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I purchased this book for my Spanish novel class, and for that class only. I didn't enjoy the ending, and the reading was hard for me, but then again, reading is not a strong point of mine. It isn't too terribly hard to understand, but it is a very good "reflection" of Uruguay in the time in which it was written (XX century.) I wouldn't say it is a bad book, but I personally didn't really enjoy it as much, probably because I had to read it for class and we went through it very quickly. Has some humour in it, but one would have to understand the historical/cultural background of that idea to get the humour. The footnotes are really helpful, and if you want to read it, by all means, read it.

Nunca antes había leído algo de Benedetti, y ahora soy su más ferviente admiradora. Lo he conocido a través de La Tregua, y para mí ha sido su mejor carta de presentación. Una novela llena de humanidad, de sencillez, de ser humano. Un poema de amor hecho novela! Sus personajes se metieron tan dentro de mi alma, que me entristecí cuando la terminé. Qué bueno eres, Benedetti!!! La recomiendo siempre.

¿Han leído a Julio Ramón Ribeyro?, bueno, en "la tregua" de Benedetti encontré la misma característica que me hizo amar los libros de Ribeyro. Estos dos señores escriben de tal forma que es inevitable llegar a sentir un cariño real por los personajes, estos te inspiran ternura, pero muy profundamente, nada parecido a otros autores que he leído. Los cuentos de Ribeyro son hermosos, y también lo es "La Tregua". Esta es la historia de un hombre que está por cumplir 50 años, y espera su jubilación. Vive una vida muy solitaria, aunque la comparte con tres hijos con los cuales no tiene la mejor de las relaciones. Su historia es narrada en primera persona, en forma de diario; su vida transcurre en medio de la rutina, el aburrimiento y la soledad, pero Benedetti asombrosamente logra hacer de este relato algo muy entretenido. Por la forma en que está escrita la obra, en primera persona, es más fácil identificarte con el personaje, pues de alguna manera este señor le está contando su vida a uno. Tengan cuidado al leer otros reviews en esta misma página, pues cuentan partes de la historia que es mejor no saber antes de empezar a leerla, es mucho mejor sorprenderse. No recuerdo algún libro que al leerlo me haya hecho llorar (aunque debe haber habido alguno)...pero este lo hizo, lo confieso, una sensación alucinante. 5 estrellas se me quedan cortas, por favor léanlo.

Just the best book I have ever read, and I have read a lot. Do not hesitate one second about buying it.

this is one of the greatest works by Mario Benedetti, a story of sadness, solitude and routine. One great virtue of this book is the way it transmits all the moods that the author is presenting through it's descriptions and the way of living of the characters. La Tregua is about love, life, and the reality of a world who doesn't allows us to live as we may want to. There is people who work for a living and there are many who live to work. Share with Martin Santomé and Laura Avellaneda the social dilema that Benedetti is Presenting us.

Karen Sommerfield receives news that she is being laid off, despite years of loyalty and the fact that she helped build the company to what it is today. She also receives bad news that a cancer that she thought she would not see again has returned. Her doctor has asked her to make an appointment as soon as possible, as he thinks that the initial test results are pointing towards the return of this disease, but he is not one-hundred percent sure.

Karen has not been home since the death of Grandmother Rose two years ago. Going home brings back many happy memories of a woman Karen had loved. While at home dealing with the emotional drama taking place in her life, Karen also becomes involved in a summer camp program called JUMP KIDS. As Karen's her outlook on life changes, her heart opens and she learns to love again.

THE LANGUAGE OF SYCAMORES is a beautifully written story about a woman who finds herself needing direction in her life. This book about family and the ties that come with them is a novel to be cherished. The central plot of this novel may center around Karen, but it is the secondary characters and the love that shines from the pages that make this an emotional read. Learning about her history Karen finds the things her Grandma Rose did and said all come from a past that she knew nothing about. As she learns about her ancestors, her life takes on a new direction and she grows as a person.

Lisa Wingate is definitely a talented writer. As the third novel in a four book series, THE LANGUAGE OF SYCAMORES can definitely stand alone, but having read and become enthralled with Karen, and her family, this reviewer definitely will be seeking out the previous (TENDING ROSES, GOOD HOPE ROAD) and the fourth novel, DRENCHED IN LIGHT. Having previously been released in 2005, luckily for this reader, all four novels are on bookshelves everywhere.

Review Courtesy of LoveRomancesandmore

This is the third of the "Tending Roses Series" It is just as wonderful as the previous two books of this warm series. Book 1:Tending Roses....Book 2:Good Hope Road.

I believe each book can be read on their own, but hope you can read each book in order because the wonderful characters or their decendants appear in the books that follow.

This book is a warm, heartfelt story, sometimes sad and sometimes quite humorous. A very entertaining story.

Lisa Wingate is one of my favorite writers whom I have recentlly discovered. Plan to read all she writes.

This was a great read in my opinion. It's one of those books that makes you rethink how you're living your life or how you plan to live it. It makes you think, maybe I should spend more time with my family since you never know when someones going to die or maybe you're going to die. You just never know. Anyways, I enjoyed reading this book very much.

Karen Sommerfield is facing great life challenges when her 23 year job at Lansing, a big company is laying off everyone including her department. She is also at a stale point in her marriage to James, her pilot husband who works all hours. Karen had a bad miscarriage when it was discovered she had cancer at that time-and things haven't been normal since. And then, returning to her doctor for a check-up, it was again discovered she had abnormal cells again and may have cancer. Karen chooses to turn her back though, and ignore all of it.

Her sister Kate, who is very well settled on their Grandmother Rose's farm, calls Kate and invites her one of these days to come for a weekend visit. So on the spur of the moment, without thinking, Karen decides to pack her bags right then, and get out of her turmoil-even though she has some misgivings. So she leaves a message for James, and takes off.

While on the plane, she meets Keiler, a young guy who is studying at college, and possibly seminary. Karen learns that he is counselor of the Jumpkids program-a summer length program to keep kids out of trouble, and help them develop their skills in the musical arts, other arts, and theater. At the time Karen has no idea how this will touch her life when Dell comes into it.

Once she reaches Missouri, Karen can't bear to tell Kate that she has lost her job. There was always such sibling rivalry there that the two women have trouble feeling close to each other. Kate was always the best at everything, while Karen was always second best no matter what. Karen also meets Dell, the impoverished girl across the lake from the farm who lives with her Grandma who is very sickly can't really watch her, and Uncle Bobby, who is nothing but a drunkard, and treats Dell shamefully, calling her a "nigger child," since she was born of both races.

Karen hits it off with Dell right away, and sees the potential in this poor child. She has special talents for music and the arts that no one has ever cared to recognize. So Karen really takes a deep interest in Dell, and pulling some strings, inquires into the Jumpkids program through the church minister. Dell was very very low in self-esteem, and afraid to try anything new-but with much coaxing on Karen's part, she decides to try. Karen made a promise that she would be there for her the first couple days-and what happens is that Karen falls in love with this program, and becomes one of the workers herself.

After a little time, Karen along with James decide to stay in Missouri and change their lives in a new direction. The authorities are called in for Dell finally after something strange happens in her broken home, and arrangements are made for Karen and James to become Dell's foster parents. It seems that Dell is the child they always needed-and from there the child will flourish and grow in many ways.

Karen really comes down to earth in this story, and giving up her high-powered job after being called back, decides that it is better to live with much less money, yet be happier helping youth talent develop. She and Kate also have a new beginning as sisters.

I love all of Lisa Wingate's books, but I particularly enjoyed this one. Her perfect mixture of faith and authentic life situations, not to mention characters who are as real as my next door neighbors, always make for an absorbing read. I've yet to be disappointed with one of her books and I recommend them to anyone who likes their fiction sincere, well-written and believable.

I first encountered Mary Yakuri Waters' stories in the O. Henry and Best American Short Story anthologies, and thoroughly enjoyed the stories I read in those volumes. During my first-ever trip to Japan, I chose "The Laws of Evening" (TLE), a collection of eleven of Ms. Waters' stories, to put my mind in the proper frame for the visit. It turned out to be an excellent choice. Each story was not only enjoyable, but provided insight into a different segment of modern-day Japanese society and 20th century history.

Unlike some short story collections by a single author, each story in TLE stands on its own and explores a different element of Japanese society. Waters is able to avoid seeming to rewrite the same story over and over. The primary commonality across all stories is that they explore incidents in the lives of average middle-class Japanese people. Waters focuses her attention on the characters' thoughts and feelings, and uses their actions to illuminate her characters' personal philosophies on life and living. The characters in her stories typically place limitations on their actions and formulate routines that end up defining their roles in their families and society. There is also an underlying theme of the rapid modernization of Japan, and the adaptation that Japanese citizens have therefore had to undergo to transform their culture and society. Waters explores these themes with descriptive, precise prose and interesting plot lines, and the result is a collection of very well-crafted stories.

I would be hard-pressed to choose a most favorite story in this collection or to identify a dud - they were all enjoyable and insightful. I plan to reread these stories again in the future, when I want a refresh on Japan. For anyone with an interest in getting inside the minds of average, everyday people in modern Japanese society, I highly recommend "The Laws of Evening".

The short stories deal with the vague passing of time and how things change. Set in Japan after World War Two the stories seem to be trapped between the trappings of the past and the changing landscape of the coming future. It focuses on the changing relationships between mother and children, between people and places, and between their minds and their own bodies.

I enjoyed the stories in this book and loved learning about the Japanese-American experience. I especially loved "The Way Love Works."

This collection of short stories is poignant, delicate, breathtaking. I can never come up with exactly the right words to describe it, but the stories make my heart ache, they are so tremblingly, delicately beautiful.

The Laws of Evening is a memorable collection of poignant and moving stories. Set in Japan, they provide a compelling perspective on the experiences of different generations during World War II and its aftermath. Viewed through the eyes of grandparents, parents and children, the author explores themes of loss and separation, not only between generations, but also between those who fared differently in the war.

Out of a typically edgy landscape, rife with divisions and disconnections, both big and small, the author conjures recurring instances of the painful, hesitant acknowledgment of a changed reality ("The Laws of Evening are not the Laws of Afternoon"). From this acceptance ensues a transformation of the present and a renewed, broader connection to life.

My personal favorites in the collection are Seed, Shibusa and Rationing, each of which is associated with astonishing images of pain and growth that have a heart-breaking intensity to them.

The writing is careful, poised and conveys with precision the nuances of feeling of the protagonists. The author skillfully creates a backdrop to the stories that is cool and restrained (sometimes to the point of eerieness) prior to the reader being swept into the visceral resonance of experience that is profound and deeply moving. This, in my opinion, is writing at its best.

I fell in love with Clark and Marty in the traggic but sweet Love Comes Softly movie, so I had to order the series, eight books in all. The plot thickened with each child born to Marty and Clark. I connected with Marty the wife, Marty the mother, and Marty the grandmother. Then when Belinda [Marty's baby girl] gave her inheritance away and went back home without one thing to assist her aging Mom and Dad, I was appauled. I just finished Like Refined Gold, the last novel in the saga of Marty and Clark's family, The Prairie Legacy, starring Virginia, their granddaughter, Belinda's daughter. I love the rock solid faith portrayed in this inspirational fiction and how true to life Janette Oke portrays the hearts of wives, daughters, and grandmothers. You don't want to miss Marty's granddaughter, Virginia, Belinda's daughter, and her search for Mr. Right,and the toughest battle of "true motherhood". I treasure all twelve of these novels.

I have enjoyed the whole series of books by Janette OKE. They are wonderful family reading and can be shared with all ages.

The last book in this series is by far the best of them all. It is sweet and sad. I think it is really cool that Mindy is willing to go see the mother who left her. Everyone should read this book.

Many fans of Janette Oke have asked her to bring back Clark and Marty Davis and she does so in this series. This series is about their granddaughter Virginia, Belinda's daughter.

Virginia lives on a farm with her husband, Jonathan, and their children. Jonathan works with his brother breeding and raising horses. Lots of changes happen for Virginia in a few short years.

Their daughter, Mindy, was left with them by her mother when she was very young. Mindy knows about her "real" mother because she still has some memories of her. But since she has lived with Virginia and Jonathan she's called them mother and father because they are the only real family she's known.

Mindy hopes her mother will soon come to Christ. She prays for her as often as possible.

Mindy's mother comes for a visit and requests something that Jonathan and Virginia won't agree to.

I really liked this book! I like the Love Comes Softly series better so far but maybe I need to finish this series before I compare them. But I do suggest this series, it does a great job of continuing the story of the Davis Family.

this book is so great. i loved it. i hope Janette oke
does write another series. or is there already ?

I enjoyed this book so much, moreso than the first two in the series, although they also were good. I felt as though I really got to know the characters. I really enjoyed the descriptions of nature and the seasons. In some books it can actually interfere with the story line. The ending was excellent and the gospel was very clearly presented which sometimes is missing in Christian novels. I highly recommend it!

This item was received in a timely fashion. Would do business again with this seller.

I picked up a book from a Der Dutchmann restaurant in Plain City, Ohio and it got me started on these Amish love stories. This book The Longing is one of a series of 3 and is just wonderful! I really never read much until I started reading these books and Beverly Lewis is my favorite author! This book The Longing is sweet, has drama, you learn about the Amish way of life and in these books there is no bad language or anything that would turn you off. I loved this series The Courtship of Nellie Fisher and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes love stories and to read for both enjoyment and to learn about another way of living. Almost makes me wish I could be Amish at times!

Beverly Lewis continues to produce wonderful stories. The Courtship of Nellie Fisher series was excellent as always.

The book was very good if you like inspirational books but needs to be read in sequence......there are two books before this one in the series.

For anyone who loves good writing, THIS IS ESSENTIAL READING. It's a well-kept secret. If you want the real low-down, get a copy now.

If you ever had hopes of becoming an author, NEVER read this book. A look into how the technical process of writing works, all this book shows the reader is the various disappointments that an author will encounter while trying to get his book published.

Although it presents what I imagine to be a realistic view of the creative process, the author presents a plethora of examples of well-known authors and their experiences. The problem? He uses the exact same examples over and over again. The language that he uses is very colloquial and the laid back tone is quite surprising, considering it is a "scholarly" work.

The biggest problem I have with the book is this. How is it possible for an author that is clearly not a best-selling author know what exactly the best-selling process is like? If not for the examples of other authors, it would be impossible for him to talk about the process.

All in all, this book was a big disappointment, and all it shows is the negative aspect to book publishing.

This is a great book and I thought I'd say so. I found an interview with the author on the internet and bought the book. I wondered why I didn't see it interviewed in any of the publications I subscribe to--especially Writer's Digest. Do we really need another Harry Potter review? Everybody loves those books--they sell themselves. Hey reviewers--We want to hear about books like this one!

This book was lent to me by a University Professor who recommended it as the most comprehensive and thought-provoking study of the publishing industry he's read in years. I couldn't agree more. As a potential author, I found The Making of a Bestseller an encouraging and thought-provoking work. It offers a clear look into the world of publishing, therefore, demystifying the process for those of us just embarking on this sometimes frustrating journey. Insightful and uplifting, one cannot fail to come away without a great deal of encouragement. I, for one, found myself wondering, if F. Scott Fitzgerald faced similar adversity and prevailed, why can't I? One thing we writers must learn: A thick skin is required in this business. This book is not for the unrealistic or faint-hearted. But neither is a career in writing.

This hand-wringing book is about bestsellers; it does not (and can not) define how bestsellers are made. This celebration of creative writing is about writers paying their dues and being discovered. Vanderbilt discusses the effects titles, advertising, author name recognition, perseverance, bestseller lists, reviews, testimonials and blind, dumb luck had on books that made it to the charts. It is a well-written, scholarly study of successful literature with references and footnotes. This book makes a couple of references to nonfiction but is almost entirely about fiction. If you like this book, you will also like Seven Strategies in Every Bestseller by Tam Mossman. I liked them both. Dan Poynter, author of 82 books (nonfiction). DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com

I just made it around to this Rickman novel after reading all of the Watkins series so far and 'Chalice' and 'Curfew.' This novel is classic Rickman. It has humor and spookiness and all the great details I love in these novels along with complex characterization and keen psychological insight. Though some of the more recent Watkins' novels have been a bit off, this one is a great read.

I won't get into the book's premise; you can read all about that in the description above.

Keep in mind that this is a British author and the story takes place in Scotland and Northern England--if locale is a deciding factor for you. It may also require a bit of patience from readers who are used to shorter novels; this is a 600-pager, not meant for those who like a "quick read." But let me tell you, the rewards are definitely worth it. It's one of those books where the characters are very special and therefore you do not want the book to end, even though you're dying to find out what happens next.

For those who enjoy supernatural fiction they can sink their teeth into, look no further. Rickman provides the detailed characterization and spooky atmosphere that many chill-seekers are craving. It takes a lot of skill to pull off a book this involved, but no worries; Rickman has the necessary talent.

A book to treasure. Highly recommended.

There's nothing wrong with fast food, or a fairly speedy trip to Outback, but nothing beats putting a roast in a slow cooker and letting the aromas and flavors seep into your consciousness all day long. Your patience wears thin and when the meal is finally ready to eat, you wolf it down like a starving person.

Okay, strange analogy, but this book had the same effect on me. It started cold, then warmed up gradually, until all my senses were captivated. My patience was starting to wear thin, then BOOM! the flavors all combined and it was every person for himself.

Did I like the book? Absolutely yes. Can I describe it to you? Um, nope. Luckily, there are other reviews here that have taken on that responsibility, and have done so very admirably. I did, in fact, pick up this book based on their recommendations. As a vague overview, you could say this is a mystery, a paranormal, a horror story, a religious confrontation, a small town mentality gone amuck, modern civilization overflowing its boundaries. A love story. A story of good and evil, pride and prejudice, charity and greed, science vs faith. Or... none/all of the above. Take your pick, all the spices are here, savor what you like, and push what you don't enjoy to the side of your plate (Yes, I'll stop, the analogy is starting to wear thin for me, too).

In short, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for those who have time to appreciate the nuances of the plot. Those who can give little time to a book might want to wait until they can.

"The Man in the Moss (1994)" is one of Phil Rickman's non-Merrily-Watkins-series novels, and my new favorite Celtic-themed horror story. This is a big, complex, scary read with Rickman's usual cast of likeable characters, including an Anglican vicar who turns a blind eye on some not-so-Christian rites that are performed in his church, and a doughty pub owner whose husband seems to have returned from the dead.

Folksinger Moira Cairns, who shows up in multiple Rickman novels, plays a prominent role in "The Man in the Moss," along with a band of white magicians called the Bridelow Mother's League.

The title character himself has been dead for roughly two thousand years--the man in the moss, who I believe Rickman modeled after the Lindlow bogman. At any rate, both fictional and non-fictional bogmen were victims of a Celtic triple sacrifice.

According to the Roman historian, Lucan (AD 39 - AD 65), the Celts sometimes sacrificed one person to please all three aspects of their triple god: first, death by three blows to the skull; second, death by strangulation and/or throat cutting; and third, death by drowning (in this case, drowning in a peat moss bog.)

Again, following the research that was done on the Lindlow man, Rickman's characters believe that the Man in the Moss sacrificed himself willingly to thwart a Roman invasion. His willingness to die and his 'displeasure' at being dug up out of the bog are a dark, steady undertow that drags more than one character in this book to his or her doom. The people of the isolated Pennine village of Bridelow want their bogman returned to the grave in order to keep some unspecified supernatural evil at bay---and they figure that they need to get him reburied before Samhain (November 1), the Celtic Feast of the Dead.

Two major obstacles prevent the villagers from reinterring the Man in the Moss:
* the scientific johnnies are horrified by the thought of giving up their find to a pack of superstitious villagers, and they have him locked away in a climate-controlled room at the University;

* an evil sorcerer wants to steal the bogman and use him in a satanic rite that will destroy the village of Bridelow and its Mothers' Union of white magicians.

Death is a repeated visitor to the village on the Moss in the weeks leading up to Samhain. Rickman builds to a slow, sinister climax and this reader at least was never really sure who was dead and who was alive, and which of the two conditions was the most desirable--at least in Bridelow.

Story: Bridelow is a (fictional) small town in central England, situated between the moors on one side, and an enormous peat-bog on the other side. Bridelow has been widely known for its beer (Bridelow Black) and more quietly known as the village in England that has stayed closest to its Celtic roots. Two religions co-exist there: the inhabitants openly worship in a Christian church, but there are other, quieter religious services, focused on the Goddess, and the Mother in Bridelow is not Mary, mother of Christ. The older, more "pagan" religion is overseen by the Mothers Union, a group of matriarchs who carry on the old ways and hold to the old lore.

But, things are about to change. First, the brewery gets bought out by a big corporate brewery, with many people losing their jobs. Second, the preacher at the Christian church falls ill, and is replaced, at least temporarily. Old Reverend Hans Gruber was originally an outsider, had but he had learned to peaceably co-exist with the Mothers Union and their beliefs. His replacement, Reverend Joel Beard, is a charismatic, let's-clean-house type, who takes it as his mission to "purify" Bridelow and drive out the evil pagan practices.

Is that all there is to it, though? Ma Wagstaff, the leader of the Mothers Union, distrusts coincidence, and suspects a connection between Reverend Beard and the selling of the brewery. Even Ma hasn't guessed at how big this really is, though!

The two central characters, amidst a large supporting cast, are Moira Cairns and Mungo MacBeth. Moira is a Celtic singer descended from a line of women who are not at all ordinary. She played in a band with two Bridelow residents, Matt Castle and Willie Wagstaff. Moira is not from Bridelow, but ends up being a crucial player in the battle that has been quietly, surreptitiously begun there. Mungo MacBeth is an American filmmaker of Scottish ancestry, who has been sent by his family to discover his heritage. He does, and it is much bigger, darker, and scarier than he expected. Will he and Moira survive? Will they end up together?

You might be wondering, about now, where the book's title comes from. While the local pub, connected to the brewery, is called The Man i' the Moss, that is not it. What starts all the wheels turning, toward disaster, salvation, or a bit of both, is the discovery, by a road construction crew, of a body buried in the peat-bog adjacent to Bridelow. An old body. Very old. The Man in the Moss turns out to have been an outsider, who was ritually sacrificed about a millenium before, to become the town's guardian against evil. When his peatmoss-preserved body is discovered, the government whisks it away to a museum for study. That's not good for Bridelow, who has lost its Guardian! Lo and behold, the body gets stolen and cannot be found by the authorities. But he will be found. And that's when things get really strange.

My take: This book is for patient readers only. There is a large cast of characters, all of whom are well-developed. The setting is also developed well, as is the theme of how pagan and Christian beliefs can mesh, or clash. All of that detail makes for a long story with a pace that is far from quick. The writing is impeccable, though, and the development of setting and cast combines with a complex plot to yield a very rich tale. The further you read, the more the story unfolds, and gets more intense, bizarre, and riveting. There are deaths, both predictable and not. Some big characters fade as the story progresses, to be replaced by others emerging into prominence. This story is as much about the town, its history, and its future, as it is about the people. The ending is, to some extent, what I expected, but is also very surprising, in other ways.

Now that I've read this book, I'd like to visit (fictional) Bridelow and meet (some) of these (fictional) people. But, I'd make it be on a sunny day, and I'd go with a friend, and I would be very careful to offend no one! Come to think of it, I did just go there.

Strengths: I know this town and these people. That's how well this tale is told.

Weaknesses: It is long (594 pages) and detailed; patient readers needed. Not for the squeamish, either!

Conclusion: This is a dark, complex horror story, rooted in Celtic beliefs and their meshing, or clashing, with Christianity. A long book, but well worth the effort!

Recommended: For those who love Celtic horror stories, and who are patient readers.

The most thorough, insightful biography ever written about Jack Kerouac. Whether you're a Kerouac veteran or a rookie, if you aim to call yourself a JK fan, you simply must read Nicosia's biography of this great American visionary. None of the other Kerouac biographies comes close. This is the top of the mountain.

When was the last time you read an almmost-800 page book and wanted it to keep going at the end? That was my experience with Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac. If you love Kerouac - which I do, as evidenced by my writing The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions, a book answering the question, 'What would Kerouac do?' - this is a must-read. Nicosia skillfully balances attention to detail with an interesting story to provide the reader with a comprehensive yet critical look into the life of one of America's greatest writers. This is a challenging and scholarly work, one that shouldn't be undertaken lightly. You won't be sorry if you take up the challenge.

Chronologically, from birth to death, author Nicosia tells Kerouac's life story with unflinching honesty and utmost respect. Blessed with a sharp memory, very early on Jack's childhood friends nicknamed him "Memory Babe" and that is where the book got its name. Packed with fascinating details and exquisitely written, this book needs to be discovered by a younger generation of readers.

Many of us alive today have heard of Jack Kerouac but I doubt few know the details of his tragic life. That he remains the voice of a generation and a literary icon goes without saying. Kerouac was a physically beautiful but emotionally flawed man with a tormented spirit. He spent his life as man and writer trying to prove that "the past is the root of the future, and that a man cannot live without the continuity of both." Jack remembered everything he heard, as if words were sacred and his mind was a sponge. Despite his many flaws, he always paid "exquisite attention to the sound of language."

Even as he mapped new territory as a writer, Kerouac was adrift as a man. As the first spokesman for the "beat" generation, he perfected that voice with guilt, self-doubt, and self-punishment. This biography clearly states Jack's definition of "beat": "beat down, beat up, all-tired-out." Still, his words were always carefully chosen. Word by word, Kerouac carefully created phrases to express time, place, emotion, and man's senses, communicating deep meaning. His writing was full of symbolism and visions, allegory and veiled reality, profanity and parody, as he groped his way with prose towards his own death. For his time, Kerouac's verbal ingenuity was unsurpassed.

Personally, his charismatic male persona disguised a quicksilver child, mischievous and unpredictable. As he aged, Jack became a brooding, paranoid, hard drinking drug user, insecure in his sexuality and prone to alcoholic blackouts. As addiction wrecked his health, his light slowly drowned out and he became a lonely and despairing figure. But for decades in between youth and death, this trusting, shy, socially awkward man became a literary legend.

Jack Kerouac rubbed shoulders with Jackson Pollock, Allen Ginsberg, and every jazz great of his day. He was published by several of the major New York publishing houses. His prose and poetry were unprecedented and have not been successfully imitated since. He died young, never fully realizing the effect of his mind and his work on subsequent generations.

Gerald Nicosia has penned THE definitive biography of Kerouac. From letters, journals, tapes, interviews, and Jack Kerouac's books themselves - all faithfully recorded in a detailed bibliography - the author has skillfully dissected the life of the "beat" generation's strongest voice. The result is both scholarly and deeply personal, touching and disturbing. It should be required reading in every college and university, and a must have book for any reader curious about Kerouac and his time.

I have read alot of biographies on Kerouac, but this one doesnt even compare to the rest. This book is full of details. I mean, minute details, with input and interviews from obscure people (as well as the prominent) in Jack's life. Buy it, read it, be moved!

Of the two best-known Kerouac biographies -- the other being Ann Charters' -- Memory Babe is by far the more scholarly. Challenging and difficult, Gerald Nicosia's Memory Babe still entertains. Memory Babe is a treasure-trove, but not for the light reader.

An interesting study of racial and orientation discrimination. The tale begins with the tale of two women who eventually become lovers in the 40s. The backdrop for the romance and love affair is the South during desegregation, klan activities and the struggle for civil rights. The love affair is beautiful and fulfilling. You can see the characters grow and change together and as individuals.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Beautiful from the first word to the last.

I loved this book. If you like fiction with a historical setting this is the book for you. I started reading it one evening as a break from the reruns on TV and before I knew it I was finishing it at 3am the next day. The characters are well developed and the plot keeps you firmly gripped. This author is a real stand out in many ways - character development, plot, intrigue, and romance settings. You will not be disappointed. I can wait for the next book.

First comes the disclaimer----yes, Bett Norris and I are published by the same publisher, but that does not preclude me recognizing a great book when I read one! (I have never met Bett and I would never review a book I didn't truly enjoy....so there!)

I admire the way Ms. Norris creates such an epic feel in this novel, not unlike To Kill a Mockingbird, and, in a slightly greater stretch, Gone With The Wind. When you have finished with the book, you feel as if you have somehow experienced a lifetime in a historical period that is not your own---- more importantly, a historical period that is uncomfortably, and gratefully, not your own.

While the story spans a long period, it reads quickly (despite the fact that I typically don't) and when you have completed the book, you will feel as if it was an important story for other people to know, and a also a feeling of gratitude that Ms. Norris told it so damned well.

It's a bit rare in lesbian literature to have a love story contain so much depth that the love the two characters feel for each other is so well ingrained within the storyline that it is not THE story...but rather the supporting structure of the book. I really liked that about this book.

Without giving anything away (I am not a fan of reviews that tell the story)---suffice to say that the connections in this book feel as real as novel can get. Don't hesitate to read it, since I typically don't enjoy historical pieces, I really enjoyed living this story. Some of the characters are with me still!

From the Book Cover: World War II is over, and like millions of others, Mary McGhee is looking for a future. A new start, a new job, a new place. But in the small Alabama town she's chosen, she soon finds it's not easy to leave the past behind.
There's the old problem of being an unwelcome woman in a man's world when Mary takes on the challenge of returning a neglected lumber empire to profitability. Then there's Lila Dubose, the boss's wife, who stirs up desires Mary can't escape, fears she can't control, and reminders that she is surrounded by threat.
Set in the shadow of the civil rights movement, "Miss McGhee" is a sweeping tale of forbidden love in a turbulent time. First-time author Bett Norris portrays one of the darkest and most troubling times in American history with exceptional skill and sensitivity, giving us a unique insight into our own recent history.


Can the world be changed just through your individual effort? And can a person change from being naïve, and oblivious and conservative to someone that tries to change the world? Those are the main themes of "Miss McGhee", an historical novel that, through the point of view of two women in love with each other, shows us 17 years of the changes in Myrtlewood, Alabama, from the end of World War II to the civil rights movement in the 60s.
Bett Norris manages to keep us interested throughout the novel and to create two appealing characters in both Mary McGhee and Lila Dubose, and this is certainly a book above average in terms of lesbian fiction. The main problem is the plot, or the lack thereof. Frequently things don't flow plotwise, e.g. the way Lila's racism is introduced, or the dialogue Mary has with Dr Morgan about that, after being described as someone that wanted to be left alone. There is also the "deus ex-machina" appearance of Sammie in the last part of the novel to solve problems between the two main characters. Other times there are things in the novel that make no sense. There are several dialogues between Lila and Mary about possible attitudes to take regarding Buchanan, and those possible attitudes are mostly never acted upon, making the reader wonder why this is so. Also, Lila and Mary's reaction during Sammie's second visit, could make sense in the beginning of their relationship but not after seven years. Anyway, for a first novel this book represents a nice effort.

START OF BACK COVER TEXT - World War II is over, and like millions of others, Mary McGhee is looking for a future. A new start, a new job, a new place. But in the small Alabama town she's chosen, she soon finds it's not so easy to leave the past behind.

There's the old problem of being an unwelcome woman in a man's world when Mary takes on the challenge of returning a neglected lumber empire to profitability. Then there's Lila Dubose, the boss' wife, who stirs up desires Mary can't escape, fears she can't control, and reminders that she is surrounded by threat.

Set in thte shadow of the civil rights movement, Miss McGhee is a sweeping tale of forbidden love in a turbulent time. First-time author Bett Norris portrays one of the darkest and most troubling times in American history with exceptional skill and sensitivity, giving us a unique insight into our own recent history. - END OF BACK COVER TEXT

If you've ever read my reviews, you know I get excited about new authors in the lesbian fiction genre. This first offering by Bett Norris was especially intriguing because it is set in the Old South. There aren't a lot of books in this setting - except for places like Miami and New Orleans - because rural, Southern towns just aren't that exciting. However, Norris pulls this one off without a hitch.

The author introduces Mary McGhee, a woman who takes a job in an unfamiliar town to get away from a bad situation (i.e., she had an affair with a young woman and was paid off by her father to keep quiet and leave town). Little does she know that she's walking into a no-win situation when she's hired by the Dubose family to run their lumber mill.

Mary pushes the limits of tolerance when she hires black men to work alongside the white men, when she hires the family of Mrs. Dubose (a woman who the town believes was basically hired to marry her mentally retarded husband), when she begins helping the black families to improve living conditions and educational opportunities, but especially when she falls in love with her employer. Not only do the two women have to hide their romance from the townsfolk (and society in general, given that the book is set in the 50s), the also feel guilt for cheating on the ambivalent Mr. Tommy Dubose. The only question is - can their love overcome these outside forces?

Being raised in the South in a conservative Baptist household, I could certainly relate to many of the attitudes in `Miss McGhee.' The most disturbing thing about the story is that many of these attitudes still exist - especially in smaller, rural towns away from the Gulf Coast. Hopefully this will change one day. In the mean time, Norris has a winner on her hands with the veritable `Miss McGhee.'

I'm beginning to realize that George Gissing is an author who is relatively unknown by the general public but who is frequently studied/referenced by academics. The main reason why I think this is true (and this relates to the book at hand) is that Gissing himself had more of an academic temperament than a writing temperament. He was very adept at analyzing the world around him and commenting on it to a point of depressing realism, but he wasn't a storyteller. In fact, he struggled with creating enough storylines in order to support himself. Thus, while his books give impressive looks at Victorian life, they don't always leave a reader fully satisfied.

Why do I say this so confidently? Well, as Gissing was particularly self-aware and as he was particularly oppressed when writing "New Grub Street," in this novel he writes about what it's like to be a writer in London in the 1880's and 1890's. He essentially writes about his own life and those he find around him, all of whom are trying to make a living on writing.

Gissings seems to portray himself through the main character, Reardon. When the story opens, Reardon is struggling. His sophisticated wife is getting fed up with their impoverished lifestyle and with her husband's inability to write decent material. Reardon, a sensitive soul, is floundering under mounting pressure and stress. He is torn between his desire to write sophisticated, meaningful material and the public demand for "fluff." The more stressed laid on him, the less he is able to create and stick with any plausible fiction novel. He becomes more and more fererish and unable to work, and he is devastated as he loses his wife's love and respect.

Around this central character Reardon, Gissing builds a very full and weighty cast of characters. A small sampling of these characters are:
- The embittered, older column writer/reviewer, Yule, whose temperament has made so many enemies during his career that he is still laboring hard to support his small family at the end of his life.
- Yule's daugher, Marion, who is very clever but who is also very vulnerable. Her education has made her too good for many positions and marriages but her lack of money makes her a poor match for the educated class.
- Reardon's friend Milvain, who is an ambitious young man who has no problem writing exactly what the masses want. He knows his talents, he knows the market, and he knows his stuff won't last for posterity. But he is determined to live a comfortable life, make a strategic marriage and become a semi-respected man.
- Biffen, another friend of Reardon's, sympathizes most with Reardon's situation and condition. Two peas in a pod, these men spend long hours discuss meter, prose and ancient poetry.

I found myself continually amazed at Gissing's amazing ability to get into the head of many individuals in his large cast and to see how the world makes sense through each's eyes. Gissing also provides us with a wealth of information about the Victorian publishing scene. It was amazing to read that writers and publishers then were struggling with the same issues writers and publishers are struggling with today.

Additionally, Gissing gives you an unglorified look at poverty and the impoverished educated class of London at that time. While Dickens' works on the poor is idyllic and sentimental, Gissing simply relates the life he has known. There is nothing exceptional or amazing, and Gissing seems to argue that poverty takes character out of a man rather then build up a man's character.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating piece...though perhaps a slow read. For those interested in publishing, writing, realistic portrayals of Victorian England, or other such topics, this is a fantastic work.

Poor Gissing! I suspect his miserable, self-destructive life fuelled his wonderful novels much as (we now know) Dickens's traumatic "blacking-factory" experience explains so much of the nightmare world of those gargantuan fictions. Gissing greatly admired Dickens, and like Dostoyevsky, seems to have appreciated the grim side of Dickens most. Not much humor in Gissing; but there is the same shabby poetry one used to see in Bloomsbury back in the 1960s. The same wonderful appreciation of futile, obsessive scholarly lives. Gissing is a great poet and sometimes a rather fine moralist. His pictures of London rival those of the Master (Dickens --and Dore). Don't miss him. Start with "Workers in the Dawn" and "The Nether World"--his passion more than compensates for his crudities. Remember: he was also a very accomplished classicist--more of a scholar than any other major Victorian novelist! A not insignificant fact.

George Gissing's 1891 novel, "New Grub Street," is likely one of the most depressing books I've ever read. Certainly, in its descriptions of literary life, be it in publishing, or in my own realm of graduate scholarship, the situations, truths, and lives Gissing portrays are still all too relevant. "New Grub Street" itself points to the timelessness of Gissing's portrayals - as Grub Street was synonymous, even in the eighteenth century with the disrepute of hack writing, and the ignominy of having to make a living by authorship. One of Gissing's primary laments throughout the novel is that the life of the mind is of necessity one which is socially isolating and potentially devastating to any kind of relationships, familial or otherwise. "New Grub Street" gives us a world where friendship is never far from enmity, where love is never far from the most bitter kinds of hatred.

The anti-heroes of "New Grub Street" are presented to us as the novel begins - Jasper Milvain is a young, if somewhat impoverished, but highly ambitious man, eager to be a figure of influence in literary society at whatever cost. His friend, Edwin Reardon, on the other hand, was brought up on the classics, and toils away in obscurity, determined to gain fame and reputation through meaningful, psychological, and strictly literary fiction. Family matters beset the two - Jasper has two younger sisters to look out for, and Edwin has a beautiful and intelligent wife, who has become expectant of Edwin's potential fame. Throw into the mix Miss Marian Yule, daughter of a declining author of criticism, whose own reputation was never fully realized, and who has indentured his daughter to literary servitude, and we have a pretty list of discontented and anxious people struggling in the cut-throat literary marketplace of London.

Money is of supreme importance in "New Grub Street," and it would be pointless to write a review without making note of it. As always, the literary life is one which is not remunerative for the mass of people who engage upon it, and this causes no end of strife in the novel. As Milvain points out, the paradox of making money in the literary world is that one must have a well-known reputation in order to make money from one's labours. At the same time, one must have money in order to move in circles where one's reputation may be made. This is the center of the novel's difficulties - should one or must one sacrifice principles of strictly literary fame and pander to a vulgar audience in order to simply survive? The question is one in which Reardon finds the greatest challenges to his marriage, his self-esteem, and even his very existence. For Jasper Milvain and his sisters, as well as for Alfred and Marian Yule, there is no question that the needs of subsistence outweigh most other considerations.

"New Grub Street" profoundly questions the relevance of classic literature and high culture to the great mass of people, and by proxy, to the nation itself. For England, which propagated its sense of international importance throughout the nineteenth century by encouraging the study of English literature in its colonial holdings, the matter becomes one of great significance. The careers of Miss Dora Milvain and Mr. Whelpdale, easily the novel's two most charming, endearing, and sympathetic characters, attempt to illustrate the ways in which modern literature may be profitable to both the individual who writes it and the audiences towards which they aim. They may be considered the moral centers of the novel, and redeem Gissing's work from being entirely fatalistic.

"New Grub Street" is a novel that will haunt me for quite some time. As a "man of letters" myself, I can only hope that the novel will serve as an object lesson, and one to which I may turn in hope and despair. The novel is well written, its characters and situations drawn in a very realistic and often sympathetic way. Like the ill-fated "ignobly decent" novel of Mr. Biffen's, "Mr. Bailey, Grocer," "New Grub Street" may seem less like a novel, and more like a series of rambling biographical sketches, but they are indelible and lasting sketches of literary lives as they were in the original Grub Street, still yet in Gissing's time, and as they continue to-day. Very highly recommended.

I found Jasper Milvain, the "alarmingly modern young man," to be the most interesting character in Gissing's New Grub Street for a number of reasons, the most significant of which is that he evinces what can only be considered a modernist's consciousness in his approach to writing. That is, while it soon becomes clear to the reader that Milvain represents the antithesis of what Edwin Reardon personifies-i.e., the work of literature as an emanation of author's native genius-and thus one of the intercalated plots of the novel involves the incremental success of Milvain as a modern man of letters, and the concomitant gradual abjection of Reardon. In a manner of speaking, then, Milvain and Reardon's fates emerge from a common source, namely some sea change in the reading public's (the consumer's) preferences and tendencies.

Milvain identifies as vulgar the most lucrative market for the product of the man of letter's labor. The vulgarians, or "quarter educated," drive the market (479), and since they have been determined to desire nothing more than chatty ephemera, they have successfully opened an insuperable gulf between material success in writing and artistic success. Reardon's psychologically penetrating novels just aren't in demand. Therefore, there emerges quite an interesting conceptual shift within the nascent hegemony of the quarter-educated as established by their purchasing power: what was once considered healthy artistic integrity has transmuted into a peculiar kind of petit bourgeois hubris, if, in the new paradigm, the writer is more an artisan than an artist. Therefore, Reardon's artistically-compromised and padded three-volume novel, written with no other end in mind than to pander to the vulgar reader, nonetheless achieves only modest success because, the fact that it is indistinguishable from countless other similar works glutting the market aside, his novel is infected from his irrepressible integrity, and thus his novel becomes a strange sort of counterfeit, a psychological narrative masquerading as a popular novel. Reardon thus becomes a sort of Coriolanus among writers.

Milvain, on the other hand, is a sort of Henry Ford among writers; he reveals his particular genius when offering advice to his sister Maud about how to write religious works for juveniles: "I tell you, writing is a business. Get together half-a-dozen fair specimens of the Sunday school prize; study them; discover the essential points of such a composition; hit upon new attractions; then go to work methodically, so many pages a day" (13). In other words, Jasper has managed to streamline and to mechanize the writing process. He studies previous works, abstracts formulae from them, isolates the elements of these formulae, and then deploys and rearranges these elements to give his own writing a patina of originality. By treating writing as an exercise in manipulating formulae, Jasper exchanges "authenticity" (whatever that word means anymore) for the convenience and efficiency of not having to grapple with his own potentially mutable and recalcitrant genius. Jasper did not invent writing, just as Ford did not invent the automobile. But like Ford did with automobile manufacture, Milvain discovers those aspects of writing that lend themselves to mechanical reproduction. Thus he is able to capitalize on his time and effort, and effectively becomes the very machine Reardon believes himself to be but never actually becomes because of his lingering notions of artistic integrity (352).

Also of interest is the fact that Albert Yule is a sort of synthesis of Milvain and Reardon. Like Milvain, Yule attempts to streamline his own literary production by delegating some of the labor to his daughter Marian. However, like Reardon, Yule clings to the superannuated notion of the necessary individuality of writing: "[h]is failings, obvious enough, were the results of a strong and somewhat pedantic individuality ceaselessly at conflict with unpropitious circumstances" (38). In other words, Yule fails to recognize the obsolescence of the lone, learned genius within the realm of literary production. A market of vulgarians who demand occasional literary confections simply does not expect Works of individual genius. Moreover, even if they were in demand, works of individual genius are too ponderously inefficient to keep pace with the rate at which they are consumed. Therefore, Yule straddles the either/or proposition personified by Reardon and Milvain: One may preserve his artistic integrity and write "for the ages"--hence Yule, Biffen, and Reardon's fetishization of Shakespeare, Coleridge and authors of classical antiquity--and starve in the process, or one may write "for the moment" and actually turn a respectable profit.

The shadow of Charles Darwin indeed looms large over the events and characters of New Grub Street. The growth market brought about by the advent of the "quarter-educated" vulgar class, and their discretionary income coupled with their callow aesthetic sensibilities and truncated attention spans, represents a nascent economic, if not ecological niche, for certain social creatures to occupy. However, it's not simply a matter of being able to adapt one's skills to the tastes of these consumers. One must also be a prodigious enough writer to keep pace with an equally prodigious rate of consumption. Individuals like Milvain and Whelpdale are adequately adapted to this niche in that they satisfy the demands of this niche in terms of both content and output. Reardon panders to the vulgar taste only grudgingly and after long resistance and thereby cannot meet the production demands of this niche. Biffen absolutely refuses to pander at all. Alfred Yule does attempt to pander, but his mode of literary production is too inefficient to meet production demands, and he is also largely ignorant of vulgar literary taste. While more in touch with the vulgar reader than her father, Marian Yule is as inefficient in her literary production as her father. Therefore, each of the characters named above are equally maladaptive, albeit for various reasons, and thus their extinction by the novel's end strikes the reader as somehow inevitable. Whereas Milvain and Reardon's widow Amy are left to come together as the triumphant niche occupants and thus reproduce themselves in their offspring, should they decide to produce any.

I recently read New Grub Street, and I must say I was stunned by how much I enjoyed it. Gissing's prose and characterization hold up remarkably well. He's sort of an urban Hardy, though far more accessible to today's reader. I'd recommend this to any serious reader. Oh, and this novel is ripe for adaptation. A BBC miniseries would be great.