Book Description
In this taut, intensely dramatic narrative--the record of a perilous excursion into the wild--two men confront immutable forces of nature and the limits of their own sanity.
Craig Childs is lost. In a labyrinth of canyons in the American Southwest where virtually nothing else is alive--barely any vegetation, few signs of wildlife, scant traces of any human precursors in this landscape--Childs and his friend Dirk undertake a fortnight's journey. With as much food and gear as they can carry, and little else but their wiles to help them traverse the inhospitable, unmappable terrain, the two men assume the life-or-death challenge of exploring this land--and then finding a way out.
Equally gripping as their adventure in the wild is the parallel story, told in flashback, of what propelled the two men into these extreme circumstances. In scenes that crackle with tension and suspense--recollections of barroom brawls, high-speed car chases, and reckless feats of risk taking--we discover the surprising legacy of violence that each man is escaping.
Customer Reviews:
Take stock of what has happened along your own walk!.......2006-03-24
Where most people go to resorts or on a cruise for time away from their everyday lives, Craig Childs and his close friend and traveling companion Dirk Vaughn walk the desolate deserts, canyons and chasms of the American West.
The Way Out describes Childs' walk through a forgotten and imposing fracture in the crust of the earth rarely if ever seen by white people. The indigenous tribes through millennia have passed this way, but until Childs and Vaughn receive permission from an elder Dine shepherd, no one has walked this route in recent times.
Childs' style of writing is metaphorical. It engages you and makes one understand the element he is traveling like no other author I have read. It flows like prose from the early days of the last century when authors painted their stories with words.
In the short period of time that the two men spend in their search through this chasm, they reflect on the lives they have led that have brought them to this adventure. Childs' life is one of dark memories that would have pushed those without his outlook upon life to the depths of depression. In his compatriot Vaughn, we meet a man that has seen the distasteful underbelly of big city crime in his days as a police officer.
Yet neither man allows those past experiences to dampen their spirit in their quest to explore the forgotten realm in which they have intentionally placed themselves.
I must admit, I almost put this book down. But as I forged forward I began to understand the author's style and what he was trying to communicate.
Armchair Interviews says: The Way Out will make you take solitary stock of what has happened along your own walk through life.
Let's talk about real survival.......2005-11-27
With all due respect (I find most of Craig's other books written with both elegance and restraint; amd his solo explorations acts of courage and surrender.), these two men went out for a month, with top-of-the-line gear, plenty of food (cached and otherwise) and, in fact, were in no real danger. A real survivor is a grandmother on food stamps, taking care of and loving five grand-kids, in a roach motel, with no vehicle and a greedy landlord.
Or a woman with a double mastectomy, who finds out she had bone cancer and decides it is time to learn how to drum because she has wanted to all her life, and knows each 3-month check-up might be her last.
A gem. Childs delivers another masterpiece........2005-09-03
I loved this book, which is a feast for the soul. The novel profiles an inner and outer journey of two men through the most intense enviornment. Beyond the physical endurance required to pass this route, the 2 men reflect on their past struggles with socitenty, family and personal demons.
It's another incredible book by Childs, and I think marks a change in his writing style. Rather than a collection of journeys, this is a single story which becomes a lengend or tale.
Read this book. It reaches into the soul of men, in a way few contemporary stories can.
boring, boring , boring........2005-04-30
I read this book based upon the reviews listed here and was very disappointed. What were these reviewers thinking? This book was tremendously boring. I never really got the feeling that they were in danger. Im sure they were but it didnt come across too well. And there were just too many metaphors. One after another. I never could identify with either hiker. I had no image in my mind of what they looked like. Too many flashbacks I didnt really care about their past experiences. If i wanted cop stories i would take out a cop book from the library(i dont buy books). This book cant compare to books like Into Thin Air and Skeletons across the Zahara. Please read either one. They were fantastic.
Life In The Stone.......2005-03-21
Craig Childs explores and describes the canyon country of the Colorado Plateau like no one else can. In "The Way Out", Childs and a friend navigate through a maze of canyons incised deeply into the Navajo Sandstone of northern Arizona. This could be just another wilderness adventure, a book to sit beside the countless other wilderness essays on bookstore shelves, but it is not: I have seen the land Craig Childs navigates in this book, a land of twisted canyons so disturbingly chaotic that I feel tremors in my solar plexus whenever I see it, and I have never had the courage to try to cross it.
As they struggle through the twisted canyons, Childs flashes back to his turbulent relationship with his father, and he describes his friend's long and torturous career as a police officer. At first I found these flashbacks to be too personal and intimate; I was almost embarrassed for Childs' inability to keep these deeply personal thoughts to himself. As their adventure progresses, though, these past experiences come alive in the stone, creating a web of life and continuum whose lessons are seen at every turn. In his final act, Childs takes his father's ashes into the desert where he intends to release them in the only place where he can find peace. A storm blows up though, and his father's ashes are taken by the wind and the crash of lightening. This seems to prove to him that his struggles through nature are the same as his struggles with his father: enigmatic; tempestuous; dichotomous.
"The Way Out" is a powerful story of emotion and survival in the wilderness of the land and of the mind.
Book Description
In this taut, intensely dramatic narrativethe record of a perilous excursion into a remote and unmappable labyrinth of canyons in the American Southwesttwo men confront immutable forces of nature and the limits of their own sanity. As a chronicle of adventure, as emotionally charged human drama, as confessional memoir, THE WAY OUT is a transcendent booka work destined to earn a lasting place in the literature of extremes.
Customer Reviews:
An Incredible Journey.......2007-05-14
The Way Out is a book you'll want to read over and over again. It's just too powerful to fully absorb in one reading. As with "The Secret Knowledge of Water", Mr. Childs leads you into the very psyche of Living Land. He bears his soul and humbles himself before a chasm of rock. An absolute master of imagery and metaphor, Mr. Childs doesn't just take you into the majesty of a canyon or the solitude of the desert, he empties you out there so that you might fill again. "The Way Out" is his best work yet.
Susan Haley, Author
RAINY DAY PEOPLE
A hard-hitting account of discovery.......2006-06-21
A two-weep trip through the American Southwest with a good friends turns into a challenge which will test friendship and survival skills in THE WAY OUT: A TRUE STORY OF RUIN AND SURVIVAL. Any with a special affection for the Southwest will find vivid descriptions of its terrain and desolation as they enjoy this memoir of survival, a hit in hardcover and newly available in paperback to provide a hard-hitting account of discovery.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Amazon.com
The Byzantine Empire, one of its most eminent students reminds us, lasted "for a total of 1,123 years and 18 days," which is an astonishing duration matched by only a few others. Condensing Norwich's three-volume history, this overview captures the splendor and strangeness of Byzantine rule, marked by family intrigues, constant warfare, political and religious strife, and personal ambition--a "somewhat lurid background," as Norwich modestly declares in passing. Norwich is a master of the telling vignette. In one, he writes of imperial guards made up of "Anglo-Saxons who had left their country in disgust after Hastings and had taken service with Byzantium." Facing a Norman enemy in southern Italy, these Anglo-Saxons exacted terrible vengeance until the Normans rallied under the leadership of a fearless woman, one Sichelgaita, and massacred their enemy. Norwich's book abounds in similarly surprising and absorbing episodes.
Book Description
Published to coincide with a major exhibition on Byzantium at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the spring of 1997, Byzantium tells the dramatic story of Byzantium, from its beginnings in A.D. 330, providing readers with a spirited, gripping, and original account of a great lost civilization and its magnificent artistic heritage. 24 pp. of illustrations, 8 pp. in full color. Size C. 432 pp. 20,000 print.
Customer Reviews:
An Endless list of Emperors..........2007-10-15
"A Short History of Byzantium" is a condensed version of author John Julius Norwich's three volume work. It covers the Byzantine Empire from its founding by Constantine the Great in AD 330 through its final destruction by the Turks in 1453.
I began the book with little knowledge about the Byzantine Empire with which to place what I was reading in context. This may have handicapped me as I proceeded through it. Much of this book consists of a seemingly endless list of Emperors, Empresses and challengers. It contains relatively little about other pieces of the Byzantine puzzle, such as the economy, the arts and other social forces which contributed to the whole picture. I did find interesting the sections dealing with the relationship of Charlemagne to the Empire and the occasional attempts, usually the result of foreign pressure, to heal the breach in Christendom.
Overall, I was somewhat disappointed with this book. I finished it with little more understanding of Byzantium than I had when I started. It may be the nature of the subject itself, but I feel that I need to look elsewhere for a good initiation into the Byzantine World.
Standard, Fast-Moving Poltical/Military History.......2007-08-19
A Short History of Byzantium is aptly-named. It covers over a thousand years of history in 381 pages. As such, it is necessarily short on depth and contains no analysis--or footnotes for the serious historians. More concerning to me, however, was its lack of any material beyond male military leaders and emperors. There is no cultural history, a little religious history, and the presentation of the few women in the book is a joke. Casual readers will probably won't be bothered, but anyone with a serious interest in history should read the original three volume work and be prepared to supplement it with additional works.
Disappointment.......2007-07-22
I had high hopes for this book. A Short History of Byzantium, however, reads like little more than a laundry list of people, places, and dates, all passing by at a breakneck pace.
Norwich formula for writing about Byzantine history goes something like this:
Emperor X... 1) assumes the throne, 2) eliminates any perceived threats to his authority, 3) weds a young woman (probably named either Theodora, Eudoxia, or Zoe) in the hopes of siring a male heir, 4) sends his army to wage war against Enemy Y, and 5) is subsequently overthrown by conspirator Z, who now becomes Emperor Z. Repeat steps 1 to 5. Norwich's approach nicely illustrates an antiquated approach to historical writing that focuses exclusively on the lives of the sovereign, his family, and high officials.
Even more unfortunate, Norwich makes little effort to place those people, places, and dates within any broader cultural, social, or political context, resulting in a tedious and lifeless narrative. He also neglects to discuss topics that may interest the average reader, such as Byzantine art, culture, or military tactics. He does spend some time describing events surrounding the great monophysite debate (which concerned the nature of Christ), but still fails to adequately discuss the ideas that made the debate important in the first place. So what's the point?
Norwich is correct in asserting that the Byzantine Empire has been long neglected in Western scholarship (see the book's introduction). Unfortunately, I cannot imagine how this book could help to reverse that inattention. I love reading history, but Norwich made it impossible for me to get excited about the Byzantine Empire. It is books like this that give the field of history a bad name.
True, Norwich's prose is smooth and the book provides some detailed maps and thorough chronological listings of emperors, popes, and sultans. Still, if the author's overall approach is terribly flawed and the storytelling dull, who really cares to know that Alexius Comnenus ruled from 1081 to 1118?
Istanbul and Constantinople.......2007-03-11
It's fascinating to come upon the reviews for John Julian Norwich's, "A Short History of Byzantium" and see how many reviewers are complaining about the pace. Mr. Norwich has explained the difficulty of reducing three volumes into one volume of 380 pages and I wonder if he had to do it over again if he would. It must have been a hair raising editing process and for anyone so inclined by all means get the three volume version (but it's hard to find) and give the author a break. One reviewer who did said she was very much more enjoying the pace and seemed quite settled down. This shortened version has made me hungry to find all three but in the meanwhile I found it a very compelling read, jam packed with information about the Empire of the East. What a story! I think Norwich is right in saying that this is a whole forgotten chunk of time and place in the west and it seems to have been his pleasure to help us find it and unravel it. To say that a situtation or relationship or organization is "Byzantine" implies all of the tangled confusion which we have associated with that civilization for centuries and this short history now makes me totally aware of how that word is applicable. And I thought the Plantagenets were confusing! This work has at least begun to clarify for me the movement of power from west to east, the movement into orthodoxy and finally into islam. And how it remains with us today throughout the Middle East, the Balkans and Central Asia. For anyone who would like some enlightenment on this long period of history pick up a copy of this book, then hold on to your seat. It's quite a ride.
A narrative summary of the Byzantine empire, not an academic work.......2007-02-12
I've noticed a number of reviewers complaining that this book, A Short History of Byzantium, contains absolutely no analysis. They seem surprised at what the book is: a brief summary of Byzantium. It doesn't claim to be anything else. In the introduction, John Julius Norwich clearly states that it is not an academic work for the purpose of historical analysis. It is a summary of a relatively unknown and overlooked empire in history, written for the purpose of spurring interest in the Byzantine world.
Having defended the purpose of Norwich's work, I still can't give it an wonderful review because of some pronounced internal problems. Such a short summary of over 1100 years naturally feels like the reader is racing through events, and soon the names and controversies blur into one another. For this reason the reader can expect to have an unusually low rate of retention for the information presented in the book. On a better note, the maps and family trees in the front of the book are helpful to keep things straight.
Norwich likes to put in exact dates of events, but often leaves out the year so that you have to stop and do simple math for context. For instance, here is an excerpt of page 134:
"They had captured Alexandria in 818; seven years later, forcibly expelled by the Caliph Mamun, they headed for Crete...Within only two years of the capture of Crete another company of Arabs invaded Sicily..." Of course the math is easy, but it interrupts the reader's flow of thoughts on the content itself.
Furthermore, because Norwich has created a non-academic work, some of his choices for the flow of the story are controversial. The reader must therefore approach the events cautiously. For instance, Norwich narrates the life of Constantine the Great as if the emperor truly believed Christianity was the true religion. And yet in a class on Constantine and the Council of Nicea I took in college, an excellent case was made that Constantine used Christianity almost solely for political gain.
I have not read the longer, three volume version of this work, but since the biggest issue is the neck breaking pace, I would imagine the longer works would do much to overcome the major problem of this specific edition.
Average customer rating:
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Inside & Out of Byzantium (Native Agents)
Nina Zivancevic
Manufacturer: Semiotext(e)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1570270082 |
Book Description
Nina Zivancevic, a prominent Serbian poet, scholar, and translator, lived in lower Manhattan prior to the outbreak of the war in Sarajevo in 1992. Zivancevic introduced the work of Allan Ginsberg, Kathy Acker, and Charles Bernstein to East European readers, and her polyglot sensibility is highly informed by her immersion in the downtown New York art and literary world of the 1980s. In this, her first book of fiction written in English, Zivancevic's distant outsider stance as a cosmopolitan New York intellectual is shaken and inexorably transformed with the onset of the war. Faced with the complete blockade of information in the West about the situation in her country, she has no choice but to become actively involved in its comprehension, but without promoting the cause of a particular party or faction. Inside and Out of Byzantium is a remarkably visceral and powerful literary response to a state of permanent war.
Average customer rating:
- A definitive work
- Ok history book but it has a big problem
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A Short History of Byzantium
John Julius Norwich
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0140259600 |
Customer Reviews:
A definitive work.......2006-10-11
Mr. Norwich has provided a wonderful summary of his 3-volume history in this work. Byznaintium finally comes alive in all its splendor, intrigue, and humanity. The 3-volume set is still the definitive work on Byzantine history but this abridged version is a worthy substitute.
Not only is the Byzantine empire of interest to ancient historians but also to anyone interested in understanding the Eastern Orthodox traditions that shaped all of Eastern Europe even to today. In some respects, the Byzantines are still with us in that tradition - surviving against all odds.
Ok history book but it has a big problem.......2006-08-15
When it comes to discussing Christian relics in Constantine the Great's time the author writes of these relics like they are authentic. These relics are just rumored to be the ones in the Bible. There's proof God exists like the "coincidence" of gravity, oxygen and a disproportionately huge moon in the sky. But don't give believed objects the benefit of the doubt of being real when you totally lack proof. Norwich should state it was just believed these objects were the ones used in the Bible.
Book Description
During the nineteenth century, a remarkable scientific instrument known as a harmonograph revealed the beautiful patterns found in music. Harmonograph is an introduction to the evolution of simple harmonic theory, from the discoveries of Pythagoras to diatonic tuning and equal temperament. Beautiful drawings show the octave as triangle, the fifth as pentagram; diagrams show the principles of harmonics, overtones, and the monochord. Anthony Ashton examines the phenomenon of resonance in Chladni patterns, describes how to build a harmonograph of your own, and provides tables of world tuning systems. This inspiring book will appeal to musicians, mathematicians, designers, and artists alike.
Customer Reviews:
Harmon-amazing.......2007-07-09
For anyone wanting to learn some interesting math related information without taking classes that make you sweat bullets then the Wooden Books are a great source to turn to. For the series in a whole, the information is easily grasped and the diagrams and pictures are intersting.
As far as the Harmonograph book in particular, I had no idea that such things existed. I used this as a source for my senior research project entitled "The Mathematics of Music". I got the information I needed, but even afterwards, I couldn't put the book down. Fortuneately, not being able to put the book down is a problem that will only last about an hour. The book is short and to the point, which Mathematics students will love.
After reading this book, all of my friends were impressed with all of the cool things that I told them about Harmonographs and other devices that geometrically plot music. They called me geek, but they were still impressed.
So my overall diagnostic is: The language is eloquent and simple, and you'll wow all of your friends with all of the cool junk you'll learn in this easy-to-read book.
A rare short account of visual expressions of music........2007-01-06
I was really surprised by looking for the first time the visual appearance of music. It looks to me as the our days fractals, shown in a different way.
Wonderful .......2006-08-17
I found this book to be extremely helpful. I'm a music teacher and have been interested in the physics of music for years, but I've never seen the physics of frequency explained so clearly and concisely. I'm really impressed with how well the Pythagorean Comma was handled.
This book, in a format where chapters are almost always one page long, gets into some pretty difficult concepts and explains them better than I thought possible.
This is the book I loan high school kids who are thinking about doing a science project with music. They love it.
Good to know.......2006-07-13
One is reminded of the geometry and math of sound; coupled with its artistic presentation.
Harmonograph: Still mysterious.......2006-02-25
This tiny book is interesting, but not particularly enlightening with regard to the "structure" of music. Regardless, it was worth doing/having.
Book Description
Taming the Great South Land is the first full-length landscape history of an entire continent occupied by one nation. It is also, in William Lines's telling, a brutal and controversial story. Examining the ways European society rapidly, radically transformed Australia's physical and human landscapes, the author writes candidly of repeated environmental devastation--from the early slaughter of seals and whales to the destructive spread of sheep, through gold rushes and land settlement to British nuclear tests and the modern mining and timber industries.
Lines shows how Enlightenment ideas of progress, economic growth, and development were reconstructed on Australian soil, and how the promise of the conquest of nature became a mockery in fact, resulting in the mass dislocation and destruction of indigenous populations.
This shocking narrative, thoroughly researched and accessibly written, combines environmental, social, and political history to hard-hitting effect.
Books:
- The Winning Horseplayer: An Advanced Approach to Thoroughbred Handicapping and Betting
- Three Weeks with My Brother
- Tom: The Unknown Tennessee Williams -- Volume I of the Tennessee Williams Biography
- Tower of Secrets: A Real Life Spy Thriller
- Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story
- Who Was Johnny Appleseed? (Who Was...?)
- Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
- 100 Women Who Shaped World History (100 Series)
- A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups And Downs from Wall Street to Real Estate Leading Up to Phenomenal Returns
- A Hunger For Learning: A Story About Booker T. Washington (Creative Minds Biographies)
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