear of the oversexed black stereotype.

This last story--indeed, much of Baldwin's later fiction--has been criticized (by biographer James Campbell, for example) for lacking "a neutrality which Baldwin was finding harder than ever to maintain" and an unwillingness to "concede that somewhere, somehow, this corrupted man might incorporate genuine goodness." Such comments seem unfair on two counts: the actions of some racists, while "pitiable," are still beyond redemption or "goodness," and (more to the point) I don't agree that it's a storyteller's responsibility to make lemonade out of every lemon.

So ignore the critics who argue that Baldwin's fiction lost its shine as he grew older and more cynical and less "neutral," and pick up this excellent collection of stories. I think you'll find that their bluntness and honesty and gritty realism make up for whatever stylistic faults the critics might point to.

I am slowly understanding why Mr. Baldwin elected to leave the United States for more than a decade in the 1940s and 1950s. He apparently is on record as saying that he needed to flee because his anger was going to destroy him if he did not seek a respite from American injustice.

Upon reading this collection, I think I am really beginning to understand what must have been going through his mind. Read "Previous Condition" where a young African American man keeps being thrown out of hotels and denied jobs simply because of the color of his skin. There is nowhere he can go without meeting the hostile glances and conspiratorial whispers of people on the street simply because of his skin color. And there is a moment where it all came into focus for me, standing in the kitchen of his Jewish friend's Jules' apartment. And I quote:

"Oh," I cried, "I know you think I'm making it dramatic, that I'm paranoiac and just inventing trouble! Maybe I think so sometimes, how can I tell? You get so used to being hit you find you're always waiting for it. Oh, I know, you're Jewish, you get kicked around, too, but you can walk into a bar and nobody knows you're Jewish and if you go looking for job you'll get a better job than mine!" (78)

It is deeply disturbing to think that a person has the suspicion and rage of the world cocked against their temple, but that was how it was (and still is). I have read much about the Civil Rights struggle and as a Jew myself, have listened to many stories from members of my family about prejudice but these stories, they uncover something. After seeing what happened in New Orleans with Katrina and listening to the empty discussions of "good schools", No Child Left Behind and test score mania, it opens your eyes to the fact that performance, optimism and opportunity are perceptions that, when absent, can ruin lives in ways that are hard to qualify.

I highly recommend these stories but be prepared to become deeply uncomfortable because Baldwin had a powerful case to make about American hypocrisy and he makes it.

is like the impact of violence," Flannery O'Connor once wrote, which doesn't explain her stories but does help illuminate them. Having read her short stories and seen the cult film of Wise Blood, I nevertheless approached her letters gingerly. However, they hail from a time and tradition when letter writing was not only an art but a means of expression and communication. She works out a lot of the ideas she's writing about in her letters, which makes reading the finished works that much more fascinating.

O'Connor raised peacocks and lived on a farm in Georgia, but she also had lupus, an incurable disease. She's not sentimental about it (or about most things); she'd be a candidate for a Catholic realist (if there is such a category). Almost any writer or reader will find these letters fascinating for what they reveal about O'Connor and her method of working. Almost any spiritually-minded reader will find them equally intriguing for her insights on the human condition. Because Protestants don't have sacraments (Catholics have seven sacraments, Protestants have two), she once suggested, they have to make everything up as they go along. That seems to me to be the case in some post-modern churches where, it would seem, anything goes. But it would be incorrect, as Ralph Wood shows in Flannery O'Connor and the Christ-haunted South, to think she therefore held the fundamentalists who people her books in disdain, as did liberal Protestants and much of society in her time. Her generous nature is one reason so many are returning to reading O'Connor, and so many new readers are discovering her.

My thirty-five-year-old copy of this book is worn to tatters, and not just because of O'Connor's killer sense of humor. When overwhelmed by it all, this book does the trick. These letters won't be what her readers expect. True, they are ironic, economical, vivid, and eccentric. But their eccentricity runs not to blood, evil, and delusions; it runs to peacock farming. And--although a few noted writers are correspondents-- O'Connor mainly recounts the daily routines: setting the table, collecting the mail, entertaining the neighbors, reading the latest book. But seen through her eyes, these events are page-turners. Meanwhile, without one grain of saccharine, she conveys her acceptance, contentment, and steely dedication to writing while crippled with lupus (which killed her before she was forty.) But no bitterness here. Not only do you get absorbed in the writing; your own problems become trivial. By the way, aside from being one of the best writers I've ever read, she may also be the most authentically southern. By this I don't mean she's from the south. I mean she nails southern speech without ever resorting to embarassing attempts at "dialect."
If you're from the south too, you'll know what I mean.

This book is wonderful. If you're interested in O'Connor, you should definitely read it. AND, if you're NOT interested in O'Connor, this will make you interested in her. This book gives meaning to all her other stories.

I thought the title, "The Habit of Being" was extremely strange. But as you read it, it becomes very clear why a) it was titled that and b) O'Connor exemplified that motto.

Throughout this book you will see a thoughtful, kind, and analytical artist love on her work and her friends--in the most natural, uninhibited way. She spells words wrong. She speaks of her failing health. She talks about life on the farm. In the next letter it'll be theology and Aristotle though. It's beautiful and you will learn a lot from it.

That said...it's almost 600 pages long. BUT, I couldn't put it down.

She's witty and extremely funny too.

One of her best friends complied this set of letters to share the real Flannery with the public. That she did, and it is a blessing indeed.

These letters offer deep insight into the importance of the Catholic faith to Flannery O'Connor and to her audience of a number of decades ago. I found it an important book for today as well because we are still breathing in the toxic gas of nihilism. Not only did I enjoy her writings, but I found them to be exceptional well constructed.

Flannery O'Connor's correspondence is a fine testimony to humor, faith, and work in the life of a fascinating and absolutely unswerving human being. As she says in a letter to Andrew Lytle from this collection, the fact that she was a Catholic kept her from being a regional writer and the fact that she was a Southerner kept her from being a Catholic writer. If you want the best tutorial you're apt to ever read on how to write fiction, forget the usual "Write a Novel in 30 Days" garbage and get a copy of THE HABIT OF BEING. She'll also teach you quite a bit about living.

As a fledgling horror writer, I'm trying to digest some bits and pieces from masters of the genre. Consider this review more of a discussion of what I liked in the book. Like I said, I'm a fledgling writer myself, and once you start creating something, you realize how much easier it is to criticize than create--so I'm trying to keep it on the positive.

I enjoyed much of High Cotton. Personal highlights include "Mister Weed-Eater", "The Night They Missed the Horror Show", "Incident on and Off a Mountain Road", and my favorite, "Steppin' Out, Summer, '68". Each of these tales forced my hand, made me keep turning those pages to see what bizzare sight waited around the corner. Each contained just the right mix of black humor for my taste.

In this mix of 21 tales, the reader really gains a respect for Lansdale's style of storytelling. He is from East Texas, and you hear the voice throughout, even when the story might be a bit wide of the darkly humorous horror for which he's known. A warning to the squeamish: this book will offend your senses and offers enough racial ephitats to make political correctness roll around in it's grave.

Lansdale knows how to entertain, and when he's on his game, he's among the best.

I bought this book because I wanted to read the original story from which a first season episode of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" was built around. The episode was "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road", and both the television adaptation and- I was happy to learn when I received "High Cotton" from Amazon- the original Lansdale story are top notch. In fact, the TV show was excellent largely due to its sticking extremely close to the Lansdale original.

Happily, there are many other great stories in this collection other than "Incident". As other reviewers have pointed out here, the stories range from darkly humorous to dark & gritty, the dark & gritty ones being my favorites. There are also a few good stories of the ironic and darkly poetic variety, where some poor schmuck gets an undeserved ton of bricks dropped on his life for no other reason than fate sometimes does that (I'm thinking mostly of the story involving the guy who tries to help the seemingly pathetic blind groundskeeper). The outright "funny" stories, like the one about Godzilla being in the twelve-step program (he wants to stop stomping on tourists), and the story about the inflatable dinosaur who wanted to visit Disneyland so he could meet Mickey Mouse, are also okay, but less memorable than the dark & gritty stories, which usually involve hapless characters taking a wrong turn somewhere and in short order finding themselves in the midst of one form or another of earthly hell.

Sensitive readers should note that there are many instances of racist humor, and many racist observations, throughout the book, as this or that character spouts something ignorant. In fact, there's so much of it that I started thinking that the author perhaps had a benign view of such things, or maybe even held those views himself. But, no, it ultimately becomes clear that Mr. Lansdale is just trying to accurately show how many people talk and think, and also demonstrate that such thoughts and observations can mean one of several things: that the character in question truly IS racist, or might just be a little ignorant and stupid but not truly bad. I say this because in several instances (especially in the last story), a couple of SEEMING racists meet up (after one of those wrong turns) with a group of true, hateful, monstrous racists, and... well, let's just say Mr. Lansdale makes it clear that there's a difference between dumb, ignorant spoutings and true evil.

With the exception of the occasional inflatable dinosaur and the not-as-friendly-as-it-seems housecat (and even the tales containing those offbeat elements were perfectly engaging), these are intense, dark, memorable stories, and I look forward to experiencing more Joe R. Lansdale in the near future. Just not quite yet. There's some grim stuff here, and I could use a breather.

"High Cotton" is representative of the period when Joe Lansdale was still writing hardcore horror - and no one did it better. The stories in this collection are truly disturbing and graphic, reaching splattery heights without ever straying too far from Joe's East Texas sensibilities. Plenty of sick twists and thinly veiled stabs at racial injustice to keep our more "sophisticated" readers interested. For those of us who like down and dirty country-fried horror, you can't do any better than this collection.

High Cotton by Joe R. Lansdale is the best short story collection I have ever read so far! The stories are funny and will make you laugh aloud -- so don't read this book in public places! Funny story: I was reading this book whilst waiting to board the plane in the airport, and I could not stop laughing! Security guards started to crowd around me -- just because I was acting in a 'peculiar manner' due to the loud laughing... so Joe R. Lansdale, it's your fault people are laughing out loud in public places whilst reading your book! Read this book and you will know what all the fuss is about.

So, "High Cotton" reprints several of Lansdale's personally selected best stories. These stories, all of them except for one are also featured in his original collections "By Bizarre Hands", "Bestsellers Guaranteed", and "Writer of the Purple Rage", and are arguably the best of the stories featured in the original (and out of print) books.

Lansdale's follow-up, "Bumper Crop" collects many of the rest, but not very many stories from "Writer of the Purple Rage." If you can get a copy of "Purple Rage" get it. It has the original "Bubba Ho-Tep" novella, which is one of Lansdale's best stories and was made into the wonderful movie starring Bruce Campbell, which may be one of the most faithful adaptations of a writer's work ever put on film.

Anyway, "Booty and the Beast" is the newest (to me) story in this collection, which centers around a specific item associated with the Virgin Mary that brings doom to those who possess it. It is an entertaining story. The best stories here, however, are the ones his true fans have read before: "The Night They Missed the Horror Show" (his signature story), "The Phone Woman", and "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back", "Not From Detroit", and many others. The stories also have introductions by Lansdale telling how they were conceived. There is also an introduction at the front of the book explaining how he came to write short stories and why he deosn't write as many anymore.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading the stories again and I hope this one stays in print for a long time, so that readers don't have to track down out of print collections to see what a fabulous writer this man is. These are the stories that made him famous, using his unique blend of humor, horror, and gritty realism to form a truly effective story. Highly Recommended!

I liked the book because I am a history major but some parts are hard to get through. It is a classic however and is a great stepping stone to use when reviewing ancient history

Cornelius Tacitus knows perfectly what the cardinal human characteristic is: `From time immemorial, man has had an instinctive love of power.' And, `the reward for virtue was inevitable death.'
His book is a mighty illustration of the ruthless fight for the top spot: emperor. The ambitious and the wealthy fight one another without mercy. `The truth is that revolution and strife put tremendous power into the hands of evil men.' The vanquished are brutally slain.
For Tacitus, the most important factors in the power struggle are money (`money was the sinews of civil war') and control of the military (`the lesson that an army can create an emperor'). If you could `reward` your soldiers, you could win. However, the legions were not interested in war itself only in looting, plundering, raping and enslaving. `The men wanted campaign and set battles, as the prizes here were more attractive than their normal pay.' The victims were innocent peasants, women and children.
Overall, `Italy found it hard to put up with such hordes of infantry and cavalry, and with violence, financial loss and acts of lawlessness.'

While the `Annals' contain more human touch, the `Histories' are nearly completely centered on military, diplomatic and tactical manoeuvres, followed by terrifying and merciless violence after the battles (`the fury of the soldiers').

This for mankind severe and pessimistic book is a must read for all those interested in the lessons of history and for lovers of great classical literature.

Most people don't need a review of Tacitus's work. Most people want to know if a particular translation is any good. With that in mind, I recommend this Penguin edition of Kenneth Wellesley's translation. The translation itself is highly readable, and Wellesley indicates the rare instances where he emends the Latin text in footnotes. Wellesley also uses the footnotes to help the reader keep track of some of the less prominent characters in the work, a feature which is a big help for the non-specialist. Probably the best aspect of this edition is the map section at the end. The book contains 11 maps that include maps of large areas, maps of cities, and diagrams of important battles. Wellesley also refers the reader to the appropriate map through the footnotes. This review makes it sound like the book contains a lot of footnotes, but really there are usually just one or two a page. The one minor defect of the book is that the index only contains personal names. A general index would have made this user friendly book even better. But like I said, this is a great English copy of the Histories.

Every now and then a pivotal moment in history is witnessed and recorded by a master communicator. The mid-first century of Rome was such a time and Tacitus was such a communicator. The Histories will forever be a benchmark of good history with its observations on human nature and behaviour along with their impact on history. The historian will do well to read Tacitus not just for the historical lessons but for his approach to history as a record of human activity. While observing and commenting on the human element in history, Tacitus avoids making moral judgements and remains as objective as possible in the midst of turmoil, wars, and rumors of wars. His beloved nation and people were suffering under the barbarity of fratricidal war yet he remains above the madness and records the events with passion tempered with objectivity. His example is one that has remained difficult for others to follow.

A word on this translation in particular - I found Mr. Wellesley's translation very readable and poetic. He seems to have captured the literature value of the text as well as the content. Well done.

Reading Tacitus' Annals I oft remembered Thucydides' account of the Peleponnesian wars. An important theme of the latter work was the corrupting effects of prolonged war on the morals and intellect of the Athenian people, who were ultimately degraded so much that they voted the destruction of the people of a small island just because they had chosen to remain neutral. Tacitus, on the other hand, seems to have dedicated himself in this work to examining the corrupting effects of absolutism on the Roman people after the fall of the Republic. He shows how absolute power brought out the worst traits in the character of rulers like Tiberius and Nero, who grew more and more tyrannical with every year on the throne, and how members of the illustruous Roman senate and other sections of the Roman political society turned into a horde of spineless sycophants, informers and debauches. There were still a few honourable individuals, but as Tacitus shows in an endless series of judicial and non-judicial murders, most of these paid the price of sticking to the ancient traditions of liberty and honour with their lives. Tacitus also deals at length with the relations of the Romans with the subject peo-ples. I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that in such passages Tacitus draws a parallels between the fate of these enslaved peoples and that of the enslaved Roman people -the first a slave to the Romans, the second a slave to the emperor and his bureaucracy made up of ex-slaves. Many subject peoples rebelled and some like the Cherusci under Arminius (towards whom he does not seem averse at all) could successfully preserve their liberty against the in-trusion of the Romans. Those Romans who dared defy the tyrant on the other hand, and especially those who could wisely remain independent and yet stay alive, were far fewer, Tacitus seems to imply. Insofar as it demonstrates how closely liberty (including liberty of thought) and morals are intertwined, this work is still relevant today as a central work of liberal humanism.

I'd collected two novels and this collection of Wm. Gay's
before I got far enough down in my stack of books-to-read for
his work to come to the top. I Hate
to See That Evening Sun Goes Down is a marvelous collection.
All the stories are at least good, most are excellent.
I've read "The Paperhanger" three times:
once for story and twice more to learn from it.
--a fellow short story writer

I don't usually read short stories and picked this on accident but it was such a pleasent surprise! The characters are really intersting and you could really relate to them. When I read the stories, I felt like I was in their lives as opposed to just viewing them from the outside. He gives you just enough information so you can turn it in to what you want it to be. He just tells the stories without judgement. It was just a good book. You can take it at face value or really think about the stories and get your mind around the symbolism. The only thing I didn't like was that the author did not use quotation marks but other than that it was excellent.

I doubt anyone will read this review, since I noticed the last written reviews of this book were submitted several years ago -- a testament to how little this beautiful collection of short stories has been read. That is truly unfortunate, since these stories are each painfully beautiful. The Tennessee counstyside is William Gay's locale of choice and in each story it plays a role, its woods always present, mysterious, sometimes frightening. Gay sets the scene to match the tone of each tale, and it is usually grim at best. However, the stories and their characters have a rough-edged beauty all their own. Ironic and often sublimely tragic, these stories bare the dark underside of human nature. The title story, "I Hate to See the Evening Sun Go Down," has darkly comic elements and is the only story that made me laugh, even while its protagonist stubbornly continues to fight in the face of inevitable defeat. In other stories, like "A Death in the Woods" and "The Paperhanger," life deals tragic blows to the characters who manage to survive in ways that are not always admirable, but survive they do, nonetheless. And often, as with the protagonist in "The Man Who Knew Dylan," they simply drive away, often leaving behind, with their problems, their responsibilities as well -- responsibilities often for heinous acts. Gay's language is clean and crisp, befitting the starkness of the themes of the stories. A lovely collection, even if it is tough to take, at times.

I'd give eleven of these thirteen short stories an A+, the remaining two, a B+. This is a good a collection of short stories as you'll find. It's no wonder that the critics have nothing but praise for Mr. Gay. Many of the characters are similar. Alhough they are told in the third-person, the stories belong to the menfolks. They are tough, quiet, often angry and capable of violence at the slightest provocation. (In "Crossroads Blues," the character Borum, in describing how he shot his wife and his brother when he found them in bed together says, "You need to know what a man's capable of.") Sometimes they are the victims of their own inaction until it is too late to extricate themselves from the dilemmas they find themselves, and they do something horrific. They often have difficulties with women, ever seeking the elusive female in their lives. In some stories there is conflict between children and older parents. There are murders, accidental killings, suicides, accidental deaths-- and divorces, infidelities, teenage pregnancies and abortions, cancer and Alzheimer's. These characters inhabit, at least some of them, a place called Ackerman Field, somewhere near Nashville, Tenneseee where there is still a "high sheriff." They listen to George Jones, the Carter Family and Jimmie Rogers. But these characters certainly are not freaks and are ultimately very sympathetic. I have known some of these men; they are strong as oak trees.

According to biographical information on Mr. Gay, he is largely self-taught and is a voracious reader. A seventh grade teacher gave him a copy of Thomas Wolfe's LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL; and the rest is, as they say, history. Like Wolfe, sometimes Mr. Gay's prose gets a little too ornate; for the most part, however, he's a joy to read. Mr. Gay is a great lover of similes and metaphors; they often work beautifully. Windows are "stoned by double-dared boys." A man views his naked, sleeping wife "in the filigreed moonlight at once real yet as remote and lost as a dusty nude study stacked in a museum's forgotten corner." A room in a funeral home is "a cozy paneled vestibule just one door removed from eternity."

This is probably sparrows screeching at eagles but I believe the term is "jerry-rigged" (p. 120) rather than "jury-rigged." But then, even Homer nodded.

These are quite fantastic stories.

Particular favorites are the title story, "Sugarbaby", "Closure and Roadkill on the Life's Highway" and "The Paperhanger". But after a while the variations on the "violent men and their bad women" or the occassional "violent woman and her bad man" can become a bit repetitive. Like Cormac McCarthy, William Gay seems to have a sense of fatality about life, where people are inexorably drawn down their paths by something within their natures and violence is always threatening under the surface. Also like Mr. McCarthy, Gay seems to share an aversion to quotation marks being used to denote speech. Must be a southerner thing. While some archetypes do keep popping up over and over again, (Proud men whose pride leads them to violence, whether defying the divorce courts,the federal government, or their own greedy children, over and over again) the oddballs really do stand out and are vibrant characters, like the Pakistani couple in "The Paperhanger", or the jaded musician in "The Man who knew Dylan" Or the aging bootlegger who can't find his hidden stash of money in "Closure and Roadkill"

Overall an impressive debut short story collection, but I'm deducting a star for repetition of theme or character type in a few too many stories.

The "Introducing..." series is quite uneven: there are some great books in it, but also some very dull ones. In general, books about authors are good, since they can combine the life of the writers with part of their stories. I love the one about Proust and the one about Camus; those about Joyce and Tolkien weren't so good on the other hand. The one about Kafka is one of the best, and this is due in no small part to the drawings of author Robert Crumb, who was able to bring to life (sorry about the cliche) Kafka's perverted imagination (yes, perverted is the right word) as probably few other artists would. Strongly recommended.

I dug this book and I recommend it to everyone out there. Fans of Kafka and/or Crumb should really enjoy this.

I recall the first time I read Kafka's "The Metamorphosis", I was in my early twenties. I really hated it. I didn't really get it, nor did I desire to spend any time and mental energy trying to get it. Then again, what do you expect from a twenty-five year old bachelor? Enlightment? Nah, think again. Come to think of it, the only reason I read it in the first place was to impress some girl I was dating at the time. Needless to say it was a challenge for me trying to stay awake while reading it. I mean for one thing, how in the hell are we supposed to get excited, let alone even interested, about some guy who wakes up one day only to find that he's transformed into a giant bug. YAWN! Anyway, I did finally finish the book, however that was the first and last time I dared to pick up a novel by Franz Kafka again. The guy was just too damn doleful and morose for my taste. If I want to be depressed I'll start watching daytime television.

So anyway, about three weeks ago I was checking out this used book store in San Luis Obispo and just so happened to come across this little book. Now I have to tell you up front that I have never been a huge fan of Mr. Crumb's salacious sketches. No doubt about it, the man is one talented artist, incredibly original and a unique innovator. However, like I said, he just doesn't quite do it for me personally. So the million dollar question is - 'why would I purchase this book if I am not a fan of either artist?' The answer is simply because I have been promising myself for a while now that I need to try and tackle Kafka one more time (after all, I am so much more enlightened, open-minded, & mature now than I was fifteen plus years ago. At least that's what I keep trying to convince myself, others, like my wife for example, may beg to differ with me). Ergo, I was hoping that this short, breezy bio would educate me a bit on this rather unconventional writer. Also, I enjoyed the fact that this book was designed to be a bit humorous as well (hence Crumb's irreverent illustrations). God knows that Kafka is depressing enough, so this bit of humor (the author David Mairowitz also deserves credit for this as well) certainly helps.

All in all, this turned out to be an excellent little read. It's not going to blow your mind. It's not abstract or esoteric by any stretch. However, it is interesting. It is a tad educational as well. To sum it all up in one cliche line - it's a clever, pithy, picturesque little bio that is sure to assist anyone who is brave and intelligent enough to tackle Franz Kafka.

Well written by David Zane Mairowitz. And of course the illustrations by Crumb are absolutely amazing and for him, very, very tame. PG-13 tame in fact. This is the first book of this introductory series I've read so far, I am definitely interested in checking out the others in the series real soon.

Enjoy!

INTRODUCING KAFKA is a great way to enjoy R. Crumb artwork without feeling slimed by his unfortunate obsessions with perversity, and you will learn a lot about the life of the very famous author named Kafka, too.

Most of the pages have more space given to the artwork than the body text, drawn in the typical R. Crumb style, cute with edgy content.

Overall, after reading this book, I realized that I no longer am interested in the type of work done by Kafka, which is story writing that is VERY depressive and dreary, though imaginative.

I used to be a much more involved reader of R. Crumb, but I have since lost interest in his pornography overloads, so this INTRODUCING KAFKA book is a nice little souvenir of R. Crumb that I can safely keep in the house, without fear of upsetting anybody if they should ever find it.

There is very mild "adult" content in R. Crumb's artwork, especially mild compared to R. Crumb's independent, anything goes, usual work.

This book is a perfect fit for a biography of oddball author Kafka, presented and illustrated with R. Crumb work, doing a rare, non-offense project, for most mainstream readers' sensibilities.

Crumb was definitely the perfect illustrator for this book. Wow! The stories are "broken down" and visually interpreted, which really enriches the reading experience of the actual stories later (if you choose to do so). Overall, a very interesting look inside the life of a mysterious, dark-minded writer that most people don't know too much about. I'm really glad I read this book, I learned a lot!

For those who came to look at/buy this book via Ian Buruma's passing mention in the New York Review of Books (4/6/06), in which he states the "the book does [Crumb and Kafka] both a disservice": Don't believe it. As another reviewer said, I found this book strangely moving; and the Illustrated Classics reference is unfortunate. The enforcement - sometimes passive - of the high-low cultural dichotomy is very boring, very 20th-century, and not of much use in reading a book like this.

The first half of the twentieth century was filled with constant change and development; it was an exciting time to be alive. "A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York" is a focus on the woman herself, but a bigger focus on the city she lived in and its constant change through two world wars, a great depression, and so much more events. Filled with countless photos, both color and black and white, "A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York" is a seminal look at the woman and the city, sure to please fans of her work and New Yorkers alike. "A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York" is highly recommended for community library biography collections and students of the history and culture of New York City.

Detailed enough for Parker enthusiasts, yet accessible to the new Parker fan, this beautifully illustrated book has something for everyone. Even after reading the book, I find myself dipping back into it to reread various sections and look at the gorgeous photographs. If you or someone you know is a Parker fan, buy this book!!

This book is a fun and informative read. Any fan of Dorothy Parker needs a copy of this book (hell, I have two!) Kevin is able to provide the reader with a tour of an era. Great!

This book provides an armchair walking tour of the meaningful places for the writer Dorothy Parker in NYC. It is also an excellent accompaniment to the Portable Dorothy Parker.

I love Dorothy Parker, New York, and the 20's, 30's and 40's to include the clothes, music, theatre, books, personalities - the whole culture of that era. This book touches so much of that. It's the portal for stepping back 70-90 years - and for becoming addicted to celebrating all things DP. You can take your own tour with this book (either actual or virtual) and feel the energy and excitement of New York, see buildings that no longer exist or now have different facades or purposes. You can even pop into a pub along the way and fully develop that hint of whisky or gin that you think you smell in the alleyways - or on the pages.

I have purchased copies of this book as gifts to friends and loaned my copy out several times because it never fails to prompt further interest in Dorothy Parker, the Vicious Circle, and New York in general. I've found that A Journey Into Dorothy Parker's New York is equally enjoyed by friends you might say are more academically inclined as well as those who are more experientially motivated.