Arts and Culture Books

Get this book. Do anything you have to in order to own it. I paid $250 at the Art Institute of Chicago because I was afraid I would miss out...again. This is a collector's piece if you got the first edition. If not, don't hesitate. It is interesting, intriging, thought provoking, ahead of it's time....and not just for 'creative' types. Something good for everyone.

This is the most extraordinary book I've ever owned! I missed out when it was first published as a limited edition and I vowed that if it ever came back,I would grab one. Bravo to Rizzoli Publishers for re-issuing this hard-to-find classic!

These facsimile pages from the twelve issues of Flair are a celebration of Fleur Cowles zest for creativity in the arts. The 338 pages must have been a challenge for the Hong Kong printers, they had to cope with various foldout pages, die-cut holes, different paper stock and bind in several short pages, two concertina foldouts and five sixteen page booklets.

Sumptuous though the book is I feel that Flair is resting in its reputation. To my mind, having worked as a publication art director, the photos, typography and layouts are very conservative and do not show any particular innovative design. Other magazines and designers were much more creative in the fifties, 'Fortune' with Will Burtin, 'Glamour' with Cipe Pineless, 'Harper's Bazaar' with Alexey Brodovitch and 'Vogue' with Alexander Liberman. Certainly the covers with their die-cut holes (sadly only six of the twelve are included) and the bound in booklets were unique to consumer magazines at the time but I think that Flair should be remembered as a magazine concept rather than a magazine full of creativity.

Fleur Cowles writes a short piece about the origins of Flair (handwritten in gold on dark blue paper) but does not give enough detail (I believe each issue involved several printers and binders) and as there were only twelve issues a list of all the articles should have been included. Another reviewer has commented that the high price (reassuringly expensive?) and the cloth covered box the book comes in reflects snob appeal, I agree but I'm still pleased to have a copy.

I first became acquainted with Fleur Cowles' revolutionary 'Flair' magazine during my childhood in the fifties. At that time the publication impressed me with its cultured blend of cosmopolitan sophistication and innovative design, although it didn't escape me that its pages also included a great deal of elitism, snobbery and self-congratulatory arrogance. Although I wasn't fortunate to keep any of the original issues, the magazine became a significant influence in the development of my literary and artistic tastes and in my life-long quest for beauty and elegance. For that I was grateful. So it was a joy to learn that a best-of compilation put together by Fleur Cowles herself had finally appeared. The original 1996 printing sold out before I could manage to acquire a copy and when Rizzoli recently published a second run I quickly got one. This edition has a foreword by writer-socialite Dominick Dunne. Now, is it really worth the rather steep price of [price]? Well... I think that for that kind of money the publishers could have managed to provide us with something much more substantial, for example: a slipcased set containing facsimile editions of all twelve original issues, rather than this comprehensive but ultimately limited look. A complete reprint would have given us the full impression of the range and period feel of a unique magazine, and at this price I think that they could have well afforded to do it. I understand that part of the reason for this expensive price tag is the snob appeal that has always been a part of the Flair mystique and that perhaps this offering is to be regarded as literary caviar for the more discerning (and well-off) among us. On the plus side I must say that the large-format book is lavishly printed, that the articles are indeed very well selected - containing not quite all but much of the best of the short-lived magazine - and that the presentation is very handsome indeed. Several of the covers are reproduced with their distinctive die-cuts and embossing and the book is housed in an elegant cloth-covered box. I still think it could have been more reasonably priced but there it is. Caviar lovers, enjoy it before it disappears again!

Each (color!)strip is so beautifully mesmerizing. Its the perfect example of what can be accomplished in the comic industry. Windsor McCay was a genius!

Anyone who's read a history of comic books, comic strips, and other sequential art has heard of Little Nemo, but few have seen it in detail. This is a beautiful collection of Little Nemo strips that demonstrate author Winsor McCay's use of plot, characters, and sequential art in ways that decades later others would be heralded for "pioneering". The strips are beautiful, elegant, witty, and fascinating. A must for any fan of sequential art.

This book is an absolute treasure. Every cartoonist should buy and study this book with a magnifying glass for a few hours a week. Winsor McCay is maybe the most dedicated, hard-working cartoonist to date. He was certainly before his time, and he has still carries more weight than most artists of today. His strips are lavish and generous. You can believe that I will be studying this book for years to come.

If one cannot purchase the 6 vol set of the *complete* Little Nemo, this will have to do. (sigh) Any collection of McCay is worth having. All one can do is *cry* over the lack of skill when comparing this with modern strips. It is not impossible to have good story line AND good draftsmanship. Buy it, you will not be dissapointed!

Excellent and entertaining book. Just start with the story 'Living La Vida Robot'.I particularly enjoyed Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah's writing too and would recommend this book to anyone looking for well written pieces. Excellent book to read when travelling, and a great gift for the technophile in your life. I have already ordered the 2007 followup to this book!

Some of the best writing in technology comes together under one cover, compiling works from authors who work in everything from computers and digital mediums to health and science fields. Both college-level collections strong in technology and general-interest public lending libraries will find THE BEST OF TECHNOLOGY WRITING most accessible: a collection of polished essays which invite both technology readers and the general public into the world of possibilities.

Refreshing collection of techxperiences !The stories in this volume will definitely inspire many to try their hand at technology writing . I will look forward to it every year.

All of the articles in this first annual addition of The Best of Technology Writing are great picks. The articles range from an interesting robot competition in "La Vida Robot," a great article on "The Bookless Future," (and many other articles on what's happening on the Internet (trends, security, etc.), to the strange history of "The Ups and Downs of Jetpacks." Looking forward to the next edition.

Alison J. Waldman crafts a very detailed and comprehensive review of Bette's career until the point the book was written. The best section is the vivid details of the films Bette has made although box office data should have been procured. For fast facts on Bette, there are many and it is nice that a review was included for both the film and music section. To see how a critic felt about Bette's performance whether musically or cinematically is refreshing because it is difficult to find very old reviews from the 80s let alone the 70s. Another interesting section is the details of Bette's possible and still potential projects: to only imagine the various roads Bette career could have taken had she taken some of these projects. A very pleasing book though not as good and comprehensive as Waldman's BARBRA STREISAND SCRAPBOOK. Look for Bette's upcoming tour, her tribute CD to Rosemary Clooney with Barry Manilow and a 2004 film release of STEPFORD WIVES with Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick and Glenn Close. Maybe another of these scrapbooks should be crafted because Bette is getting busy again like she was in the late 90s and 2000.

I thought this book was the most incredible book I've ever read! This is a book for any REAL Bette Midler fan!

After seeing this book on the self, I knew that I had to buy it! The cover alone will grab you in and won't let go. After reading her biography, seeing her life in photographs makes it even more meaningful and special. The Divine Miss M shines through with style and carisma, even through the hard times. This is a classic that cannot be ignored by the "true" Bette Midler fan.

Just so you know I am the hugest ~*Bette Midler*~ fan in the whole solar system and this book just reinforces how incredible she is. She's such an amazing woman and if you don't think so before, you definitly will when you're done reading. Even though I'm just sixteen she's my idol and this book is a must for any real Bette fan!!! :)

Wesley Britton has written an original. In "Beyond Bond," he offers pithy insights on both fictional and real espionage, seamlessly blending discussions of movies, literature, and television. Britton has a fine spy eye, as he shows how few "degrees of separation" there are between fact and fiction. Lucid and intelligent, this is a must-read.

I get many spy books across my desk but Dr. Britton's is outstanding in the field and he has brought exhaustive research to a blend of the real and fictional. Fascinating reading!

Just finished Wes Britton's Beyond Bond. What a fantastic compendium of spy-detective related knowledge! A veritable reference book of interconnected facts about the espionage genre and a great read. Included in the tome is a chronological outline of spy fiction through out the past 100 years. Anyone who thinks James Bond was the first; but wonders where he came from needs to read this book. The best part of the book for me was understanding how life imitates art and vice versa. The actual historical events of the times many times informs art and it's great to see how that happens in this book.

Recommended to anyone who wants a greater understanding of the espionage genre; while specific enough to pique anyone's interest enough to dig further. Enjoy.

Tom Pervanje, www.spy-fi.com. Guitarist for Spy-Fi, spy-detective band.

What an amazing and compelling book about spies and spying throughout history--in literature, entertainment , and fact. This is a must-have treasure especially for all spy movie fans, and anyone else interested or fascinated by why spy?, what makes a spy, how to be a spy, and who has created the spies you know and love.

Wes Britton's 'Beyond Bond' is a must buy for any spy aficionado worth the
radio in his shoe. (Get Smart, for those youngsters amongst us.) Wes
manages to cram more interesting detail about spies into a book than one
would think possible. I have been closely associated musically with the
film spy movement, James Bond Theme, The Prisoner and others, for more than
40 years and this book proves how little I knew. Buy it and enjoy. Vic
Flick
www.vicflick.com

Guitarist on productions of James Bond, The Prisoner, Pink Panther and
others, and for many composers including John Barry, Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith and
Michel LeGrand.

It was a wonderful book. The detail was amazing

Of all the books about the actors and actresses on the show, this is the most comprehensive and accurate one I have read. It is informative and fun to read. If you want to learn about the guest stars that are normally left out of the other books, then this is the book for you.

In this well written and researched volume by Mangels, we have what is essentially Guest Stars of The X-Files. In detailed episode guides, actors credits, personality profiles and exclusive interviews we learn more about the guest star faces that grace each and every episode of the show. Information here is current up to fourth season's "Gethsemane." It's surprising to see Jerry Hardin's acting credits take up a long five and a half pages! The book is profusely illustrated with the actor's b/w talent agency photographs. The highlight of this volume are the "Witness Interviews" with selected artists who passed through the show. Often, the features are with individuals who have not yet been exposed to the X-Files spotlight. Like Star Trek, X-Files has become a show in which we all want to know any new tidbit of information and this book sheds light on a "dark" corner of the X-Files mythos. Highly recommended!

Let me say that this is a great book. It is very well written. It provides a lot of excellent details -- It just doesn't have ANYTHING to do with the title! It should be titled "Beyond Duchovny and Anderson: The Supporting Actors of the X-Files." The book is chock full of interesting information about the supporting actors on The X-Files, but it has practically nothing on the characters they play. If you are truly looking for a book on the "mysterious characters" of the show, this is NOT the book for you. However, if you just want random facts about various actors who have appeared on the set of The X-Files, then you just might want to take a look at this book.

An excellect selection of schizz-flows and machinic couplings, looking at this book is like watching a film by the Brother's Quay (and I believe the Brother's have made a new film based on one of the artists in this book, "In Absentia"). A beautiful and fetishistic stroll through the "Outside" of those who were locked up "inside". Take flight!

I am a senior student of fine arts at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and I purchased "Beyond Reason" with hopes of injecting new influences into my own art. I cannot explain what this book showed me -- I did not anticipate being so taken by the works I discovered. On virtually every page, profound works of art are shown by men and women not seeing themselves as artists, but merely as human beings desperately needing to express their inner emotions. I was humbled, to the point that I am second guessing my own artistic ambitions. I was very, very moved by the works -- their frenzied grasps at order apparent with every stroke and line. Whether you are an art student, art historian, or student of the psychology, I highly recommend this edition. Beautifully reproduced and presented with respect for their creators ... "Beyond Reason" is among the finest art books in my personal library.

I first discovered the Prinzhorn Collection in late 1996 when selected paintings and drawings were put on display at the Hayward Gallery in London. The experience was extremely memorable.

More than just an art exhibit, "Beyond Reason" represented a provocative view into the inner workings on the human mind. (This is especially meaningful if you accept the argument that an understanding of the ailing mind can elucidate the functions of the healthy one.)

As you view the entire collection, patterns begin to emerge. "Circular" thinking, fear of being "trapped" in one's mind, and the desire to "escape" mental illness are common motifs. The cover of the book shows a great example. Painted by a schizophrenic, he successfully depicts his irrational fear of weightlessness; here, he must wear a blindfold and use hand-stilts to prevent himself from floating away.

Needless to say, I purchased a copy of the "Beyond Reason" book. Nearly 200 (mostly color) high-quality reproductions are presented, and the commentary is wonderful. I highly recommend this book.

Our first acquaintance with the Prinzhorn Collection of psychotic art at the University of Heidelberg was in the paperback edition of Ernst Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), a book it may help to refer to while reading this one. This is the full-color catalog of a 1996-1997 exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London of more than 200 examples of artÑdrawings, paintings (some using "body color"), collages, and sculptureÑproduced by mental patients in European psychiatric hospitals. The full collection, which includes nearly 5,000 items from the period of about 1890 to 1920, was named after Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), a German art historian and psychiatrist who did not initiate the collection, but was largely responsible for its promotion, use, and preservation. He became famous overnight when he published a book in 1922 titled Artistry of the Mentally Ill, which praised the "authenticity" and "primordiality" of psychotic self-expression. It attracted the attention of many Modern artists, especially Surrealists and Expressionists, and was used by the Nazis as proof of the underlying sickness of what they condemned publicly in 1937 as "degenerate art." Suppressed but thankfully not destroyed, the Prinzhorn Collection was stacked in a cupboard until the early 1970s, and has now been restored. These haunting yet fascinating inventions, all beautifully reproduced, are prefaced by scholarly essays about Prinzhorn, psychotic expression, and social conditions in Europe between the wars. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 1, Autumn 1998.)

I like Star Trek, I just am not a fanatic. As such, I hesitated in buying this book. Why should I care if, for example a Klingon and a Vulcan could or would want to mate? They don't exist! Still, after I read the back and skimmed through the chapters, I decided to buy it. It was great fun!

First, this book is based on real science. The writers are well educated. In fact, they are both doctors and they explain real biology in an interesting way that makes it more interesting and accessible to the public. Teachers take note.

But, this book is much more then a teaching tool. The writers are obvious fans of Star Trek and both have a delightful sense of humor. I found myself laughing outloud and sharing some of the stories with my friends. But it is hard for me to describe their humor, with taking away the hard scient. I think the fairest thing to do, is just tell you the title of some of the chapters.

-What the future May hold, but Probably won't -Parasitic Possession is Nine-tenths of the Law or -Where No One Will Ever Go

These chapters are about the probablities of telepathy, real example of parasites on Earth, (and why they are unlikely in space) and examples of big bloopers in Captain Kirk's Universe. Why and what made the Klingons evolve, for example.

Utimately this book is a tribute to Star Trek's attempts to potray science fiction in an accurate and truthful way. Science often inspires science fiction. It is Star Trek's great glory that a science fiction series has inspired this, and other works of science and scientist. Enjoy the Book.

I like Star Trek, I just am not a fanatic. As such, I hesitated in buying this book. Why should I care if, for example a Klingon and a Vulcan could or would want to mate? They don't exist! Still, after I read the back and skimmed through the chapters, I decided to buy it. It was great fun!

First, this book is based on real science. The writers are well educated. In fact, they are both doctors and they explain real biology in an interesting way that makes it more interesting and accessible to the public. Teachers take note.

But, this book is much more then a teaching tool. The writers are obvious fans of Star Trek and both have a delightful sense of humor. I found myself laughing outloud and sharing some of the stories with my friends. But it is hard for me to describe their humor, with taking away the hard science. I think the fairest thing to do, is just tell you the title of some of the chapters.

-What the future May hold, but Probably won't -Parasitic Possession is Nine-tenths of the Law or -Where No One Will Ever Go

These chapters are about the probablities of telepathy, real example of parasites on Earth, (and why they are unlikely in space) and examples of big bloopers in Captain Kirk's Universe. Why and what made the Klingons evolve, for example.

Utimately this book is a tribute to Star Trek's attempts to potray science fiction in an accurate and truthful way. Science often inspires science fiction. It is Star Trek's great glory that a science fiction series has inspired this, and other works of science and scientist. Enjoy the Book.

This books answers some of the basic questions that Trekers have been asking for ages:

Why do the old Klingons look different from the new Klingons? Could an alien really take over and control a human body? Can ageing be sped up, stopped or reversed?

A really good read with just the right amount of depth. Recommended.

This book asks many of the strange things about star trek that have puzzled us from the beginning (Is Data alive? Are Changlings possible?). And I think this is the book that said: "The idea that a shapeshifter like Odo would fall in love with a 'solid' like Kira is akin to human falling maddily in love with a turnip." I agree, sorry Odo. And just how did Odo turn into that ball of light when he was with Kira in a recent episode? Matter into energy? KA-BANG!!! Goodbye, DS9! This book also explains that so many "human" aliens is impossible. It also shows why star trek is not my favorite show anymore because of these problems (and repetitive storylines).

Outstanding. Highly Recommended. Excellent Book. A fascinating, engaging, innovative and original work. A fine account of film noir and 1940s Hollywood filmmaking, film censorship and propaganda, and wartime conditions in America's movie capital during World War II. Ample noir stories of Los Angeles, Raymond Chandler, Humphrey Bogart, James M. Cain, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Alan Ladd, Peter Lorre, Howard Hawks with hardboiled crime, venetian blinds, swirling cigarette smoke and smoldering seductive femme fatales like black widow Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake and Rita Hayworth. A rich provocative study. Terrific and enjoyable read for film buffs, cineastes, film critics, movie fans, industry insiders, cultural historians, researchers and cinema scholars, and an insightful and compelling look at the unexplored history of film noir and wartime Hollywood in the 1940s. Biesen's Blackout is quite a find, a must-read book on film noir. Wonderful revelations and essential reading for lovers of film noir.

"Blackout" is subtitled "World War II and the Origins of Film Noir," and Sheri Chinen Biesen, an assistant professor of radio, television and film studies at Rowan University, delivers the goods in this scholarly book. At the end of World War II, a large backlog of American films suddenly became available overseas. The French, seeing these films for the first time "all at once" instead of over a period of years, noticed a "dark" trend in them that had not been especially obvious to their American producers. French critics coined the term "film noir" to describe what they saw as virtually a new genre in filmmaking.

Films noir typically (but not exclusively) featured hard-boiled private detectives, alluring but deadly "femmes fatale," stories told in flashbacks, complex plots, unconventional camera angles and stark black-and-white photography. Many of them involved crimes gone wrong, double- and triple-crosses, murder and mayhem, and the nastier side of human relationships. "Blackout" shows how these characteristics arose from the political, social, cultural and material conditions that existed in America during World War II. For example, films noir are "dark" because: a) lights were in short supply, b) power was rationed, and c) the West Coast (where most films during the War were made) was blacked out nightly because of the fear of Japanese submarine attacks. Many film noir stories took place at night, because the Government prohibited daytime photography that could accidentally include defense installations--thus eliminating most of the favored movie-making locations in Southern California. Relationships between men, serving overseas in combat, and women, who now did many of the previously male-dominated jobs on the Home Front, changed during the War, and films noir could not help but reflect these changes.

One of the most fascinating aspects of film production in World War II was the interaction of the movie studios with the Production Code Administration (PCA). "Blackout" describes in detail how the PCA enthusiastically carried out its "responsibility" of censoring screenplays that the studios presented to it in order to obtain the important "seal of approval." For example, the PCA banned "excessive drinking...references to sex, suggestive dancing, [and] any condoning of divorce..." from the screenplay for "Phantom Lady." This is just one very minor example. One wonders not only how films made under the heavy hand of PCA censorship could be very good (which many are), but indeed how any meaningful films could possibly have been made at all.

"Blackout" covers the evolution of film noir trends in great depth. It focuses on genre classics such as "Double Indemnity," "This Gun For Hire," "The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Murder, My Sweet" and "Laura," but it also covers many other films. The text is detailed, readable and thoroughly footnoted, although I did find it somewhat repetitive in parts. For example, the point about location filming restrictions is similarly made many times. "Blackout" may be heavy going in some places for readers with just a casual interest in the subject, but it is nevertheless an excellent primer on the development of a uniquely American film style.

Yes, Shari Chinen Biesen has detonated a landmine in the field of film noir studies with her contention that, far from being a postwar movement, noir is totally tied up with actual conditions of the war being felt and fought during Hollywood studio production; so we might come to see the heyday of film noir as not the release of OUT OF THE PAST, nor any of the location-dominated "March of Time" inspired docudramas, but much earlier on, with the filming of THIS GUN FOR HIRE with Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.

She invites us to attend to the way WWII scared the daylights out of Los Angeles and curtailed social activity through a literal blackout in which the previously iconic klieglights were darkened "for the duration," while West Coast citizens and government officials and conspiracy theorists worried about how soon the Japanese would attack southern California by bomber or submarine or from within.

Secondarily the arrival of so many talented artists from Nazi-dominated Europe gave film a darker cast, both in front of the camera and behind. She points to STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR, THE MALTESE FALCON, PHANTOM LADY, and DOUBLE INDEMNITY as beneficaries of this process. With the top male stars in uniform, like Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, the studios had to improvise and invent a new sort of cinema, one in which their female stars would henceforward be paired with freaks--old men, foreign men, little boys--the refuse of the draft. This was a time when an actor like Albert Dekker, Orson Welles, Peter Lorre, Laird Cregar, George Sanders, could dreeam of Hollywood stardom; when super short actors like Alan Ladd were suddenly magnified; when gay actors who'd been declared unfit for military service could become huge box office draws, their heterosexuality reinscribed by press flacks; and older men found their stardom artificially extended by a decade or more (William Powell, Ronald Colman, guys like that.) A few remaining tall, handsome, young and heterosexual men remained employable--John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, becoming stars no little thanks to the vacuum around them. And they were talented too, of course.

And women moved behind the camera too, as editors, producers, writers: Joan Harrison, Catherine Tunney, Harriet Parsons, Virginia van Upp, Leigh Brackett. As BLACKOUT progresses towards the end of the war in 1945, we relive a strange moment in history in which Hollywood once again hardened itself for the invasion--the re-entry into their midst of all the returning vets, stars, writers, directors and miscellaneous personnel--who would put these trends on fast track and bring them outdoors.

This volume stands out as one of, if not the, best book in English on film noir, a movement previously largely defined mostly through stylistic analysis and psychoanalytic interpretation. It differs from traditional approaches, offering background which the other books fail to include. By relying on historical sources and context, Biesen indicates noir's rise with the social and most particularly production circumstances brought about by World War II. None of this has been treated before, in any detail, and many of her points are original (such as the impact of realism on film noir). Demonstrating how actual wartime life and daily constraints led to the genre will be one of the ways this book will be important for historians of all types for this era and its culture. The book is simultaneously accessible yet sophisticated, vital and engaging, and is written to attract the widest possible audience.
The primary research mines lodes of information too often overlooked in film studies, demonstrating the manner in which such sources as censorship and studio publicity may enhance a critical and theoretical examination. Biesen demonstrates a familiarity with the films and supporting documentation which are the source of the book's assertions. Unlike so many studies marked by excessive theoretical speculation and cursory historical research, this book combines a wide range of examples with a determination to remain rooted in the evidence they offer.
Biesen merges close interpretation of individual films, production history, censorship records, publicity, critical response, audience reception, the star system, industry history, and genre analysis. Most studies use only two or three of these possibilities, and the author is to be commended for the depth and breadth of research.
Endemic of this exhaustive research is the usage of reviews beyond Variety and the New York Times, the indexed, reprinted journals which are as far as most studies go--although neither offer representative reviews. Few scholars have mined such treasures as the film pressbooks, especially with such fruitful results.
So too, Biesen's arguments have been carefully thought through; for instance, I was pleased to see the connections between noir and the espionage genre made, similar genres whose relation is too often overlooked. The role of female executives in producing noir was surprising. The linkage between realism and noir was a brilliant insight, and a case convincingly made by the author, one which will profoundly change conceptions of the genre. The relevance of HUAC in ending noir was also enlightening.
I was relieved to see, too, that the author knows to interpret documents, not simply taking them at face value. For instance, noting when filmmakers blithely disregarded censorship instructions will change conceptions of the role of censors.
I strongly and without reservation recommend this book.

Bowden's prose is actually a long tone poem, and if you read it this way, you will not be disappointed. The mesquite is the metaphor: once you read it, you'll understand, and you'll want to read more. Bowden is one of our most brutally honest writers practicing the trade today, but he writes with velvet gloves. He teaches us how to rejoice in our despair--he's a practicing buddhist, he just doesn't know it.
If you are new to Bowden's writing, this book is as good a place to start as any. For a man who has probably seen and witnessed the worst we can do to each other, he somehow holds out hope for the best. What else can we do but sink our taproots and satisfy our appetites?---at least that is something, as Bowden says...

Charles Bowden's got the blues. "I am a fallen man and I know it," he writes, "and I accept the torture of living this fact. But I will be damned--and they say I surely will be damned--if I accept God's answer. So I do not pray. Nor do I worship. I can love, I can comfort. I am the tree struggling in the hot ground of my desert. No bended knee and please no messages from on high. The messages must come from here, from the ground itself or away with them. That is what I learn from the mesguite, my brother-in-arms" (p. 6). In his 293-page book of revelations, he looks deeply into our cold, modern culture of gated communities, suicide, death row inmates, and sexual predators, to discover we are cannibals now--"we can devour and take but cannot give" (p. 28)--living a life of unrestrained consumption without future.

For too many of us, Bowden may be the best writer we've never read. His prose is powerful, prophetic, hallucinogenic, and poetic. Using mesquite as a metaphor to connect his essays, he encourages us to face the truth about American culture, and to question the people who try to give us easy answers. "I believe in dirt and bone and flowers and fresh pasta and salsa cruda and red wine," he writes. "I do not believe in white wine, I insist on color. I think death is a word and life is a fact, just as food is a fact and cactus is a fact" (p. 246). Although Bowden's "Mesquite Manifesto" is rooted in despair, in the end it encourages us to celebrate life: eat, lust, caress, fight, and swallow. "Now," Bowden tells us, "choke it down" (p. 277).

G. Merritt

Charles Bowden places himself as a steel wedge into the crevices, what we've created of ourselves and our environment, the unsavory places, the mirror that we all shield our faces from, the places that we are all afraid to venture. He drives himself into these places because he knows that he ... we ... have become fearful hypocrites.

Once set, he kicks violently at the business end of that wedge with his feet to drive himself in further, going as far as a man can go without letting go: dirt, water, sex, and food, with a little booze and drugs thrown in to soften the edge of our brutal contemporary reality.

But now that he's found the courage to go to these places in our stead and make it back, he found it necessary to write about it and we find it necessary to read it. We know that we will likely never visit these places. We will only read vicariously and reflect nervously, remaining sadly and ultimately, fearful hypocrites to the end.

Blues for Cannibals can be a hard book at times to work through. The ideas become circular and repetitive but the beautiful writing often smooths over these rough spots, while at other times there is true beauty, touched with both horror and sadness, in its words and thoughts. Charles Bowden writes near the beginning that if he had life to live over again he "would never think that wars are events recorded in the book of history but realize they are actual and always take my hands from my ears and hear the cries of the slain." Much of this book is filled with those cries, and not only from war. He also would never say no to a woman or skip a meal. From evidence in this book, one gets the feeling he never has. The section on food and his dying friends is the best part of the book and reverberates with a quiet power. An unique book.