5 comments about Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward.

1. Other than Jack Kerouac and a few other Lowell greats I'm probably missing, Micky Ward is Lowell's pride. The book is an excellent read only because Micky's life-story is so remarkable and inspiring, other than that Bob Halloran's writing style is bleak.
   
   Micky Ward grew up when Lowell was tougher than it is today--UMass Lowell has brought so much money into the city it's been on the up-and-up since 1992--where his half-brother/trainer is a crack addict, his dad did hard time for defrauding old ladies in his roofing business and yet Micky even steered clear of marijuana while staying on his sworn path of becoming a champion boxer. Throughout his boxing career, he maintained a modest career paving roads for the city of Lowell and to my knowledge is still doing it to this day, he's only 42.
   
   Micky Ward is an honest man and a working class hero, and that's why so many people love him--"The Warrior's Code" the album by the Dropkick Murphys is about Micky Ward and "The Fighter" is a movie about him starring Mark Wahlberg and Brad Pitt to be released in 2009.
   
   This book is highly recommended, and will hopefully inspire you to hit the gym and work as hard as Micky did.



2. Great book. It kept my attention. Recognizing and knowing some of the characters and living in the Greater Lowell area made it a very interesting book.



3. This would be one of the more enjoyable boxing books that I have read. The author is top-notch and writes a story that is engrossing and very readable.
   
   One can feel the pressures that Ward was put under in his life in and out of the ring and his toughness and determination to succeed shines throughout the book.



4. Irish Thunder: The Hard Life and Times of Micky Ward is a great biography of the blue collar boxer from Lowell, MA. Bob Halloran does an excellent job chronicling Micky's career and the trials and tribulations he faced to get there. Right from the beginning, Bob illustrates the vision of Lowell, a once proud boxing town that had become a haven for decadence and despair. Although Micky would fall not victim to the drugs that had claimed many before him, the obstacles presented to him were constant whether it was injured hands, his family, bad management, big fights falling through, or his own self confidence. The fact that Micky persevered to become a popular and well respected boxer personifies his character. Halloran gives you a rundown of his fights throughout the book and his vivid recollections of Micky's wars with Arturo Gatti, Emanuel Burton, Reggie Green, and others make you feel like you're watching the fight as it happens. However, what really keeps the reader glued to this book is the behind the scenes drama. And as it often goes with money, the more there is to be made, the more drama comes with it. Most of the fight facts and recaps are accurate with the only obvious mistake being that Pernell Whitaker won a decision over Oscar De La Hoya, when in fact it was the other way around. All told, this is a well written biography and I would recommend this to any boxing fan.



5. Not being a huge fan of boxing I wasn't sure what to expect. This book is about so much more than boxing! Irish Thunder really shows the dedication and hard work that Micky Ward used to overcome his surroundings. Just when you thought it was his turn to succeed he had to overcome another obsticle. It really is the Rudy of the boxing world. Great read now I can't wait to read the author's other book Destiny Derailed.

1 comments about The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore.

1. In Celtic Twilight, originally published in 1902, Yeats recites several accounts of encounters with the faerie folk and with the people of Ireland of the time which gives us insight into Irish folklore, myth and legend.
   
   Yeats associates poetry with religious ideas and sentiment. And, I believe that he saw himself as writing for Ireland, but a shadowy Ireland of Celtic mysteries and legends, not the Ireland of the modern day. By modern day, of course, I relate this to the modern day of Yeats in the late 1890s and early 1900s.
   
   In the introduction to Celtic Twilight Yeats states; "I have therefore written down accurately and candidly much that I have heard and seen, and, except by way of commentary, nothing that I have merely imagined. I have, however, been at no pains to separate my own beliefs from those of the peasantry, but have rather let my men and women, dhouls and faeries, go their way unoffended or defended by any argument of mine."
   
   I got the strong impression from reading Celtic Twilight that Yeats actually believed in the existence of the faeries. Not just as some myth or legend, but as actual beings that exist in this world, though perhaps unseen by the common man. He wrote each story as if it was something that actually happened, having been related to him by the storyteller, or perhaps that which he had seen for himself in some past time, now recalled as he set pen to paper.
   
   There is a depth to Yeats' writing that lies just below the surface, something that's perceived more than seen. The idea that perhaps magic and the faerie folk are alive in the world of today, but unseen, or perhaps only seen from time to time as a fleeting shadow until one knows just where to look.
   
   It is interesting to note that Yeats was heavily involved in occult studies and practices as part of the Madame Helene Blavatsky's,Theosophical Society and later, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and finally in 1912 the Ordo Templi Orientis.
   
   This would have certainly influenced his outlook on life and his belief in, and dare we say ability to see the unseen things of this world.
   
   I too ask myself from time to time; just what unseen things exist in this world. Perhaps Yeats has seen that which other men can only hope for, or that which they turn away from in dread given the course of their spirits.
   
   Yeats also makes a profound observation: "The things a man has heard and seen are threads of life, and if he pull them carefully from the confused distaff of memory, any who will can weave them into whatever garments of belief please them best."
   
   I found Yeats' observation of particular interest, especially when it comes to theological or philosophical thought. If it is those things that we hear and see in life that forms the fabric of our beliefs, then surely we must take care that that which we see and hear forms strong enough threads so that the fabric we weave is not shoddy.
   
   Yeats' works help us build those strong threads in our lives. For, he certainly influenced the world at large with his writings. In 1923 Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, and in 1934 he shared the Gothenburg Prize for Poetry with Rudyard Kipling.

5 comments about The Life of Thomas More.

1. Peter Ackroyd is a master of drawing the reader into the experience of Thomas More. He provides a well researched and eloquent work that justly portrays the man and saint. Even though Sir Thomas More was emersed in the difficulties of state politics, economics, and law, Peter Ackroyd never loses sight of More's deep Catholic faith: "[The Mass] was the single most important aspect of his life, and the source from which much of his earnestness and his irony, his gravity and his playfulness, springs" (112).



2. I enjoyed this book, but I do think that as a narrative history it is perhaps slightly flawed. The main strength (and problem) I have with this book is that the character study is so dominant that is completely ignores the larger historical picture that More lived within and, at times the dominant philosophy, that may have allowed a deeper understanding of More.
   
   The gnawing problem I have with this book is the main currents that More struggled against and the ideas he fought for are little outlined. The church that he so selflessly defended is little described beyond its social context in which More was raised. The central point of More was that the sublimation of the time honoured traditions (though admittedly flawed) could not be merely circumvented by mans personal appeal to God. Direct dialougue with God allowed a virtual pandora's box of interpretation and clash of beliefs that could only lead to mass bloodshed --- and he was right! This belief is left unexplored and the historical events, such as the peasants revolt in Germany that More abhored and used in his polemical tracts against Luther (a thoroughly scatologically unsavoury character) is not described. In addition Charles V sack of Rome and its influence on the relations with Henry VII are not considered relevant.
   
   So I feel dissatified because I am not getting a wide historical narrative. Although I understand the texture of the stones that he worshipped upon and the feel of the robes he wore, I have little feeling of the times that surrounded him. For the first-time reader of More, this may appear disconcerting.
   
   I realise that my critique cuts another way: if Ackroyd did write the larger historical narrative I wanted, he may have digressed into the narrative historical self-abuse of the 1000 page biography (only acceptable in the most exceptional of circumstances).
   
   I also get no sense of a building dennoument in the encounter with Henry. There is a annoying blase telling of the story with some bright moments -- the book gets better as one goes through it -- it is dense and quite frankly, a little boring in the beginning.
   
   ALso the Olde Englysh translations do detract from the flow of the narrative. Although it is easily understood ones reading flow slows from 700 words per minute, to 50 words per minute in the old English translations. He should revise it from the 16th Century vernacular to modern spelling.
   
   In final analysis I feel that I really did not understand the man. I feel that I need to get a hold of a better biography of the man. So if Ackroyd succeeded in doing this, then it was worth the read.



3. Gosh, golly gee, crikey - the superlatives could go on all day. This is a superb, densely textured biography. Ackroyd revels in the complex psychology and sociology of his subject, e.g., his devotion to duty, his father fixation, etc. He also places Thomas More firmly in the London of his time and in his historical moment - the Reformation - especially through More's own writings.
   
   It has been remarked that the chapters amount to a series of vignettes. That's true, and the amount of knowledge retailed in each glimpse of More and his world is staggering.
   
   To give but a few examples:
   Chap. 3 - St. Anthony's Pigs: we follow young More through the streets of Tudor London to his school and get insight into the Renaissance education system.
   
   Ch 4 - Cough Not, Nor Spit: Thomas' early career as a page to Archbishop (of Canterbury) Morton, Henry VII's notorious "enforcer". This relationship illuminates More's later dealings with Cardinal Wolsey.
   
   Ch 8 - We Talk Of Letters: sketches of Grocyn, Linacre, Lily, Colet, More - the "London humanists", or More's intellectual circle.
   
   And so on. The book continues in the same fascinating vein. It is a hard slog to read, and I'm sorry that Peter Ackroyd did not give a glossary of A) Latin and Greek expressions, and B) even some of his more obscure English words. I also regret that there's no map to illustrate Ackroyd's loving depiction of the London where More learned, lived, worked and suffered.
   
   More's story is well known and often told. Ackroyd has given a fully-rounded portrayal of the man, his background, career, family and friends.
   
   What a pleasure to read.



4. The moment I finished Peter Ackroyd's "Life of Thomas More," my strongest impulse was to close it, open it up to the first page again, and start -- immediately -- reading it all over again, word by word, page by page.
   
   I hung on every word of this text. I wanted to understand Thomas More.
   
   I wanted to understand a man whose misogyny was obvious in his many derogatory statements about women. For example, when asked why he liked short women, he said that it was best to choose the lesser of evils.
   
   When a mature man, More married a mere girl and got her pregnant so many times in such rapid succession that she lived only a few short years after marrying him.
   
   More married his second wife, as the saying goes, while still in mourning clothes for his first. He mocked that second wife, Dame Alice, publicly. He wrote texts that associated women exclusively with sex and disgusting bodily functions like vomiting and diarrhea.
   
   And, yet, More was exceptional for his time in educating his beloved daughter, the one great passion of his life, Margaret More Roper.
   
   More persecuted his countrymen who deviated from the Catholic faith, and published vile condemnations of Luther, and eventually, knowingly, and humbly, sacrificed his own life to his own interpretation of that faith.
   
   More rose, through obediance, flattery, and dogged labor, from relatively humble circumstances to being Henry the VIII's chancellor, and a wealthy man, and then tossed away his considerable worldly goods and power to die an ignominious death.
   
   You want to understand a man who could encompass so many passionate apparent contradictions.
   
   And, so, I hung on every word of Ackroyd's detailed and yet economical text.
   
   My attention was amply rewarded. Ackroyd marshalls the kind of authentic, telling details of the Medieval life that More lived that can make an era, and its inhabitants, come alive. Even so, Ackroyd is never wordy. When he has said enough, he simply stops.
   
   Along the way, Ackroyd brings to light the life and impact of a woman he says has been nearly forgotten: Elizabeth Barton, a seeress and nun in Kent. Barton spoke against Henry VIII's divorce of his wife, Catherine of Aragon.
   
   Her voice was considered so important that Henry himself visited her.
   
   For her trouble, Barton and her priestly followers were tortured to death.
   
   As I read, I could not help but reflect: in our own age of "celebrity," we know too many details about non-entities we don't care about at all -- the Britney Spears and Paris Hiltons enjoying their fifteen minutes of fame. We can view film footage of their most intimate moments on the internet; hear their every thought in televised interviews.
   
   Thomas More lived five hundred years ago. We can't ask him to reconcile for us his hateful diatribes against women and his love of Margaret, his ant-like accumulation of worldly goods and his sacrifice for his beliefs.
   
   The records just don't exist.
   
   And, yet ... even though the More in these pages has to remain something of a cypher, even though More, as was the norm in his time, wrote with extreme caution in ambiguous, tradition-bound, unspontaneous and sometimes flowery prose, I felt I had an encounter, through Ackroyd's book, with a remarkable human being. I was in tears throughout the final passages leading up to More's death.
   
   A final word: I am a fan of "A Man for all Seasons." Again and again, reviewers pit Ackroyd's book against the Robert Bolt play and subsequent movie.
   
   One does not necessarily cancel out the other...both the film and this book work, for me, from what I know about More, as explorations of his life and impact, and his famous final choice.
   
   I never saw Paul Scofield's More as a Thoreau-like figure, as some reviewers have said; he was not depicted as living in a house in the woods, after all, and he did base his decision on adherence to a greater principle than personal conscience, i.e., the law, just as Ackroyd's More does.
   
   So, yes, do see the movie, and do read this book.



5. Thomas More lived an exemplary life during hard times. His faith in the Catholic Church was put to the test by his king, and though he failed his king and paid the price on the scaffold, he served his God and was rewarded with martyrdom and sainthood. Peter Ackroyd's book is a brilliant and dramatic telling of More's life.
   
   Thomas More was born in London in 1478. He was educated at Oxford where upon his father's insistence he studied law. But he was also interested in theology and thought for a while of becoming a monk. Famously he wore a hair shirt his entire life. Instead of taking vows, however, he took a wife and had four children. He made sure his daughters received as rigorous an education as his sons. (His wife died in 1511 and he married Alice Middleton and adopted her daughter.)
   
   The law was More's lifelong profession where he represented various groups in the courts and helped settle trade disputes abroad. He wrote a history of King Richard III, wherein he portrayed Richard as a cruel, even criminal, ruler. In 1516, he published his most famous book, UTOPIA, which described an ideal community governed totally by reason. When Cardinal Wolsey failed to secure an annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, he was replaced by More as lord chancellor. He worked diligently in this position and became a friend to the king. But troubles were already visible in the horizon.
   
   When Henry, through the Act of Supremacy, declared himself the head of the Church of England, More was in opposition to him: he refused to take an oath of allegiance to Henry that would deny papal supremacy of the church. He was tried, found guilty, and beheaded five days later.
   
   Ackroyd is especially good in relating the dramatic events during these last few years in More's life. He narrates this with the power and skill of a novelist; indeed, it's almost impossible to put the book down during the last 100 pages. Anyone in want of moral uplift need only read these last pages for complete satisfaction. More went to the scaffold bravely, even telling the executioner to stay calm and aim true. He joked after stumbling on the scaffold steps and received help: "When I come down again let me shift for myself as well as I can." Then "he died the King's good servant but God's first," which is his life in a nutshell. Ackroyd writes with authority and tremendous style, but it's the drama that he infuses in his account that truly sets this book apart. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968.

1. Clive James, in "Cultural Amnsia' - his magesterial review of literature and totalitarianism - said: "Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding of the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one". It tells a remarkable personal tale of a Jewish girl in Prague caught up by the Nazis and going to Auschwitz, then her escape and return to her beloved Prague, and subsequent worse sufferings under the communist government in the 1950s and 1960s. Her husband was a high ranking government official but later was put on a show trial and killed.
   
   "Under a Cruel Star" (also called "Prague Farewell" in some editions) is not as bleak as the story sounds. It is a slim volume of hope and understanding, written elegantly by a woman who later in life worked as a translator from English and finished her working life in the Harvard Law School library.



2. it is a great book use in my world civ class, and highly recommmand by my professor and TAs.



3. I would recommend this book to anyone. Even if you think you don't like reading about history, you'll like this book. In fact, it is books like these that are the reason I love history so much, and why I'm majoring in it. It isn't about the politics or the wars or whatever else (although those are certainly important), it is the story of a woman trying to survive through a hell most of us cannot even imagine has existed on this earth, especially not in the last 50 years. Peoples' lives are what connect us to the past, and what make it relevant to the future. It gives a little meaning and heart behind all the dates and events that you have to memorize in class...make them more personal. And furthermore, you will be inspired by this woman. Her strength and character is admirable, to say the very least. Actually, I don't think even a fictional writer could invent a heroine more honorable than this one.
   
   So please, read it. stories like these deserve to be shared.



4. This is a well-written, quick read. Heda's 27 years of suffering - first at the hands of the Nazis & then under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia - is heart rending. It's a book that should be part of high school curriculums to raise awareness of what too many people had to endure in the middle of the last century. It would be much more effective than relying on a history textbook that deals only with the 'facts.'



5. I read this about 6 years ago when it was assigned in one of my undergrad classes. There are enough online reviews for you to read about the plot and like. Rather I want to tell you how her voice has stuck with me. I think of her ability to see the slivering when everything is just gray, and her amazing capacity to keep going. Whenever I think I can't go on, this death/or lost/ or series of unfortunate events as shattered the very last of my will I remember her words. I highly recommend it. I regally give this as a gift, I know I'm not just giving someone a powerful story, but really I'm giving someone a packet of extra strength for when they need it most in life.

3 comments about European History for Dummies (For Dummies (History, Biography & Politics)).

1. I took AP European History. I used this "for dummies" book in order to prepare myself for the exam. It was one of the few books that I could read without falling asleep. If I would have had this book before I took the class to give myself an idea of where the class was going, I would have saved myself a lot of pain, trouble, and headache.
   
   The most important aspect of this book are the interesting side stories about certain individuals. They make history more personable and sometimes funny.
   
   I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a *broad* overview of European History or for someone who is sick of the conventional history books.



2. I read this whole book through; every word. I liked it. It gave an interesting, readable overview of European History. European History covers a long period of time so topics get limited time. That's OK. If I saw a topic which was interesting I can research deeper with other books. Much of European history is bloodshed, bloodshed and more bloodshed.
   
   The topic which raised my eyebrow was the author's treatment of the Inquisition. I'll exagerate for fun: He made it seem as if people were tortured with wet noodles and feathers and the stories about horrific torture have been greatly exaggerated. He says, The stories of horrific acts of torture are popular misconceptions trumped up by a few 16th century Spanish Protestant writers with a grudge, writing under the pseudonym, "Montanus". Lang says, although torture was used; better results were had by questioning. Maybe it's because the Inqusition only gets about 5 small paragraphs in 382 page book that it seems like this whole inquistion thing has been down played.
   
   I've never heard anyone downplay the Inqusition unless they were Catholics or Christians defending their faith.
   
   Lang maybe right. It's just a new viewpoint for me. I'll have to research further. This is the only reason I gave this book a three***.
   
   This downplaying of the Inqusition seems wrong but I may come back and give it a Five*****. An historian shouldn't just pander to the masses and go along with popular misconceptions. They are supposed to educate us about the truth. I simply don't know if what he says about the Inquisition is true since he is the first that I've heard tone it down like this. He does admit that we could have down without it but...
   
   I'm reading Sam Harris' book End of Faith and the stories of torture make me ill and then I read Lang's book and it's like, no biggy, yea a few people were burned at the stake but hey. The contrast in reporting this event is so large. It could be that this is a Dummy book which makes light of everything which is fine...I enjoy that, but Lang does say that the stories of torture are exagerrated, so maybe Sam Harris' book is exaggerated to make us angry about religion???????????????????????



3. It is understandable that this book is brief about everything. However, with that simple introduction of people and events, they didn't give me any impression unless I had already known them. There is no maps with this book, not a single one. The author suppose us to know Europe very well before we read this book.

5 comments about The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940.

1. I was adrift when I finished this volume.
   grasping at pathetic things to read for a while - nothing satisfied - Manchester can set the stage, his historical background is so rich that you'll find yourself spouting about it to your friends.
   
   You'll learn more from this book than a two semester course in 20th century history.
   
   Churchill himself is the lead player in a panapoly of exciting elements. But manchester never lets the reader forget the place in history - the man was a masterful writer.



2. After the fall of France in June 1940, Winston Churchill was begging USA President Roosevelt for military aid (in fact, all sorts of support was then needed) as no one knew what would the 'fate' of the French fleet was going to be.
   Churchill kept reminding the American president that Britain would not surrender even if left alone.
   Churchill was defiant despite the fact that the two 'key' American ambassadors, in France and Great Britain, were pro Hitler (or at least they were not anti-Nazi).
   Joseph Kennedy (USA Ambassador to GB) openly cautioned his fellow Americans against entering the war because the 'allies' would soon be beaten.
   However, I would have liked to see more comments about the position and reaction of the king - king George VI.
   Was he indifferent?
   We should remember that Hitler had been addressing the King as the man whom the British Government circles have loathed, and as the only 'hope' for a reconciliation between the Third Reich and GB.
   In this context it is true that Churchill was indeed ALONE



3. William Manchester informs and entertains in this excellent historical account of the critical years leading up to WWII, juxtaposing the appeasement practices of predecessors Baldwin and Chamberlain with the unwavering belief in the principles of freedom held by Churchill. The book (along with Manchester's first volume) gives terrific insight into the transition from the glory days of the British Empire to the Post WWI apathy that beset the British public. As well, the work provides delightful commentary on the characters surrounding Churhill's life including his colorful mother Jennie, his wife Clementine and his nemesis Adolf Hitler.



4. The Last Lion, Alone covers the history of Europe from the time Hitler first came to power in Germany to the time that Hitler invaded the Low Countries and World War II began. During this period Churchill, who continually fought against the appeasement policies of Chamberlain, rose from Back Bench irrelevance to become Brittan's Prime Minister.
   
   The history of this period is a gripping saga of one man's malicious attempt to dominate Europe and another man's noble efforts to stop him - a classical case of good vs evil - told as an almost unbelievable story in the words of a master story teller.



5. Finest biography on Churchill ever written. A pity Manchester died before completing the third book of the trilogy.

5 comments about The Guynd: A Scottish Journal.

1. I bought this book at my mother's request. She loved it. I'll be getting it back from her and reading it too.



2. I wanted to read this witty memoir because of my romantic childhood fantasy of living in a mansion or castle in Europe. Oh how lucky the American author was to have fallen in love with Scottish man with an ancestral home and property. I was rather envious of their son, Elliot, who was able to spend his childhood exploring and playing in the gardens, on the lake, and in the house.
   
   But life isn't a fairytale. This is a story about a deteriorated, cluttered mansion, its 400 acres and a marriage that started as a whirlwind romance and came to mirror the mansion itself.
   
   There's a lot of humor in the writing. How could you not laugh at the author's stories about how hard it was to heat the house, find proper tenants, clear out a garden untouched for decades and to try to throw junk out when married to someone who can find a use for everything.
   
   If you don't know what an Aga stove is, you soon will. I highly recommend this book, but suggest curling up in a warm house with a hot cup of tea and a blanket. You'll need it.



3. I enjoyed the book, but was shocked when I came to the passage describing how the author, while in a late stage of pregnancy, climbed a tall scaffolding to paint a wall. It seems like an amazing lack of judgment for someone who was pregnant late in life.



4. Ours was not the 'big' house, but the 'gardener's cottage' which we rented for a year, and both the marriage and the enterprise of that particular country home survive. But all the characteristics and challenges of the estate, garden, community, and home came to life again in the author's witty, canny prose. This is the best description of the many, layered facets of Scottish society and how the great homes and their residents fit into the scheme of their surroundings that I have read.



5. I really looked forward to reading this book because I have long wanted to travel in Scotland, and I enjoy the extended travelogue where people live in a new land for a long time and get to know the locals. This was a good book, but not great. I had unanswered questions when it ended. For example, why did it take her 10 years to realize she and he husband were incompatible? Why did she keep her apartment in New York during the time she was living in Scotland? I kept thinking that if this were fiction, some of it would be implausible. Still, the characters you meet are worth meeting, and I did enjoy the book.

5 comments about Memoirs of the Second World War (An Abridgement of the Six Volumes of the Second World War).

1. Winston Churchill was a man of destiny, and he came to realize that, although he seldom hints at it. Without him Western Civilization would be drastically different today, for the worse.
   
   Somehow he makes the day-to-day machinations of world governments read like a suspense novel. Yet he is concise, reserved and free from hyperbole. I think this is possible because he so clearly saw the Big Picture and knew deep down what really was at stake. The story didn't need to be enhanced for those who could understand, and those who couldn't . . . oh well.
   
   This made the early decades of the Twentieth Century come alive for me. I now feel like I lived through those times.
   
   I loved the book, and I love the man!



2. I read this good book, here in Brazil.Among the World War II great leaders, only Churchill wrote a book about that war.
   About american eugenics , race and gender relations, there isn't a single word against or about, in this big book, with more than 1,000 pages.There's some maps inside.This book isn't only about World War II, but also about the war's roots and fruits, includind about Cold War.
   This book is very biased.The Churchill's mistakes in World War II, were enormous.About France's battle in 1940, seems that Churchill was in another planet then, not as England's leader then.Ever big Churchill's or England's failure, has almost nothing or no place at all, in this book.About war production and military weapons, there's almost nothing.
   Secrets about Colossus computer and the breaking of german Enigma code machine or "purle" japanese code,were war secrets and also had no place on this book.
   Even with so many bias and other failures, this book remains good and easy to read.



3. Since this book was updated, there are new facts have come out about the statistics of WWII and the roles the Allies and the Axis played in it.
   That's to be expected.
   It is one sided with Churchill at times believing in his absolute right and his problems getting his view across to the Americans and the Russians.
   At times he lays too much emphasis on the fact that Britain won the war with the "help" of the Allies. And at other times he states that without the Allies Britain would have been sunk.
   As confusing and horrible as that time was, reading another book about the American side would be also helpful as we had to fight the Japanese also and it was our POW's on the defensive there. It seems to downplay the effect the Japenese had on the war which was not trivial at all.
   
   Though he seems to describe the battle of Leyete and Midway fairly well.
   It's a good read, and it's interesting to see the other "side" of the war from a great man and you won't be sorry to read it.



4. This book is one of the most comprehensive I've ever read.
   
   I have a huge quantity of books about Second World War, including biographies of important people who took part in it; I can ensure this one is always within easy reach of my hands.
   Of course, you must be conscious before reading this book that it's been written by an English leader who was responsible not only for his country but for lots more and the War itself. He wrote it, based upon his documents and remembrances of those hard days.
   I didn't read the six volume set that is his thorough and complete biography, however "Memoirs of the Second Word War" is a wide-ranging book, starting in the thirties and going through all periods of war, till some time post-war.
   
   If you have a deep knowledge of WWII, might see that some facts are missing.
   In this book he does not make any mention of allies who took little but important part during those tough days. For example, he just talk about the capture of Monte Cassino , in Italy, without making any mention of Monte Castelo and Montese which resulted in prison of one entire German Division (148º Infantry) in a hard fighting, by FEB (Brazilian Expeditionary Force). These details however, do not take his merits away. On the contrary, Sir Winston Churchill show us others things that we, mere mortals, would not imagine that could be happen at that time, such as how dubious, distrustful and cheek Stalin was!
   He also exposes his disagreements and discussions with American allies when they had different point of views in some issues, and shows himself as a human being and not as a superman.
   
   We must be aware that, as he has said, "It must be not supposed that I expect everybody to agree with what I say", so it is a book to explain his point of view of this important event and not to please someone. Of course, you do not have to get this book as unique reference for researches or studies but as an addition to them.
   
   "Memoirs of the Second War" is a masterpiece which must be read for everyone who enjoy and study WWII.



5. `Memoirs of the Second World War' by Winston Churchill
   
   This abridged (6 volumes) edition of Churchill's WWII memoirs is as important today as it was when penned. One is left with a true sense of the thoughts passing through the Prime Minister's mind which led to the extraordinary choices he was to decide through the bulk of the `40's. I've always felt the European perspective of the war years was under appreciated in America, when after all, these were the souls who dealt with the ravages of war at their front door.
   
   Churchill's beautiful prose and detailed account of all major Allied decision making is required reading for any history, and certainly any WWII aficionado. It probably should be for all American high school students, as well. Whether or not you agree with these opinions, I definitely think you'll find a passionate, wonderfully composed piece of history in this excellent abridgement from one of history's greatest intellects.

5 comments about A Drinking Life: A Memoir.

1. Oh, the places Hamill will take you in this gritty, unflinchingly honest look at a fascinating interior life. Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Brooklyn, complete with cockroaches, Pete slowly acquires an understanding of what it means to be an Irish-American.
   Around age 8, his father, Billy, walked him to Gallagher's, the corner saloon, where young Pete got his first introduction to the camaraderie of the neighborhood bar. There he witnessed his father's serenading of the crowd, after loosening himself up with booze.
   It was an initiation that would influence Pete for many years to come. Throughout the book, Hamill notes the persistent, persuasive messages that our society gives, that drinking is an essential social lubricant.
   Be it a wedding, a funeral, the beginning of a job, or ending of one, joining the Navy, going on leave or vacation, on and on, drinking was invited, expected, nearly demanded.
   The book provides great insights into the times. Hamill writes, "We lived to the rhythms of the war (WWII). Before the War, During the War, After the War."
   Hamill's forays into the world of art are enlightening. While taking a drawing class, he becomes enamored of a nude model, and they become involved. His loves, travels, thoughts on religion and family kept me entranced, as well as his inevitable slide into an alcohol-induced moral deterioration.
   The surprising aspect here, was Hamill's moment of clarity, when he realized he had a choice, that he could disrupt the cycle of the "Irish-curse". We cheer for him as he strives to make a sober life for himself. An interesting life, told by a great writer.



2. A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill is a reflection on his drinking past. Without sentimentality Hamill tells a hard story. He portrays a loving mother, and an alcoholic father. He chronicles his impoverished childhood, his tough coming of age, his difficult search for meaning, his newspaper career, and his regrets about the way he treated his first wife and children. As the title implies his memories are tied together by recollections of alcohol, and a drinking culture that both fascinated and repelled him. The bar was a place of refuge where Hamill could be a man. It was a place to celebrate, to commiserate, to identify with others, to escape loneliness. It was the only place he bonded with his father.
   
   But the bar and the alcohol that fueled it had an evil side. It stifled human consciousness; it dulled pain, boredom, and joy. It allowed unconsciousness in the midst of living. During the 1960's at the peak of his newspaper career he realized drink was making his hands shake when he typed, and his mind so soft he couldn't spell easy words. He quit. Drinking memories ended. Hamill's love for the writing life was more important than his love for booze.
   
   His memoir is not a cautionary tale against using alcohol, nor is it a self-serving whine against the way he was brought up. He writes like the reporter he is. Honest sentences, specificity, and recalled emotion inform his text. He presents clear snapshots of his 1940's childhood in Brooklyn. He lets the reader draw conclusions, or judgments. He presents the characters who walked across his mother's kitchen floor--his Irish father, mostly drunk, and his siblings. He gives us his friends. He moves into the 1950's with raw adolescent energy--lots of sex, lots of booze. Drinking so overpowers the narrative, that at times I felt exhausted just by reading of his drinking binges.
   
   Hamill's talent, in this memoir and in other work, is a passionate love for real life. He spreads humanity on a broad canvas without moralizing. He paints violence, gentleness, loneliness, and companionship. Real life is hard to look at. Hamill gives it to the reader like he gives it to himself. Without bitterness, with humility, with forgiveness, and with compassion.



3. In my quest for chronicles that detail the often entwined aspects of drink and journalism, I was delighted to discover Pete Hamill's candid tale, robust and surly - an account that carries the reader through his lushly-detailed memoirs that began in blue-collared Brooklyn. As the son of struggling Irish immigrants, Hamill grew up during the Depression with the enduring beliefs of the working-class neighborhood in which he lived -street-fights, low pay, loyalty to the neighborhood, and machismo drinking. His tale is rich with the nostalgia of days long past - marbles and stickball, Milton Caniff, Captain America, and the city Athletic League. He details his own lack of connectedness with an alcoholic father he longed to love and vowed not to imitate, only to fall prey to the same lure of the bottle.
   
   Hamill recounts his loss-of-innocence submission to wine at eleven, along with the internalization of the street-tough attitude that shapes his life in the ensuing years. His talent for graphics and natural ability in academics often leads him to the edge of success, only to fall victim to his own self-destruction. Dreams of becoming a cartoonist are interrupted by the reality of a Navy Yard job, yet resurrected again through art lessons from Burne Hogarth, then dulled by a desire to imitate stoic drinkers like Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The romantic association of absinthe and literature appeals to Hamill, a seduction that eventually draws him to a career in journalism. He details the rocks and bumps along the way - through newspaper strikes and Mexican jail. His obvious wanderlust takes him from Barcelona to Dublin, Rome to San Juan to Washington D.C., while trying to sustain a turbulent marriage, peppered with an infinite immersion into parties and booze, and eventual divorce.
   
   In 1966, Hamill meets Shirley McLaine at a party in Rome, and he details, very briefly, the eventual celebrity life he shared with her, but shies away from giving us a paparazzi view of truly personal details. Although he denies it, he is perhaps too immersed in drink to recall the nitty gritty. In his final look inward, he describes a New Year's Eve party and his feeling "as if I were shooting the scene with a camera from across the bar...I noticed that my hand was trembling and wondered if that was in the camera shot," - his own personal play that has lasted a lifetime, one written with a bad script that he rewrites at that very moment. Kudos for him.
   
   This is not a book that shows you how to quit drinking; rather, it is a searing, vivid account of one man's recognition of his own problem with alcohol. Despite years of succumbing to the liquor that constantly dragged him into the depths of the gutter, he emerged with a brilliant tale to tell.



4. Pete Hamill"s deeply introspective memoir of his coming of age during the late 40's and 50's in working class Brooklyn is a brutally honest account of how alcohol gets integrated into certain rights of passage as people , especially men navigate the transition to adulthood.
   
   His story could be anyone's, except that Hamill writes in a gripping personal style that infuses each episode in his young life with a sense of urgency. The struggle to reconcile with a distant father never deteriorates into a sense of victimhood. I admired the fact that Hamill is able to describe his youthful feelings of anger toward his father without wallowing in them and always with a sense of someone seeking to understand and forgive.
   
   This is a great book on several levels. Hamill captures a sense of the old neighborhoods of New York that have vanished and the strong influence that a sense of place had on young people of his generation when the world was quite a bit smaller.



5. I picked this book up out of desperation for something, anything to read...and I must admit that the title clinched the deal. "A Drinking Life" - I couldn't resist. Drama, angst, highs, lows...it's all right there in the title.
   
   What I wasn't expecting was a book that depicts a time, place and way of life that has always fascinated me. One of the reasons I love "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" is the vivid and at the same time, faded sepia description of a New York, and an America that I never knew. I've been to New York twice, have seen touristy parts and not so touristy parts, have been at turns delighted and appalled by its residents...and of course, in that short period of time, barely scratched the surface of this city that almost defies description. Because, of course, there are so many facets to it. New York depends on the area, the time, the circumstances. One person's New York may be a polar opposite of the next person's.
   
   Pete Hamill, in the first half of his memoir, describes the New York of Brooklyn from 1939 to 1950. In this New York, he and his Irish Catholic family struggle to better their situation. They live hand to mouth, in sometimes squalid apartments - too small for a family that keeps growing. And yet - when Hamill spends pages describing the more positive aspects of his childhood - I feel a yearning to be there. To see the far quieter and yet more greatly populated streets. I hope to hear the sounds of stickball, and radios playing jazz and swing into a summer night. I want to feel the safety and connection of a neighborhood that knows each and every member...one that shares the joy of the end of a war that they together shared the dread of.
   
   He describes D day in a New York that had been blacked out for months fearing air raids. "...without warning, the entire skyline of New York erupted into glorious light: dazzling, glittering, throbbing in triumph. And the crowds on the rooftops roared. They were roaring on roofs all over Brooklyn, on streets, on bridges, the whole city roaring for light. There it was, gigantic and brilliant, the way they said it used to be: the skyline of New York. Back again. On D day, at the command of Mayor LaGuardia. And it wasn't just the skyline. Over on the left was the Statue of Liberty, glowing green from dozens of light beams, a bright red torch held high over her head. The skyline and the statue: in all those years of the war, in all those years of my life, I had never seen either of them at night. I stood there in the roar, transfixed."
   
   He also describes his love of books, and words, and comics and the magic that happens when one is drawn into the new world of a story. When you discover a world, an existence, a universe previously unknown.
   
   "But when we lived on Thirteenth Street, the content of the comics was driving deep into me. They filled me with secret and lurid narratives, a notion of the hero, a sense of the existence of evil. They showed me the uses of the mask, insisting that heroism was possible only when you fashioned an elaborate disguise. Most important was the lesson of the magic potion. The comics taught me, and millions of other kids, that even the weakest human being could take a drink and be magically transformed into someone smarter, bigger, braver. All you needed was the right drink."
   
   And there it is, of course. The underlying thread of the book...drinking. From the earliest age, alcohol is everywhere in Hamill's life. In his neighborhood, in his home, even in his history - drinking is an accompaniment to all events, large and small.
   
   When he reads Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the passage that stands out is one where Jekyll drinks the potion and is transformed in a hideous way..."I read that passage and thought of my father." Hamill is deeply influenced by his father...hating what drinking does to him at the same time he is learning that drinking is what men do.
   
   As the book continues, some of the detail of Hamill's life is lost, certainly because (as he is first to point out) much of it was lost to him as well due to alcohol, but I also got the sense that this part of the book was rushed. It almost felt like Hamill was looking at how much had written about his early life and realizing that he'd better move things along if was ever to finish.
   
   Still - there are passages like these that sucked me right back in. "In the summer of 1950, all of us from the Neighborhood hung out in a place on Coney Island called the Oceantide. Built on the boardwalk at Bay 22, it was a block long complex with a swimming pool, lockers, a long packed bar, and a small fenced-off area where the young men danced with the young women to a bubbling Wurlitzer jukebox. Down the block was a shop called Mary's, which sold the most fabulous hero sandwiches in New York, great thick concoctions of ham and cheese and tomatoes laced with mustard or mayonnaise, along with cases of ice cold sodas."
   
   My mouth waters just thinking about it...I want to be there!
   
   Finally, towards the end, Hamill comes to the realization that he's spent his whole life trying to either be exactly like or nothing like all of the influences in his life. Nothing like his father, and yet just like his father. Exactly like the comic book artists and heroes. Exactly like and nothing like his friends from the Neighborhood. Not only his life, but his writing is an imitation or rejection of that of others.
   
   Which is summed up in the mantra he uses to quit drinking. "I will live my life, I will not perform it." There is much time and experience and emotions that he has lost - but in the end, he is able to find the strength to cut the losses.
   
   "And I loved my life, with all its hurts and injuries and failures, and the things I now saw clearly, and the things I only remembered through the golden blur of drink."

5 comments about The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory.

1. This is William Manchester at his best. This is fascinating reading and fascinating writing. Of course Winston Churchill was quite a character but to be honest I didn't know that fact until I read this book and its companion volume.
   After reading this book I put it to my mind that I would read everything that Manchester wrote. I've got a couple more to go. You can't miss with this purchase. A great story, great writing, and good history. What more could you ask for?



2. Winston Churchill was not a likable or even an admirable man.He was dishonest,childish,ruthless and disloyal.Perhaps worst of all,he was a megalomaniac-he knew that he was a Great Man,and that some day he would fulfill a magnificent destiny. But when war and catastrophe came to England he was perhaps the only politician psycholigically capable of inspiring continued resistence and defiance to Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich.Given that England had already lost the war,that was a breathtaking achievement.
   
   James Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson",published in 1791,is generally considered the finest biography produced in the English language.However,Manchester's work is perhaps superior. Boswell was of Johnson's world and therefore conveyed it to his reader only incidently;that is,he naturally assumed that his reader would be familiar with the things and events with which he was familiar.Manchester,writing of the past,appreciated the necessity of re-creating Churchill's world for the reader.He was brilliantly successful.The world which Churchill inhabited would have been amazing even to most of his contemporaries because of his social class.As Manchester points out,in over 90 years of life Churchill never drew his own bath;one of his relatives,visiting friends without his valet,sent down word that he was having trouble getting his toothpaste to "froth properly".He'd never applied toothpaste to a toothbrush himself.It isn't just the story of Churchill's life that is so engrossing.It is the wonderful recreation of Churchill's world,of the people he knew and the conversations he had,the events which occurred and the way that Churchill and his friends and enemies reacted to the events.
   
   As Boswell loved Johnson,Manchester worshipped Churchill.Indeed,Churchill was in some ways a lovable man.He was devoted to his wife and family(happily married for almost 60 years-how many men can say that?) He revered his father (a syphlitic,who depised him,)and he was loyal to his country and the Empire it ruled.Personally,I doubt that I'd have been able to spend more than ten minutes in a room with Churchill.But this book is one of the finest I've ever read.I was honestly sorry to read the last of its almost 900 pages and I'm opening the second volume tonight.In the forward to the second volume Manchester quotes a definition of biographer.The biographer is judged "by his ability to suggest the sweep of chronology and yet to highlight the major patterns of behavior that give a life its shape and meaning."Boswell did that. Manchester,I believe,did it better.



3. Manchester is one of those writers who appears unable to disappoint. This is a book to be read and savored. For years, it sat on my shelf - I saw as a large undertaking that I wanted to do right.
   
   The book has a very interesting structure. First, it begins with a kind of interpretive introduction to the man, vividly characterizing him while also evaluating his strengths as a man of history and his glaring weaknesses. You see him, worts and all, and it is both funny and enlightening. The psychological depth is virtually unprecedented in any other bio I have read. Second, you get a view both into his milieu - as an aristocrat of talent and privilege in Victorian Britain - and a biography of both of his parents. This is crucially important, as we come to see Churchill as an anachronism, but also as a boy neglected by narcissistic parents. (Interestingly, the absence of one or both parents is a common trait in extraordinary achievers.) Third, you get his life story, more from the events he was involved in than as an intimate portrait, though much of his personal life is covered. Indeed, he used action as the most effective tonic against depression.
   
   The man that emerges is flawed and complex, but evidently a political genius. In my view, the key to his character is that he remained a Victorian gentleman, who viewed martial valor as the greatest source of meaning and glory in life. This suited him to titanic struggles, such as the one he faced with Hitler that places him in the ranks of the greatest historical figures. As an egotist, he always wanted to place himself at the center of events and yet did so with courage and tenacity in spite of his physical weaknesses. When out of power, he exercised other gifts, such as writing, with equal talent and energy.
   
   Nonetheless, Manchester proves that Churchill was not a politician deeply in touch with his constituency: he never developed a typical base of power and often his views did not synch with the mainstream. Without Hitler, his hour might never have arrived: this duality is a theme that runs through the entire book.
   
   If there is any flaw here, it is that Manchester includes a plethora of detail, not only about world events but in Churchill's political maneuverings. Normally, I delight in these details, if I know there is a purpose to all of it, which I did not always sense in this book. (Here a comparison with Robert Caro is instructive: you always know where he is going and why.) Others may see it differently, of course. Also, many of the historical details I already knew, so did not need Manchester's wordy introductions, but they were useful in the many cases of which I was ignorant.
   
   All in all, this is one of the most engrossing and fascinating bios I have ever read. Warmly recommended.



4. well this is the first book i read on winston churchill . bought it in 1983 . the foreword is unforgettable but historical mistakes in it makes this work not the very best on the luife of sir winston. great prose nevetheless.same can be said of book number two.



5. This is a truly *massive* work, equal parts scholarship and artistry. Though volume one runs close to a thousand pages (counting notes, sources, etc.), I finished reading it this afternoon after an off-and-on reading of about two weeks, and it just flew by. Manchester crafted this with such precision care that I fell into the narrative from page one.
   
   The greatest strength of the book itself-- aside from it's subject-- is Manchester's gift of narrative. WC was the quintessential Victorian, as Manchester points out time and again throughout both volumes. It is only appropriate, then, that the author should give some feel of what it was like to live in the British Empire at the time of Queen Victoria. Some of the very best passages, in my opinion, deal with life during the last quarter-century of Victoria's reign. These are not mere digressions. These fascinating glimpses into WC's era help the reader to better understand Churchill himself, who was born a Victorian and remained one to his dying day.
   
   Manchester provides insight into British colonial administration, life in the British Raj at the end of the 19th century, and the upper class's attitudes toward sexuality and marriage. While this is fascinating in itself, Manchester goes even further and weaves a vivid tapestry of politics, history, and culture through his use of personal correspondence. It is his exhaustive use of personal correspondence-- between WC and his parents, WC and his wife and children, WC and Members of Parliament, and between all sorts of people talking about Churchill and the events in which he was caught up--- that this gives Manchester's work the feeling, not of history or even biography, but of a life too large to have been lived by one man.