Suicide Books

How did this jewel of a book get lost in between the success of Wasted and Madness???? It's brilliant!!!

I just finished reading "The Center of Winter" by Marya Hornbacher, published in 2005. It takes place in 1969, 1970, in the north, and the story is told (without skipping a beat) from different loving character's points of view. The entire book, especially the last few pages, are freshly with me. It not only kept my attention, it made me cry, laugh, and smile.

Because so much transpired, was tender, and was easy reading, I suspect many readers wouldn't have noticed the word construction, but I did. However, despite (or because of) frequent and appropriate non-or-overly-long sentences, the words were warming. The dialog was sweet and/or to-the-point. The characters said what they needed to say, in the manner that was most comfortable for them. I liked their honestly (all of it, with/without clichés).

A paradox mentioned was that systems (eco-systems or human) are simultaneously very strong and very fragile. How true. Further, when one tries again and again [paraphrased], "ready to begin, one may place memory into its own frames and images. After all, memory is a story without plot. And yet, since you [we, them, all of us] were there, memory has its place" and can be cherished.

I highly recommend "The Center of Winter" and give it a four-star rating.

This novel is set in the Midwest and in the late 1960's. It was a time of change and turmoil politically in the country but this town seems to be suspended in time. Life and family cannot stay the same and events move the adult characters out of their comatose lives, leaving the children to react and deal with it all. Different chapters are given from the perspective of the family members and that made this book different and intriguing, especially when some were children six- and twelve-years old. The story is grim in parts and very inspiring in others, full of intensity and raw emotion. The ending was unexpected but touching in its simplicity. Well worth the read!

This was a great book! The author did a great job in bringing you into each characters individual personalities, thoughts and feelings. This is about a family struck with the tradgedy of the fathers suicide and each of the characters tell the story from their own point of view. Great plot and very well written.

I bought this book on a whim, as the title 'grabbed' me....Then I lost myself in the story. The characters became real. The depth of insight into human emotions and behavior is profound. As I read, I became both child and adult. I felt what it must be like to have and live with an emotionally challanged child.
I tell everyone I speak to, that they must read this book!
It is truly beautiful!

She found absolutely nothing when she claimed she could find Chandra Levy's body. Listen to the 08-02-2001 Howard Stern Show for the complete debacle.

This book offers no insight and is completely unbelievable rant of the authors personal views. It isn't even a well written rant. If you have lost someone to suicide and you are desperately looking for some shred of hope don't bother with this book. Try "After Suicide: A Ray of Hope" or "Testimony of Light." "Conversations with the Spirit World" is a prime example of someone who is just out to make a buck off of someone else's pain.

Over the last few years I have read many, many books on the subject of afterlife communications. This, however, is the only book I've come across that deals specifically with souls who have taken their own lives.

The insights provided from these souls is truly amazing! They answer many questions such as why they chose to commit suicide, what would have helped them to choose life instead of death, as well as what they've learned since "crossing over" re: life in general, and the impact of suicide.

This book is not only meant for those who've lost loved ones to suicide, and those who've attempted to take their own life, but it's meant for EVERYONE - EVERY SOUL - on this earth. Through the reading of this book, one can learn much about how to LIVE -and to do so happily and filled with excitement.

Thank you for opening my heart with this wonderful book. After reading it and seeing Lysa live at a local store, I no longer belive, I KNOW my brother is with me always. I have read many books on life after death and talking to spirits and all of it, but CONVERSATIONS WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD touched me in a way I have never been touched before. It is humorous, loving, and inspiring. This book is a gift you give to yourself and to everyone who means something to you in this world.

There are an over whelming number of books that can be found out there, and I have read a great deal of them. I started to read Lysa's book, and I couldn't put it down. It really touched me more than any other book I have read before.

I feel the need to share this book with others. My friend of 11 years committed suicide a month ago. And even though I would love to hear from him one more time, I found that you understood what it really felt like to be a survivor. I know he tries to communicate to me. I just wish I knew what it was he is trying to say. So anyway I just wanted to Thank you, Lysa, for writing that book and for putting yourself out there in order to help others.

There is little to add to Mr. McMahon's astonishing review of this novel. However, I think there's a worthwhile point to make on the symbolism here. The character Lt. Glahn is Pan, a symbolic equivalent of the satyr Marsyas. In Greek mythology, the god Apollo skins Marsyas alive after beating him in a music competition. In Hamsun's book, the wealthy merchant Mr. Mack functions as Glahn's nemesis, as Apollo, and torments him in various ways throughout the book (won't spoil too much as this is Amazon.com.)

However, in this angle on the myth, the Apollonian vs. Marsyan/Dionysian, the satyr bites back, hurting Mr. Mack and his daughter Edvarda (Glahn's lover) with various schemings. Although though Glahn suffers the greater helping of the grief, it calls into question how much those who live by logic/Apollonian standards suffer due to their oversight and brutal intolerance of the emotional, spontaneous forces which Glahn/Pan has mastered. In other words, if goat-men were so inconsequential, why would sun-gods have to torture them? Thou dost protest too much, Apollo, and I wonder if the punishment is disproportionate to the goat man's crime.

To give a brief synopsis a Norwegian man goes to a rural area of Norway to spend several months hunting and living in a cabin in the forest. Most of this book deals with his interactions with the locals of this rural community, in particular two women. One is married but makes herself available in all ways to the main character, the other who fancies herself an aristocrat of some sort seems to be mainly interested in mind games and seeing how many hoops she can make him jump through to please her. Because he is socially backward he often acts in inappropriate ways in social settings and towards her, which both enrages and makes her all the more intrigued by the outsider.

I liked this book, as I do everything else by Hamsun I have ever read, but he always writes good or very good novels but seems to fall short of writing a truly great book. Hamsun was a good writer but I think he is overrated in some quarters. One thing I do like about him is his stories are VERY Scandinavian, not just in predictable ways, but also in very subtle ways that unless you've lived in Norway/Sweden/Denmark that you probably wouldn't pick up on. Overall I liked his Growth of the Soil and Hunger much more than Pan. My favorite piece of Scandinavian literature however would be by another author Beyond Sing the Woods by Trygve Gulbranssen.

After disclosing his own eccentric nature in the semi-autobiographical and often hilarious Hunger, all of Hamsun's books got this certain sadness to them, as if he knew his moment of surprise was gone forever and he could never top it.

But to me, Pan is absolute beauty. Because this is the magic of a full integration of man into nature. Because this is dealing with an absolute and unattainable freedom. And because it depicts the irrationalities and hazardousness of mans journey into love.

To acquire the necessary distance to it, Hamsun sat in Paris and wrote it, the story takes place in the Nordland region of Norway where he grew up. Every page is like a poem (although 'the Nordland summer, with its endless day' doesnt at all do justice to the yen singing of the original 'Nordlandssommerens evige dag'). I try to read it every spring and it always sets me back to my youth, to the days of a comfortable lack of concern and to the hurtful struggles of romance.

This book is, as the title suggests, pure pantheism and it is the most precious of poetries out of nordic litterature.

Pan begins as a nature story - detailed, lush, knowledgeable descriptions of nature, of living a solitary existence, of feeding off the forest and sea. Phrases such as "there was a sweet sulphurous smell from the old leaves rotting in the woods" lull the reader into an expectation of a pastoral romance novel. This is anything but. It is, rather, an exploration of the relationship of the solitary Lt. Glahn with two women in particular and society in general. Lt. Glahn is socially inept and impulsive. The two women? One is servile and unavailable; the other, more interested in the power of the chase than the capture. The resulting story is an intriguing study of human emotions, of motivation and of the honesty of self-revelation. An excellent book by an excellent author.

The book is about lieutenant Glahn that spends a summer in a hunting-cabin in Northern-Norway, living off what he can hunt and generally enjoying nature. He becomes something of a typical Germanic man, at ease in nature, but feeling estranged by the meaninglessness of the modern "West". The descriptions of the nature in coastal Northern-Norway in summertime are quite famous and magnificent. He takes long strolls with his dog, and sleeps out in the wild when he feels like it. He is slowly dragged into the local bourgeois life of the tiny town nearby, and falls in love with the lovely Kielland. The book then takes many strange twists and turns, and I won't reveal much of it. The book is one of his very best, and therefore naturally some of the best literature of Norway. The fact that it's written by one of the few Scandinavian "right-wing" anti-modern conservatives makes it even more of a classic. I don't think you'll find anyone that has read Hamsun that will disagree when I say that this is one of his 5 best books. Highly recommended!

(I read a different edition)

I agree with virtually all of the reviews, but I found the writing style incredibly irritating. There seems to be no word sufficiently arcane. Peers can only be confreres (and in italics), and some of the analogies are suitable for those with a doctorate in medieval history.
Ironic given that Loiseau's was keen on presenting ingredients in their purest form.

Tragedies such as the suicide of Bernard Loiseau are all the more painful because the man was so extraordinary in so many ways. The story of France and haute cuisine is obsessively interesting, particularly in light of modern trends such as rock star chefs, television personalities and the ability to flit around the world just for a meal. The foodie within all of us must exalt over the descriptions even as we cringe at the incredible toil and effort expended toward such out-of-the-world meals.

But PERFECTION is about a man who is not just obsessessed with the correct cooking time for a steak. No, he would spend days debating silver patterns, tablecloths, perfecting certain sauces, bestowing the experience of a lifetime on those lucky enough to visit La Cote d'Or. Loiseau is the quintessential French chef from the old school, an increasing rarity. Trained through the apprentice system from an early age, self-taught, strongly Catholic, patriotic, overflowing with life, creative to his fingertips - he was the perfect man for the perfect job. However, his mood swings (he was a manic-depressive) determined the fateful outcome.

Michelin, the tire company and the restaurant guide author (one in the same) was featured prominently in the book as both a boon and bane to the industry. Even as it drove many to near madness or determined the fates of careers, it spurred tremendous advances. The evolution of the famous "star" rating system was fascinating and the way it developed into a gigantic movement that brought about an almost unapproachable standard was equally interesting. The author seems to suggest that the secrecy, subjectivism and monopoly of Michelin led not only to the tragedy but also untold worries and stress for others. Yet, those chefs who feel such pressure have willingly taken on this onerous burden. Several fine restaurants are discussed where the chef purposely ignores the guide and thus the stress and monumental expense required for maintaining such a lofty status.

For those interested in the modern world of food and how we got to our current food craze, this is an excellent book. Students of psychology would also find the inner drives and actions more interesting that most case studies. My Grade: A-.

the book is a pleasant read. insightful to the life of haute cuisine and the ways in which one will go so far for the stars.

The career of French chef Bernard Loiseau (1951-2003) illustrates Seneca's statement there is no great genius without a touch of madness. On February 24, 2003, Loiseau committed suicide when his celebrated restaurant, Côte d'Or, was falsely rumoured to be in danger of losing its three-star Michelin rating. To Loiseau, taking his life was a question of honor. Parisian journalist, Rudolph Chelminski, follows Loiseau's rise to celebrity chef status in The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine, from Loiseau's apprenticeship as a teenager at the famous Roanne restaurant, Troisgros, between 1968 and 1971, to working for Claude Verger at La Barrière de Clichy in 1972, to again working Verger as a chef at the Côte d'Or in Saulieu, Burgundy, in 1975, where he developed a highly personal style of nouvelle cuisine. In 1982, Verger sold La Côte d'Or to Loiseau, and in 1991 the Michelin Guide awarded its coveted 3-star rating to the restaurant. The French government then awarded Loiseau with the title of Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, Officier de l'ordre national du Mérite and Chevalier du Mérite agricole. Chelminski also chronicles Loiseau's slow descent into madness and self-doubt, resulting in his suicide, at a time when he was happily married and at the top of his profession. For Loiseau, cooking was always more than a career. It was his passion.

Chelminski writes from a unique perspective in that he was personally acquainted with his larger-than-life subject for nearly three decades. He first met Loiseau in 1974, when the chef was 23 and already winning recognition with his culinary talents. Chelminski's fascinating book not only succeeds at revealing Loiseau as a charismatic, extroverted, workaholic-media-darling with manic tendencies, obsessed with winning three Michelin stars, but also at illuminating just how influential the Michelin Guide's rating system is on European restaurants. This book will appeal to francophiles, foodies, and restaurant critics alike.

G. Merritt

Even if you are not a culinary professional, 'Francophile' or 'world traveler' this combination of biography, food and fame, will keep you turning the pages. Written by a man deeply familiar with both Chef Bernard L. and the inside workings of France's culinary inner circle, it reads almost like a detective story (see The Making of a Chef) A cautionary tale for 'obsessive-compulsives' everywhere and foodies of all ranks, this is the book for you. Professional foodies will love it.

goodness! having just written up my essay on an inspector calls, i have found these reviews! a little late, but better late than never. the review pages are fab, thanx amazon. an inspector calls is set in the industrial revolution about a family who all, without knowing it, participate to a young girl's death. but there are lots of twists and turns to be exposed! enjoy it xmelx

I am currently studying this book at school and am thourly enjoying it it is a great book and as i am doing an essay on it i thought im would come and get some review on it this has helped me a lot and thanx to Amazon[.com]

I really liked this book.

An Inspector Calls is a play for the thinkers in our world.Who love to ponder on the actions and consquences of every person. This book is clever, mysterious and thought provoking. Anyone who reads it will be captured by the Inspector and his inquiry into the death of the character Eva Smith! This makes you think (if only for the few hours after reading it) of your own actions and there possible consquences in life and perhaps of the better world we could live in IF we only went through life constantly thinking of others!

J.B. Priestley's classic drama "An Inspector Calls" has a sturdy allegorical ring that reminds me of another great British author's work, "A Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan. The Birling family, prominent society figures of Brunley, a North Midlands town, are celebrating the engagement of their daughter Sheila to the son of a prominent local family when a man calling himself Inspector Goole arrives unannounced.

Whatever triumphal joy they earlier felt is soon washed away as the Inspector informs them that a young woman by the name of Eva Smith has just died in the local infirmary, a painful suicide victim prompted by taking disinfectant. Gradually he draws everyone in the household into the picture. All are implicated in the tragic downfall leading to Eva's suicide. Mr. Birling fired her after she was a leader in a strike at his factory, resulting from her asking for a fair weekly wage. His daugher Sheila caused a dismissal from Eva's next job at a department store in a jealous rage over the young woman's good looks. Sheila's husband to be Gerald found a room for her temporarily, had an affair with her, then let her go. Eric Birling, Sheila's brother, impregnated her, after which she sought help from the charity committee headed by Mrs. Birling, who coldly spurned her.

The only two members of the Birling household who feel appropriately contrite are Eric and Sheila. When it appears that the incident might be a hoax the others are relieved, ignoring their abominable behavior toward the girl.

Just when it appears that they might all be in the clear, and it is learned that the mysterious Inspector Goole was no more than an apparition or hoax of some kind, a call is received that a girl has indeed died in the infirmary from ingesting disinfectant and that an Inspector is on his way to question the Birling family! And at a time when Mr. Birling expects to be offered a knighthood, no less!

The dialogue is crisp and the mysterious Inspector Goole forces the family to look for once beyond their own selfish interests and contemplate the tragic consequences of conduct stemming from their ruthless mindset. "An Inspector Calls" reads brilliantly and plays mesmerizingly until the final curtain. It has been playing for better than a decade at London's West End, where I have seen it 3 times and intend to see it more times in the future. Its timeless message remains as vital now as when it premiered starring Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson in 1946.

I purchased this book for a college course of the same subject. The cost was about 40.00 cheaper than the college bookstore, and I got it within 3 days, no hassles. The book was new so it was in great shape, however, it did not come with a CD as I thought it would and use of the website that accompanies the book is limited, unless your instructor opts to offer a hybrid class. The material is easy to read and follow, and is fairly up to date with only a few items that should be reviewed; such as current meds (a lot has changed recently), and some of the research seems dated. Otherwise I'm satisfied with my purchase.

This book is an excellent reference that breaks down many important concepts into understandable terms for students. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology.

This was a great experience. The shipping was fast, and hassle free. Hope to buy this way again.

I own several Psychology texts and this is a fine introductory source for abnormal psychology. The illustrations and case histories are quite interesting, and the text is exceedingly easy to read. Very few people will probably find this a compelling read outside of a classroom, but for a textbook, it's a very good one. I'll hold onto my copy - you never know when these things can come in handy.

A good for the understanding of abnormal psychology. This is highly recommended for the undergraduate study. The book is rather dry but does contain valuable information.

Excellent book. Provocative story, well written. The Norton Critical Edition is especially useful in evaluating the text.

This is a definate must read. Written as a poetic play, Soyinka captures the Yoruba experience during the British occupation of Nigeria. It captures their perception of their colonizers, their religious ideologies in sharp contrast with that of the British, their political stance including about Yoruba persons who worked for the British at the time(hence, the mimic men/women) and their trauma and lamentations regarding the slave trade. The title refers to a specific issue that main protagonists will struggle with, leading to the Yoruba/British clash of religious and political ideologies. The result unveils the hypocracy of forced-conversion and explores issues of (in)humanity, suicide and freedom by examining each group's relationship with their leaders, their understanding of the divine God(s) and destiny. This book is one of the texts used in African literature classes.

In this play Soyinka gives such roundness to his characters that it is hard for some to decipher their goodness or "badness" as characters. The play is a story of the western colonizers' failure to recognize African culture as substantial. The play deals with the Yoruba religion and a specific ritual that is thwarted by an ignorant colonizer who does so for reasons traced back to ethnocentricity and racism. The man who is deemed to kill himself is pitied by the westerners and this shows their hippocrisy. By demanding that suicide was immoral and could not be a spiritual endeavor they denied the status of one of the most important men to grace Western Civilization with their presence: Jesus Christ. Christ gave himself away the same way that the character in this play does and did so for spiritual reasons that transcended himself.
THe play gives great insight into African culture and builds with intensity to a hugely climatic ending that is rewarding for the reader to experience.

At a university seminar in the US recently, Prof. Soyinka was asked to respond to charges by certain critics that his writing wasn't 'African' enough. He responded, saying "The people who say these things, I refer to as neo-Tarzanists, people whose Africa is the Africa of Tarzan, swinging from tree to tree. That's not my Africa", he said, to a standing, thunderous ovation. It is difficult to imagine a writer in English today with a wider grasp of the language. Some of his work is unbelievable - metaphor, irony, the supernatural, interwoven with tragedy, lyricism, and language. Top-draw.

Soyinka both entertains and asks subtle questions about mass psychology, individual psychology, and universal human struggles of the will.

This book is not so very well written, apart from the fairy tales spaced throughout it. The story is forced, and the psychological development too shallowly described.

Reading a fairy tale within the pages of a novel just doesn't work for me. Also, the main character was not likeable.I didn't care about anyone in this book and although the author seemed to be using the fairy tale written by the main character's mother as a means to pull the reader in, for me, the method failed and the "mystery" was not very intriguing.

Benedick Hunter makes for a readable anti-hero in this novel which uses the fairy tale as a detective lens to look for the roots of suicide and madness. The subject matter Craig picks is ripe for overstatement so it is wonderful that she manages to get the tone just right. She stays tight and economical with her language and as a result the images that she does use are striking and well-crafted. The ending is a trifle precious and pat. I understood the point, but acknowledging the illness is only the first step to recovery. Aside from this minor quarrel, In a Dark Wood makes for a fine and moving read.

Benedick Hunter is having what at first appears to be a middle-aged crisis. He's an actor who hasn't had any steady work recently. His wife is divorcing him and he bickers constantly with his pompous father. He finds little joy from taking care of his imaginative, but demanding young children. Benedick lives off from the small amount of royalties from his mother's children's books. After rediscovering one of these collection of fairy tales he begins reading the stories for deeper personal meanings. He's compelled to follow a trail of his mother's old friends who are scattered over Britain and America like a trail of breadcrumbs. The mysteries contained in her subversive fables lead him to his mother's childhood home and the truth about his family that has been hidden from him. Gradually he learns that his alienation from society and erratic behaviour has its roots in a mental illness. But he has to descend into the darkest psychological depths in order to learn how to live with this disorder.

In this beautiful and moving novel, Craig manages to write very convincingly about a man's perspective of the world. Benedick's personal aspirations are clouded by despair in a way that prevents him from also appreciating all the loving people he has in his life. Unfortunately, he has also inherited a lot of pain and bitterness from his mother's life, many of the facts of which have been hidden from him. We are also given many funny details about the cultural differences between America and England. What the author also does so extraordinarily well is show a blend of light and dark in this central character's psychology. He does a number of detestable things. Yet we are given insight into them and understand they are acts of desperation brought about through a mental illness he can`t control. Craig pays tribute to the important and complex work of Angela Carter who was dubbed the Fairy Godmother of British fiction. She does this by insisting that fairy tales have a much deeper meaning than what appears on the surface. The raucous emotions and terrible violence they depict just may be a greater reflection of reality than we care to admit. The psychological demons which hound many people are indeed more terrifying than the creatures who lurk in the dark woods of fairy tales. By blending the story of Benedick's travels with a number of creative fairy tales, Craig gives us a lot of insight into this while producing an enthralling story.

Having suffered from clinical depression and known others with manic depression, I was hooked by the idea of a novel about it - and amazed to find it not only deeply sensitive to the condition but a great piece of fiction too. What nobody so far has mentioned is that it's very FUNNY. Craig has segued the idea of someone going on an Oedipal quest to discover the truth about himself with the confusion many men feel about their place in a world increasingly dominated by women. I laughed so much at Benedick's attempts to cope with his kids, his failing career as an actor, even his self-pity before being plunged into his heart of darkness. There are so many smart observations, but this is a deep book about our need for stories, and about finding sanity and hope in the midst of despair.

This was one of the books I purchased to read to my almost 4 year old grandson. His "grandpa" died 3 months ago. He loves being read to and we were able to talk about some of the memories he had of his grandpa.
There were some parts of the book I did not read to him as I felt he was not ready for them. However, validation of his feelings really came through as a positive thing. I am sure we will explore more of this book as he really liked hearing about how it wasn't bad to feel sad.

This is a great book for younger children who have had a great loss. I have read this to my 5 and 7 yr old after my dad died. This book let them know that their feeling are okay. I would recommend this book to any parent looking for a way to help a child through the grief process

Reviewer's book: Overcoming Loss: Activities and Stories for Children Who Have Experienced Grief and Loss

This fictional story helps young children to come to terms with the feelings they may be experiencing due to a loss. This book covers the grief process through its story line and is appropriate for any child.

I had intended this book to be for my 4 yo grandson, it is more suited to my 12 yo niece. Still a nice book, very informational, and gave her lots to think about and even took some of the chapters to heart. She had lost her mother at 3 yrs of age and is lately showing signs of guilt and behavior problems.

My 8 yr old grandson was very interested in this. It lets them know it is normal to feel sad and blue and crying is okay when they lose a loved one.Helps them understand the whole grieving process.

I ordered this book through Amazon.com. This was a well written book on a really disgusting subject. I bought this book because I'd read the Murder of Adolph Hitler which was almost a novel. I put a book report on a website, and this book was suggested. The portrait of Hitler, Goebbels, and Eva Braun was similar to other books I've read on this subject. The details of the breakout were new and interesting information. The portrait of the Generals last days was also new. All in all, this was a well written book, written by an expert, and well worth the money spent ($[...]including shipping). I suggest this book over the other histories on the end of the war in the Chancellery Bunker.

This book is a look inside the bunker on the last months of the life of the Third Reich. It gives stories taken from interviews of the surviving members of the group that lived in or visited the bunker in those days. It focuses on both the major and minor players in the drama around Hitler's last days.

The author describes his visit to the bunker at the close of the Second World War and describes what the bunker looked like at that point before going back to start his narrative of the things that happened there during the previous months. He has spent years tracking down the survivors and getting their stories. There were several stories which were completely new to me and really added to my enjoyment of the book.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the last days of the Reich along with anyone who is interested in the Hitler court since it shows the personalities which surrounded Hitler in his final days.

To be fair, O'Donnell did do tons of research and interviewed pretty much every living person who was in the Bunker when he was writing this book. Still, as one other reviewer pointed out, many parts of this book are either pure fiction or are taken farther than they should. The best example is O'Donnell spending many pages discussing Speer's attempt to poison Hitler with gas. Even Speer later admitted this never went beyond the thinking about it stages. O'Donnell plays up some other things, such as a female spy, that cannot be verified. Still, the book does a much better job than some other bunker books detailing lots of the other characters in the bunker besides Hitler. It also contains many first-hand accounts of the goings on inside the bunker. It is also very readable and a page turner. And, to be fair to the author, some of the facts (such as the fact that Martin Bormann was killed and did not escape) were not actually proven until after this book was published nearly 30 years ago. Overall, a easy read and worth a look as long as you realize that some of the "facts" aren't really facts at all.

"The Bunker" is simply the most detailed and fascinating account of the events in the Berlin Fuhrerbunker I've yet read. Written in 1978, long after the last witnesses were released from Soviet captivity, O'Donnell managed to interview almost all of the surviving actors from the Bunker tragedy. The only people he didn't meet were Johann Rattenhuber, who died in 1966, and Johanna Wolf, who never told anyone anything because she considered it a private secretary's duty to remain private. However, he spoke extensively with all the rest of the surviving people who witnessed Hitler's last days with their own eyes: Speer, Bauer, Guensche, Misch, Mohnke, Axmann, Schenk, Junge, et al. With this wealth of primary sources, their experiences are almost palpable as O'Donnell brings you down into the bunker for Hitler's last days and out onto the streets of burning Berlin for the final breakout. Though I've never read Joachim Fest's "Inside Hitler's Bunker" (which, because it was only published in 2002, after most of the witnesses were dead, I can't imagine has much new information to offer), O'Donnell's "The Bunker" is at least far superior to Trevor-Roper's revered history. I believe it is the best book written on the subject.

I really can't understand the criticisms of this book. So-called "academic" historians chide its "journalistic" approach, a term which means- I suppose- that O'Donnell actually spoke to witnesses and did original research as opposed to writing a book based completely on other historians' previously published works. Such incestuous shuffling and borrowing is actually considered a virtue in the rarified world of the court-historians' guild, where a historian's worth is judged solely by the length of his bibliography and the depth of his conformity to establishment opinion. I'll take the "journalistic" approach any day, thank you very much. David Irving earned the scorn of the court historians for much the same reason- his industriousness in digging up previously un-discovered or ignored witnesses and documents. Even though O'Donnell had a bone to pick with Irving, they both embarrassed the historians of WWII who never stepped foot out of their library and whose "research" amounted to mere regurgitation.

Similarly, I really don't understand some of the objections put forth by lay reviewers on amazon and elsewhere. It's doubtful whether some of them even read the book. For instance, O'Donnell never speculated on Bormann's survival; he stated flat-out that his body was found and positively identified. He also never said that Bauer had orders to fly Hitler to Asia, but did verify that it was technically possible. I'm also confused at these reviewers' objections to O'Donnell's account of Speer's assassination plans. O'Donnell devotes a mere 5 or 6 pages to Speer's admittedly unverifiable, but historically significant, plan to assassinate Hitler. It would have been negligent to have omitted such a claim. As for "Mata O'Hara", the fact is that there_was_a leak in the Hitler court. The Germans confirm it and the British confirm it. O'Donnell speculates that "Das Leck" was Fegelein's mistress, but he doesn't pretend that his theory is the final word. Who_are_these naysayers and what have they been smoking? It's standard practice that criticism should be based on fact. Until someone proves otherwise, this is the definitive book on the Bunker.

I haven't seen the movie, but my father gave me an old, pre-film copy of this book, which I have not been able to get out of my mind. Not only is this incredibly researched, with copious, original interviews and substantive document analysis, Mr. O'Donnell is an gifted writer with a keen feel for observation and mood.

The last days of Hilter's Reich come chillingly alive, as Adolf descends into the bunker below Berlin for the very last time. Images and passages are unforgettable, and ominous -- Speer's abandoned plot to poison Hitler through the vent shaft; Magda Goebbels bringing her six children into the bunker, with the impending promise of certain death; Hitler kissing Eva on the lips at a staff meeting in the very last moments, as bombs and air raid sirens signal the end.

Impossible to put down, this is a must-read for any WWII buff.