Interpreter of Maladies

Amazon.com

Mr. Kapasi, the protagonist of Jhumpa Lahiri's title story, would certainly have his work cut out for him if he were forced to interpret the maladies of all the characters in this eloquent debut collection. Take, for example, Shoba and Shukumar, the young couple in "A Temporary Matter" whose marriage is crumbling in the wake of a stillborn child. Or Miranda in "Sexy," who is involved in a hopeless affair with a married man. But Mr. Kapasi has problems enough of his own; in addition to his regular job working as an interpreter for a doctor who does not speak his patients' language, he also drives tourists to local sites of interest. His fare on this particular day is Mr. and Mrs. Das--first-generation Americans of Indian descent--and their children. During the course of the afternoon, Mr. Kapasi becomes enamored of Mrs. Das and then becomes her unwilling confidant when she reads too much into his profession. "I told you because of your talents," she informs him after divulging a startling secret.

I'm tired of feeling so terrible all the time. Eight years, Mr. Kapasi, I've been in pain eight years. I was hoping you could help me feel better; say the right thing. Suggest some kind of remedy.

Of course, Mr. Kapasi has no cure for what ails Mrs. Das--or himself. Lahiri's subtle, bittersweet ending is characteristic of the collection as a whole. Some of these nine tales are set in India, others in the United States, and most concern characters of Indian heritage. Yet the situations Lahiri's people face, from unhappy marriages to civil war, transcend ethnicity. As the narrator of the last story, "The Third and Final Continent," comments: "There are times I am bewildered by each mile I have traveled, each meal I have eaten, each person I have known, each room in which I have slept." In that single line Jhumpa Lahiri sums up a universal experience, one that applies to all who have grown up, left home, fallen in or out of love, and, above all, experienced what it means to be a foreigner, even within one's own family. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the baffling new world, the characters in Jhumpa Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations. In "A Temporary Matter," published in The New Yorker, a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight reminiscent of Anita Desai and a nuanced depth that recalls Mavis Gallant. She is an important and powerful new voice.

Customer Reviews:

A masterpiece!.......2007-10-16

The author has a truly amazing way with words. She is a gifted writer who will not only have you delve into her stories and vibrant characters, but if you are a bibliophile and a lover of words, you will love the mesmerizing use of her words as they come alive in beautifully constructed sentences. Reading this book is like admiring a Van Gogh.

Words on a page are like paint on a canvas, and Jhumpa Lahiri succeeds in choosing colorful words in the right combination, ratio, and lighting (so to speak) to produce a moving canvas that just gets better the more the viewer (a.k.a. the reader) admires it (reads it). After all, the author won a Pulitzer Prize for her work.

This book is a collection of stories about love. The title, `Interpreter of Maladies', stands for an interpreter working at a doctor's office, with the job of translating the patients' symptoms to the doctor. India has many dialects, and Indian people do not necessary all understand each other. A translator is therefore necessary.

A woman married to a man she no longer loves, and in the process, lost the love of living, ends up having an affair with her husband's friend. She becomes pregnant with his friend's child, but neither her husband nor the real father knows that. However, she confides to the `interpreter of maladies', hoping he would find a remedy to her bizarre situation. Unbeknown to her, the interpreter of maladies has fallen in love with her.

Lahiri describes the steps of falling in love and out of love in such detail you would think you are there with the characters. For example, I liked how the interpreter of maladies mentally calculates when he would be receiving a letter from the woman he has fallen in love with. He calculates the days she has remaining in India, then adds her travel days, gives a few days for her to finally write a letter and mail it, and for the two weeks it would take the letter to reach India from the United States. In all, he reckons it would take about 6 weeks. Six weeks of painfully waiting for a letter from a woman he loves! Remember those days we all anxiously awaited letters from our significant halves? Did you run to your mailbox every time the mailman drove by your driveway? With the advent of emails, those days are now relics of the past, but how beautiful it is to remember those days.

Read this book: you will laugh and weep; and just maybe, you'll remember some old forgotten love affair!

Deserving of the Pulitzer.......2007-10-15

Interpreter of Maladies was a surprising treat, and absolutely worthy of the Pulitzer. These richly woven tales deliver insight to Indian culture and universal humanity. I don't typically read short story collections, as I prefer to devote myself to characters for a longer duration. However, I connected with each of the characters and felt moved by their situations during the brief and touching stories. Bravo!

UNUSUALLY BORING.......2007-09-20

I had heard so much about this writer and was anxious to read her work. I was highly disappointed when I did. The stories and characters are exceptionally bland and flat. The author has virtually nothing interesting to say about any subject. In fact, the stories come across as being naive--even affected. From what I have gathered about her bio, Ms. Lahiri has spent most of her life sequestered in academia. Perhaps this is a contributing factor for the inauthentic quality of her work. Her style of writing, however, (sentence structure for example) does have a nice quality to it. But style is only one part of the art of writing. In regards to all other aspects (story, characters, suspense, human interest) this collection fails utterly. An extremely disappointing read. I was taken nowhere. Hard to believe this book garnered so many awards.

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.......2007-09-19

This collection of nine short stories won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1999. The author, Jhumpa Lahiri, is of Indian descent, born in London and currently lives in New York, so each story is a look into a different part of Indian culture or into Indian people and their way of life. The first three stories were great and the title story was my favorite. The man literally is an interpreter of maladies, who works at a hospital translating patients' symptoms to the doctor and in this it is revealed he has a lot of power and obligation in telling the doctor exactly what the patient is suffering from so the correct diagnosis can be given. After this story, I found the rest of book slow, kind of boring, and the stories just weren't as engaging.

What started to annoy me as a I progressed through the book was that here you had a no doubt rich and well treated Indian woman who went to very good schools, lived in a good home in England, went to a good writing school for her MFA - probably in New York - and proceeded to publish her work in prestigious magazines like the New Yorker, and yet she is writing about Indian life and how hard it is for most people, especially those not as well off, and it just really got to me that she had succeeded in this way writing about a way of life she'd never experienced.

Now, having finished the book, my thoughts towards Lahiri have changed a little. For with her upbringing she was never able to experience Indian culture as an Indian living in India. This was no doubt a big deal to her, and is to Indian culture. A friend at work, who is of Indian decent, but born here, told me the other day that Indians don't consider him Indian because he was born here. I realize now that this was probably the very thing that changed my mind about this book. It helped me realize that in writing these stories, Lahiri is living the lives of these people, getting the experiences, that she was never able to, and in doing so is helping to define her Indian heritage better.

The result is a collection of interesting and unique stories - perhaps not quite deserving of the Pulitzer -- about Indian people trying to live ordinary Indian lives.

For more book reviews, and other writings, go to www.alexctelander.com

Great stories.......2007-09-10

I liked every one of the stories in "Interpreter of Maladies". Well written.
It's rare to find a collection of short stories where all of the stories are good.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Average customer rating:

Mayflower
Unraveling a Myth
Not what I was hoping for
Educational book
Not what I expected, but

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Nathaniel Philbrick
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Team of Rivals
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
Suite Francaise
The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage)
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer (P.S.)

ASIN: 0670037605

Book Description

From the bestselling author of In the Heart of the SeaÂ—winner of the National Book AwardÂ—the startling story of the Plymouth Colony

From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a fifty-five-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound.

The MayflowerÂ's religious refugees arrived in Plymouth Harbor during a period of crisis for Native Americans as disease spread by European fishermen devastated their populations. Initially the two groupsÂ—the Wampanoags, under the charismatic and calculating chief Massasoit, and the Pilgrims, whose pugnacious military officer Miles Standish was barely five feet tallÂ—maintained a fragile working relationship. But within decades, New England would erupt into King PhilipÂ's War, a savagely bloody conflict that nearly wiped out English colonists and natives alike and forever altered the face of the fledgling colonies and the country that would grow from them.

With towering figures like William Bradford and the distinctly American hero Benjamin Church at the center of his narrative, Philbrick has fashioned a fresh and compelling portrait of the dawn of American historyÂ—a history dominated right from the start by issues of race, violence, and religion.

Customer Reviews:

Mayflower.......2007-10-18

The history presented by Nathaniel Philbrick is very interesting and gives a person a more personable view of the Mayflower families and times (as well as of the Indians in New England). I found his information to be quite complete and filled in a lot of history that has not been published before that I know of.

Unraveling a Myth.......2007-10-18

" Wherever they first set foot on the American continent, it wasn't Plymouth, and it certainly wasn't Plymouth Rock. The first Thanksgiving (in 1621) was indeed attended by Indians as well as Pilgrims, but they didn't sit at the tidy table depicted in Victorian popular art; they "stood, squatted, or sat on the ground as they clustered around outdoor fires, where the deer and birds turned on wooden spits and where pottages -- stews into which varieties of meats and vegetables were thrown -- simmered invitingly."

- Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

How many of us grew up with myths about the Pilgrims and about the first Thanksgiving? We all believed that the Pilgrims and the Indians sat at a beautiful table laden with turkey, cranberries and all of the fixings. Not only was that not the case, they certainly didn't set foot on Plymouth Rock.

Philbrick puts these myths to rest. And he tells us about the beginning of our new country and what was the basis for its foundation. Our myths contained stories about Massasoit and Squanto, Bradford and Winslow and, of course, Miles Standish.

One of the major accounts in the book was that of the King Philip's War. We learned that it really did not have to be. Both sides could have developed solutions which respected the goodness in each other as well as the differences.

We learned about how the Indians were shipped off to foreign places during this war and were separated from all of their families and tribes....never to be heard from again (having been made slaves). Only a few ever made it back like Squanto, for example.

Philbrick discusses why the war occurred after so many years of peace and why the descendants of Massasoit and of Bradford and Winslow came to see things differently than their fathers; losing sight of the faith and the respect for the individual that their forefathers had long revered. They also blocked out the memory of how they all needed one another to survive.

The Mayflower Compact, we learn, is one document that laid the foundations for the country that America was to become. Yet, our forefathers had to live through a nightmare of a war (of their own making) where both sides suffered tremendously. It took many years after the war ended to ever recoup even a portion of what was lost.

Philbrick's book is a story of courage, community and war on both sides as well as a story of how our forefathers lost sight of what the Indians had done for their ancestors and their fathers and what was owed to these people. In doing so, they also lost sight of the need for diplomacy and how to work together to come up with solutions that would be good for both the settlers as well as the Indians.

MAYFLOWER has won many awards and the book deserves all of them. What I have come away with deals first with the myth. This was unraveled for me so that I could understand and gain knowledge of the facts of these early settlements. I learned what worked, what didn't work and why the peaceful compact fell apart. I also learned that we can gain a lot from understanding our past and that we do not have to make the same mistakes over again.

Nathaniel Philbrick has given us hope that our future does not always have to resemble our past. He wrote, "When violence and fear grip a society, there is an almost overpowering temptation to demonize the enemy. But some on both sides refused to succumb. They were the ones whose rambunctious and intrinsically rebellious faith in humanity finally brought the war to an end, and they are the heroes of this story."

During the times that we face now, our heroes can continue to be those leaders and citizens who strive to focus on the faith in humanity and celebrate our differences as well as our similarities finding solutions rather than reasons to turn away from each other.

Four Stars: B+ (Recommend Highly)

Bentley/2007
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War

Not what I was hoping for.......2007-10-13

I couldn't get into this book because it was very different from what I thought it would be. I expected "Mayflower" to be a detailed account of why the pilgrims decided to journey to America, and also a vivid description of what life aboard the Mayflower was actually like. The book did cover those things, but only for a few short pages. Most of the book is devoted to the history of Plymouth Colony and King Philip's War. Author Nataniel Philbrick does an excellent job of shooting down the myths many people believe about what the pilgrim settlement was actually like, but I was much more interested in reading about the actual Mayflower journey and was disappointed that so little information about that event was included in this 400+ page book. "Mayflower" should be called "King Philip's War" so readers know what they're getting into.

Educational book.......2007-09-26

This is a very informative, accurate writing of our history. More people should read and know the real history of our country.

Not what I expected, but.......2007-09-16

the book was still a captivating piece of literature. I read this directly after reading In the Heart of the Sea by Philbrick, and was expecting the same type of story. That was not the case however. The title is a bit misleading in that one thinks they are going to be reading (or at least I did) a story of the journey. The subtitle should have cued me in. The book is about the struggle between the settlers and the natives more so than it is about the voyage to the new world. All that being said, I still loved the book. I gave the book four stars because I wish there was more about the actual voyage, and I think the title is a little misleading. All in all though, it is a superb piece of literature.

Average customer rating:

Indian
Enchanting and riveting, this story will stay with you
Island Of The Blue Dolphins!
May be too adult for 10 or 11 yr olds
good

Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell
Manufacturer: Yearling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0440439884
Release Date: 1987-02-01

Amazon.com

Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years.

O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island. This beautiful edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins is enriched with 12 full-page watercolor paintings by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books, including Ali, Child of the Desert. A gripping story of battling wild dogs and sea elephants, this simply told, suspenseful tale of survival is also an uplifting adventure of the spirit. (Ages 9 to 12)

Book Description

In the Pacific, there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea birds abound. Karana is the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Hers is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.

Customer Reviews:

Indian.......2007-10-01

White people found her people and took them off island with lie of freedom. She escaped and remain on island with brother. Wolves eat brother. She walk alone and with a special wolf who is kind to her. one day she enter a water cave, found out the truth about her people fate. her people died and she survived. one day white people return to the island once again, she finally allow herself to join them. she became famous and she is buried in california. her clothing is in museum in Italy. wonderful story of her courage life.

Enchanting and riveting, this story will stay with you.......2007-08-27

I have to smile when reading these other reviews that say this book was one of their favorites as a child. It also was mine. I've read so many books, that most times the memory of the details within them grow dim, but not with "Island of the Blue Dolphins". I can still picture the breathtaking beauty of the island where Karana spent her growing years. I still remember her joys and trials of living alone for so long, after everyone had left. Her ingenuity and strength still amazes me. I can't wait until my children are old enough so I can enjoy this Newberry book with them. It's definitely one in a million.

Island Of The Blue Dolphins!.......2007-08-19

When I was on vacation at Martha's Vinyard I went to the book store and bought Island Of The Blue Dolphins for myself and I loved it!! I love it so much because of it's beautiful discriptions and details that I can picture in my mind. This book is beautifully written and has wonderful detail of natural survival of hunting, and making friends (Rontu and Rontu-Aru and the English girl Tutok, the fox and Won-a-nee the otter). How many wonderful and beautiful adventures of exciting survival can one indian girl have? I am 10 years old and recommend this book to whoever loves reading and is a fan of detail and beauty!!!!!!!!

May be too adult for 10 or 11 yr olds.......2007-08-15

My 11 yr old enjoyed this book but says it was too sad for her taste. Kids!

good.......2007-08-13

THIS BOOK WAS FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER. She liked it very much. I am looking for some other books for 7th graders do you have any suggestions?

Average customer rating:

Started out good, but fizzled
This from a Pulitzer winning author?
Heavy on sensory description, light on story
Caught between two cultures
the struggle with traditions

The Namesake: A Novel
Jhumpa Lahiri
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0395927218

Amazon.com

Any talk of The Namesake--Jhumpa Lahiri's follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning debut, Interpreter of Maladies--must begin with a name: Gogol Ganguli. Born to an Indian academic and his wife, Gogol is afflicted from birth with a name that is neither Indian nor American nor even really a first name at all. He is given the name by his father who, before he came to America to study at MIT, was almost killed in a train wreck in India. Rescuers caught sight of the volume of Nikolai Gogol's short stories that he held, and hauled him from the train. Ashoke gives his American-born son the name as a kind of placeholder, and the awkward thing sticks.

Awkwardness is Gogol's birthright. He grows up a bright American boy, goes to Yale, has pretty girlfriends, becomes a successful architect, but like many second-generation immigrants, he can never quite find his place in the world. There's a lovely section where he dates a wealthy, cultured young Manhattan woman who lives with her charming parents. They fold Gogol into their easy, elegant life, but even here he can find no peace and he breaks off the relationship. His mother finally sets him up on a blind date with the daughter of a Bengali friend, and Gogol thinks he has found his match. Moushumi, like Gogol, is at odds with the Indian-American world she inhabits. She has found, however, a circuitous escape: "At Brown, her rebellion had been academic ... she'd pursued a double major in French. Immersing herself in a third language, a third culture, had been her refuge--she approached French, unlike things American or Indian, without guilt, or misgiving, or expectation of any kind." Lahiri documents these quiet rebellions and random longings with great sensitivity. There's no cleverness or showing-off in The Namesake, just beautifully confident storytelling. Gogol's story is neither comedy nor tragedy; it's simply that ordinary, hard-to-get-down-on-paper commodity: real life. --Claire Dederer

Book Description

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies established this young writer as one the most brilliant of her generation. Her stories are one of the very few debut works -- and only a handful of collections -- to have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Among the many other awards and honors it received were the New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical praise for its grace, acuity, and compassion in detailing lives transported from India to America. In The Namesake, Lahiri enriches the themes that made her collection an international bestseller: the immigrant experience, the clash of cultures, the conflicts of assimilation, and, most poignantly, the tangled ties between generations. Here again Lahiri displays her deft touch for the perfect detail -- the fleeting moment, the turn of phrase -- that opens whole worlds of emotion. The Namesake takes the Ganguli family from their tradition-bound life in Calcutta through their fraught transformation into Americans. On the heels of their arranged wedding, Ashoke and Ashima Ganguli settle together in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An engineer by training, Ashoke adapts far less warily than his wife, who resists all things American and pines for her family. When their son is born, the task of naming him betrays the vexed results of bringing old ways to the new world. Named for a Russian writer by his Indian parents in memory of a catastrophe years before, Gogol Ganguli knows only that he suffers the burden of his heritage as well as his odd, antic name. Lahiri brings great empathy to Gogol as he stumbles along the first-generation path, strewn with conflicting loyalties, comic detours, and wrenching love affairs. With penetrating insight, she reveals not only the defining power of the names and expectations bestowed upon us by our parents, but also the means by which we slowly, sometimes painfully, come to define ourselves. The New York Times has praised Lahiri as "a writer of uncommon elegance and poise." The Namesake is a fine-tuned, intimate, and deeply felt novel of identity.

Customer Reviews:

Started out good, but fizzled.......2007-10-16

I read Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" and very much enjoyed it, so I was looking foward to "The Namesake". This book started out good, but by the time Gogol started dating, I was bored. There is too much detail about Gogal and his girlfriends. All that information about Maxine and her family was pointless. There are other times in the book where too much time is given to mundane stuff.
I found myself rushing through the second half of the book just to get done.

This from a Pulitzer winning author?.......2007-09-28

I have to admit I was surprised at the accolades heaped on this book...it is simply a bland but well-written description of an immigrant family experience in America, a theme previously touched by numerous Indian-American authors (such as Bharati Mukerjee). I felt that the writing was very passive and disinterested, as if the author didnt feel the need to engage the reader with a more compelling storyline, and who instead felt that a quaint description of an exotic cultural experience would suffice to make it a worthwhile read.

And I couldnt help comparing this book to another novel released at the same time which also delves into immigrant experience but within the context of a gripping, heartwrenching story--The Kite Runner (which has received over 200 reviews in Amazon). There, the reader was able to appreciate the Afghani culture and historical context as the author deftly combines it with his storytelling. In the Namesake, the reader is put in the position of an anthropologist, curiously observing a culture from outside. An Indian friend of mine, majoring in Sociology, jokingly referred to the Namesake as a dissertation in immigrant experience. Interestingly, none of my Indian-American friends thought highly of the book!

Heavy on sensory description, light on story.......2007-09-23

Lahiri has created an evocative masterpiece, a minutely detailed world that the reader can imagine tasting, smelling and hearing. The description begins in the first paragraph with a vivid account of a heavily pregnant woman and her unusual cravings. Other reviews cite Lahiri's gift for chronicling the outsider experience; I have never lived anywhere other than the US but I think everyone has felt slightly different at times, and she captures that sentiment perfectly. It is remarkable that the more specific a piece of writing is, the more universal it can feel. On the whole, lovely description of a family's experience; the reader should expect no cliffhangers here.

Caught between two cultures.......2007-09-15

"The Namesake" is the story of Gogol Ganguli, a man born to Indian parents who moved to America shortly after they were married. Gogol's name has always been a source of deep resentment for him, as it is neither Indian or American. Eventually Gogol opts to have his name legally changed before he leaves for college. In addition to adjusting to his new name, Gogol continues with a struggle he's faced his entire life: How to relate to and maintain his Indian culture while living on American soil. Gogol rejects most things about his heritage, preferring to lead a more "Americanized" lifestyle. His choices create a barrier between him and his family, but try as he might, Gogol never feels completely at ease within the American culture, either. He establishes a successful career for himself and has has several serious relationships, but Gogol never really finds a comfortable place for himself in this world. Eventually he finds happiness with an Indian woman, of all people, who relates to him on so many levels. However, Moushumi has her own way of rebelling, and at the end of the novel we find Gogol back at the very place his life began, where he begins to rediscover himself.

I fell in love with this book after reading the first few pages, and I couldn't put it down. I enjoyed it even more than author Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, "Interpreter of Maladies." Lahiri writes in a simple yet emotional style that is rich in detail. Although the novel revolves around Gogol, Lahiri occasionally shifts perspective and gives the reader a glimpse of the story from the eyes of Gogol's parents and Moushumi. All of the characters make a lot of mistakes, but I was able to easily relate to and empathize with each of them.

This is a book about family, identity, heritage, and self-discovery. You don't have to be the child of immigrants in order to relate to the process of pulling apart from your family and discovering the person you're destined to become. I think this book has something to offer everyone, and it also happens to be a beautiful, poignant story. "The Namesake" is a must-read.

the struggle with traditions.......2007-08-31

I just finished reading "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri and I am still trying to figure out if I liked it or not. There was no story, per say. There was no mysterie to solve, no one to really root for, no hero. The story is a 30 year slice of life of the Ganguli family - how the husband and wife married, how the wife joined her husband in America while he was in school, them having children and the children growing up. The book was slow, sometimes even boring and it was easy for me to not like the main character, Gogol (the son), because he was never happy about anything and he was always whining to himself about something. But through all this, Lahiri is illustrating the importance of traditions and how they can be simultaneously comforting, necessary, burdening and sometimes hated. This, I believe, is what Lahiri is trying to show her readers. I ended up really liking this book, but it didn't move fast enough for me and at times felt like a chore. The content of traditions and family values and relations is in there - in fact it is quite strong at times, however the way that Lahiri presented it was too slow for me to want to seek out her other works. One thing that stood out for me with this book though, was the food. Lahiri made me so hungry in the way she described the food in how it was prepared and what was in it, describing how it tasted and what it looked like. I wrote down some of the foods so that I can look them up and try them out.

Average customer rating:

old weird America
A Weird and Funny Book
Jamestown
Tour de Tour de Force
It was okay. maybe...

Jamestown: A Novel
Matthew Sharpe
Manufacturer: Soft Skull Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Amazon.com

On the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, you won't want to confuse Matthew Sharpe's new novel by that name with the many commemorative histories that are coming out alongside it. In this gleefully anachronistic and deeply scatological tale, history repeats itself in a post-apocalyptic future that's as violent as the past. Sharpe connects many of the familiar historical dots (Pocahontas saves Captain John Smith and falls for John Rolfe, for example), but his settlers don't arrive from across the Atlantic in search of new land for tobacco: they flee a Manhattan where the Chrysler Building has just collapsed and the water is poison, driving an armored bus down the ruins of I-95 in search of the supplies of gas and clean food that they hope the territory of Virginia might provide. Amid the gore and smut, you'll find a surprisingly touching love story, starring a restless, de-Disneyed, and thoroughly charming Pocahontas, and thrillingly inventive language on every page that skims from Elizabethan archaism to IM slang and back, often in the same sentence. --Tom Nissley

Questions for Matthew Sharpe

Jamestown is Matthew Sharpe's fourth book (his previous novel, The Sleeping Father broke out into wide readership, thanks in part to a surprise Today show book club selection). We asked him a few questions about his latest work.

Amazon.com: What attracted you to the Jamestown story (aside, of course, from cashing in on the 400th anniversary)?

Sharpe: For a dozen years I worked as a writer in residence in New York City public schools for a nonprofit called Teachers & Writers Collaborative. In the late '90s a group of middle-school teachers in Queens asked me to help them develop some creative writing exercises for a unit they were about to teach on the Jamestown settlement of 1607 in Virginia. I read John Smith's several accounts of his sojourn there, made up some writing exercises, road-tested them, and liked the material so much I decided to do a big, novel-length writing exercise about it. I was drawn to the extremity of the story, the big personalities--Smith, Pocahontas, Powhatan--and, well, the awfulness of it. The story of Jamestown functions as one of the founding myths of our nation, and I wanted to highlight how America began in violence, bloodshed, and a level of incompetence that would be ridiculous had it not been so deadly; in other words, Jamestown was a lot like the administration of George W. Bush.

As for cashing in, I leave that to lottery winners and poker champions.

Amazon.com: You reveal how the former United States has come to this post-apocalyptic state of affairs in bits and pieces. Did you work that future history out for yourself beforehand, or did you just fill it in on the go, as needed?

Sharpe: I'm inclined to use the term post-annihilation rather than post-apocalyptic, since "apocalypse" implies revelation, i.e., the receiving of some crucial, maybe even divine knowledge. I don't see the people in my novel being the beneficiaries of that kind of knowledge, though some of them are struggling mightily to attain it. And I had a really good model for the post-annihilation future I depict, namely, the pre-annihilation present, presided over by the world's superpower-of-the-moment, us. As for working out my imaginary future beforehand or making it up as I went along: the latter, always the latter. The novel is an improvisation--a structured one, I hope, but the excitement (and terror) of writing fiction for me derives from the way I am always simultaneously playing the game and making up the game.

Amazon.com: How did you choose which elements from the original Jamestown story to include, and which to discard?

Sharpe: Mostly by intuition. I knew I wanted a cross-cultural love story and a cross-cultural horror story to co-exist: this would be the central tension of the novel, each would offset the other, or so I hoped. The primarily economic purpose of the original settlers also seemed important to include. The rest I used or invented as guided by presentiment. And, for better or worse, the things I say in interviews about the novel are mostly retroactive insights--hypotheses more than explanations. The person who wrote the book knows more about it than the person answering these questions does.

Amazon.com: Ben Marcus has written, "My feeling is that the impossible must be made viable, and only through language, that language is not subject to the laws of physics and therefore must not be restricted to conservative notions of 'sense' and 'nonsense,' but must pursue what appears impossible in order to discover the basic things." What's your take on that?

Sharpe: I like what Ben Marcus does with language in his own fiction and in his essays about other peoples'. I'd say one of the ways I tried to use language to depict the impossible in Jamestown was to represent the past, the present, and the future happening simultaneously. This happens at the level of content--people in a future America living one of America's originary historical events as if it had never happened before--and, I hope, it also happens at the level of style--people talking in English that is Shakespearean one moment, Keatsean the next, Otis Reddingesque the next, or all in the same sentence, or word.

Amazon.com: Jamestown is dedicated to Lore Segal, who is known in my house as the author of the fabulous kids' book, Tell Me a Mitzi, but who has had a long and varied career beyond that. What led you to honor her so?

Sharpe: Lore Segal is an excellent human being and was perhaps the most important writing teacher I had. I took a course with her at the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan several years after graduating from college. It was all so dicey, "being a writer," it required an audacity I was attempting to muster. Lore's encouragement, her generosity, her good humor, her ability to help me figure out which parts of what I was doing were worth pursuing--these qualities of this wonderful woman helped me muster that audacity. She has a new book out called Shakespeare's Kitchen. Dear readers, if you have not already, please read the short story in there called "The Reverse Bug," and then, when you climb up off the floor, read the rest of the book.

Book Description

Jamestown chronicles a group of “settlers” (more like survivors) from the ravaged island of Manhattan, departing just as the Chrysler Building has mysteriously plummeted to the earth. This ragged band is heading down what’s left of I-95 in a half-school bus, half-Millennium Falcon. Their goal is to establish an outpost in southern Virginia, find oil, and exploit the Indians controlling the area. Based on actual accounts of the Jamestown settlement from 1607 to 1617, Jamestown features historical characters including John Smith, Pocahontas, and others enacting an imaginative re-version of life in the pioneer colony. In this retelling, Pocahontas’s father Powhatan is half-Falstaff, half-Henry V, while his consigliere is a psychiatrist named Sidney Feingold. John Martin gradually loses body parts in a series of violent encounters, and John Smith is a ruthless and pragmatic redhead continually undermining the aristocratic leadership. Communication is by text-messaging, IMing, and, ultimately, telepathy. Punctuated by jokes, rhymes, “rim shot” dialogue, and bloody black-comic tableaux, Jamestown is a trenchant commentary on America's past and present that confirms Matthew Sharpe’s status as a major talent in contemporary fiction.

Customer Reviews:

old weird America.......2007-09-28

Matthew Sharpe's America here is the America of Blood Meridian, a childlike, exuberant, and reflexively violent America. The writing is simultaneously coarse and refined, broad in its obsessions, but cutting and precise in its arch vocabulary. It also keeps its sense of humor all the way through. As absurdist and outlandish as this post-Apocalyptic mashup is, it remains true to the metaphors of the Jamestown settlement. The characters are well-delineated, and it's easy to relate to both the "native" populations and the interlopers as they struggle with cross-cultural communication, one's responsibilities to one's society, and what it's like to fall for a stranger who can scarcely conceive of your roots. John Rolfe's stoned reading of a Rorschach inkblot is a tour de force, moving deftly from the scatological to the heartbreaking, all the while hewing to the novel's own self-made mythos. Sharpe is conscientious about paying off his enigmas, like the red skin of the tribesman, their ability to speak English, and the nature of the war between Manhattan and Brooklyn. He's also good about slipping in historical and cultural nuggets, both ancient and modern. My only issue was with the obvious difficulty of sustaining such an over-the-top narrative. The relentlessness did get to be a little wearing on the backside of the arc.

A Weird and Funny Book.......2007-07-05

Matthew Sharpe's Jamestown takes a story that Americans are at least tangentially familiar with--the disastrous founding of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607--and transforms it into a post-apocalyptic satire. All the familiar names are here Smith, Rolfe, Powhatan and Pocahontas, but now these adventurers and Indians, the survivors of some terrible past doom, find themselves in a blasted brave new world full of violence and uncertainty. This might not sound like the stuff of fall-on-the-floor-laughing comedy, but in Sharpe's hands, it is. Divided into several first-person chapters, Sharpe allows his characters to reveal this re-hashed history in every terrible detail, from the execrable conditions at the colonists' camp to the fatally hilarious encounters between the two groups. It isn't easy to juggle so many characters, but Sharpe does so ably with a mixture of wit, cynicism, and linguistic brio, not seen in letters since Nabokov. The first-person narratives by turns are terrifying, funny, and sad (and usually all of those at once), and it is to Sharpe's credit that even the most repugnant characters are not above our sympathies. Sharpe saves the real lit fireworks, however, for his Pocahontas, who here, is a fast-talking, intelligent, vulnerable, monologist. Trust me when I tell you won't find any "Color of the Wind" fluff, here. (The character's e-mail and instant message exchanges with her sort-of beloved, Johnny Rolfe, are hilarious send ups of e-culture.) She is the funny, cynical, tragic center of this novel and one of many, many reasons why you should pick it up.

Jamestown.......2007-07-01

Gave this one star only because you din't have "0" listed. Don't bother to read. It is disjointed and difficult to follow. I read the author interview and gained some insight...he has a political axe to grind, unfortunatly he must have cut himself on the axe, the book is awful.

Tour de Tour de Force.......2007-06-27

The "Today" show and Anne Tyler's praise first brought my attention to Matthew Sharpe. I bought "The Sleeping Father," his last novel, and was completely floored--a satirical and wry comment on American life that at it heart still has heart, such a rare artistic achievement. So I'll admit, I was predisposed to enjoy whatever came next. Jamestown is more than I could have hoped for. The first thing I love about it--something I love about all great works of literature--is that you have a difficult time describing it. I want to say it's a road book, a little like Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," in that respect. But it's so much more. On the surface, it takes us into the future, at a point when Manhattan and Brooklyn are at war, in the post-apocalyptic ruins of America. A company of men is dispatched to Jamestown, Virginia, where they come in contact with the local tribe of Native Americans, about whom I can say no more without giving too much away. Suffice it to say that in an acid rain world of polluted waters, poisonous air, and species evolution gone wild, the "Indians" seems to have learned how to survive. Jamestown has love stories, war stories, and an underlying analysis of humans in struggles for power. As far as women go, the teenage Pocahontas, diary writing to the world on wireless, is a character that, if I have it right, will go down in literary history: she is a joy to be with, a page-turning treat. The book has so many levels that I don't even know how to communicate them--Sharpe writes sentences that almost comment on themselves but never end up being anything less than lyrical and just beautiful. Jamestown is about America, war, and ultimately about love. It's beautifully crafted and, despite its intellectual and analytical heft that hits you when its all over, it reads like a thriller, each small chapter racing you ahead on the road into that runs simultaneously into the past and the future of America. I'm probably not being clear, so let me say this about it before I wrap up: amazing! I just have one question about the book, and that is: why isn't everyone reading Jamestown? Right now?

It was okay. maybe..........2007-06-02

I realize my title is rather blasé, but I can't garner much enthusiasm for this novel. While I did really like small sections of the book, characters may be more accurate, overall I did not enjoy it. I thought of giving up like a previous reviewer but stuck with it only to be very confused and disappointed. I really like the two main characters and Powhatan, but that's about it.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Average customer rating:

Alexie is brilliant
"Everybody in this book is drunk or in love with a drunk."
Hilarious and Heart Breaking
great book, Indian reservation look
Wonderful collection of short stories..

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Sherman Alexie
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Reservation Blues
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ASIN: 0802141676

Book Description

When it was first published in 1993, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven established Sherman Alexie as a stunning new talent of American letters. The basis for the award-winning movie Smoke Signals, it remains one of his most beloved and widely praised books. In this darkly comic collection, Alexie brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a complex, grimly ironic portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. These twenty-two interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet are filled with passion and affection, myth and dream. Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and, most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past.

Customer Reviews:

Alexie is brilliant.......2007-09-28

This collection of short stories about the American Indian experience is brilliant. I teach this collection in my college lit classes and students love it. The story "Because My Father...." is a favorite. We read it along with analyzing clips of Jimi Hendrix playing the Banner at Woodstock. I've presented several professional papers at conferences of this story along with the Hendrix clips and the audience of lit profs like it too. Always generates a lot of discussion of the intersections of cultures and classes. Students also love Reservation Blues. (I can't get rid of the "Kid" tag. Definitely not for kids.)

"Everybody in this book is drunk or in love with a drunk.".......2007-09-03

States Alexie in the introduction (pp xviii, xix) to this collection of short stories. Of his leap from literary obscurity to published author and member of the middle-class, he writes, "all because I wrote stories and poems about being a poor Indian growing up in an alcoholic family on an alcoholic reservation." And that about sums them up. Read the introduction and you can't help but like the guy (especially his brief experience with a too big for her britches agent). His tales are unusual, spiritual, and immensely important, but often sad. Even so, after reading several with similar themes, most will have had their fill. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. Likers of Alexie's stories may also enjoy: Love Medicine by Louis Erdich, The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, The Bone People by Keri Hulme and Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.

Hilarious and Heart Breaking.......2007-05-16

Sherman Alexie fearlessly confronts the problems faced by the Native Americans of Spokane, Washington. With his sense of hilarity and deep berevity, Alexie points to such problems as alcoholism, broken families, drug abuse, poverty, loss of culture, loss of community, and loss of pride. While it may appear as though Alexies' musings are all "fun-and-games," it will not be difficult for the reader to discern that there is something deeply troubling about most of the characters in Alexies' writings. One gets the sense that when ALexie paints a verbal picture of the reservation, a sense of utter hoplessness prevades the entire situation. Just look at the picture on the book cover. If one were to look closely, they would be able to see a pickup truck making its way away from the reservation. The reservation that it is leaving appears to be in flames. One of the main character's father drinks himself to death, and his son is too poverty stricken to even come collect the remains. It is not all bad, however. Alexie does offer a corridor of redemption when the main character ( a young Indian named Victor) adopts a child and turns his life around, leading one to beleive that all hope is never lost. All in all, this read is both heart breaking and hilarious as Alexie writes some genuinely funny material.

great book, Indian reservation look.......2007-05-12

I had to read this book for my comp. lit class, and I am very glad to have had the chance. Throughout the stories, the location of hope and hopelessness on the reservation is made apparent, and while in general there is much poverty and degeneration described within the community, the narrators of the stories within Alexie's novel bring hope and a human touch to the experience.

Wonderful collection of short stories.........2007-02-19

There's nothing more powerful than a good story. And Sherman Alexie proves it with this collection of stories about life on the reservation. Many stories touch up on very personal elements of Alexie's as well as his past love life and mix ins with racial inequality outside of the reservation (these stories are printed in the newer editions of this book). Overall a thorough read and I am very glad I brought it to read during a long trip.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

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Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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Binding: Paperback

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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

Not what I expected
Refreshingly Real Erotica
HOT
F-ing Brilliant!!!
Erotica At It's Best!

Bedtime Erotica
Lexy Harper
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1419618318
Release Date: 2005-12-12

Product Description

Bedtime Erotica is a collection of eight explicit short stories that will leave a lasting impression. It starts off with a bang in Telephone Sex: raw, nasty and in-your-face but quickly shifts to the more subtly erotic Double The Trouble, a story of a woman desired equally by her boyfriend and his identical twin. Lexy constantly turns the heat up and down with each story, leaving the readers passions simmering until they finally get to Oxford Blue, a beautifully written tale of a mature womans seduction by her sons friend that will make you question your morals. The characters are all different: from the young, shy, virginal to the sassy, sexy, downright outrageous, mature, older woman. They each take a pleasure-filled adventure to satisfy a sexual hunger that craves ultimate fulfilment.

Customer Reviews:

Not what I expected.......2007-07-11

I was dissapointed with this. A little less 'in your face" raunch and a bit more erotica, please.

Refreshingly Real Erotica.......2007-06-02

This is great stuff. Hot stories that are just the right length and what makes it so appealing is that they are about different people from different walks of life and that is what makes it so refreshingly real and erotic. It makes for a more enjoyable read almost as if it is a different writer for each story. Lexy really takes us in to her world; it feels as though we are a fly on the wall watching the action, like reality TV in a book. More than just a voyeurs dream, it is an essential education in relationships. Learning about what men and women really want from each other and what they can give each other to emphasise their pleasure and take their love making to new heights of ecstasy is what it is all about.

I do like the love seat idea and it made me smile because in my minds eye I have made a mental love seat of my own, erotic minds must think alike. I must admit I do like the short story format as compared to the erotic novel and I have read a lot just lately, surprisingly this is my first Lexy Harper, but it won't be the last I'm sure.

I would highly recommend Bedtime Erotica. Another book I would recommend that you have a look at is 100 Percent Erotica by Suzie Van Aartman. Very erotic and very explicit, I had to change my underwear after reading it. Check it out. Both these books could well become all time classics in my opinion.

HOT.......2007-06-02

I bought this book and the authors other book, Bedtime Erotica (for freaks like me), at the same time. I read this one first and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It is a black, british woman ( I would imagine) writing the book so some of the slang and spelling is different but the book is hot none the less. I do like this one over the other a little bit. Just get both though. You won't be disappointed.

F-ing Brilliant!!!.......2007-05-28

I didn't think I could get into books like this. I read it. I love it. I want more of it.

Erotica At It's Best!.......2007-04-15

From the first story "Telephone Sex" to the last story "Oxford Blue" (both my favorites) Lexy Harper exposes the reader to eight erotic stories that are guaranteed to make your toes curl and much much more!

Written with finesse, these sexual adventures are stimulating, sensual, steamy, and sexy.
At the end of each tale Ms Harper gives us a little insight into what prompt her to write each story.

Right before the start of the first story Ms Harper has a one line dedication that hooked me immediately ... because I love a good f*****g
Story!!!

It was nice to finally read great work by an author from my home town of London England. We British gals are BOLD!!

NOTE:
This book is hot! For those who can't stand the heat...caution!!

Locksie

ARC Book Club Inc.
Star Rating*****5.0

Ceremony (Contemporary American Fiction Series)

Average customer rating:

Ceremony
It's just stupid
Winners and Losers
5 years later and this book STILL makes me cringe.
Ceremony

Ceremony (Contemporary American Fiction Series)
Leslie Marmon Silko
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Tracks
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Love Medicine : A Novel (Perennial Classics)
House Made of Dawn (Perennial Classics)
Fools Crow (Contemporary American Fiction)

ASIN: 0140086838

Book Description

Thirty years since its original publication, Ceremony remains one of the most profound and moving works of Native American literature, a novel that is itself a ceremony of healing. Tayo, a World War II veteran of mixed ancestry, returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. He is deeply scarred by his experience as a prisoner of the Japanese and further wounded by the rejection he encounters from his people. Only by immersing himself in the Indian past can he begin to regain the peace that was taken from him. Masterfully written, filled with the somber majesty of Pueblo myth, Ceremony is a work of enduring power.

Customer Reviews:

Ceremony .......2007-09-26

It is beautifully written. The main character becomes someone you want to know and love. It fills your heart with sadness and hope.

It's just stupid.......2007-08-26

It's just stupid. Just don't do it. If you're thinking about reading it, just don't. Spare yourself the agony. I'd rather be in a Vietnamese prison camp than reading this again.

Winners and Losers.......2007-08-23

Most Americans subscribe to the American Dream--anyone can "win" if he or she fights hard enough-- for themselves and those close to them. Not everyone includes minorities in this premise; not everyone feels they are true Americans. This is the story of Tayo, son of an American Indian and a Mexican; truly he is not only a minority to the whites but also to the other Indians with whom he lives. The plot revolves around his lifelong struggle to fit in with the other Indians ; serving in World War II sharpened his feelings of inferiority and threatened to overwhelm him. His many attempts to overcome his feelings, and those who helped and hindered him make it difficult to put down the book until the very end. Readers who are willing to grit their teeth and sometimes re-read sections which appear out of place will be more than rewarded.

5 years later and this book STILL makes me cringe........2007-08-21

I had to read this book for an English class I was taking, and it was by far THE WORST book out of the hundreds of tomes I've ever read, with Age of Iron trailing not too far behind. Just the mention of the book makes me cringe I hated it so bad. At the end of the year while filling out the professor's "Comments on the class" form, EVERYBODY in the class told him to stop teaching this book. I hope to God no other student will ever be subjected to such torture again.

Ceremony.......2007-08-19

The difficulties of a war veteran returning to normal life is a theme that has proved rich, fertile, fecund. So many people, over the last hundred years, have had family members who returned from war - or didn't - or have themselves come back from the horrors of the battlefields. There is something within us that seeks to understand the full magnitude of what happens to people when life and limb become so many strategic points on a general's battle plan. Humanity, perhaps. Leslie Marmon Silko's novel, Ceremony, takes the fairly ordinary story of a young man returning from fighting in Japan during World War II - and I mean ordinary in a very broad sense, as there is nothing really ordinary about fighting and dying for one's country - and spins it in a different direction. What happens when your uniform confers upon you the respect of others, admiration, hospitality, grateful thanks, but when it is removed and the war starts to fade, you become, once again, a 'filthy Indian', a mixed blood who feels uncomfortable in both the 'white' and the 'native American India' worlds? Ceremony seeks to provide not the answer, but an answer. And here it succeeds.

'First time you walked down the street in Gallup or Albuquerque, you knew. Don't lie. You knew right away. The war was over, the uniform was gone. All of a sudden that man at the store waits on you last, makes you wait until all the white people bought what they wanted.' Tayo has returned from Japan, and is suffering what we now call Post-traumatic stress disorder. During the war, he saw his relatives in the dead bodies of the Japanese. Afterwards, he sees death all around him. Coupled with this is the hostility of his native American India family members, who distrust him because he is not fully theirs, and the whites, who only like Tayo when he is wearing a uniform. One of the novels large themes is dealing with the sadness of the native American Indians who, after serving their country in World War II, assumed that their equality and the respect they were receiving would last beyond the last shot fired. It didn't, and what was left? Can a man - woman, too - who tastes what it is like to be free ever return the bit to their mouth, the harness to their back? Not easily, and not without sadness. 'They had been treated first class once, with their uniforms. As long as there had been a war and the white people were afraid of the Japs and Hitler. But these Indians got fooled when they thought it would last.'

Another aspect is the land where Tayo lives. To begin with, he has only a small level of appreciation for the stories and mysteries embedded within the mountains, trees, streams and rivers. The writing is focused internally, through memories and thoughts. But later, as Tayo comes to learn more about his heritage - which is done wonderfully through many different song-poems that capture and reveal ancient native American Indian myths and stories - the land itself becomes not a character, but almost the entire force of the novel. Silko's writing luxuriates in the earthy reality of the land, lingering lovingly over descriptions of what, in other novels, is often overlooked. 'The mountain had been named for the swirling veils of clouds, the membranes of foggy mist clinging to the peaks, then leaving them covered with snow. This morning the mountain was dusted with snow, and the blue-gray clouds were unwinding from the peaks.' It is impossible not to shiver with cold upon reading these words. One of the major goals of the novel - and the most successfully accomplished - is bringing out the beauty of the land.

Perhaps less successful is Tayo's descent into alcoholism. While it is believable, and competently written, there is a jagged, fragmented sense of the writing that pulls the reader away from the text, rather than keeping them inside. This technique was no doubt used to mirror Tayo's disordered, confused mind, but there are occasions when we are simply willing to pause a moment to truly understand what is happening. Happily, the missteps are brief, and the most important parts of the novel shine the brightest.

Silko is a physical writer, not just in her descriptions of the land, but also in the sheer physical delight she takes in describing ordinary, mundane situations. Consider this brief snapshot: 'Tiny black ants were scurrying over the shattered melons; the flies were rubbing their feet on fragments of pulp and rind. He trampled the ants with his boots, and he kicked dirt over the seeds and pulp.' Again, we can almost taste the melon, can clearly and distinctly picture the poor ants.

Ceremony occupies an important place in the canon of native American Indian writing. The Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, the latest in this noble series, accurately captures the impact of the text through Larry McMurtry's introduction, and Leslie Marmon Silko's own foreword. Silko's novel rises above what could be referred to as 'minority fiction', in that it is important because it is written by a minority group, because its achievement as a text does not require the shackles of race or class or gender or nation. Silko's novel is perhaps the most famous native American Indian novel, but it is also a fine, sturdy, worthwhile achievement within the broader genre of the novel itself, and that is what is important here. Read Ceremony because it has something important to say about difficult, weighty matters. It is more than merely a minority piece.

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Apache Agent: The Story of John P. Clum
Woodworth Clum
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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