New York Books

This book delineates the concepts of Abinavagupta's investiture of the heart or hridaya as metaphorically analogous to the centermost reality of supreme consciousness. This exposition becomes the vehicle for a foundational exploration into the historical development and conceptual underpinning of the Kaula lineage and its interweaving influence amongst the larger framework of non-dual Kashmir Shavism.

Mr. Ortega's extensive research and refined scholarship is clearly evidenced throughout this work. While the literary style is thoroughly scholastic in disposition, one could presuppose that readers less familiar with the rigors of this venue could find the linguistic constructs unduly pedantic and inaccessible. This work is implicitly conceived as a scholarly interrogatory into the numinous symbology of the heart, and the author makes no supererogative overtures to attitudinize this as a pedagogical guidebook of mediation or tantric praxis. While those with a predilection for the trance state will find ample catalyst for such while ruminating over the significance of the weighty subject matter, the kernel of this work is largely philosophical in nature and its potency relies primarily upon absorption into one's own conceptual fabric. The onus of methodologically deciphering and putting into practice the myriad of specific kaula oriented techniques employed and espoused by Abhinavagupta, which are by and large beyond the parameters of this work, remains squarely on the shoulders, if not the heart, of the reader.

This magnificent piece of literature contains wisdom so deep, so clear and so intellectually developed I am sometimes unable to read more than a sentence or two before I am plunged into a space of unrelenting power. Each sentence has been carefully worded as to not waste even one second of the student's time in speculation or controversy. It's as if Abhinavagupta, with his expert hands, surgically removes our ingorance of Shiva, in so doing, he leaves us unable to experience anything else! "The heart of Siva is not a static or inert absolute, however. In fact, the non-dual Kashmir Shaiva tradition considers it to be in a state of perpetual movement, a state of vibration in which it is continuously contacting and expanding..." The Triadic Heart pg. 82

Not only a rare and brilliant sanskritist, Paul Muller illuminates a once obscure mystical-religious tradition with the erudition of the most accomplished scholar. His rich background in the history of religion and familiarity with a seemingless endless variety of sanskrit texts show throughout his writing. He explains intricate spiritual concepts in straightforward terms and unearths the complexities of deceptively simple images, whose meanings might go otherwise unappreciated without his detailed explanations. Rock-steady in his approach, he somehow balances painstaking technical analysis with broad conceptual understanding. He traces around sanskrit words close to their sources, never straying far from the original texts. Moving beyond the literal, he also treats symbols as multilayered representations of human experience. His work exemplifies intellectual exploration and impeccable scholarship, but also packs rich insight and meaning. After reading more basic works, this is the one that will provoke new thoughts and a thirst for more knowledge about the complexities of indian religious and spiritual systems.

The Heart as a metaphor for the enlightened experience of consciousness was masterfully revealed by the great Shaivist sage, mystic and scholar Abhinavagupta. Abhinavagupta "taught from a level of complete spiritual awakening with the authority of one who was considered a Siva incarnate." The study of these teachings, for the student able to attain and maintain meditative absorption, may be the basis for a radical transformation in consciousness to spiritually awakened Being in nondual freedom of awareness.

This book contains priceless wisdom from a first-rate scholar, who, surely, must be an experienced tantric yogin! You could sincerely say that he has discovered & revealed the secret of the real holy Graal in these pages. It's very much a practical handbook on how to become immortal - like a lamp that lights the way to the god within.
I hope Mr Ortega publishes more material like this. Better still, I wish he were my Guru to learn from first hand....

This brilliant little book (71 pages of actual text) records twenty days in which Hawthorne was in effect a single parent for his five year old son, Julian, during August 1851. Hawthorne's wife Sophia, called Phoebe in the book, and two daughters (seven year old Una and newborn Rose) go off to visit Sophia's parents. Hawthorne is with Julian for just about every waking moment of Julian's day, running from six or seven AM to seven or seven thirty PM. He records their days in his notebook; and, despite the brief and informal style of these notes (and they are notes and not a detailed chronicle), succeeds in evoking nearly the totality of a child's day. I doubt that any major writer has ever so completely and carefully focused on what a five year old actually does and what his life is like.

Hawthorne is also direct and frank. He gets exasperated (as all parents do) about the constant demands for attention, the nonstop childish chatter and the endless sometimes inane questions but only rarely rebukes Julian. On the whole, Hawthorne is remarkably patient. He is amused by Julian's battles with the monsters that appear in the form of thistles and weeds which Julian routinely and daily slaughters. He is fascinated by Julian's determined and uniformly unsuccessful fishing. He admires Julian's great good nature and his gusto. Hawthorne takes care of the boy's minor illnesses, injuries and accidents. He feeds, dresses, bathes and clothes him daily. He also tries to curl his hair. Some of these actions he admits are badly or clumsily done but they are all clearly done with love.

The book also contains a few insights into other aspects of the normally reserved Hawthorne. He is positively volcanic about his dislike of Massachusetts's Berkshire region and its weather and his contemptuous and angry references to a neighbor and to (of all things) the Shaker sect are painful to read. Also clear, however, is his deep love for his family and for friends such as Melville and his love of life generally. He goes to considerable lengths to rescue a kitten trapped in a cistern and does what he can for the well-being of Bunny, whom he obviously considers a rather dull creature. There are observations on the daily round of country life in 1851 as well, including the contents of meals (little meat but plentiful milk, vegetables and rice), interactions with others, visitors and other matters.

The prose is very direct and clear, a far cry from Hawthorne's complex, allusive and often indirect formal style. This is a record of parenting and of a child's life that is moving and beautiful. There is also a useful if perhaps somewhat overlong introduction by writer Paul Auster.

I had previously thought of Nathaniel Hawthorne as serious, stuffy, reclusive - as indeed many contemporaries thought of him. However, _Twenty Days with Julian_ show another side of the man - and the eternal joy and wonder of childhood.

While his wife and daughters were away, Hawthorne spent three weeks alone with his son, Julian. Chronicling their activities, you get a clear sense of the time and of the person Hawthorne was. But what was most pleasant - and surprising - was how similar 4 year old Julian was to children today. A joyful read that would make an excellent Father's Day present.

This is abrief book, but full of great writing. It's very interesting to see what has changed in 150 years - the food, the activities, the words, and what hasn't - how little kids behave.

Hawthorne really captures the boundless energy and joy of small children, as well as his own sense of bewilderment as a father.

Everything positive said about this book is true. But I would add this: Mr. Auster's introduction is excellent until he reaches a point where he starts divulging some of the best points in the diary. So buy the book and go straight to the diary. Then enjoy Auster's wonderful intro. Bravo to NYRB for publishing this as a stand alone book; what a great gift for a new parent!
CS

From July 28th until August 16th, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife Sophia took their daughters on a visit to her relatives, leaving her husband home to care for their 5 year-old son, Julian. Hawthorne kept a record of his time with the little boy in a journal, calling the episode "Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny by Papa". Anyone familiar with Hawthorne's exquisite, almost recondite writing style as exemplified by his novels and short stories will hardly recognize him in the guise of babysitter and chronicler of his jet-propelled kid's activities. Driven nearly to distraction by Julian's nonstop chatter and noisemaking (Hawthorne's wife had recently given birth to baby Rose, and the little boy was constantly being told to keep quiet), Hawthorne nevertheless decides to allow the child the freedom to be as noisy as he likes while the baby is away. This proves to be an exercise in forbearance for poor papa, as Julian proves to have no off switch, making it "impossible to read, write, think, or even sleep (in the daytime) so constant are his appeals..." Over the ensuing three weeks, the two take daily walks to fetch the milk, and to the lake where Julian fishes with furious, single-minded determination and catches absolutely nothing. Hawthorne struggles to figure out how his wife curls the kid's hair, and there are several unfortunate events - a bedwetting accident, a pants-peeing incident, the kid gets stung by a wasp, the pet bunny, Hindlegs, dies and is buried in the garden, much to Julian's amusement. (He hopes a Bunny Tree will spring up, covered all over in bunnies hanging by their ears.) Through it all, Hawthorne, in spite of his befuddlement with the finer points of child care, bears up gracefully, proving himself not only a gentle and loving father, but a genius at capturing the essence of childhood and the joy of witnessing,close at hand, his little boy's joie de vivre.

What most interested me in this brilliant collection is Bender's periodization of New York cultural authority. In line with other works on New York, but more cleanly and clearly articulated and supported with well chosen facts, Bender identifies three cultural authorities loosely suceeding one another after the Revolution.

First, The Patrician as exemplified by De Witt Clinton as both a powerful politician who 'qualified' as an authority, and who was a member of and directed cultural institutions. Next, the Common Man came during the Jacksonian era where cultural authority was seized by the common man a la Whitman. During this period, Barnum's American Museum offered all citizens the opportunity to visually inspect a 'promiscuous' collection of artifacts and allowed them to decide on its significance and importance. Commercial values predominated and, at least early on, this approach was a renuciation of the patriciate.

Then came as the Civil War drew closer, the era of the 'Professional Authorities' such as F.L. Olmsted and Samuel F.B. Morse (who as founder of the National Academy of Design as a professional organization in 1826, an early example of the doings of the "metropolitan gentry' who endorsed and promoted the Professional Authority. Other examples include E.L. Godkin, founder of The Nation and who decried the 'large body of persons' taught by common schools, lyceum lectures, small colleges,newspapers "who firmly believe that they have reached in the matter of social, mental and moral culture, all that is attainable or desirable by anybody, and who, therefore, tackle all the problems of the day." The result he insisted was "a kind of mental and moral chaos," presumably of the middle class. The Metropolitan Gentry who founded the Metropolitan Museum, by contrast, established clear categories on its objects -- unlike Barnum's populist American Museum. One supposes we're still in the era of the Professional Authority and the Metropolitan Gentry here in New York. More's the pity.

Bender's periodization was of particular interest to me, but there is much more here than the historical, including architectural, cultural and political perspectives, all of which Bender intersects in fascinating and original ways. Highly readable and insightful.

Whether you know nothing about New York, or think you know it all, this eloquent book will nourish your love and broaden your embrace of the City.

This compilation of essays about the culture, history, and concept of New York City is both thought-provoking and passionate. But be warned: this is no Introduction to New York History 101 book, and definitely should not find itself on the top of any coffee table. This is a studious and sophisticated account of Gotham's fluid and, as the title states, unending role in the modern world's intellectual and cultural history. Fortunately, Professor Bender's ideas are clearly and reasonably presented, making for smooth reading.

One of the major riffs throughout the pieces is that because New York City was relieved of the duty of being the nation's capital, and because of the new talent and diversity that free market capitalism attracts and needs, the city has always been at the forefront of America's and the world's aesthetic and technological development. These elements also make the city so chimeric that it's never the same city from one day to the next. (Unfortunately, the events of 9/11/01 would seem to refute this. Those terrorists and their backers saw the city as the fixed center of America's wealth, greed, and power. Professor Bender's introduction acknowledges that the effects to New York of that day are still unknowable.)

This critical examination into the world that is New York is not only testimony its greatness, but also to the pride and passion Professor Bender has for it.

Collection of distinct but companionable articles by Bender (Humanities/NYU) assessing New York City as a multiplicity of public places and institutions in flux and very much sui generis. New York, the author finds, sits outside the metropolitan idea. Unlike Paris or Vienna, it has not assumed national centrality and leadership in political and cultural matters; it doesn't realize and standardize the best hopes for the American polity. This, he figures, is because the city is continually in the making: unresolved, or resolved only temporarily. In its physical development and social organization it refuses a single logic, preferring a self-fashioned pluralism that is pragmatic, unpredictable, nonhierarchical. "The center has never held firmly in New York," Bender writes. "It has been continually undermined by fragmentation of the elite and by manifold rebellions." That has consequences for better and worse. Aspiringly democratic, polyvalent, and vibrant in architecture, politics, and art, the city is a place where, as Virgil Thomson observed, one group could argue "esthetics with intelligence and politics with a passion" while the other discussed "esthetics with passion and politics with intelligence." But New York lacks an image of itself as a collectivity; it has no representative institutions and lacks a civic culture in which "the public space is the terrain of the public as visual representation, while institutions provide a place for representative political deliberation." Bender (Intellect and Public Life, not reviewed, etc.) brings wide-ranging curiosity, literacy, and experience in urban matters to the question of New York, from the iconography of the Brooklyn Bridge and its rolein urban reconfiguration to the dialectical relationship between the city's horizontal, civic impulses and its vertical, corporate ones. There are persistent issues, including the city's racial divisions, but "New York's character is to be incomplete." A meaty and satisfying look at a great city, its multiple environments, and their unending transformations. (b&w photos throughout)

The Unifinished City (New York and the Metropolitan Idea) works as a series of independant essays (as it was written) but also pulls together beautifully as a major look at a city, specifically New York but more generically at cities in general in the book's final chapters. The author's, Thomas Bender, view is expansive and always intellectually sound as it ranges from architecture to Walt Whitman to cultural politics to Beat poets to democracy and to universities, and these are only a few of the ideas integrated smoothly into the book. Some of the concepts may be a little difficult for the uninitiated (myself, at times) but the writing is so smart and clear that the reader will fall into place quickly enough. A wonderful book and one of the best examinations of New York to be encountered.

Tess Slesinger's The Unpossessed (1934), her only novel, published when she was only 29, is so bright, so playfully and angrily intellectual, so intelligently experimental, so sharp and sensitive, satirical and forgiving, and unforgiving. It is a condemnation of the generation older than her, although it seems written by someone much older, and it is certainly not sympathetic to the younger. It is dark, and gets darker and darker, especially in terms of intellectuals and the wealthy they depend on, their isolation mentally, physically, and emotionally, even from themselves. It's such a tragedy that so wise a woman, who could write such incredible sentences,turned instead to screenplays, and then died young.

With her keen ability to delve into human psychology, Tess Slesinger is a worthy successor to Henry James and Virginia Woolf. Oops! I hope I haven't ruined this book for the general reader because--once you get beyond the first fifteen pages or so and catch on to what Slesinger is up to--you won't put the book down. In terms of literary Modernism and the writing craft, Slesinger builds on the accomplishments of Woolf and James, two of the acknowledged masters of interior psychological processes: Tess Slesinger adds wit, irony, and charm. And, she is thoroughly American in the pace and comedic timing of her work--the very *sound* of this novel is American.

To the general reader, I would say that The Unpossessed is not a consciously arty, literary novel. I'm convinced that there was no other way to write this work, no way to say what had to be said in any technique or structure other than the one in which Tess Slesinger wrote it. The author wanted to approximate reality, modern 1930's life (Depression Era, intellectual activism), and to exactly recreate each character's thoughts. To do that, Slesinger, like Woolf, had to master the use of parentheses and italics in order to show simultaneous thoughts, to show what characters are thinking when another character is speaking. Italics and parenthetical statements are necessary to give the reader the feeling of real life--as lived in the moment. And because every person is so mentally active, each has an interior consciousness which they bring to bear on the social predicament.

In Bruno Leonard, Slesinger has given us a university professor who is as idiosyncratic and witty as they come--the type of erudite, gentleman intellectual who has been largely killed off by mass delivery of education in the new diploma factories. And, in Elizabeth Leonard, Bruno's cousin, we have a young woman who is as engaging as she is sexy and mixed up. The "Black Sheep"--Emmett Middleton, and Cornelia and Firman--are as timeless as any intelligent, active college students frustrated with the times in which they live (with the poverty of the Depression Era, and the unequal sharing of wealth in the U.S.). They are genuinely hoping that the work of Karl Marx can show Americans a way toward a more just society. Emmett Middleton seems to be the stable, moral center of The Unpossessed.

In terms of language and style, The Unpossessed approaches poetry. In Slesinger's characteristically poignant and biting prose, she writes from inside Emmett's conflicted consciousness, "Emmett had hated the word 'business' since he was three years old; it came out of his father's mouth tobacco-stained and dry, slightly nasal; the combination of the zz sound with the n went the wrong way up his nostrils like burning sulphur off a kitchen match. 'He s-says I look too much like a girl scout for his racket anyway.' He thought with relief how since knowing Bruno he had relinquished the vain attempt to gain his father's approbation" (139).

Slesinger's willingness to let the English language carry her into poetic realms makes The Unpossessed soar above the polemical novel; her work has humor and grace in it. To be so young as Tess, so aware of the interior of the human soul, to write only one novel--and then to die so young!

And, dear reader, don't be led astray or fooled by Slesinger's at-times cool, emotionally distant prose. Underneath--and running throughout--is a plea from the heart: Intellectuals and activists must connect to life; while we are reading Engels and Marx and examining the direction of our nation, we must allow life to happen. Yes, be an intellectual with integrity, commit to a cause and be active with it--but go ahead, fall in love, get married, have a baby. These are not bourgeois concepts. They are life, too.

Finally, I don't know why this novel isn't on every undergraduate reading list along with Fitzgerald and Hemingway. This is truly a 20th-century masterpiece--and suitable for the times in which we live.

I knew within the first five pages of this book that I was going to love it. This is because Tess Slesinger's writing is beautiful and atmospheric. The narrator is third person omniscient, so we get a range of character's points of view in a flowing fashion. In this way it is similar to narrative like Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

The basic premise is that there are these Greenwich Village leftists who want to start up a communist newsletter. This, however, is merely the basis for the larger group interactions. There are also deep dysfunctional relationships between the couples that make up the larger group and the shiftiing dynamic between man and woman. This novel looks hard at the mind of a woman of the time and what it is that she wants and whether or not she even knows what she wants anymore. It also looks at the men around them and how they percieve these "new" and "independant" women. It is a fascinating look at the relationship between the sexes.

I recommend getting not this verison, but the Feminist Press version because the Feminist Press edition has a very interesting forward.

We read this book for our book club. The first half is tough--it was challenging to get into the rhythm of the glib repartee, double meanings and quirky jargon, much less get all the characters straight. Then, at about the halfway point, the group convenes for a meeting, and it's off to the races!! Slesinger has (OK, had) a remarkable flair for capturing the times, a remarkable ear for dialog, and a grand ability to skewer different "types" with deadly accuracy. The climax of the book is a party scene you'll never forget--picturing the shabbily dressed baby-communist collegians rubbing elbows with wealthy society mavens who are ignorant of the cause they find themselves supporting still cracks me up--a very rich and VERY funny novel.

Try this passage, not quite at random:

"`I'm the Bruno Leonard all-purpose one-man three-ring self-kidding self-perpetuating exhibitionistic circus divided like all Gaul into partes tres. One part sour grapes, one part wish-fulfillment, nine parts subconscious. And the greatest of these, according to the antediluvian Chinese, is the subconscious. This way, ladies and pessimistic gents, for the J. J. stream-line crooner, for old Doc Leonard the campaigning fool, watch hin frisk, watch him scamper, watch him catch his fleas in public. Don't feed him peanuts feed him opiates, buy your tablets at the gate from Miss Diamond who has given many years of service, who sacrificed her vacations, her virtue, that this firm might go on.' He subsided, to his own relief; collapsed into the chair that Nora drew up for him. `To sex and its many ramifications,' he said, and raised his glass."

Okay, it is out of context. But in context or out, I defy anyone to catch all the layers of meaning there, at least not on first reading. It's not precisely obscure (although I don't think I catch everything), not Joycean or Kafkaesque. It's more like a James Wood movie monologue: the narrator has no skin at all and she process on six channels at once, certainly the quickest-witted observer you could want to imagine. Or a "Simpsons" tape, where you know you will catch something new at second look, and some of the music gags will still go clean on past you.

Try it again for the rhythm. Can you get it? I cannot quite, but I am pretty sure it is there: all gnarly and snarky, all elbows and knees, a mind and a sensibility all its own. Just to get in the swing of things, I found I had to read it out loud, but no matter: it was better that way, and it lasted longer.

Tess Slesinger subtitles it "A Novel of the Thirties," and that it is: an attempt at clear-eyed observation of her cronies and adversaries among leftwing New York intellectuals at the bottom of the Depression. She dedicated it "to my contemporaries." Elizabeth Hardwick, in her introduction to the NYRB edition, calls it "a kindly act of intellectual friendship," and that it is not-indeed Hardwick's is one of the wildest misjudgments I can possibly imagine. It may be "friendship" in that she cares enough about these people that she wishes she could save them. But it is not in the least way kindly. Rather, this is an act of prophecy: a calling down of God's (if there is a God) wrath upon a wayward Greenwich Village by one who loved it a great deal but understood it - to her dismay - even better. It's rich, it's full of life and it is tainted with the acrid aroma of doom. What a talent. What a sensibility. What an experience, as energetic and refractory as any novel you will read for a long time. Tess Slesinger died in 1945 at the age of 39. She never wrote another.

I purchased this book as a supplement to a classroom play that I do every year on the General Slocum disaster of 1904. Most people don't realize that this was the worst disaster to hit NY until 9/11 but few if any have heard about it. Rather than weigh the reader down with technical details, it gives a heart-wrenching account from the main character's pov (who is dead) of the senseless acts that went on before and right after the burning of the ship. Although not completely accurate, it may get some kids reading more about this forgotten travesty. As a complement book, read, Ship Ablaze, which is a non-fiction account and also extremely good.

The Unresolved is a deceptively slim book about an actual historical tragedy. In 1904 fire on the steamboat General Slocum killed more than 1000 people, mostly woman and children, mostly German immigrants, on New York's East River. Many people suffered, and many people were to blame.

In this novel by T. K. Welsh, the spirit of one of the dead, Mallory Meer, is unable to rest until she uncovers the reasons for the disaster. Mallory, as a spirit, isn't very strongly anchored in time, and her thoughts and experiences drift backwards and forwards in a somewhat stream-of-consciousness manner. For example (from page 2):

"My name is Mallory Meer. I'd turned fifteen the week before, and in an hour -- thanks to the only boy I've ever loved -- I would be dead.

I float around the white memorial in Middle Village, Queens, among the other insubstantial figures. We are the unidentified remembered -- the unknown, unforgotten victims of the General Slocum who continue, unresolved, like Tantalus, to grasp at something slightly out of reach."

Mallory travels through time and space, haunting the survivors and those culpable in the disaster, though most don't know that she's there. She learns things about their backgrounds, and their actions, and gradually pieces together the chain of events that led to so many unnecessary deaths. But it's a difficult non-life for Mallory, visiting with person after person, reliving traumatic events over and over again, and trying to communicate with the living.

This book is a haunting chronicle of the ways things can go wrong, one decision at a time, and the way people hide from the truth, and lie to protect themselves. There are also interesting tidbits about immigrant life in New York, and the way that breweries work. Although the writing style takes getting used to, I found the story riveting, and read it in a single sitting. I recommend it for fans of historical fiction, especially mysteries, and fans of ghost stories.

This book review was originally published on my blog, Jen Robinson's Book Page, on February 3, 2007.

Before the tragic events of 9/11, the greatest disaster in New York history was the fire aboard the General Slocum steamship in 1904, killing more than a thousand people on a church outing. Welsh's fictionalized account is narrated by the ghost of one of the victims, fifteen-year-old Mallory Meer. Her boyfriend Dustin Brauer, the Jewish son of a beer brewer, is accused of starting the fire, and he and his father are persecuted by the Lutheran German community of Kleindeutschland. Mallory's spirit and soul will not rest until justice is achieved. As the story of Dustin's alleged involvement in the fire spreads, the anti-Semitic and bigoted views of his neighbors are exposed. A unique and spooky departure from the typical historical novel, The Unresolved, while disturbing and haunting, is also compelling and captivating.

Mallory Meer turns fifteen the week before she boards a steamship in 1904 on what will be her last voyage before the steamship burns and kills her and a thousand others. Yet she lingers, a ghost, unable to leave her love or family until the fire's setters are brought to justice. Turn-of-the-century Manhattan comes to life in a wonderfully different kind of ghost story.

Mallory Meer, 13-year old Lutheran German immigrant, dies on the deck of the General Slocum, a steamship, as she sails up the East River during a church outing, in New York, 1904. We learn this in the first paragraph of The Unresolved, a mesmerizing, often brilliant new historical YA novel by T.K. Welsh. Of the 1,200 or so who set sail that fateful summer morning, over a thousand perished: drowned or burned to death aboard the blazing General Slocum. Mallory keeps a rendezvous with a beautiful young teenage boy named Dustin Brauer, a poor kid, and Jewish, with whom she shares her first kiss ... and it is he who is blamed for the disaster by the grieving citizenry of Kleindeutchland, on Manhattan's lower east side, as they struggle to cope with the loss of their loved ones.
Caught in that netherspace between this world and the next, there is no place where Mallory belongs. She cannot remain, now that she dangles upside down from those shipboards, and quite dead, burned black and in pieces - all now that remains of the General Slocum. Nor can she finally move on - though she'd like to - to that other space, until those responsible for the tragedy are exposed, judged and punished, the dead finally avenged, and her hunger to linger with Dustin dissolves.
There is a public trial. None of the ship's safety measures lived up to their promise. Life vests disintegrated as they soaked up sea water, dragging the desperate who wore them down to a watery grave. Fire hoses burst like overstuffed sausages. The lifeboats were lashed to the deck, contemptuously rigid, uncompromising. The crew was both cowardly and untrained. Those responsible were indicted and ultimately paraded before a public inquest by the city coroner, cross-examined and often found guilty. In the end, however, it was only the captain who fell, the tastiest of lambs, already cooked by the fire.
And there is a private trial, as Dustin - the sad, handsome boy Mallory loves - is reviled as the cause of the tragedy, and the rest of his family are disgraced and debased by the anti-Semitic community.
The Unresolved is a story of a love that's so great the rupture of death cannot break it. It's a story of a girl's spirit, unresolved yet resilient, betwixt this and what follows; neither child nor adult; neither lover nor friend. It's a story of the ultimate outsider.
What a startling, evocative and promising debut! The Unresolved, T.K. Welsh's first novel for young adults, is at turns mesmerizing, breathtaking, informative, entertaining, heart-breaking and redemptive. Clearly constructed upon a platform of exhaustive research, you will soar upon its language, while feeling yourself drawn downward, downward, into the dark whirlpool of this beautiful new novel. Set in the 1904 German immigrant community of Kleindeutchland, on Manhattan's lower east side, Mallory Meer's dark, curious world is yours for the page-turning. A must for any teenage girl, aged 13+, who likes historical fiction, who feels uncertain of her place in the world, and who has ever been in love.

This book chronicles a Brooklyn church and its community amid the crime, drugs and despair of the black community. However , faith and learning to believe in the Lord and his ultimate plan for an individual and his community makes this church an oasis amid the storms. It is a story of a pastor, with his own demons, trying to be resopnsible for the souls of his congregation and the thin ice on which he must tread. This book will make you look at the inner city and its churches in a different light.

This book was well written and well resourced and led me on a pilgrimage to this black Mecca.

Samuel Freedman has done a remarkable job in his chronicle of the story of Reverend Johnny Ray Youngblood, a pastor of a now-thriving urban church, St. Paul Community Baptist Church. This narrative covers the history of Youngblood from before his arrival at St. Paul's, a once-thriving but fallen-upon-hard-times congregation, through Youngblood's early struggles to turn the situation around, finally into their days of success as a growing centre of ministry.

Youngblood is not the typical African-American minister, and realises this in many ways. He is compared with other ministers of significant churches, with education backgrounds at Harvard and the like, and contrasted by Freedman with those ministers who feel all that is needed for effective ministry is 'the call'. Youngblood realises that education can sometimes be a distraction, and can sometimes get in the way -- the person in pew will want the answer to the question, 'What does this mean for me?' -- but should not be abandoned or discounted in its importance.

Youngblood experienced conflict as a central feature of his ministry: conflict within the congregation, conflict within his family, and conflict with society at large. Youngblood accepted conflict head-on in many instances -- he stood up to the leaders of the congregation from the earliest times (indeed, Youngblood says that in many ways, he tried to sabotage his own accession to the pastorate at St. Paul so as not to have to deal with their problems), and dealt firmly with people and issues, as is often expected from ministers in the African-American tradition.

Even from his seminary days, when he was forced out of a student-pastorship position, conflict seemed inevitable, such that the very idea of ministry frightened Youngblood in many ways. However, there was grace in the presence of Reverend William Augustus Jones, pastor of a Brooklyn church, and instructor on the urban church experience, particularly the church in the ghetto. It was Jones who drew Youngblood to New York City, and Jones whose gentle, astute mentoring shaped Youngblood into an effective minister.

One somewhat disturbing piece in this narrative is the absence of his wife and family for the most part; we as readers know a bit of the issues of family from Youngblood's perspective, but do not hear the voices of those who were, or at least who one assumes were, the closest companions in Youngblood's ministry.

One of the ideas that comes across in this book is that the process of ministry is a never-ending education, a learning on-the-job that never stops as long as the ministry is effective. It also shows that conflict and struggle are part of the very fabric of ministry, never to be eliminated, even if it is occasionally ignored. This book is not to be ignored -- it is a success story on many levels. Freedman's sensitivity and insight into a community not his own is remarkable.

This book takes you on a journey filled with the miracles of faith and power of prayer. You can feel each trial and tribulation in your heart. I have visited this church after reading this book and the warmth and love is all over the church. This pastor has endured much, in order to dedicate his life to his calling. I was inspired to reach out and believe me it was a rock for me as a child of Christ and I was able to dedicate myself to the cause of Christ. It is a must read for all, young and old. My children, and my childrens children will read this.

This book chronicles a Brooklyn church and its community amid the crime, drugs and despair of the black community. However , faith and learning to believe in the Lord and his ultimate plan for an individual and his community makes this church an oasis amid the storms. It is a story of a pastor, with his own demons, trying to be resopnsible for the souls of his congregation and the thin ice on which he must tread. This book will make you look at the inner city and its churches in a different light.

Used by my college bound daughter in her move to NYC. She says she has found some great vegetarian restaurants with this book

When I first started exploring NYC, I got a Zagat guide that listed only a handful of veg-friendly restaurants. Rather than curse the darkness, I bought this handy guide and use it all the time. I've used the book to find some truly unique vegetarian places.

As a falafel junkie, I liked the Top Ten Falafel list that the author gives. I think the guide could improve with a diversity of viewpoints (the Zagat method), but I imagine that will come with future editions.

Bottom Line: It's a well written and researched vegetarian guide to NYC. What more can you really ask for?

I'm a life-long omnivore but my boyfriend recently became vegan, I thought we would never be able to find a restaurant to suit both our tastes. Recently I came across this book and it is wonderful. Who knew there were so many vegetarian/vegan restaurants in New York City? The listings break down restaurants to their most minute details and make them approachable even to those who know very little about vegetarian/vegan cuisine. In addition to the ample information this book contains pull-out maps that make planning a trip even easier. I seriously recommend it for any vegetarian New Yorker, or for those dating one. Enjoy!

I have now bought a few copies of this book -- one for my office and three as gifts. It's super useful (even if you're not a full-on vegetarian): the author includes a lot of restaurants that serve a "full menu with vegetarian choices" as well as strictly vegetarian and vegan establishments. It's organized by neighborhood and offers highly-detailed reviews. Really terrific.

This book is part of a new series of vegetarian guides to major cities. The pocket or purse-sized guide is packed full of reviews and information about restaurants around New York-Manhattan and the five boroughs. The guide is organized by neighborhood, and includes a nice map of all the locations listed in the book. Within the neighborhood section, the locations are listed alphabetically, but there is an index by cuisine at the back of the book.

Each Restaurant is rated for quality and price and has a key to whether the location is vegetarian, vegan, or a conventional menu with vegetarian choices. There's a short description for each restaurant which provides useful information about the location, sometimes describing favorite dishes. Because the book was written by one person, Justin Schwartz, who reviewed all the restaurants himself (!), it is useful to read the introduction to get a feel for his style and what he likes and doesn't like. (For instance, he loves falafel, so there are endless choices of great places to find it all over the city).

There are many fantastic restaurants listed in Veg Out that I wouldn't have heard of otherwise, but the author also spends a lot of time describing one or no-star restaurants, when I think he simply could have listed the location with a caveat to stay away. The size, convenience and well-stocked pages of this guide make it a great book to carry on your next trip to the city. --Amy O'Neill Houck

i saw this book at a financial advisor's office and immediately came home and purchased it. it is a fabulous melding of text and photography, beautifully rendered. if you have visited this part of new york, you will enjoy the memories....if you have not been there yet, look at this before you go and it will greatly enrich your experience.

This is a holiday gift to open more than once. Beautiful! Useful! Fuses text and illustrations in a way that enriches both!

with all the mega mergers going on this may be the last photographic history of the old Wall Street.

This book makes a wonderful gift for the person with everything. A real treasure for all those who own stocks or those who want to visit NY.

This book is a pleasure to read and to keep around for others to enjoy. I keep it on my desk at work so that my visitors can enjoy the incredible photography. The book also gives a unique insight in to the history of the many firms on Wall Street and how consolidation has led to our current list of players. Many find it interesting to see how certain firms came to be what they are today.

One example of an interesting foreshadow is that the author has included a picture of the Banker's Trust building reflecting off of a Deutsche Bank conference room table. The two frims merged several years after the photo was taken.

Since buying this book I now enjoy walking around lower Manhattan. While before I was caught up in the rat race, I know see the beauty of the arcitecture and can better appreciate the history of Wall Street. This book is full of insightful anecdotes which lead to interesting stories for me to share.

This book is a must for anyone who works in the finacial world for its insight and to keep around for others to enjoy.

I was happily surprised when I saw one of the authors books on Nantucket while on vacation there. I bought the book and was again happily surprised at its combination of photography and narration. I would rate Nantucket Island five stars as well.

Gerard Koeppel has done a remarkable job of ferretng out material and documents which demonstrate how long it took, how much cash it took, how much politicking it took to get the simple compound H2O to complex NYC. I don't mean to be glib about this. As one reviewer has noted, Manhattan without fresh supplies of water would've been another unliveable coastal town.

Just like DeWitt Clinton's Erie Canal brought goods in and out of the city, the many visionaries (Burr[for politicial and banking reasons] and Colden [for practical reasons]) gave the city an enormous insurance policy for its future which is difficult to ignore.

This book is a compelling dedication to the people who saw the need for the reservoir system and made it a reality. Sometimes the book gets bogged down with details, but that's to be expected. What wasn't expected, by this reader, was the author's perserverance and dedication to this important matter, and for that he deserves the highest accolades.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of THE FIVE POINTS, and THE FIVE POINTS CONCLUDED, A Novel

In "Water for Gotham," Gerard Koeppel tells in a compelling way what could have been--ahem--a dry story. Its focus is on the civic history of a nascent metropolis thirsty for water, the self-interested politicians who used that thirst for their own ends, and the few dedicated visionaries who labored against man and nature to bring cold, clean water to Manhattan. Koeppel paints a vivid picture of life in New York from colonial days through the early-1800s, when the Croton Aqueduct was opened.

One of the few significant criticisms I have about the book is that while it frequently discusses structures, equipment, and emerging technologies, little effort is made to clearly explain and describe them. While the book is not meant to be a technical or engineering review, better explanations (as opposed to cursory descriptions) of some of the methods of construction (e.g., dams, the aqueduct) would have been appreciated.

A second criticism is that the book ends too abruptly with the arrival of water through the Croton Aqueduct, with only passing mention of later developments to the City's extensive water supply system. An additional chapter on how the other reservoirs in the system were created--sometimes through contentious legal battles and property condemnation--and the disposition of some of the original Croton structures, would have been welcome.

Notwithstanding these minor quibbles, the book is enjoyable, informative and enlightening. Recommended.

When we turn on the tap we take it for granted that pure and wholesome water is supposed to come out. For Americans in the early 1800's, the supply of fresh water to New York City was an achievement on the order of the moon landing in our era -- carrying a river for 40 miles through hills and valleys and across rivers to a desperate island city.

The amazing story of New York's water supply has long been known to historians, infrastructure buffs and residents of the Westchester villages through which the beautiful Old Croton Aqueduct still passes. Gerard Koeppel's new book, Water for Gotham: a History, makes this story accessible to all.

Unlike previous works on the subject, which have emphasized the engineering accomplishments of the Croton Aqueduct, this book explores New York City's social and political history with a liveliness and wit that make the turbulent decades following the American Revolution come to life. Experience the terror of cholera and great fires, the antics of scoundrels and demagogues, and the heights of idealism, dedication and genius that are all intertwined in this epic tale.

Mr. Koeppel's book is impressively researched and is a true contribution to our understanding of New York history. That a work of non-fiction is so lively and engrossing is another reminder that truth is stranger than fiction.

The book illustrates the folly of trusting our elected officials. How often did they use a public fear to enrich their own pockets? The sordid ancestory of the Chase Manahattan Bank is a case in point that Gerard Koepell, a person who I shared classrooms with when we were growing up, brings out particularly well. The point of history is for us to learn from our collective experiences and Gerard lays it all out for us. Gerard points out that at first no one knew about cholera and it's relationship to contaminated water. I had no idea that well into the 1800s people from New York had no running water or toilets and used the streets as their "trash" depositories. What else did the book teach me? Politicians in the past had no stomach for a long-term project or long-term thinking ... Politicians were/are corrupt and weak-minded and despite the huge legislative bodies, politicians are overwhelmed and the real laws and decisions are made by 1 or 2 people and everyone else is, at best, a yes-person. The status quo is often very comfortable. In old New York, beer was a relatively safe drink because of the brewing process (ie boiling) and New York had great economic incentive to keep people drinking beer instead of water. What are the present day unrecognized-evils? Air quality? I worry that the tremendous rise in urban asthma will eventually transform into an increased risk of lung cancer, even in the non-smokers. What interests are happy with the status quo of our air? Automobile manufacturers? Oil companies? The Advertising Industry? The Media? The Pharmaceutical Industry? Anyway the book is great food for thought. Gramatically some of the sentences, particularly in the early chapters are attention grabbing gems. And that is from someone who was hit with a tennis raquet by the author. Good work Gerard! END

It is about time that an in-depth book on the subject of New York's water supply was completed. The author has done a fabulous job of putting a highly readable work together that brings to life a period we rarely think about and a topic hardly considered in our hurried modern lives. Reality, however, is that New York without water would be just another coastal town. Those interested in a photographic history of the same topic should seek The Croton Dams and Aqueduct which will be publihsed by Arcadia Press in August of 2000.

Stars, everyday players, and scrubs share their memories of major league baseball from 1946 to 1964. This is a book that I've had for I don't know how long now and when a copy falls apart, I get a new one - this hardcover version for $15.00 is a bargain but shhhhh, don't tell Amazon. Stars like Brooks Robinson and everyday players like Gene Woodling and unknowns like Eddie Joost and one season players like Ed Bouchee and scrubs like Johnny Berardino discuss opponents and also their own experiences in the major leagues. Every true baseball fan should have this easy-to-read book in their library and those who don't really aren't true baseball fans.

I have spent a lifetime reading about baseball and this tops my list.It covers both leagues and gives a rare insight into the stars and the non-stars and how they played and lived.It makes you feel as though you lived through it as well !!!

THIS IS A BOOK COVERING BASEBALL FROM 1947 THRU 1964. THE AUTHOR HAS A FEW PLAYERS FROM EACH TEAM TELL IN THEIR OWN WORDS WHAT WAS GOING ON DURING THIS SEASON. SOME OF THE PEOPLE INTERVIEWED INCLUDE BROOKS ROBINSON, HARMON KILLEBREW, JIM GRANT, RYNE DUREN AND MANY OTHERS. THE BOOK HAS OVER 600 PAGES OF CONTENTS. FOR THE MONEY THIS IS GREAT BUY. THE DETAILED INTERVIEWS ARE SOMETHING SPECIAL AND I RECOMMEND THIS FOR FANS WHO FOLLOWED THE GAME IN THE 1950'S AND 60'S. AN OUTSTANDING READ.

.... then you will love this book. It's an oral history of the game as told by the non-superstars. Unlike similar books, this one is huge, and the stories are long, fun and will make you nostalgic for your youth. You'll see stories by guys like Ed Bouchee, Billy DeWitt, Don Mossi.... names you'll recognize from the days when baseball cards cost a nickel a pack, provided you with a thin slice of bubble gum, and a bunch of cards to trade with your friends or stick in the spokes of your bike wheels.

I'm only part way through and I love this book!

This is the perfect baseball book for all seasons, but especially now with the World Series over, and spring training still months away. It also seems appropriate to me that this book is set during one of the "Golden Ages" of baseball between 1947 and 1964, a time when the only stats that mattered reflected exploits on the field, rather than tallies of bank accounts off the diamond, as we have heard so much about in the past few seasons.

So sit back, curl up in front of the fire, and dip in and out of this massive volume, which is edited and organized in a way that allows just such delights. Packed with stories about the game's greats, and not-so-greats, it offers wonderful insights into how the men who delighted in playing a boy's game actually felt, thought and acted, as told in their own words. There are baseball heroics here aplenty, but also some bitter truths and some all-too human behavior that just serves to make these men all the more real, and fascinating.

Editor and author Danny Peary obviously loves the game, and isn't tainted with the sort of "celebrity awe" that characterizes so much of today's sports' coverage, and its cynical flip-side. Of course, he does pay homage to the greats of this era, but he also rekindles a thousand memories for those of us old enough to remember some of the less celebrated, but nonetheless extraordinary characters who once inhabited the game. Hopefully, younger readers will also delight in meeting these men as well, who had wondrous names such as Vic Power, Minnie Minoso and Pumpsie Green. Need I say more?