Asia Books

Runoko Rashida, Wayne Chandler and Co. put together a fine work illustrating the Asiatic hereditary connections with so called "black" people, especially the Shang Dynasty. They also touch on the influence of the mysterious order of the Hashimiyyah & the Knights Templar. As always the text is accompanied by top rated images supporting the text itself. This book continues a standard of excellence, in the field of knowledge of Self.

There's a wealth of knowledge in this book. What illustrates the effectiveness of the book are the pictures, as well as the words. It's one thing to say that there are black people in India, who were the founders of civilization, there. It's another thing to actually show the descendents of those people, clearly black people, living in India. The book is impressive.

Dr. Rashidi and Dr. Van Sertima are esteemed scholars who have changed my life for the better. They have given me a wealth of knowledge about my Afrikan heritage, which spans worldwide.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING IT PROVIDES INFORMATION THAT IS BOTH TRUE AND OF EXTREME VALUE. THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY ASIA COVERS MIGRATION FROM AFRICA TO ASIA DATING BACK FROM OVER 100,000 YEARS AGO. IT ALSO COVERS THE REVOLT OF THE ZANJ, WERE EAST AFRICAN SLAVES REVOLTED IN IRAQ AND IRAN. CAUSING NUMEROUS DEFEATS UPON THEIR OPPRESSORS AND SERIOUS ECONOMIC DAMAGE TO THE EMPIRE OF THEIR OPPESSORS. IT ALSO COVERS NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF AFRICAN PERSONALITIES AND PEOPLE IN ASIA. SUCH AS UTHMAN IBN BAHR AL-JAHIZ, MALIK AMBAR, LOKMAN, BILAL, ANTARA: THE LION AND MANY OTHERS. THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN ASIA WAS MAINLY BY MIGRATION, BUT SLAVERY WAS ALSO AN EXAMPLE OF THESE MASSIVE AFRICAN POPULATIONS THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ARABIA, YEMEN, SOUTHERN IRAQ, KUWATI, SOUTHERN IRAN, AND SOME PARTS OF INDIA. HISTORICAL MIGRATIONS INCLUDED SAUDI ARABIA AND YEMEN ALSO. AS WELL AS INDIA HAS AN EXTREMLY LARGE AFRICOID POPULATION KNOWN AS THE "THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA" WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS INHABITERS OF INDIA AND THE CREATORS OF THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATION. THERE ARE ALSO AFRICAN POPULATIONS IN MALAYSIA, SOUTHERN CHINA, ANDAMEN ISLANDS, SRI LANKA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS. THIS BOOK IS OF GREAT SIGNIFIGANCE ON THE UNEXPLORED HISTORY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN ASIA. OTHER BOOKS RECOMENDED IS AFRICANS AT THE CROSSROAD: NOTES ON AN AFRICAN WORLD REVOLUTION, INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS, THE DESTRUCTION OF A BLACK CIVILIZATION, AND THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION

This book has made it clear that the inhabitant of this earth is GOD in all forms. There is nothing else to be said on this subject. This book and others like it, has opened the door for many to become what they truly are...GOD.

Rashidi and Van Sertima are shaping the world of future scholarship with this book. To realize that the Sumerians, Elamites, Dravidians, Harrapans, and the Sabaeans were all black, adds more honor to the "misplaced" History of the African people. This affects those rascist who try and make the beggining dates of Egypt, closer to those of the Tigres, and the Euphrates. Still even by doing so, the beggining of each were "Christmas Coal Black". This book provides much evidence of this fact! Also interesting, and something most unknown, is the images of Buddah, and Krishna, at first had African features. For those who haven't read Kersey Graves "16 Crucified Saviors" the myths of Buddah, Krishna, Christ, as well many others is almost exactly the same. What is even more interesting is Buddah , Krishna, and Christ, all have a 600 year split between their virgin births, and all there first graven images had African features, before they were tampered with. In the end this is a book that should be read by all, scholars, and common people a like, because it helps you to understand, and appreciate the role of the African people throughout history. This book has intense evidence, regardless if you choose to accept it or not.

How does life in a non-industrial society compare to life in our own? In which society are people happier? If life in non-industrial societies compares favorably to life in our own, then why are the barrios of the third world filling up with migrants from remote villages? This book provides surprising insights into these questions. It also provokes reflections on our own society and its influence on the rest of the world. After reading a used copy I picked up for free, I bought seven copies of this book for friends and family!

This book has changed the way I looked at the issues of development, modernisation & morals. An amazing read, beautifully written and with great insights.

I have just returned from a trip to Ladakh and I could really relate to what Ms.Norberg talks about in the book.

Just a couple of side issues. It'd be good to know what exactly went wrong in Ladakh. Here are a people who for 2000 years had lived successfully by the rules of Buddhism. How & why did Buddhism fail these people in the face of global/western economic & cultural imperialism? Does the blame lie with Buddhism- it being too 'compassionate' and allowing a religion? Does the blame lie with the Ladakhis who probably were not as sincere Buddhists as they are made out to be?

After all if they really were such devout Buddhists, how come they fell to the greed that capitalism breeds?

Anyway, these are issues which could have been addressed in the book. Regardless, the book is excellent! A must read.

Rarely have I felt more dispair about the direction of what we know as civilization as I felt halfway through this book. The Ladakh people are described as happy, healthy, and self-reliant. Suddenly, the "real world" happens to them, and they come to see themselves as poor, when before they had no need of money.

The authors do a nice job of weaving a story of hope at the end but I have concern for the future of these people. It helps me understand the decision the government of Bhutan has made to isolate themselves from western-style civilization.

After reading this book, I suddenly realized the root problem of Western Civilization: We have no culture. Where there was once culture, we now have an expanding economic order threatening all life on the planet. Through its mechanism of growth and expansion, the global economy is conquering and converting life's diversity into an ecological and social monoculture of cash crops, Levis, soda pop and movie theatres. Perhaps moonscape would be a better word. Of course, it doesn't have to be this way. Our fast-paced, increasingly technological, capital-intensive, fossil fuel-centered, centralized, highly specialized, travel and commercial-oriented, often stressful society is by no means the end-all-be-all of human history. Murder, child abuse, drug abuse, theft, poverty, hunger, and every other problem that plagues the West are not products of human nature. The pathology of civilization is not natural or inevitable, and the Ladakhi are proof of this. Read this book and rediscover ancient, profound, life-affirmating alternatives to the modern humdrum. Discover another way of living, thinking and feeling. Important, necessary, engaging and masterfully written - this book was a treasure to read. Indeed, it was an awaking.

A MUST READ

The first half of *Ancient Futures* will delight and amaze you; the second half will break your heart.

In the 1970s, the Ladakhis of Little Tibet were a happy people. They had a sustainable traditional economy based on trade and cooperation - not money. One person's gain was not another person's loss. There was plenty of leisure, no hunger or poverty, very little sickness or disease, everyone was valued, there was no pollution and nothing was wasted. They got along fine with their Muslim neighbors and they kept their population stable through marriage customs based on land use. Almost every family had a celibate monk or nun. Buddhist monasteries and people had a mutually beneficial economic, social and spiritual relationship. Ladakhis are a naturally contemplative people with a great deal of spiritual awareness. "Schon chan" (one who angers easily) is about the only insult in the Ladakhi lnaguage. "Lack of pride is a virtue, for pride, born of ego, has nothing to do with self-respect among these Buddhist people." The author says that it took her two years of living among them to realize that the people were genuinely and joyfully HAPPY. Then the world beat a path to their door and all that changed - in fewer than two decades.

It's like a little piece of cultural time-lapse photography. What took western culture more than four centuries to do to the Native-Americans took only twenty years here. Ladakh has become a cautionary tale and a monument to western greed and stupidity.

Now there is poverty and unemployment, stress-related disease, women are devalued, the people are ashamed of their "backward" culture, there is little leisure but a great deal of pollution and waste as well as dispute between Muslims and Buddhists and the population had increased markedly. ("Interestingly, a number of Ladakhis have linked the rise of birth rates to the advent of modern democracy. "Power is a question of votes" is a current slogan, meaning that, in the modern sector, the larger your group, the greater your access to power. Competition for jobs and political representation within the new centralized structures is increasingly dividing Ladakhis.")

Chiildren are trained to become specialists in a technological rather than an ecological society. They no longer have time to learn the superb survival techniques of their families. Western culture is creating artificial scarsity and inducing competition.

Now I understand the mechanism better. A culture that has a heavily subsidized infrastructure invades a traditional self-sustaining culture and creates artificial "needs." So they go to the city to earn money which they never needed before, leaving their farms and women, who are immediately devalued because they're not wage earners. The people are no longer planting, irrigating, spinning wool, gathering seeds, harvesting, playing music and singing and telling stories, having seasonal parties, marriage parties or funeral watches - together.

Time has become a commodity. It has become uneconomical to grow one's own food, make one's own clothes and build one's own house. You have to pay your neighbors for the work that the whole community used to do for free.

The men are in the cities earning money and the women are producing tourist commodities with the wool they used to spin for their own use and the food they used to grow for their own families. Now they grow cash crops for strangers so they can make enough money to buy polyester clothes and walkmans and jeans for their kids and food grown hundreds of miles away and fuel trucked in from afar.

The Yak and the Dzo, uniquely suited for high altitudes of Ladakh gave rich milk but not as much as western cattle. So what did the conquering culture do? They imported cattle that can't make it at such altitudes, so more land has to be relegated to planting crops to feed the cattle, thereby upsetting the balance. And they call this progress.

Why can't we just leave people alone - especially when they're doing FINE without us?

"When one-third of the world's population consumes two-thirds of the world's resources," says Norberg-Hodge, "and then in effect turns around and tells the others to do as they do, it is little short of a hoax. Development is all too often a euphemism for exploitation, a new colonialism."

All this would be a dismal tragedy comparable to Columbus's complete genocide of the Tainos if not for a "counter development" movement generated in part by this author. Since the Ladakhis can't go back, they can at least go forward. Instead of importing expensive fossil fuels (previously they had used yak dung and kept warm) they can have solar houses and greenhouses, which have worked very well and given them one benefit that they have previously not had. That's something. Information is another plus. The people are being made aware that westerners pay more for whole grains, organic vegetables, pure water, natural fibers, and natural building materials - things these people have had for a thousand years without money. This is something so-called third-world people are generally not told about.

Once in a while a book comes along that changes one's perspective forever. *Ancient Futures* is such a book. I haven't been the same since.

One of the reviewers on this site said he ended up buy copies for his friends. So have I. This book is a must-read for every person who is concerned about the preservation of our planet and our species.

pamhan99@aol.com

A great book for an in-depth look at what went on in Washington and the influence of American culture in how we fought in Vietnam. Baritz thoroughly describes the state of mind America was in at the time of the war and the greedy beauracrats in Washington. Baritz also focuses on the myths of American culture that led us into the war and the myths that made us think that winning was possible and inevitable. A false sense of hope about the war and cover-ups were planted in the American public. Overall, this book has changed my view on American culture and politics and the corruption that is never addressed to the public.

I read this book before the US invasion of Iraq after reading an article in 2002 by Philip Gold, a Seattle-area conservative, who spoke highly of it. He believed the US was going to end up repeating its mistakes in Vietnam, for similar reasons. He was right.

I'll list just one example: the myth that technology is a panacea, and a substitute for troops on the ground. Donald Rumsfeld appeared to believe that he had discovered a revolutionary breakthrough that would allow for an easy victory in Iraq, one no one had ever thought of before. In fact, he'd just fallen for the same exact myth as the planners of the Vietnam War, for the same reasons.

Numerous other comparisons can be made reading this book. It's not a moral critique of the war, but rather a chronicle of bureaucratic disaster, and a blueprint for what was to come.

Every politician should read Loren Baritz's analysis of the delusional thinking that got us into the Vietnam quaqmire. It bears directly on how we got ourselves into the Iraq War.

Loren Baritz describes the complete ignorance of foreign cultures, the complete inability to predict consequences, of the presidents, politicians, and military commanders who dragged us into a no-win war with "north" Vietnam. In his preface Baritz says:

"The war presidents beieved in what they were doing. I have no doubt they were sincere. Victims of Cold War jitters, they meant to curtail the spread of communism. With deep-seated American idealism, they intended to engineer a more sanitary and more democratic Vietnam. LBJ desperately wanted to "win their hearts and minds," and Nixon described the war as a "noble cause." They wanted to save the Vietnamese, sometimes from themselves, always from their ideologically crazed brothers. Our sense of moral superiority to the rest of the world, our missionary compulsion, is a story as old as the settlement of America. . . Our commanders lusted for a massive conventional battle . . . [but] There was never a front line -- never any line at all -- and no territory to be won and held. The Vietcong looked exactly like our allies in South Vietnam, never appearing in uniform and easily blending into the village life of the countryside. . . . For the GI grunts in the field, it was a grisly nightmare. Think of the soldier "lucky" enough to have his laundry done by a sweet old woman who, after dark, changed into a Vietcong guerrilla, laying mines on the path to the mess hall."

Nothing has changed. We are still putting our GI's at unnecessary risk due to presidential delusions. We are still labeling our real enemies (Iraqi's, Saudi's, Pakistani's) as friends -- just to keep that oil flowing. And soon we will be importing thousands of so-called Green Zone Iraqi "friends" into the US when we cut and run.

It's fifty years after the Vietnam debacle, and Repubs and Dems are just as clueless as they ever were about the dangers implicit in anti-Western, anti-rule-of-law, cultures and value systems. Now our democracy-sloganeering president has put our soldiers into Iraq, as Nixon said about Vietnam, to "win their hearts and minds." But for the GI grunts, it's a nightmare even more surreal than Vietnam was: This time our clueless military commanders are not only inviting the enemy Shia into the Green Zone to do the GI's laundry and translation, this time they are forcing the naive, young GI's go on patrol with Shia gunmen, who could easily shoot them -- the infidels -- in the back at any moment and in good Islamic conscience. This time the oil-blinded leadership is TRAINING the enemy.

I can't add to the description of the book, except to say that it's too bad more people haven't read it. Especially our leadership. It's horrendously important to recognize the failures that we're repeating in Iraq.

John Sweet
Book review #3

Baritz, Loren. Back Fire: A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. Baltimore: The John's Hopkins University Press, 1985.

Loren Baritz takes a look at the Vietnam War in a way that lets us understand why we decided to fight and why we fought the way we did. Unlike most surveys of the war that focus on the logistical elements and command decisions which explain what the war was Baritz explains why it was. "To understand our present role in the world" Baritz explains, "we must understand the Vietnam debacle." (p.9) Indeed, if we are to learn anything from our mistakes, and virtually everyone now agrees that Vietnam was a mistake, it is essential to know why something happened and not just what happened. To explain why Vietnam happened the way it did Baritz proposes that there is "an inherent connection between war and culture [that is] present in all nations." In our case, Vietnam was fought the way it was because our culture left us no other way to fight it.
Baritz divides the book up into three parts. The first part, Tinder, explains why America decided to fight in Vietnam and the myths that forced us to make war half way around the globe with a people that we did not understand. The second part, Fire, explains how we fell into an ever deeper war in Vietnam and how our means of fighting determined how we fought and why we were unable to effectively combat a vastly inferior military force. The third part, Backfire, is the most telling part of the book for it presents an explanation of how our culture forced us to fight the way we did, why we ultimately lost, and why we are still making the same mistakes today.
In Tinder, Baritz convinces us that Americans firmly believe that we are the best. We are a "chosen people" inhabiting a "city on a hill" doing "Gods work" bringing a "Great Society to Asia." Such blatant solipsism is part of our entrenched American dogma. So ingrained is this self righteousness that we truly can not comprehend someone who does not wish to be like us. One GI put it simply "The Vietnamese are so stupid that they can't understand a great people were trying to help a weak people." So it was, as Baritz explains, that Gods Country went to Vietnam to save them.
Our almost total ignorance of the Vietnamese culture is now legendary but at the time it did not seem important. Our sense of righteousness and invincibility was so complete that we never even considered the possibility that we were the real enemy to the South Vietnamese. One of the greatest blunders of the Vietnam War was the refusal to see the indigenous forces of the South as the main target. Instead, we assumed that the North was behind our failures to win the hearts and minds of the "backwards" South Vietnamese. Baritz is careful to explain that all nations have myths about their own greatness, but it is when these myths of inherent superiority are combined with power that terrible things happen. As was the case for us in Vietnam. Indeed, Baritz's book is now routinely quoted to expose the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq in an attempt to put the brakes on what is turning out to be a similar debacle.
Our moral superiority has often been derived by our technical superiority according to Baritz. Our obsession with the power of technology is absolute. It has been, and is today, the firm belief of most Americans that technology is the answer for most problems. This dependency on technological solutions, according to Baritz, blinded us to the proper response in Vietnam which was counterinsurgency. To truly win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese, intelligence and human interaction, practiced on a national scale might have handed the US a victory. But such a strategy offered no stage to display our superior technology. Even when our use of technology was obviously not working the Army responded in a typically American way. "When something failed to work we did more of it."(p.233) While such insanity is self-evident today, at the time it was perversely logical to the American generals who were so caught up in their own myths that to do otherwise would be tantamount to admitting the entire American way of life was wrong. After reading Backfire the belief in American military strategy as an extension of what is essential about America is not such a slippery slope. Baritz is very convincing connecting American culture to the way we fight. We are a technological nation and, more than anyone, dream of winning wars by the push of a button. "Shock and Awe," "smart bombs," and "stealth" are all extensions of our desire to separate us from harm and have the wonders of American ingenuity save the day. In Vietnam, as well as in the war on terror, where there is no front line intelligence gained from good foot soldiers and not bigger and better missiles are the deciding factors in achieving victory.
If all of this is so clear now why do we continue to make the same mistakes? In the third part, Backfire, Baritz explains that we have no choice. We fight the way we do because our culture defines who we are and how we fight. As long as our culture remains the same we will continue to be more efficient in our fighting but no more effective. This is because we are prisoners of our faith in technology. In order to maintain a high tech society the functioning of government, business, and the military must reside in a bureaucracy. As Baritz explains "when the technological mind is turned to the problem of organizing human activity, the result is bureaucracy." (p.48)
Baritz demonetization of the effects of bureaucracy on the military is total. With clarity and logic he explains how the fighting of such a technological war necessitated the bureaucisation of the military and its tragic consequences. The most damning of the outcomes is the development of careerism within the officer corps. The shift of officers from "leaders to managers" created such hazards as a drop in morale, insubordination, lack of responsibility, lack of experience, and unimaginative tactics. When officers are working to "get ahead" the job takes precedence over the mission and the mission suffers as it did in Vietnam.
The combination of bureaucracy and technology in Vietnam led to the eventual, extreme conclusion in strategy, that of having no strategy; the body count. When killing becomes and end unto itself the morality of war breaks down quickly. War becomes cold and passionless. Baritz correctly finds fault with such thinking claiming that "passion is an appropriate response to war." Without passion and debate the bureaucratic ship will be on autopilot. Incidences such as My Lai are the tragic results.
Did we learn from Vietnam? Baritz claims that "one antidote for folly is experience" and the experiences of Vietnam should have cast our invincibility myth into the ashcan as well as our reliance on technology as a panacea. Yet, it seems that the lessons of history are nothing in comparison to the American Myth that we are a city on a hill. Ronald Reagan against the Soviets, Clinton against the third world and the Bush Doctrine of preventive strikes and the forced spread of democracy all have repeated some of the mistakes that we made in Vietnam.
Baritz concludes that "our power, complacency, rigidity, and ignorance have kept us from incorporating our Vietnam experience into the way we think about ourselves and the world." (p.349) To fight a different, more humane, more effective war, will require more than a change in the military structure but a change in American cultural thinking. Looking at the current global policy of the United States, this does seem likely to happen any time soon and so we will continue to fight the way we do: with a national myth that shows us that we are good, with technology that makes us strong, and a bureaucracy that gives us standard operating procedures. Unfortunately, it has proven not to be a winning combination.

RUSS and BLYTH CARPENTER.
The Blessings of Bhutan
Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. v, 186 pp. Colour plates, notes, glossary, index. US$24.95, paper.

It is rare that one has the chance to review a book so inadequate that one is hard-pushed to find a positive word to write about it.

The Blessings of Bhutan is, most unfortunately, such a book. One cannot imagine why University of Hawai'i Press, an otherwise reputable press that previously released the charming Painter's Year in the Forests of Bhutan by A. K. Hellum, has now published the Carpenters' recycled clichés and Orientalist imaginings. The authors start out on a hapless tack "... visitors often feel altered by Bhutan ... their inner selves are stirred ... [and] many come home with a nagging feeling that they
were at the edge of learning something important, something primary" (p. 1). With this Conradesque backdrop in place, Russ and Blyth Carpenter enter the Heart of Lightness with their readers in tow. Their account of travelling and working in Bhutan is so personalised that those of us who have never visited their home in the USA wonder why they so frequently refer to it: "Bhutan reminds us of Vida, Oregon. Our hometown has a store ..." (p. 7).

Their rambling anecdotes come across as impressionistic accounts from a journal, and are surely more suited to family archives or a Christmas letter home to friends than to publication as a monograph by an academic press. The authors trade in stereotype and are partial to a disparaging kind of anti-intellectualism, embodied by the statements:

"only a masochist would want to know the names of all the languages spoken in
Central and Eastern Bhutan" and "Bhutan's geography changes from challenging to
nearly hopeless" (p. 8). As if this were not disturbing enough, their hagiography of the kings of Bhutan as embodying "wisdom, strength, vision, and selfless behaviour" which they "daydream about the United States borrowing" (p. 9) is surely at odds with the sentence handed down by a previous king who had a citizen "whipped with peach branches until he convulsed and fell unconscious" (p. 18).

While this book has no scholarly pretensions, and readers would do better to travel to Bhutan with the Lonely Planet guidebook, the lack of engagement with issues that affect contemporary Bhutan, such as the activities of Indian rebels along the southern border or the plight of the Lhotsampa refugees (Bhutanese Hindus of Nepali origin) is simply negligent.

In only one place are these issues touched upon, and then shrouded in euphemism and dodged in an amateurish and unconvincing way: "Many of the things we could say here about the southern problem would be out-of-date by the time this book is published" (p. 168).

In short, this book fails to deliver at all levels. The obvious delight the authors have in Bhutan is marred by their thinly disguised condescension: "in our view, the Bhutanese do not understand the insidious and destructive consequences of television" (p. 174) and platitudinous generalisations such as "we have no hesitations about the essential intellectual capability of the Bhutanese people" (p. 169). At best, perhaps the Carpenters could recycle their text for an in-flight magazine on Bhutan's national airline.

MARK TURIN
University of Cambridge

This meaty little book is informed by the experience of the authors'numerous visits (including working trips) to Bhutan, extensive research, and the wisdom of many lively but respectful conversations with Bhutanese friends. Gorgeous color photographs by the authors supplement the vivid, lucid writing. There is intrigue in seeimg how these two self-described linear thinkers are gradually changed by confronting an intuitive culture with a Tantric lifestyle and a heritage of both Tibetan Buddhism and the remnants of the pre-Buddhist Bon religion. What will be the effect of television, which has only now entered the culture, on this relatively isolated culture? What do monks do all day? What does it mean to measure a culture by its Gross National Happiness? Why is Bhutan known as Little Switzerland? These are among the many questions the Carpenters answer. One could not have better guides to this intriguing country.

"The Blessings of Bhutan" is a personal and fascinating compilation of very short, and very readable, essays (or "sketches") about authors Russ and Blyth Carpenter's experiences and understanding of Bhutanese life. The book is separated into eight parts covering Bhutanese culture and geography; ancient Bhutanese religion and its relationship to Buddhism and Bhutanese archery; Tantric Buddhism; Bhutanese art and medicine; reincarnation (especially as it applies to the environment); sexuality in Bhutanese culture; women in Bhutan; and the Carpenter's reflections on Bhutan's policy of "Gross National Happiness" and on Bhutan's future. The book also has a very useful glossary of terms that makes reading much easier as well as a recommending reading list.

The authors' love and admiration of Bhutan and Bhutanese people is very apparent in their sketches. While many things about Bhutan can easily baffle a tourist (like the almost contradictory sexual attitude of the Bhutanese or the concept of "Gross National Happiness"), they explain these things in terms of the Bhutanese culture. I found the book extremely easy to read and engaging, and appreciated the experiences the Carpenters shared as well as the facts. You can read the book back to front or just skip around and read about which aspects of the culture you're interested in.

This is the first book I have read about Bhutan, and I'm glad I got it!

The Carpenters' book is not the first one that I have read on this magical Asian kingdom but it is definitely one of the best summaries out there. The authors succeeded in bringing the abstract closer to us; they offer an easily digestable, very interesting and engaging reading about Bhutan. What is even better they bring up further topics of interest and discussion that may make you look for more reading on the country itself, some of the characters from Bhutanese history or Buddhism in general. However, if you would like to find out more about tourist destinations in Bhutan I recommend that you get Pommaret's book or the Lonely Planet guide, as this book is more about the spiritual side, the soul of Bhutanese people and its manifestations in everyday life, religion and culture.

Absolutely one of the best books that I have read on the country of Bhutan. After reading several chapters, I was ready to travel on one of the tours to Bhutan, which are led by authors Russ and Blyth Carpenter.

I recently finished reading the book, Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind and Body Harmony, by H. E. Davey. The book is excellent. I am novice (hardly even that, actually) when it comes to Shodo (having only recently begun studying Shodo), but your book provides a very smooth introduction, and does a great job of getting across the relationship between it and the other Japanese cultural arts (chado [tea ceremony], budo [martial Ways], kado [flower arrangement], etc).

It is written in a very positive way and contains many beautiful pieces of artwork. I very much enjoyed the "four experiments toward a positive mind," these are great examples of introspection. Though I am far from an expert in budo, I have spent many years training and researching this topic, yet several of the explanations, provided for terms such as fudoshin, hara, and ki shed new light on these concepts, beyond just their relationship to Shodo.

Chapters three and four provide a very gentle introduction to the physical techniques while also providing an overview of the relationship between good posture and the proper state of mind. The importance of the coordination of mind, body, and spirit is presented in a way that should be easy for someone that is new to the Japanese cultural arts to grasp and understand.

I am again impressed with Davey sensei's ability to communicate a complex subject in an interesting and informative way that maintains the readers interest, while still capturing the subtleties of the topic.

From a beginner's perspective, this is an excellent reference, and I highly recommend it.

Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (4/07)

Once in a while I find it very helpful to venture outside of the realm of things that normally interest me and that I have some knowledge about. Learning about new things is a very stimulating experience and it seems to me that it keeps my brain in good working order. As far as the Japanese art forms are concerned, I am vaguely familiar with the flower arranging, but that is where my knowledge - and even real awareness - of such art forms end. Picking up H.E. Davey's "Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind & Body Harmony" was a real eye-opener.

The author begins this book with explanation and history of shodo, continues with the complex connections of mind, body and brush, and finishes with simple step-by-step exercises for the basics of shodo. The illustrations and the photos would certainly be very helpful for anybody who intends to try their hand at this ancient art form.

Mr. Davey's writing is fluid and engaging. He does not get overly technical and is easy to understand. The book kept my attention and made me wish for more balance in my life. Let me give an example of Mr. Davey's writing here:

"The kanji, or written characters, used in both Japan and China have transcended their utilitarian function and collectively serve as a visually stirring piece of fine art. Shodo allows the dynamic movement of the artist's ki ("life energy" or "spirit") to become observable in the form of rich black ink. In great examples of shodo, you can sense both the rhythm of music as well as the smooth, elegant, and balanced construction of refined architecture. Many practitioners of this art feel that the visible rhythm of Japanese calligraphy ultimately embodies a "picture of the mind" - and accomplished calligraphers recognize that it actually discloses your spiritual state. This recognition is concisely summed up by the traditional Japanese saying: [...] If your mind is correct, the brush will be correct. "

Although Mr. Davey stresses several times that one needs to find an instructor to truly begin the exploration of shodo, I found "Brush Meditation" to be an interesting book for anybody who would like to learn at least the basics of shodo as well as anybody who just wishes to become more familiar with the traditional Japanese arts and way of living.

After reading several books on the technique (really a NO technique) of Zen brush work, this book really dealt wll with the emotions and feeling underlying this incredible art. A very good read.

I recently finished reading the book, Brush Meditation: A Japanese Way to Mind and Body Harmony, by H. E. Davey. The book is excellent. I am novice (hardly even that, actually) when it comes to Shodo (having only recently begun studying Shodo), but your book provides a very smooth introduction, and does a great job of getting across the relationship between it and the other Japanese cultural arts (chado [tea ceremony], budo [martial Ways], kado [flower arrangement], etc).

It is written in a very positive way and contains many beautiful pieces of artwork. I very much enjoyed the "four experiments toward a positive mind," these are great examples of introspection. Though I am far from an expert in budo, I have spent many years training and researching this topic, yet several of the explanations, provided for terms such as fudoshin, hara, and ki shed new light on these concepts, beyond just their relationship to Shodo.

Chapters three and four provide a very gentle introduction to the physical techniques while also providing an overview of the relationship between good posture and the proper state of mind. The importance of the coordination of mind, body, and spirit is presented in a way that should be easy for someone that is new to the Japanese cultural arts to grasp and understand.

I am again impressed with Davey sensei's ability to communicate a complex subject in an interesting and informative way that maintains the readers interest, while still capturing the subtleties of the topic.

From a beginner's perspective, this is an excellent reference, and I highly recommend it.

For any person that practices shodo (meaning `way of calligraphy' ), sumi-e or any form of art that requires full concentration, I highly recommend to read this book. I practice sumi-e and shodo and I have books that cover the techniques in detail, but none of them goes beyond and get to the heart and true reason of this art, which is to achieve a state of mind and body harmony that led us to a form of spiritual realization.

The book talks `briefly' about the history of calligraphy, the Japanese aesthetics and principles (wabi and sabi), it's relation to the Zen philosophy, and it includes a chapter on how to make the first moves with the brush by practicing `the enso' (a zen character).

However, the main theme of this book is the meditative aspects of shodo. How to get a perfect posture to practice, how to use the mind with full concentration, how to `educate' our body, all this to become one with the brush and transcend in a spiritual way.

I do not know if this is the best book that deals with this aspect of shodo (I haven't seen more), but is a very good one, I can assure that.

I picked up this book during a rainy day at Borders in my neighborhood and six hours later I was still immersed in it! I bought a copy for myself and one for my language teacher, just to wage her reactions (she is Chinese from Beijing and she has been teaching in the USA for the past 15 years)..This is a book I wish I could have read many years ago when I was still in high school or college..I can't wait for other works by Cecilia Lindquist to be translated in English!!!

Not all readers have the same reasons for reading/using a book. I teach anthropology part time and bought Lindqvist's book along with "Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary," by Rick Harbaugh. [This program will not let me underline type] So to be fair, I have been using the two books together. My interest was to research Chinese Oracle Bone ideograms, so I could lecture on neolithic ideograms as to pictographs used by hunter-gatherer peoples. My intent was not to learn Chinese ideograms in the 'normal sense' of learning a language. For my purposes, "China: Empire of Living Symbols" is an excellent book in showing and explaining the development of Chinese ideograms from primitive pictographs -- the reason I bought the two books.

The book starts by explaining and illustrating some of the the oracle bone symbols and shows and explains how those art forms changed through time to the current Chinese ideograms. Lindqvist is selective in her choices of pictographs/ideograms with her 424 page book which is arranged in thematic chapters, beginning with 'Mankind' that lists and showing symbols for man and how they progress. The chapters include farming, animals, numbers, houses, rivers, mountains, household goods, etc. -- J. Stewart.

When I was a kid I though that the Chinese written language was impossible to learn (unless you were born there) and that the signs were just a bunch of arbitrary strokes impossible to remember.

All this changed when I picked up this book in the 1990s. I then discovered the connection between the Chinese culture and history, and the written Chinese language. It is thick with carefully chosen and categorized stories, often experienced by the author herself, about how a Chinese character reveals something about Chinese history, thinking, or everyday life in ancient times. The Chinese themselves are often strangely unaware about the etymology of their Hànzi characters, since the school system encourages rote learning. Its richly illustrated by drawings and photographs that shows similarities between something and the character representing it. E.g. how the character for "well" resembles the ancient Chinese way of constructing wells, quite different from western ones.

What this book is not:
- Its very, far from anything like a textbook in Chinese writing. But it may be the best soft introduction to such a topic. Its well suited for people that want to know something about the Chinese language, but don't want to spend time studying it.
- Its not a dictionary. It covers 500 characters in 350 pages. The characters are not selected because of word frequency, or usefulness in everyday life etc. Many characters covered are really rare.
- It doesn't say anything about how the signs are pronounced. It is strictly about how the Chinese culture embedded in the written language.
- If you stop reading before the last chapter you will believe that the Chinese language are mostly made up of ideographs or pictograms (a picture of something in the real world). In fact more than 90% of Characters are made up of Radical-Phonetic signs (explained in the final chapter) and character do not resemble anything "in real life". To "unlearn" this misunderstanding I will recommend J. DeFrancis: "The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy"

Because of this book, I moved to China and studied there in 2005. Without getting inspiration from this book a few years ago, I would never have thought it was worth even trying to understand the Chinese language.

I cannot believe how beautifully this book was written. Even as a Chinese educated in China, I was fascinated by this little book. It is not only about Chinese language but also about a people, a nation, and a civilization. This book made me re-think about my cultural heritage that I am extremely pround of already. I recommend this book to anybody who is interested in China and humanity in general.
Thank you Cecilia Lindqvist. Your professional expertise inspired me and your lovely sense of humor made my days.

This is a fabulous book on Chinese, though it's not a textbook on learning Chinese. It tells the history of the development of many characters, and is fascinating. The main part of the book goes back to the oracle bones and ancient bronzes and shows quite a few of the characters and how they developed. A chapter in the back of the book (where I started) tells how the characters were invented. It tells of the various strategies for creating characters. Every strategy devised for creating characters ended up being exhausted, and new strategies had to be created. One of the last strategies was the `radical' concept, where they would take an existing character that sounded like a word that didn't have a character, and they would add a `radical' to it to create a new character. This concept allowed for almost a limitless number of characters and was one of the final strategies. It's interesting to note that in ancient China, most of the words for daily life had no written equivalent. Writing for the most part was reserved for administrative tasks, record-keeping, etc. Words that were used for daily life for thousands of years had no written equivalent and posed great challenges to create characters.
The author is Swedish and the book was translated from Swedish to English recently.
It would be a great book for anyone studying Chinese, but it would also be a great book for Chinese children to learn more about the history of China. It really is a fascinating book that I can hardly put down...
This book also helps with learning (& remembering!) Chinese characters, but a reader does not have to be learning to read and write Chinese characters in order to gain a lot of insight not only into the language, but the Chinese culture itself.
By the way, did you know that the character for `self' Zì, originally meant `small nose'? In western society, when people refer to themselves, they may point at their own chest, whereas in China, traditionally, people pointed to their nose. That's how the character Zì, [which originally meant `nose'] came also to mean `myself', or `self']. It's also interesting to note that the radical for Bí [nose] is the same character for Zì [nose]. In fact, Zì means `small nose' and Bí means `big nose'.
The book is filled with all sorts of fascinating things...

This represents an interesting and effective approach to a difficult topic. Part two is especially good.

LeBon, Adam. "City of Oranges". W.W. Norton, 2007.

Living Together

Amos Lassen

Some of the most memorable experiences of my life took place in the city of Jaffa, Israel. It is a fascinating place occupying its own little area outside of the thriving metropolis of Tel Aviv. Jaffa sits as a city within a city much like the French Quarter of New Orleans, Jaffa has great restaurants, art galleries, shops and a port but above all, it is a historical site. The streets are narrow as they have always been and the people are a mix of Arabs and Jews, also just as it always been in Jaffa.
Adam LeBon's "City of Oranges" is a balanced look at the history of modern Jaffa and the birth of the State of Israel. LeBon looks at the lives of six families and by doing so makes the Israeli/Palestinian conflict more personal.
Jaffa is a city of layers of people, events and times, of Arabs and Jews living peacefully together, sharing lives and experiences. LeBon looks at the history of Jaffa by looking at Jewish, Christian and Moslem families to show that the struggle in the Middle East is a human struggle. It is the story of longing for a homeland and fortunes that changed and also the history of a multi-ethnic city that was changed by what was happening in the area. LeBon emphasizes the needs of the Jewish people to have a state and shows the tragic consequences this has caused for Arab neighbors. He names neither villains nor heroes but shows us people, like you and me, trying to find a way through what is going on. Adam LeBon, celebrates the capacity for endurance as we read about the ways people come to terms with themselves and each other.
The families that LeBon writes about are Christian Arab notables, Muslim aristocracy, Sephardic Jews and Ashkenazi refugees from Europe. We see the story of Israel told in a microcosm, the struggle for land and the fight for political supremacy and the Jewish ambivalence to fight with their neighbors. We also see Jew and Arab helping each other through the years.
Many of the aspects of the Israel-Arab conflict are captured here. We see the proletarian Jews of Tel Aviv defeating the rich Arabs of Jaffa with their nationalism and we see how violence separated a community that was once solid. It is extremely poignant to read how refugee Jews were chased out of Arab countries and then lived in the lands that once belonged to Arabs who themselves became refugees when the Jews chased them out.
Throughout the book there is an interweaving of history with what was going on in everyday life. This is an intimate history and to me, at least, I did not feel the author's biases as I read. He attempts to understand without judgment and this is not an easy task. He looks at one town and from it gives the history of the State of Israel and the catastrophe of Palestinians by using the lives of Jaffa's Arab and Jewish residents.
LeBon has a wonderful knack for detail and allows individual opinion to be expressed without any type of judgment. Courage and trauma mark the histories of both Arab and Jew and we see clearly that neither side has really listened to the other because as LeBon states "any recognition of each other's losses is a kind of surrender" in a battle for territory as well as memory.
LeBon does condemn (but does so quietly) the excesses of both sides. He talks about the Israeli occupation and the corruption of the Palestinians, Israeli racism, and Palestinian suicide terrorism. His conclusion is one of compromise and I am sure that because of this, there will be readers who find cause to object.
LeBon has done extensive research especially in the lives of the families--two Christians, two Muslims and two Jewish. It is from his interviews with family members, memoirs and private archives that he is able to give us vivid portraits to show us the narrative of the modern Arab/Jewish and Palestinian/Israeli relations. He brings us into the lives of each generation as we witness both political and social upheaval and urban decay and redevelopment and war and its aftermath. It is through the family members that we see the issues of everyday life in Israel today. The families share so much and still sit on opposite sides of issues that are violently divisive yet they still manage to live together, as friends, in the most cosmopolitan city in the Middle East. It is this look at the human lives behind the volatile headlines of the world press that gives us a new look and understanding of an area that is often described as the "powder keg" of the world.

City of Oranges'' is a book that probably all
> sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could read
> profitably. By taking as its subject the
> interweaving
> histories of several families _ Jewish, Christian,
> Muslim _ over more than a century in what was once
> the vibrant port of Jaffa, now an adjunct of Tel
> Aviv,
> it reminds us that the struggle, whether a triumph
> for one party or a tragedy for another, had a human
> cost for all. The book is not only the story of a
> longing for home and homeland amid changing fortune,
> but also the chronicle of an ancient, multi-ethnic
> city and how it was forever altered by the tremors
> that shook the Middle East in the 20th century. The
> author, Adam LeBor, understands the desperate need
> for
> the Jews to found a secure state and the tragic
> consequences this had for some of their Arab
> neighbors. There are no heros or villains in his
> narrative. Only ordinary people trying to find their
> way through extraordinary circumstances. "City of
> Oranges'' refuses to be a book of lamentation or
> triumphalism. Rather, it celebrates the human
> capacity
> for endurance and the simple small ways that people
> make peace with themselves, if not with each other.
>
>
>

OK if the title is too cryptic for you...for something to begin something else has to end or it would just be continuation. Zionism and the establishment of a "Jewish State" in the Middle East would by definition be the signal for the end of the Ottoman Province of Palestine (including parts of Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt). The new state by definition would be a 'western' style democracy with socialist overtones. So there would have to be a drastic change in how and who ran things.

This book by Adam LeBor does a remarkable job of looking at the changes to Jaffa and Tel Aviv as a microcosm for the who Middle East problem. By looking at the long term (beginning at the end of the nineteenth century) effect of Zionist immigration to the 'Holy Land' (HL, has less of a stigma or side to it). After having lived in relative harmony (as long as the Moslems were the top of the pyramid) for many centuries the influx of European Jews and their European ways would have to upset the balance. Of the three groups, the Christians were put in the most desperate of positions since they were never in charge or control of their destinies.

LeBor does a good job of following the participant families as they go from rulers to ruled, rich to poor, immigrant to ruler, and ruler to emigrant. The best part of the narrative is LeBor's concentration on the effects more than the causes. Causes can be ambiguous but effects are usually straight forward.

Needless to say this is as objective a story as can be written by anyone of the history of the HL over the last one hundred years, and that it will takes decades if not centuries until there is anything like a final settlement of the issues. Just like the scars that remain from the Partition of India, or the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans (from the Czech lands) after WW2; it will take more than the changing of the names of the towns and cities to heal up the wounds and for the scars to fade.

City of Oranges is a refreshingly balanced account of the modern history of Jaffa and the birth of the Jewish state.
LeBor's eye for detail and the rich family accounts bring the story to life, turning a historical account into a thoroughly enjoyable read. Reading about the lives of the six families and their truly amazing experiences manages to personalize the Isreali-Palestinian conflict.
It's an innovative approach that makes this book worth reading for anyone interested in Israel/Palestine.

Mei Mei has the happiest hens in China: she pampers them. But hen Daisy is not happy: she faces bullying from the others and when she finds herself lost and away from home, she must remember the attitudes of her fellow hens in order to survive. Brett's warm drawings are a beautiful embellishment.

Daisy Comes Home was a really good book. I would give this book five stars. There is alot of chinese calligraphy in this book. If you can read the calligraphy, this would be a good book for you. The story was about a runaway hen who is found by the nine year old girl owner. To find out more read this book.

Jan Brettýs latest book, Daisy Comes Home is a charming book for young children. The story takes place in a rural village in China along the Li River. A young girl named Mei Mei is known for having the healthiest and happiest hens in the village. She carries the eggs from the hens in a basket that says ýHappy Hensý into the village to sell. The story begins by looking back to the time when not all of Mei Meiýs chickens were happy. Even though Mei Mei fed them treats, gave them fresh hay for their beds, and bathed them, the one called Daisy was not happy. The reason being that all the other hens always picked on her and were very mean to her. They always pushed her off of the perch so she had to sleep on the cold, hard ground.
One night, she had had enough of this and found a market basket near the river bank to sleep in. She fell right to sleep and did not notice the river creeping up the bank. The basket floated away, with Daisy in it. She woke up when the basket started tipping and realized that she was had floated away from home. As she traveled down the river, Daisy had to defend herself against a dog, a water buffalo, and red-tailed monkeys. Her ýHappy Hensý basket ran into a fisherman claimed her and took her into the village to sell.
By this time, Mei Mei had looked all day for her lost hen and decided that she must go into town to sell the eggs from the other hens. She carried the ýHappy Hensý baskets into town and arranged her place to sell the eggs. A friend told Mei Mei that a fisherman had carried one of her baskets into town with one of the hens. She rushed off to find her missing hen and told the fisherman that Daisy belonged to her. The fisherman said that he found the hen so he got to keep her. Mei Mei called to her hen and Daisy ran to her upon hearing the familiar call. The girl ran home with the hen as fast as she could.
One would assume that the other hens would be glad to have the missing Daisy back home, but they tried to treat her as they always had. Daisy had learned a lot on her adventure and could now defend herself. She flapped her wings, pecked, and pushed the other hens back; they could no longer push her around. So, she was given a place to perch alongside the rest of them. Now, all six of the hens are healthy and happy.
The beautiful pictures in this book also tell the story. The full spread beautifully depicts the main idea on each page. Not only is the main idea told, but the audience is allowed to peek into something else that is occurring or is about to occur through small windows in two corners of the page. For example, on the page where the Daisy bumps into the fisherman, a small picture of Mei Mei getting ready to go to the market is in the left corner of the page and a picture of the fisherman holding up the hen to sell is in the opposite corner. This cleverly gives the reader something more to think about and he or she follows the main storyline.

This wonderful story would make an excellent addition to a classroom of young students. The gorgeous pictures and charming tale would captivate the minds of young children as they learn about the importance of standing up for oneýs self, the need to be kind to one another, and the importance of looking after those one cares about.

Jan Brett has woven together intricate illustrations with an exciting story as we float with Daisy the hen down the Li River on an unexpected trip. Daisy's encounters with a dog, a water buffalo, a pack of monkeys and a fisherman are interesting and life-like - no talking animals here! As Daisy and Daisy's owner Mei Mei make their way to the marketplace, the mountainous scenery changes often. Look carefully and you will see the mountains become dragons and snakes, chickens and monkeys. The marketplace illustrations feel authentic and up-to-date and the wonderful colors and hustle-and-bustle feel adds to the story's tension for an exciting reunion! Brett's illustrations are wonderfully layered with Chinese textures and materials from china pattern designs to bamboo screens. Beautifully illustrated and skillfully told, Daisy Comes Home is sure to be one of those favorites that asks to be read over and over again.

My 5-year-old daughter and I read this with a great deal of delight. The story is exciting, and what makes it very special is its authenticity. Daisy isn't a human-like character, she does only real hen things; Mei Mei isn't a super-clever, cutesy ethnic character, she's a young Chinese girl who loves her hens. Together, they overcome the scary, vulnerable situations they find themselves in just by doing hen and little girl things. All of this with fascinating, rich illustrations of the Li River region of southern China that are also very true to life. A tale for the heart and a treat for the eyes.

Great service. Condition of book was stellar and it was delivered in a very timely manner.

This is an interesting mix of Yasunari Kawabata's early work, well before he was Japan's literary superstar, and well before the works that would ultimately win him the Nobel prize. The title story (I can't say titular, can I?) is of a college student's crush on the youngest member of a dancing troup. Most likely autobiographical, it leaves the reader sharing Kawabata's youthful loneliness. The second larger short story (there's no better way to describe it) is Diary of My Sixteenth Year, which covers the disappating love of a youth and his dying grandfather.

The remaining stories are much shorter, ranging from 3 to 10 pages each. Birthplace is an interesting story of abandonment and leaving one's home behind. Burning the Pine Boughs is as much about reading between the lines as reading what's on the page. Oil is a deep work of overcoming childhood loss.

Three common themes permeate these stories. First is the idea of an imperfect, sour or unatainable love. Second is the idea that at least somehow many of them are autobiographical. Third is that much is left unsaid in the stories. In a sense they are a prose form of Zen art, where what is unsaid can be more important than what is put to paper. Despite being distinct, one can read inferences between the stories (the hands for prayer in both Master of Funerals and Hands, for example) and perhaps that is enough to tie them all together.

Although Snow Country is commonly referred to as Kawabata's greatest accomplishment, these stories were more accessible and emotionally powerful.

I recently read this collection of short (with the emphasis on "short") stories. This set of stories are very autobiographical; especially in the first part. The title story is a tale of young love. The message that came through to me was the innocence of the attraction of the two main characters. After that came a touching diary that told of the relationship of a teenage boy and the elderly, invalid grandfather who raised him. It reminded me of my relationship with my own grandfather. The other sketches were worth reading as well and most were only two or three short pages in length. There is certainly a poetic style in Kawabata's works. This particular collection is a good introduction to the writer.

Although Kawabata is most often associated with his better than good Palm-of-the-hand stories, I don't view them as my favorate Kawabata work. The Dancing Girl of Izu (mandatory reading for Japanese Junior High School Students) is a sort of coming of age story that made me step back and reflect. The semi-autobiographical work is tender, heart warming, and a keen glimpse into Japanese life. If you have read and enjoyed earlier works of this author I would strongly suggest this collection to you. If you have yet to discover Kawabata, I say there's no better place to start!

"The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories" is an odd collection of sorts, mixing an elegant, straight-forward short story together with some autobiography and a fluttering of palm-of-the-hand tales. Each element contributes a unique flavor, and a different facet of Kawabata's style.

J. Martin Holman proves himself again a master translator of Kawabata, retaining the flow and most importantly the feeling of the originals, far more than other translators I have read. The only flaw I found was that he splits the book into two sections, which I personally found a bit jarring. I think it more naturally flows into three distinct chapters.

"The Dancing Girl of Izu" is as fine a short story as you are likely to read anywhere. Every necessary element is contained, with no superfluous decoration. It is heartbreaking in its subtlety, and masterful in its craft. Everything important is unsaid. Kawabata can manipulate emotions so deeply using so little, leaving the reader with an aching emptiness as great as that of the narrator. Beautiful, and fully worth the cost of the collection alone.

"Diary of my Sixteenth Year," "Oil," "The Master of Funerals" and "Gathering Ashes" are four short autobiographical sketches of Kawabata's relationship with his only relative, a blind grandfather who would figure into several tales. Not factual per se, but true impressions. They present an intimate portrait of youth trying to understand the aged, of responsibility and resentment of responsibility, and of the numbness of death. The stories are presented as recovered diary accounts Kawabata wrote when he was 16, and they may be so. I believe the feelings, and that is enough.

The third section contains the 18 remaining unpublished palm-of-the-hand stories, Kawabata's personal trademark and contribution to literature. A page or three at the most, each story functions like a Zen koan, a story or riddle with no obvious meaning used as a contemplation tool by meditating monks to clear their minds and make them go hmmm...as they try to decipher. Koans have been called "extremely brief vignettes enabling the individual to hold entire universes of thought in mind all at once," and I think this sums it up nicely. Do not attempt to decipher these palm-of-the-hand stories, but instead read them and feel them and go hmm...

A great book for those that love traveling and want to learn about some things to look out for when traveling. It is filled with humor and describes the reality of traveling to a remote area. It is a great read for those that have traveled and also for those looking to travel. The elephant polo part is filled with more humor and gives in inside look at a rare sport played by the wealthy.

Antonio Graceffo deserves nothing but kudos for the risks he took leaving his corporate job and New York to spend more time on an adventurous journey for additional perspective with his journalistic eye, the creative craftmanship of his writing, and his backpack. The verdict on his voyage based on the insights derived from his narratives and his publications should give one brief pause before the resounding yes to purchasing his books.

i've been reading Antonio Graceffo's storys and books and i enjoy them all, i really recommend buying this book its really worth it. His adventure is very intresting, many facts and funny conflicts. also check out his book "The Monk From Brooklyn" i say its a very good book... and to mention all the negative post with one star rating is obviously the same person. you can tell by comparing all his/her negative post.

It may be difficult for us to understand why a successful investment banker from New York, chooses to risk death and danger by crossing the world's second largest desert. However, when reading Antonio Graceffo's story, everything starts to become very simple and clear why he'd to do such a thing.

This is a story of one man's own challenge, to cross the Taklamakan Desert from North to South alone, although unachieved by men before. It allows us Westerners to gain insight to not only an experience we may never visit or encounter but also types of cultures and people we never imagined could still exist.

What's appealing about this story by Graceffo is his writing style as being ordinary and informal with snippets of dialogue to assist you in getting the `bigger picture'. For a less intellectual but entertaining read this is ideal. Antonio's genuine character, blatant or funny statements and honest thoughts all provide a fuller engagement with his journey.

Most people love a good story of knowing how a human overcomes something serious or survives danger. This is a story of survival from the extremely high temperatures, constant dehydration and consistent physical pain. This one man isolated, travelling nature's danger zone, riding miles on a strange impossible to ride three wheeler bike is remarkable.

I became so engrossed in this story, my curious self questioning can this guy really make it? Is it really possible for a human to survive such ordeal? Throughout the journey there are times when he feels as if he can't go on. By great will power and determination he becomes a hero and completes his mission.

The descriptions given are detailed enough to provide great visual imagery for the reader and therefore makes the reader feel as if they were encountering the journey with Antonio also. The various types of village people which he stumbles upon his journey provide an intriguing aspect to his story. You just never know what type of person he will meet next, some of these people pretty much save his life, and some of the conversation exchanged between them helps the reader gain insight to a completely unfamiliar culture we likely don't know enough about. It's very thought provoking meeting these characters in the book because it highlights the extreme different lives we lead. e.g. the Ughyur construction foreman Antonio meets randomly while travelling across the Taklamakan. The foreman earned in a month the equivalent to what a pair of sixty US dollar boots would cost. There are many people which appear in Antonio's travels which lead very simple lives living on what we would class as nothing, some are not even aware of what a camera is? It really makes you wonder how we are all a part of the same world.

I recently emailed Antonio and asked a series of questions referring to his book "The Desert of Death on Three Wheels".

He is currently living in Cambodia, writing articles about families and people living in poverty. He wrote the following to me in response to one of my questions:

"In the west we have no idea of true hopelessness and desperation. Most recently I did a story about sick people gathered in a temple where they believed the monk could cure them. They were desperate and poor and ignorant and uneducated and infecting each other. More than one thousand people living on top of each other in an area about three times the size of a football pitch.
What can I say to sites like these? They sadden me. There is so much humour in a lot of my stories. But that is often my way of dealing with the sadness I saw the previous day."

The Desert of Death on Three Wheels also has an added bonus story, it's about his trip to Thailand, where he plays for a team in a rather interesting sport called elephant polo. I won't go into great detail of what happens, or what kind of story to expect but I can guarantee you it is an extremely funny read. Filled to the brim, of course, with Antonio's witty and comic comments in reflection of his experience. Antonio does actually raise awareness for these elephants by fighting in a boxing match. He is a boxer as well as a writer! It is clear from my response from my online interview with him, that he really does care about the places and people he visits from around the world. He has a very unstable financial income writing about poverty, wars and the corrupt governments he encounters when travelling.

The Desert of Death on Three Wheels is an entertaining great story about a man who is compassionate about people and the places he visits. He converts his travel experience into a story overcoming what may seem the unobtainable. Everybody loves a good story don't we?

© Vanessa Hyde Nov 2005

An honest account of an adventure through a place most people would never have even heard of. The bonus story about Antonio's participation in an Elephant polo tournament is also an interesting look at a sport generally only enjoyed by the disgustingly rich. I really enjoyed these stories, and would recommend them to anyone interested in travel writing, because you won't have read anything else quite like them.