No comments about Napoleon's Enfante Terrible: General Dominique Vandamme (Campaigns and Commanders).

3 comments about False Self: The Life of Masud Khan.

1. This book shows again how brilliant some psychoanalysts can be and at the same time so disturbed and narcissistic. How some of the most famous psychoanalysts of the day such as Winnicott were taken in by him.
   One gets a sense of the British psychoanalytical society during the 1950's and 1960's when it was at the pinnacle of its influence.



2. The New York Times
   
   
   January 21, 2007
   Psycho Analyst
   By AMY BLOOM
   
   FALSE SELF
   The Life of Masud Khan.
   
   Winner of the 2007 Gradiva Award.
   
   By Linda Hopkins.
   
   525 pp. Other Press. $35.
   
   If I were a snob, a liar, a drunk, a philanderer, an anti-Semite, a violent bully, a poseur and a menace to the vulnerable, I would want Linda Hopkins to write my biography.
   
   Masud Khan, an Anglo-Pakistani psychoanalyst notable in the 1960s and '70s, was all of those things. Hopkins, a psychologist and psychoanalyst, has written the story of his life with the kind of generous forgiveness, insistent evenhandedness, patient understanding and restrained judgment one might hope for in a very good analyst of a certain kind, or a wise, exceptionally forbearing and insightful mother. She sees his life as a tragedy, lived "on a scale grand enough to match ... his favorite characters: Shakespeare's King Lear and Dostoyevsky's Prince Myshkin." Khan also identified with Dostoyevsky himself and was particularly pleased when one of his later girlfriends showed signs (briefly) of living up to the high benchmark of Anna Dostoyevsky's devotion ("so robust and militant in her loving regard for her husband's nobility of soul," as he put it).
   
   Hopkins describes Khan's Dostoyevsky delusion as she does his lies about being a Pakistani prince; his drunken rages; his sleeping with patients, with patients' wives and with the daughters of friends -- always more in sorrow than in anger, and with the reminder that Khan may well have suffered from a bipolar disorder. Hopkins faults the psychoanalytic community for not saving him in the face of what may have been illness and was indisputably bad behavior and poor judgment: "His former analysands provided him with the care that should have been provided by an extended family or others from Khan's private life, but Khan had nobody to do that for him," she writes. Surprisingly, she does not ask, Why not? And she does not say, How selfish and unprofessional that he should put that burden on his patients.
   
   Most Americans don't know who Masud Khan was. Most psychotherapists don't know who Masud Khan was, unless they have studied the work of D. W. Winnicott, the great English pediatrician, child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, who died in 1971. (If you ever went back to the playground after dark to retrieve your toddler's blankie, you have successfully incorporated Clare and Donald Winnicott's notion of the necessary "transitional object"; if you have thought that it's just as important to learn how to say no in a firm, clear way as to say yes, you have absorbed Winnicott's concept of "the good enough mother.") Khan was one of Winnicott's disciples, co-author of some significant works and his editor -- as well as one of his patients.
   
   This seems like a bad idea to those of us who like our therapists from the old school: in their office, in their chair, not chatting on about their own private lives, not having sex with us, not socializing with us, not gossiping about other patients (which might be great, except for the possibility that they gossip about us too, or like the others better). But, as a number of writers, including Hopkins, have pointed out, Khan learned about boundary jumping from his elders. Anna Freud was analyzed by her own father. Melanie Klein analyzed her son, Eric, then handed him over to Winnicott for treatment, supervising that analysis and praising Winnicott for his skill in concealing all this from him. Winnicott himself, it turns out, interrupted Khan's sessions with his patients to chat and gossip -- sometimes about those patients.
   
   Masud Khan, born in the Punjab in 1924, came to Oxford to study Modern Greats. He became an analyst and then, after three attempts, a training analyst. He married not one but two beautiful ballerinas and, through his second wife, became friendly with Julie Andrews, Mike Nichols and the Redgraves. He was dashing and boldly self-promoting in a professional community in which those things were rare.
   
   Before his death in 1989, Khan wrote two very good and interesting books, "The Privacy of the Self" (1974) and "Alienation in Perversions" (1979); one interesting book, "Hidden Selves" (1983); and one disaster, "The Long Wait" (1988), in which the occasional insight breaks through a sea of rambling prose and anti-Semitic goofiness ("I was freeing myself of the rigid Yiddish shackles of the so-called psychoanalysis"). His warmth, intuition and maverick style helped some patients: a number spoke up on his behalf at the end of his life, when he was investigated and finally expelled by the British Psycho-Analytical Society, and spoke warmly of him in long interviews with Hopkins. Several women asserted that he had been a brilliant if unorthodox psychoanalyst, although some did remark that it had not been therapeutically helpful for Khan to have initiated sexual relationships with them. "If I had been less ill, and he more sound, it might have been wonderful," one said. Hopkins, in her non-judgmental way, writes of this analysand only that it is "easy to assume she must be in denial about the harm done to her by Khan, but it is perhaps more honest to grope with the possibility that there may be some validity to her subjective experience." It seems to me that it is not only his patients but his admirers, including his biographer, who may be struggling with some denial about the harm done by an alcoholic married analyst who initiated sex with female patients, encouraged affairs between patients, threatened patients who terminated treatment and abandoned those who did not meet his own emotional needs.
   
   Khan began to fall apart in the early '70s, after his mother and Winnicott died within months of each other. And his spectacularly erratic behavior -- once, in a restaurant, he sent a piece of cake to an obese diner and shouted, "So that you might die sooner!" -- set the stage for what now seems his greatest legacy: a complete and long overdue change in the training and ethical standards for English psychoanalysts.
   
   Hopkins persuades me that Masud Khan was fascinating at a dinner party (unless there was too much wine), interesting as a thinker, given to the occasional brilliant intuitive flash, handsome as the devil and twice as charming. But she does not persuade me that English bigotry brought about his downfall (though as for whatever schadenfreude followed it, I certainly believe that there were some English psychoanalysts "somewhat acutely alive to the existence of class distinctions," as P. G.Wodehouse put it). She does persuade me that this is a sad story of a talented man, that Khan's own emotional troubles made him at first gifted in treating difficult patients, and later, incapable of being anything else. As one former analysand wrote in 2000, "somebody could write a tragicomic account of this." Hopkins's biography is thoughtful, thorough and insightful. But I never felt the tragedy she asserts, and only Bruce Jay Friedman or Iris Murdoch could have done justice to the other.



3. False Self: The Life of Masud Khan is written in an understated manner, allowing the reader to come to his own conclusions. Yet at the same time it succeeds in drawing dramatic portraits not only of Masud Khan, but also many of his contemporaries in, and beyond, the psychoanalytic world. Names like Anna Freud, Donald Winnicott, Julie Andrews, Rudolf Nureyev, Robert Stoller, Margot Fonteyn, Henri Cartier Bresson, Svetlana Beriossova (Khan's wife) and the Redgraves appear as real people in Khan's life. He was rich, connected, passionate and drew heavily from the artistic and literary worlds for his companionship. Alcoholic, self-destructive, amazingly complex and brilliant, Masud Khan comes to life in this compelling, nuanced biography. Author and psychoanalyst Linda Hopkins provides a multi-layered account that moves the reader to feel admiration, sympathy, disgust, pity and tenderness for her subject, who is a tragic figure of Shakespearean proportions. For those familiar with the psychoanalytic culture here and abroad, or for anyone who has ever been in analysis, the book also reveals the darker side of psychoanalysts, showing the extreme competitiveness and infighting among the most powerful figures. And, sadly, False Self leaves the reader wondering how much the boundary-breaking by Khan's analyst, Donald Winnicott, contributed to Khan's ultimate premature demise. This book is a fascinating read and was recently awarded both the Goethe and Gradiva awards for excellence in psychoanalytic writing. I recommend it without reservation to anyone interested in biography, psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic history, or for anyone who simply loves a good read.

5 comments about African Queen: The Real Life of the Hottentot Venus.

1. The casual reader might be put off by the slow start -- the author has to establish the historical base and lay out many details, BUT once into the story it quickly gets to the heart of the matter, exploitation, de facto or otherwise, of a black African female. Not a pretty topic, but when it's handled as it is here by a sympathetic writer it becomes a fascinating story and a memorial to the heroine, Saartjie Baartman.



2. Gives yet another look into the dark chapters of the African Human Experience.



3. The subject matter (the sad tale of Saartjie Baartman, a well-endowed African woman put on British and French freakshows as the "Venus Hottenot" whose gelueteus is exploited to the maximus) has been discussed by the other reviwers. Therefore, I would like to commend the author for her excellent use of primary sources in the telling of this story. We see shockingly crude cartoons mocking Saartjie's buttocks (often comparing her with Lord Glenville, a forgotten british statesman with a comparatively large derriere) and giving her a ridiculous pidgin English that she obviously didn't speak. We read from the handful of known interviews with her as welll as trial transcripts (as her exploiters are taken to court). This combined with Nelson Mandela's recent efforts to get her reburied with dignity in her native South Africa all make for a compelling story and good written history.
   
   This book should be required reading for the modern rumpmistresses who thoughtlessly shake their gleuteus to the maximus on the likes of BET and MTV.



4. I discovered this story thru an email regarding a U-Tube video. I was shocked that I never heard this story before. After reading this book it open my eyes to history that was lost and forgotten until recently. The author gave life and honor to Saartjie Baartman. This is a moving and thoughtful document on slavery and exploitation. Unfortunately the exploitation of women of color still exist today. For anyone who is a history buff this book is for you. I recommend it to anyone who is intrested in women's study.



5. This book was so poorly written I kept expecting a monotone voice from a documentary to start narrating. No "meat" to the story. It just drownded on and on about the exploitation of this African woman mainly because her behind was so huge. It was truly a waste of time to read and barely kept me awake, even with a cup coffee.

5 comments about A Dab of Dickens & A Touch of Twain: Literary Lives from Shakespeare's Old England to Frost's New England.

1. If you've ever heard one of Dr. Engel's lectures, you know what a captivating storyteller he is. Now, for the first time, the content of his lectures has been put into book form. You can almost hear his voice as you read through the pages of this book.

   As other reviewers have already stated, A Dab of Dickens is a collection of short biographical sketches of over a dozen of the greatest authors of all time. What is unique about these sketches is that, although they are short, they are filled with fascinating tales about the lives of our most beloved authors - tales that I am sure most of us did not ever know. For instance, I was fascinated to find that when he was only 3 years old, Edgar Allan Poe was forced to sit on the front row of the theatre and watch his mother, who played Juliet, stab herself and "die" - eight times a week. No wonder he wrote the kind of macabre stories that he did!

   The great thing about Dr. Engel's new book is that it gives you just enough to keep your interest, it doesn't overwhelm you, and it makes you want to know more. You want to keep reading the chapter on Poe because you just cannot believe that even more horrible things could have possibly happened to one person. You may be bored by Ernest Hemmingway (for instance), but you don't mind reading his entire chapter because it's not information overload. And at the end of this wonderful book you have a list of authors whose major works you now cannot wait to read.

   If you love literature and are fascinated by the authors who have brought us so many priceless works of art, this book is for you. If you don't know much about literature at all but are curious to find out more, this book is for you as well. But this book is also perfect for the person who hated English class in high school, avoided literature like the plague in college, and has been glad to forget it completely ever since. I promise that even you will find something fascinating and inspiring among the pages of this book.




2. I really didn't know what to expect when I picked this book up. A friend heard the author lecture on Shakespeare and bought a copy for our daughter, a Ph.D. candidate in English (Shakespeare). She sent it to us to deliver, since she didn't have our daughter's address. My wife and I both read a little bit, and then decided we had to read it all. Our daughter will have to write a thank-you for a used book.
   Engel belongs to the school of biographical literary criticism, and thinks that authors' works are influenced strongly by their lives and the times in which they live them. The brief, and partial sketches of these nineteen literary greats are based on his classroom lectures. All I can say is that I wish he had been one of my teachers. These lectures in writing are cleverly written, with a very pleasing dry wit, and are informative while being interesting. Do you know the origin of the term "box office" and the actors' wish to "break a leg"? You will after you read Engel's snapshot of Shakespeare. And no one ever told me before that Chaucer was satire. Finding this book was a fortuitous accident. I hope my daughter enjoys it as much as I did.



3. I started reading this book while recovering from surgery and finished it in two days. When I'd finish reading about one author, I couldn't wait to read the next. A wonderful book that I can't wait to pass on to all my friends.



4. It has been my great privilege to hear Dr. Elliott Engel in
   a wonderful lecture on Margaret Mitchell. Elliott has produced
   countless audio/video CD's and cassettes for those interested in
   a general knowledge of the great writers of Western Literature.
   This is a wonderful book! If more people read it there would
   be rejoicing in this old English Literature major's literary
   heart!
   Engel writes in a light, lively and easy to understand. Enjoy
   learning about the greats from Shakespeare to Dickens, the Brontes, Twain and others. Enjoy!



5. In 2006 our county was challenged to read "Captains Courageous" in preparation for the "Tall Ships" event that summer. I have to admit I seldom read fiction. I like to learn something when I read. If I want to be entertained, I'll watch TV or go to a movie. The local Library arranged for Dr. Engel to be the guest speaker and give his take on Kipling. It was the nost enthralling talk I have ever been priviledged to hear! Our "county read" this year was "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitsgerald. Dr. Engel was our guest speaker again. I was able to tell him personally how much I have enjoyed his book and CDs! The CDs are great for travelling time listening. His essays on famous authors cannot be topped!

2 comments about A Brief History of British Kings and Queens: British Royal History from Alfred the Great to the Present (Brief History, The).

1. With individual portraits of all the kings of Britain, no one could accuse this of incompleteness, but the solemn tone and lengthy paragraphs make for a rather dry read.
   
   Billed as from "Alfred the Great to the Present" it begins long before Alfred, with overviews of the Celts, the Roman Occupation, and the Dark Ages. Ashley's organising principle, unity versus disunity within Britain, results in some confusing arrangement of material. For example, in the first Section, Kingdom Against Kingdom: Early Britain: after "The House of Normandy 1066-1154" he backtracks several hundred years to the Kingdoms of Wales (500-1240) and Scotland (850-1165). Then the narrative resumes in 1154 with The House of Anjou.

   This mine of information, though daunting at first glance, covers monarchs' appearance, character, consorts, political, social, religious and cultural history. Among 100 pages of appendices are lists of Roman emperors and governors, kings of British provinces, royal consorts, family trees. The massive bibliography, handy for historic royal watchers, precedes the index.

   You would probably want something more snappy and anecdotal on your shelf as well as this. However it's worth investing in as a reference source.




2. This author assumes that the reader lives in the UK and you happen to know where all the regions are located (I had to keep glancing at the maps). The interesting thing though is that he covers all monarchs from like 100 BC and all regions, but I ended up just skipping all those parts as I couldn't pronounce the names or the places (especially the welsh names how the heck to do you say "ap" or is this an abbreviation for something?). Also he covers each one so quickly you can't even get the chronology straight in your head. The book does have good geneological and chronological tables though. "Brief" is exactly information the book gives.

5 comments about Walk on Water: A Memoir.

1. The book was recommended to me by a friend and I thought it would be a great lazy day reading book. Was I wrong! Once I started, I couldn't put it down. The book grabs your soul from the beginning and by the end, you can't believe it's over. It iis truly the ultimate in survivor stories and it proves the adage.."What does not kill you, will make you stronger." Obviously, the author is (at the end) a stronger, resiliant woman .



2. For anyone who has ever witnessed a loved one do the slow dance with alcoholism, Lorian Hemingway's memoir is waiting for you. Yet another lesson that life is best described with four letter words: love, hate, hope and dirt. I laughed out loud at her hilarious drug hazed antics and cringed as she began her long drawn out fall. Her honesty is astounding: no regrets, no finger pointing, no pass off of responsibility of her actions. Thank you, Lorian, for this memorable book.



3. Forget all that you've read about redemption and the bad girl made good, if you like to live in the real world and to fish, this book is for you. Not to mention that it's pretty damn well written to boot. Good Stuff!



4. WOW! I didn't buy this book expecting much. Yes, I knew it was written by the granddaughter of the Ernest Hemingway and yes, I know it was about 'fishing'....but I really had no idea. Really..no idea how this woman's words would grab me. Knowing that she lives in the same city where I work, I'm hoping to one day stumble across her and just tell her how much impact this book had on me. A co-worker just went through alcohol de-tox and this book gave me some vague notion of what he went through. Thanks for that! I'm not a fisherwoman....but I love fish and I work with dead fish parts daily as a science-lady, and this book is full of fish-wisdom, honesty and beautiful, true words. This book is full of all that. Humor, honesty and love. Again, WOW!



5. This is a penetrating story written gracefully and honestly by a courageous woman. Its compelling and essential messages are delivered with exquisite subtlety, so that our appreciation for the earth, for the people in our lives who lift us, for the waters that cleanse and renew us, and ultimately, for ourselves, is heightened and sharpened by each flowing page. What's more, Hemingway's Southern wit, charm, and guile make this book a heck of a lot of fun to read.

5 comments about Therese of Lisieux: God's Gentle Warrior.

1. Having read much about her and visited her conventual home in Lisieux, I did not expect this book to be more than another take on the life and spirituality of this most beloved of modern saints. Yet, this book reveals much new biographical detail and sheds new light on the theological writings of this remarkable young woman. Dr. Nevin has also somehow retrieved photographs associated with St. Therese and her family that were not, it seems, available to the general public, including a previously unpublished photograph of the saint's mother. Here, the saint and her family emerge as people with practical problems, wrestling with poor financial investments, billeted soldiers, the death of loved ones and perplexing life choices. In this book, the struggles, character flaws and uncertainties are not airbrushed out. But neither does Dr. Nevin set out to find villains to slay among the Martins or the nuns with whom Therese shared her convent life. In the end, this book is about the love-centred, Jesus-focused path that Therese chartered at the end of her life. Eschewing excessive preoccupation with dogma and self, she dispensed with a mercantile approach to religion (if you're good to God, God will be good to you) and plunged head on into the abyss of love. Dr. Nevin discusses, with awesome command of the biographical facs and the primary sources, the still unfolding implications of Therese's writings. She died at 24, but not a moment of her life was wasted.



2. I originally purchased this book for a bit of pious reading. To be honest, I did not expect anything "new" could easily be found or said about our beloved Therese and her family. What I found was an outstanding study that looks at Therese with "new eyes," so to speak. And the conclusions are extremely powerful and spiritually very strong and nourishing. I especially appreciated Dr. Nevin's use of new sources (the circulaires read in the refrectory during St. Therese's life that would have been a source of inspiration to Therese), along with some photographs that I don't think had ever been published before. I recommend this book highly.



3. I am the third customer to review the book and the third to give it five stars. Nevin is an incredibly talented writer and in him Therese finds a worthy biographer, student, expositor. I would say he is the brother Therese wanted in her life...I wish that they could have corresponded. Therese would have found someone who knew how to really read her, question her, and trace the complexities of a life that was far from simple. He invites us into her solitude with love and understanding.



4. THERESE OF LISIEUX: GOD'S GENTLE WARRIOR, by Thomas R. Nevin provides an intersting and enlightening look at the person we know as Saint Therese of Lisieux, The Little Flower. --(First, I love the cover photo of Therese - in her costume as Joan Of Ark - i call it Therese's "XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS" photograph. ha!) -- Reading this study of Therese is a little like rummaging through grandmom's (or mom's & dad's) attic and discovering so many long forgotten things with so many memories and nostalgic connotations atached to them . . .and rediscovering or first-time discovering of what their life was like at a period of time "before we knew them" . . . all the stored memories that somehow taken together are a part of the history that made them (and so ourselves) what and who we were and are . . .
   
   The author digs back to Zelie Martin's (Therese's mother) diary notes for insights into how SHE thought and believed and formed the foundation and environment of the Martin family in which Therese grew. And of her father Louis. And then to the experiences of her sisters and cousins and the few priests whom she knew. And the Carmelite Order - it's history and spirituality and practice and how THAT contributed to the making of this saint.
   
   Each small thread which went into the formation and making of the tapestry which became Saint Therese of Lisieux is brought to light . . .yet, as real a part as each thread is, whatever color or hue, however long or short, however prominent or hidden, none taken by themselves produce the icon of the saint . . . not even all of these threads taken together for the tapestry - there is that extra artistry which is at work here" the interplay between Therese and God. And that interplay, that relationship is one of "LOVE". And so it is "love" that ultimately created the total picture which is Saint Therese of Lisieux. It is love which wove all the diverse threads and colors together into a totally new and unique individual and "new theological way of living". (Not "new" in that it isn't as old as Jesus and The New Testament (or The Old Testament), but new in that Therese herself broke from the restricting limits of the established and radically returned to the "establisher" - God and His love.
   
   So, as Thomas Nevins wallks us through "the attics of Saint Therese" and we begin to see and experience her as a real person (before she became the canonized image), we see a little of our own selves in her . . . and our own hopes for sanctification become more attainable and hopeful.
   
   Thank you Thomas Nevins for allowing us to share with you your visit and walk with Saint Therese . . . Therese is always good company and a good traveling companion . . . and on this walk, her conversation shared so many details of her own life with us. It was as if she were telling us that in our own lives, as in hers, everything is grace . . . everything matters . . . every person, place and thing and experience will contribute to the final picture of who we are before God . . . and in God.



5. There is much that is good about Thomas Nevin's book on St. Therese. As the notes on the dust jacket report, he does offer new readings and even new material concerning the "little flower" (as Therese is known). He begins the book by offering the reader a glimpse into the France of Therese's time: the cultural situation and currents of thought during the late 19th century. He moves on, helpfully, to consider the correspondence of Therese's mother, Zelie Martin, and extrapolates from the letters many insights about Therese's family life and her own development. Another chapter places Therese in the context of the Carmelite tradition, and specifically how the French Carmelites supported and formed her. Nevin also brings Therese's plays and poems to the fore as few others have done (most biographers have preferred to consider only The Story of the Soul and Therese's correspondence), and he summarizes the major themes and ideas of her writings. Perhaps the most interesting chapter focuses on Therese's illnesses and the treatments she received. One gets a good sense of French medical practice in the 19th century, particularly in its treatment of tuberculosis, which allows one to appreciate what Therese suffered during the last year-and-a-half of her life. Indeed the reader begins to marvel at the fact that Therese was composing Manuscript C, letters, and poems during her final illness.
   What is surprising about Nevin's book is that despite the evident scholarship employed in writing it, the book takes a decidedly acrimonious and polemical turn in the last two chapters. The catalyst for this change in mood is what Nevin calls Therese's "sense [of] the non-existence of heaven" which he says she experienced during her dark night (297). If he had stopped here, with the use of the word "sense," then he could have maintained an objective point of view. Anyone who has read The Story of a Soul or Therese's correspondence knows that she experienced the loss of any consolation or good feeling connected with belief in heaven. Nevin even quotes one of the sisters living with Therese, Sr. Teresa of St. Augustine, who reported Therese's "disbelief" in heaven. What Nevin fails to add is that Sr. Teresa also reported that Therese spoke of this "disbelief" as a temptation. In other words, Therese knew it was false, despite her very strong and very real temptation not to believe. Therese herself wrote on numerous occasions that although she did not have the feelings of faith, she did the works of faith (she said the same thing about love; there was a particular sister that Therese was not attracted to, but she chose to treat the sister with charity).
   But Nevin goes beyond Therese's words and says that she no longer had any faith or hope in heaven. He writes about St. Therese's "disbelief" so relentlessly (the last chapter never leaves the topic and is 39 pages long) that one begins to sense that Nevin has lost sight of Therese and is concerned only with his thesis. He begins to sound like a crazed defense attorney, anticipating objections and piling on evidence. He takes pot-shots at ecclesial authority figures, creedal formulations, and even works in a slam against President Bush for invading Iraq (if you can believe it). Not content with disbelief about heaven, Nevin also says that Therese did not believe in hell either, but he provides no citations for this claim.
   The book began as a helpful guide to the times and seasons and idiosyncrasies of Therese's world, outside and inside the Carmel. It ends as a diatribe against dogma (even though Nevin himself can write dogmatically). Anyone who has read Therese's manuscripts or letters or poems knows intuitively that Therese had a deep, down faith (to borrow Gerard Manley Hopkins words). Nevin could have stopped with his notion that Therese rejected the common understanding of heaven at the time; one can readily agree to this. But to say that she no longer had any hope or faith in heaven seems obnoxious at best and subversive at worst. For example he never considers Therese's often indulgent use of exaggerations and exclamation points in her writing and how such a style might affect meaning.
   Nevin says that what motivated Therese was the search for truth and love of God and neighbor; she was not satisfied with anything else. However, if Therese had discovered that heaven did not exist, then why would she continue to speak to her sisters and write to others about heaven? Is this love or respect for the truth: to allow the beloved to remain in ignorance? And why would Therese refrain from speaking about her dark secret in order not to blaspheme if she really believed heaven's non-existence to be the truth? To blaspheme is to say something contrary to the truth, is it not? (In other words, Therese knew deep down that her sense of the non-existence of heaven was blasphemous and, hence, false.) Why would Therese offer her last communion for the soul of a lost priest, if not to help him to heaven and to avoid hell? Finally, Nevin writes constantly of Therese's "testing." What testing? Was God testing Therese's love for him? Nevin says no; Therese's love for God was constant and was the very virtue that carried her through to the end. So what could the testing consist of if not faith and hope?
   What's most disturbing about Nevin's strange turn at the end of God's Gentle Warrior is that he calls all writers who disagree with him whitewashers (300). They, Nevin contends, are trying to sanitize Therese's loss of faith and hope. On the contrary, they are not trying to use Therese to advance their own theses. A case in point: Joseph Schmidt's recently published meditation on St. Therese's life, Everything is Grace, is very much aware of Therese's dark night of the soul during which she lost the consolation of faith. Yet he reaches a very different conclusion from Nevin. Schmidt--basing his opinion on the same sources as Nevin--says this of Therese during her time of trial: "In love, with all the power and courage of her mighty will, she clung to faith" (279). He also supports his opinion with this quote from Therese herself: "[God] knows very well that while I do not have the joy of faith, I am trying to carry out its works at least. I believe I have made more acts of faith in this past year than all through my whole life" (279). And Schmidt, when he is writing about Therese's dark night, provides many other quotes from Therese to show that her will was engaged regarding the existence of heaven even when her feelings were not.
   Whereas Nevin's book concentrates on the outside influences bearing upon Therese, Schmidt focuses on the heart and mind of Therese through a close reading of her words. Therese states at the beginning of Story of a Soul that she wants the reader to understand how the mercies of God have shaped and formed her, and Schmidt offers a compelling monograph in Everything is Grace that follows Therese's spiritual growth from birth to death. And Scmidt is no whitewasher or fawning admirer; he looks at Therese objectively and lovingly. In 46 chapters that are arranged chronologically to match Therese's maturation, Schmidt reveals her weaknesses and strengths, her obstacles and advantages. Schmidt argues convincingly that Therese took everything she was given--family, culture, personality, faults, and natural abilities--and learned over time how to filter all through God's grace and, thereby, become grace-filled herself. Another way of saying the same thing is that Schmidt uncovers for us through Therese's writings the development of her little way, a spirituality that depends on God's grace and is open to everyone to emulate.
   The value of Schmidt's Everything is Grace is that the reader is better able to see Therese as a real, flesh and blood, human being. Therese had to acknowledge, accept, and assimilate personal, familial, and cultural influences, and she did so thoughtfully, prayerfully, and most importantly, through God's grace. The influences were both positive and negative, but Therese was able to integrate them all through her relationship with God. For example, the positive influence of an intimate and loving family gave her the stability and foundation to develop her relationship with God. At the same time, her close-knit family life meant she had to struggle to leave the safety and comfort of home and open herself to new relationships in the convent, even to other women for whom on a natural level she had no attraction whatsoever. Part of Schmidt's objective is to show that Therese really had an ordinary life, full of the same kind of feelings, activities, fears, and hopes that all men and women have. She had her daily chores; she had to persevere in prayer; she struggled in getting along with others--and during her ordinary life she was trying to yield more and more to God. In other words, Therese is like us. And as Schmidt details the development of Therese's life, the reader gains many valuable insights about living with God. Therese is an ordinary woman, who accepted God's grace in an extraordinary way. Schmidt says that we should not be awed by this achievement of Therese, but heartened because--as Therese knew--her way is open to all.
   Both books are very helpful in appreciating St. Therese (with the exception, in my opinion, of Nevin's last two chapters). If the reader wants to know about Therese, then read Nevin's God's Gentle Warrior. If the reader wants to know Therese, then read Everything is Grace. Or better yet, read both, because coming to know Therese better will lead to her stated goal in life: to desire and to love God more and more, and to live only by his grace.

3 comments about The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde.

1. Though Mr. Wilde is indeed dead, his memory and writing is still with us. With this new book, "THE COMPLETE LETTERS OF OSCAR WILDE" you get a total new insiders glance on Oscar Wilde and his life. If you are a fan of Oscar Wilde, merely just heard of him, or a fan of literature, this is a must-have!



2. As one of those people who has always found Oscar Wilde an interesting and inscrutable character I had great expectations and an insatiable desire to finally peruse the epistolary output of this remarkable man. Sadly and I will add through no fault of the editors of this opus this compilation will probably leave most readers still searching for insight. Many of these letters (if not the majority) deal with very mundane issues (e.g. business arrangements,inquiries to publishers, very conventional thank you notes and in the post-gaol notes a good number of entreaties for money). Of course this book does contain De Profundis which does present some fascinating insights about the way his mind was functioning during his incarceration as well as the great indignities attendant with this. I would still recommend this to the diehard Wilde fanatic but to the novice would recommend a good standard biography (Ellman's for example).



3. This book is an absolue delight, a most wonderful portrait of one of the most interesting figures in history. When people think of Oscar Wilde, they think scandals and love affairs. Wilde has most certainly been made into a larger than life character. This book humanizes Wilde, gives him a chance to speak for himself, to show what he really was. His business corrospondnce, letters to his children, these simple writings from his everyday life show a sign of Wilde that people do not think about. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

2 comments about George Muller: Delighted In God (HistoryMakers).

1. I "happened" upon this book in our church library. It is the wonderful true story of a man who lived by faith and relied on prayer for everything in his life. He cared for many orphans and his many stories of how God miraculously provided are amazing. It is a real faith builder and a real challenge in your own walk with God. I highly recommend this book!



2. This biography deserves much more attention than it gets. Mueller was the epitome of prayerfulness, peace, and joy. His eyes were fixed on Christ, yet he also practiced great social healing in his ministry, always pointing the orphans in his care back to Christ. You will be challenged and amazed by the things God does in Mueller's life. In fact, that's the most wonderful part about the biography... it celebrates George Mueller, but through him it WORSHIPS the amazing acts of God. Mueller would certainly approve.

5 comments about Roots: The Saga of an American Family: 30th Anniversary Edition.

1. Almost finshed with book I also bought DVDS but wanted to read first. About 900 pages seems too much, but I am relly suprised that I am just about through. I would recommend this book



2. Book is in perfect condition as described by seller and arrived in the time stated. I recommend ordering from this seller.



3. Love reading this book after so many years! It reminds me that all men deserve dignity and repect. Also, freedom is not free. We all in one way or another has paid a price for freedom!



4. I love Roots and think the whole world should read it. It's an important and vital book about American history, family history, and triumph over hardship. I loved Roots the first time I read it twenty years ago, and I love it still, having just finished it yesterday, BUT...
   
   1) If only Alex Haley hadn't plagiarized whole sections of the book (see Wikipedia's article on the author Harold Courlander)
   
   2) If only Haley really HAD been related to Kunta Kinte (genealogists state he consciously perpetrated a hoax)
   
   3) If only Juffure really WAS Haley's ancestral village (evidence suggests that the griot from modern Juffure with "memories" of Kunta Kinte's disappearance in 1767 was coached about what to "remember")
   
   I found these fabrications depressing. And what's so sad is that I believe Haley had no need to lie and cheat, because he's really a top-notch storyteller.
   
   This aside, though, I have a few other critical comments.
   
   1) The book begins a slow descent into petering out after Kunta Kinte exits. The characters become increasingly wooden and one-dimensional. Kunta is great, Kizzy is good, Chicken George is fair, and everyone and almost everything after that is forgettable.
   
   2) The book lauds having tons of children, mindlessly, and fails to criticize parents who have children and cannot provide for them. Haley makes it seem that having children and passing on the family name, no matter what horror the child risks getting subjected to, is the noblest of goals. I disagree! It sounds crass to say that slaves shouldn't have had children, but I hold all parents, slaves or not (rape victims being an exception), responsible when they knowingly bring children into a world of hell. (And Chicken George - a neglectful parent, to say the least - bringing 8 children into slavery? Nothing admirable there!)



5. I read this book on Kindle a couple of months ago. I remember watching the mini series as a kid but had never read the book. I'm not going to go into the literary aspects because that has been covered, in it's good and bad points already. I will say I'm glad I've read it. I won't consider it a completely accurate history lesson, but it does make a person think past normal boundaries. This book is formatted well for Kindle, it had no formatting issues. The fact I read it on Kindle was "handy" because I could look up tribal phrases in the dictionary, or wiki with little effort and go straight back to reading.