5 comments about Happy Days Were Here Again: Reflections of a Libertarian Journalist.

1. As I read this book, I laughed, I cheered, and, most amazingly, I remembered. WFB's resume gives him a wide range of ideas from which to draw, all of which do seem to find their way into his work, and serve to make the most mundane of topics worthwhile. As a conservative commentator, he is without peer, so you who would buy this book will gain insight. But what I found most valuable was that Mr. Buckley's writings don't just remind me of the past, they create memories of the moods, the voices; the hysteria when Reagan said "evil empire", the absolute shock when the Wall fell, the absurdity of Senator Weicker, and so on. I was at West Point in the late Eighties, and so got most of my news, as Mr. Whiting will attest, from the New York Times, and this helps me remember that there are more than just my former service mates and left-wing journalists in the world. And finally, those of you who just can't stand WFB's mannerisms and delivery, it's not an audio book, and you can put whatever soundtrack you want to it, and have full control of the dosage.



2. This is a fine collection of the thoughts and witticisms of William F Buckley. It covers most any area that Mr. Buckley holds an Interest whether it be politics, social affairs, sailing, classical music and spending time with dignitaries and well to do people. It is fantastically written (as can be expected from Buckley) however it seemed to talk just over the head of the common man. With his infatuation with the Ryder Cup and talking about people who are important to him, really have no impact on my life. All in all it is a very well written fast paced collection. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys political and social commentary. And to anyone who just like to read something different than a novel or text of history.
   Thanks For Your Time:
   T



3. William F. Buckley is unquestionably one of the most articulate and knowledgeable American debaters of the second half of the twentieth century. Buckley seems to know a little bit--if not a lot--about everything, and he reflects and gives observations about various topics in this collection of essays from the mid-to-late 80s and early 90s.

   As an author, Buckley is unfailingly witty and acerbic, and this book is littered with quips and sapient remarks. Buckley is particularly good at analyzing other peoples' positions, and at poking holes in their poor logic. That is where this book succeeds.

   This book occasionally fails when Buckley attempts to elucidate his own position on an issue. For instance, in one essay Buckley suggests that Beethoven is "a national monument" and should be entitled to governmental protection, so that vacationers can listen to the great composer's symphonies when they are traveling in non-cosmopolitan areas. My suggestion to Buckley would be to rent a car with a tape deck or cd player. It is not necessary for the government to mandate all-Beethoven channels in all cities and towns in order for citizens to listen to Beethoven when they are on vacation.

   In another essay Buckley spells out the case for allowing women to serve in the military, but then says that he takes the opposite position. His explanation for why he is against women serving in the military is vague. He says that allowing women to join the armed forces is repugnant to "human nature," which leads one to wonder how Buckley would respond to someone who believes that what he calls "human nature" is an artificial construct. Maybe he did not provide a response to that question because of spacial constraints, but I think that if he is going to base a policy position on human nature, he should provide readers with some sort of idea of what his theory of human nature is.
   I hope that I have not accentuated the negative too much in this review, because Buckley truly is a wonderful writer and an interesting read. He has opinions about everything, and he is fun to read not only for what he has to say, but also for how he says it. His vocabulary is expansive and his word-choices are colorful. This book should be read by anyone who wants intelligent and fiercely-opinionated commentary on newsworthy events, and the various parties involved, from 1985 to 1992.




4. This is Buckley at his acerbic best on subjects as varied as John Lennon, Ted Kennedy and Elizabeth Taylor to academia, Gorbachev and The First Gulf War.

   It's always illuminating and stimulating to explore the brain of one of America's foremost conservative thinkers and as these essays drift more into history, his insights and deliberations become astounding in their perspicacity and accuracy.

   These essays cover everything from the fall of communism, the Los Angeles riots, Playboy magazine and lots more. The time spent reading this delightful paperback is time spent in the company of charming brilliance.




5. The book came in expected condition. They shipped quickly and did a great job.

5 comments about How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: (and Found Inner Peace).

1. The dust-cover copy caries a list of self-help style questions to determine if you might enjoy this book. While they are meant to be light hearted and fanciful, one of them jumps out as a great point of departure in looking at this book. To wit: You sit all the way through "Dead Man Walking" and at the end still want the guy to be executed.
   I remember seeing the film when it first came out. At the end, I was sure Susan Sarandon's character had realized that the job of a nun is saving souls, not protesting political issues. It was no great shock to find over the following days that the rest of the planet viewed the film as a masterful argument against capital punishment. I am used to finding myself on the outskirts of fashionable sentiment and have no plans to move to the center. Works like Stein's reassure me that I am in good company. Intelligent, well informed people can disagree about political issues, spittle-flecked protestations of the left notwithstanding.
   It really is okay to be a social conservative. Advocating reasonable limits on abortion for instance does not mean you hate women; it means you think children are a blessing and that they deserve at least as much protection as we demand for the cockroaches used in filming popular movies (see p. 204.) People like Stein, people who started out as beaded and sandaled hippies and metamorphosed into conservatives are open to accusations of being "wishy-washy," of having sold-out. But Stein makes the excellent point that holding lofty principles while one has no experience and few real responsibilities in life is the truly indefensible position. The things that seemed like such a good idea when you were waving a sign on campus suddenly look different when it is time to pay for them and see how they affect your own children. Most people will become more conservative as they grow older and take on more responsibilities. The question is whether those people will have the courage to lead in the face of the idealistic mob, yammering for ever more government.



2. Stein is a very good writer and does himself proud in this book. He was a darling of the Left, until he matured into a responsible adult, and then became their enemy. Like many former leftist elitists, he goes through the trials and tribulations of having life handed to him on a silver platter, looks down on the rubes who are too stupid to understand what he is talking about from his snobbish point of view, but comes to realize that the great divide between the red and blue states is a function of living life instead of reading about it in the New York Times.
   
   While others have made similar transformations, such as Horowitz or Krystol, Stein goes further in exposing the idiocy of the Upper East Side liberals who rail against supposed violations of "free speech" except at the dinner tables they use to suppress it. His observations on the consequences of their liberalism which made NY the murder capital of the world until Giuliani somehow miraculously appeared from the sky as mayor even though they all voted for Dinkins as he presided over the carnage is particularly interesting.
   
   I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at many chapters of this book, but I guess both emotions were appropriate since I have suffered through many of the hypocrisies that makes up the vast majority of the elite liberals today. His observations about "sexgate" as he calls Clinton's great role modeling of corruption for the country's youth of wagging your finger and lying as he performed his magic act with Monica and the disappearing cigars is a good example, but there are many more, such as the disappearing act of "Murphy Brown's" baby when the ratings decided this little Hollywood stunt should be aborted once it was no longer of use in attacking those who viewed intact families as something of value. Of course Brown's role modeling for the millions of unwed women who have babies but have to raise them makes for great observation on Stein's part.
   
   This book was written in 2000, so it is a bit dated, but still relevant to the culture wars of today.



3. There are thoughtful, rueful memoirs of sincere political change. This isn't one of them. Stein opens with a typically 70's, upper-class-journalist/boyo recitation of his personal (pre-conversion) sluttishness, including key club swinging, screwing prostitutes, and even, shamefully, exploiting them in the workplace. Funny. Then he puff against others speaking of their past errors, accusing them of a lack of dignity and recommending mature silence. How'd he do that? By hewing to a singular theme: he's different. Special. Not like us. Most of his ire, of course, is reserved for Bill Clinton and feminists. He chides the former for behaving exactly as he did (pre-conversion) and the latter for advocating for stuff like child care, which he opposes, arguing that since he's lucky enough to have a cool job, hip apartment and (rich former entertainment executive) wife who happily abandoned her career to raise their kids, we should all do the same. Larded, of course, with fond memories of his "radical" days, Stein comes across as a braggard, name dropper and opportunist who fails entirely to see the irony in scolding actresses for having children out of wedlock while simultaneously opposing abortion and forgetting to mention, let alone also disapprove of, the rich, producer pals of his who knocked them up in the first place. Nice work, if you can get it.



4. Harry Stein, 1970s Party Guy, weds and spawns and accidentally finds himself in...the middle of the road. He thinks he's right-wing because he's surrounded by Manhattan Silly Lefties (the same social set so ably skewered by Tom Wolfe in "Radical Chic" back in the day) among whom he is probably the rightmost individual in any room he's in. However, compared to the real right, he's still a secular, ambivalent-on-abortion moderate, albeit one with an ax to grind against feminism.
   
   The hidden issue here is social class. Stein seems to have lived his whole life in the High Achievement Zone, the level of society where ability and opportunity can be taken for granted, where everybody can do pretty much whatever they set out to do, certainly as far as their personal lives are concerned. He writes from and for that class, rightly taking aim at their failings, e.g., the self-indulgence of those of his peers who walk out on their underage kids out of boredom and then disguise it with fancy language ("need to find myself," "searching for greater fulfillment," etc.) But in the process, he ends up slighting the concerns of the rest of us, the people who get by, muddle through, struggle along and do what we have to do. Frankly, I don't think we're part of his target audience. I think this book was meant to circulate among, and shake up, the elite in a few expensive metropolitan areas. That the rest of us got to see it is just a fluke of the market economy.



5. Harry Stein, 1970s party guy, marries, has kids and finds himself in... the middle of the road. He thinks he's conservative because his social circle consists mainly of Manhattan Silly Lefties (the same species so ably skewered by Tom Wolfe in "Radical Chic" (reprinted in Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers in 1970) but to real conservatives he's still a secular, ambivalent-about-abortion moderate, albeit one with an axe to grind against feminism.
   
   The unspoken factor in the book is its social class context. Stein has clearly spent his life in the High Achievement Zone where opportunity and support can be taken for granted and individuals really can do pretty much whatever they set out to do. (He makes it obvious by dropping names of notables he knows personal stories about - the kinds of stories he'd only hear by traveling in the same circles they do.) In this context he rightly condemns those of his peers who do things like walk out on their underage kids "in search of deeper fulfillment" or "to find myself" or some other fancified way of saying "because parenthood turned out to be less fun and more work than I expected." But he has little to say to the rest of us, those who struggle to get by and have hard choices to make. That's okay. It's not that serious a book. But if you're not at his socioeconomic level, you're not the audience it was written for.

5 comments about Portrait of Hemingway (Modern Library).

1. It's a remarkable piece of work, both loving and accurate. If you don't like his kind of macho, I guess you could call the Portrait barbed; but she obviously loved it and him enough to win his trust. He opened up for her and, in the welcoming sense, took her in. I'm left full of wonder for the way she got his words, as well as his presence, down. You can see, too, how his early work, with its pared-down clarity, influenced her style. This is biography without conjecture -- biography at its best.



2. Portrait is a glimpse into the life of Hemingway over a two-day period. For fans of Hemingway, this is a fascinating snapshot of the famous Hemingway bravado and an offering of the vulnerability and sensitivity flowing immediately under the gruff and overly-confident exterior. Hemingway's passion for art and alcohol is found here, and one can't help but be reminded of his earlier devotion to, and inspiration from, painting rendered in A Moveable Feast. Sadly, one also anticipates the later disability compounded by the excessive drinking that finally extinguished such a brilliant career. This book caused a commotion when it was first published because Hemingway came across as insensitive, but it is only the lazy reader not willing to dig a little deeper, and only the reader who allows the powerful prose of Ross to lull them into mere observation, who fails to recognize the whole of Hemingway's character. If you are a Hemingway fan, or you want to scratch the surface of the life of a great writer who showed no fear in displaying his faults as readily as his virtues, and you don't mind a few character quirks along the way, read this book.



3. This slim volume covering a mere two days with Hemingway will take about an hour or two to read. However, it's merit is that it is presents us with a 'bird's eye-view' of Hemingway's later years, the alcholism, his relationship with his wife Mary, his son, and some of his old friends. It also gives us a glimpse of his feelings about his writing in his own words. For those who have enjoyed Hemingway's fiction and read biographies of his life, this book is a must.



4. Lillian Ross has the eye and ear of a reporter and the writing ability of a distinguished novelist. This feature on Hemingway, originally a NEW YORKER piece, is a delight for fans of Ross and fans of Hemingway of which I can be counted as both.

   The story begins as Miss Ross meets Hemingway at Idlewood Airport (now JFK) in New York City in 1950. Ross spends the next two days going to museums, shopping, and meeting Hemingway's friend Marlene Dietrich and Editor Charles Scribner.

   She's so unobtrusive in the story, you forget that she was actually in the room. When Hemingway talks to her, it's like a character has stepped out of a novel to speak with the author. You get this feeling because "Papa" is so much himself that he doesn't seem to be hiding his true personality from a member of the press corps.

   I learned a good deal about Papa in this short book. You will too.




5. As a true Hemingway fan, I found this book to be neither entertaining nor insightful... However, the afterword that follows it is quite interesting and contains a few fascinating stories. I recommend Hemingway's own book "A Moveable Feast" for anyone who wants to truly understand America's greatest writer.

5 comments about Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: A Memoir of Gay Literary Life After Stonewall.

1. A memoir of the heady days of gay writing and publishing, the 70's and 80's in New York City, which is alternating fascinating and frustrating. Fascinating in the stories Picano has to tell in his fluent, readable prose style: the development of "Torch Song Trilogy" and Harvey Fierstein's early career, the personalities behind Three Lives Bookstore and Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookstore (Greenwich Village institutions), the Violet Quill writers circle, the trials and tribulations of getting gay and lesbian literature written at all when societal prejudice continued to create obstacle upon obstacle, the devastations of the AIDS epidemic upon multiple budding careers.
   
   Frustrating in the narcissism with regard to the author's contribution to gay literature, the myopia that conflates historic significance with literary worth, the overvaluation of minor writers (his friends) and the undervaluation of major ones (not his friends):
   
   "I'd begun writing what would end up being the first part of my first memoir and I was intensely aware that I believed I'd accomplished a kind of breakthrough in the form". (page 166)
   
   "Today the criticism my book received then seems silly when it isn't hypocritical". (p.171)
   
   A little of this goes a long way - and there is alot of this.
   
   Picano is out to dish the dish, settle some scores and make perfectly clear how heroic his (and some others)efforts were. It isn't so much as I disagree with his assessment of some of his accomplishments as his manner of seeing them all in the same rosy glow.
   
   While I frequently found this book compulsively readable, I episodically had to slow down to step around the little piles of egocentricity.



2. Picano, Felice. "Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: Gay Literary Life After Stonewall", Carroll & Graf, 2007.
   
   A Look at Our Lives
   
   Amos Lassen and Literary Pride
   
   Felice Picano is one of our A-List authors. He is a pioneer in gay literature and one of our best loved authors. In "Art and Sex in Greenwch Village" he gives us a deep look into what brought about contemporary gay literature as well as gay culture as he looks at life in New York in the 70's and 80's. He, himself, has written more than 20 books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry so he is well equipped to provide this look.
   When gay liberation began with the Stonewall riots in 1969, a new era in the history of our community began. It seems that politics were affected and, in fact, everything else felt he change except for the arts--literature, movie, and drama. Sure, there were films and plays and a few books written but most did not deal with our newly won liberation. It was not until six years later, in 1977, that things began to take a turn. Picano founded a small press to be devoted to publishing gay books to be known as Seahorse. Coming along to launch another new venture was author Larry Mitchell who began his own press for gay books, Calamus Press. Terry Helbing also began JH Press to publish his plays. In 1981 the three men joined their separate presses together and formed Gay Presses of New York which was to become the most influential gay press of the time. It published books by some of the giants of gay writing including Harvey Fierstein, Martin Duberman, Dennis Cooper, several women writers and brought in some up and coming writers. Here was the beginning of gay literature as we know it and Gay Presses of New York influenced popular culture greatly. What Picano gives us is a behind the scenes look at that press and what it produced. Those days in New York were a time of moving ahead in gay writing and publishing which held both frustration and fascination. Picano relates stories to us in his beautiful eloquent writing and he also tells us about the writers of the time. We learn about the gay bookstores in New York and the famous Violet Quill writers group and how difficult it was to get gay literature both written and published. This was a time when the pressures of society were great and AIDS was affecting our lives so terribly.
   . Picano tells it like it was and to show how brave he and the others were. It is so interesting to compare this where we are today--seeing mainstream publishers publishing out work and not having to have special houses to do so. We can look back ay and see how things were but we must remember that we are where we are today because of what some heroic people did for us.



3. As a writer and poet in the 21st century, I owe my success to people like Felice Picano, who opened doors for all of us in the business. His newest effort, Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: A Memoir of Gay Literary Life After Stonewall, a non fiction recount of the creatively rich, landmark period during the 1970s and '80s when the first dedicated gay presses arose in New York City. Focusing primarily on SeaHorse Press and the seven writers that formed the Violet Quill: Andrew Holleran, Christopher Cox, Edmund White, George Whitmore, Michael Grumley, Robert Ferro, and, of course, Felice. He covers the two decades following the 1969 Stonewall riots, outlining how he (and others) fostered a GLBT literary tradition that continues today, with writers such as Edmund White, Andrew Holleran, Larry Kramer and, of course, Picano.
   
   As an HIV survivor, I am aware that we have lost two generations of GLBT history; one to HIV/AIDS, and the other to The Vietnam War. We have kids under thirty years old that have no idea how the GLBT movement, much less our literature, came into existence. Most of them take them for granted. For me, personally, Art and Sex in Greenwich Village: A Memoir of Gay Literary Life After Stonewall is a reminder that we should continue the struggle, and, at the same time, we need to be thankful to those who led the way, when most of us were too afraid and closeted to do what needed to be done.



4. Felice Picano's Art and Sex in Greenwich Village is an informative and entertaining history on the emergence of gay literature in the 1970's and `80's from someone who was not only there, but helped pioneer it.
   
   With his own SeaHorse Press and later Gay Presses of New York, Picano published the works of then- unknown gay writers such as Harvey Fierstein, Brad Gooch and Dennis Cooper.
   
   With his no-holds-barred candor, razor-sharp memory and quick wit, Picano recollections (from visiting Fierstein's tiny Brooklyn apartment to an after-hours private photo session with Robert Mapplethorpe) are, at times, dishy and gossipy, yet always incredibly fascinating to read. Picano also settles some scores and puts a few rumors to rest along the way, too. I also enjoyed the many photos of book covers, artists and writers of the era.
   
   But I was mainly touched by Picano's stories on lesser-known writers, many who died too young to establish great literary legacies. Although never becoming big names, these writers' contributions were no less important, and Picano's book reverently honors their place in gay literary history.
   
   Salvatore Sapienza, author of Seventy Times Seven



5. Felice Picano is the man who was there and who did the work. He devised SeaHorse Press and built it up into a larger agglomeration called GPNy, with a pair of other likeminded publishers and dreamers. SeaHorse was responsible for some of the very best books of the 1980s, some authentic landmarks like Dennis Cooper's IDOLS and SAFE, Bob Gluck's JACK THE MODERNIST, Brad Gooch's JAILBAIT AND OTHER STORIES. And plays like FORTY DEUCE by Alan Bowne and the book that put SeaHorse on the map, TORCH SONG TRILOGY. Along the way, as Picano describes it, he encountered everyone from Robert Mapplethorpe to Nico and he lived to tell the tale.
   
   The subtext of the book is survival, one man's survival through the worst of the AIDS crisis in Manhattan. No sooner do we come to know a writer, an artist, a lover, a friend, than he is carried off by the disease and that which he left behind becomes more precious. This terse threnody runs all along the underside of this delicately written book like the runner of a carpet; just when it seems to be all about publishing trivia and how many printings had this or that forgotten volume, Picano's novelistic sense surges forward and real human interest takes its place on center stage.
   
   And the book has its own humor too! Gore Vidal averts Picano's overtures towards the republishing of MYRA BRECKINRIDGE with his own King Charles' head, the alarming spread, even in youth, of American men's backsides, and how the Germans do these things so much better. Boyd McDonald, the notorious editor of STH, perplexed by a royalty statement; James Purdy, genius among plebes, equally baffled by niceties of copyright. SeaHorse and GPNy didn't last very long--not nearly long enough in my view--but the very compression of the period provides Picano with exactly the right amount of material for his project, a book which brings back all the glory days, and much of the terror, of a certain era in literary and artistic history.
   
   I had a great editorial experience with him even though, in the end, SeaHorse passed on my book of memoirs, and the press was running down when I sent it in. He took the trouble to read the entire thing and made one enormously sweeping editorial suggestion which actually saved the whole thing and made it hang together, rather than the ragbag of halfassed New Narrative experiments it had previously been. I'm sure there are hundreds of younger writers who can attest also to Picano's generosity and, what would you call it, in Scotland it would be that he is a canny man. In the USA, he's a mensch.

4 comments about Ida B. Wells: Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.

1. If you are not familiar with Ida B. Wells and her work, by allmeans become so immediately. I will be recommending this book toeveryone I know, and I am a children's and young adult librarian. Ida B. Wells is one of the greatest Americans of all time, and most of us have never heard of her. What she did to better the lives of African-Americans and, especially, to stop lynching, is moving, stirring, and heartbreaking. I never knew that people were burned at the stake in the USA, but they certainly were--and the crowds who came to see them die were happy to have so much fun watching "the nigger burn". A great book.



2. Grades 5 and up will find this an excellent biographicalcoverage of the mother of the civil rights movement, providing 178pages packed with facts and black and white illustrations. Thisexamines the life and times of Ida Wells, considering her early years, her civil rights campaign, and her anti-lynching campaign which succeeded in nearly abolishing the popular practice. An eye-opening account of not only her life, but her times. Highly recommended and vivid.



3. It is a travesty that the name of Ida B. Wells-Barnett is not more widely known in the most common lists of American heroes. This great woman, though little in stature, was a giant in the fight for justice and racial equality in this country. This book was a very thorough look at the life of an early champion of the civil rights movement in America. After my chilren an I read about her being physically thrown off a railcar, sueing the railroad company and actually winning her lawsuit, we could not put the book down. Although many of the discriptions and photographs were gruesome, they offered a realistic and brutally honest look at the horrors of lynching. I would recommend this book for sixth grade and up.



4. Ida B. Wells needs to be better known among the American public. This book introduces her to middle and high school students, and it is very well done. She is one of the early voices in Civil Rights.
   
   Ida B. Wells was an African-American woman of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. She was born and grew up in the South, born in Mississippi during the Civil War. It is significant the impact of the legacy of slavery on her life -- she recounts how her parents, who were married as slaves, remarried each other as free persons after the war. Wells was a determined and intelligent woman -- her parents died while she was young, yet old enough to be left with the responsibility of her younger brothers and sisters. At the age of 14 she found herself at the head of a household with five younger children.
   
   She worked hard to make sure that her education did not suffer, and eventually (a rarity for women of any colour in America at the time) went to work for a newspaper.
   
   In an incident that foreshadowed Rosa Parks, she was once removed from a train for sitting in the wrong section, despite her ownership of a valid ticket for the seat. She sued the railroad and won (newspaper headlines read 'Darky Damsel Gets Damages' without concern for the racist tone), but the judgment was overturned on appeal, and she later discovered her lawyers had been paid off by the railroads, and the appellate judges had thought she was just being uppity to pursue the matter.
   
   Such was the state of the African-American community that none came to her assistance as she pursued this fight. This made her more determined to organise and fight.
   
   Several of her newspaper partners and other friends in Memphis were lynched for these efforts, and Wells was threatened herself, and left the South, but did not give up her crusade. Where ever she went, through cities and towns in the North as well as over to Europe (where, she said, she felt like she was treated as a real human being equal with others for the first time) she decried the injustice of laws which dismissed charges or gave light sentences if victims were coloured, and prosecuted more strongly, gave out harsher sentences, or even resorted to lynch mobs if the defendant (who was often not guilty) was coloured.
   
   'She fought a lonely and almost single-handed fight, with the single-mindedness of a crusader, long before men or women of any race entered the arena, and the measure of success she achieved goes far beyond the credit she has been given the history of the country.'
   
   She continued speaking and publishing up to her death in 1931. She was never afraid of making herself unpopular, and often upset the African-American community by being critical of their complacency (especially the upper and middle classes). She became unpopular by standing against the military service during World War I, because of prejudicial and discriminatory practices, and never quite recovered in popular esteem from that.
   
   But Wells had courage and determination that is rare in persons, male or female, of any colour, of any time, to take on such a task as the exposition and combat of lynching in the South during the post-Civil War decades. Talking directly with governors and even a president, Wells made her voice heard, and it was a difficult hearing in a difficult time.

5 comments about The Other Side of Eden: Life With John Steinbeck.

1. I loved this book. It brought up so many raw emotions for me, that I was sometimes haunted for days after reading a few chapters. For anyone whose life has been touched by the disease of alcoholism, it is a source of great insight, grounded in honesty and the willingness to courageously tear back the curtain to show the dark side of a famous family.

   The Steinbecks have been accused of writing "fantasies" about the great man by critics who claim to know more than family members. Incidents such as Steinbeck Sr. pushing his wife down the stairs in order to abort their child, or allowing John Jr. to fall on his face when told to jump into his father's arms are discredited as lies by people who have only studied the sanitized and authorized biographies and collections of letters.

   I met recently met Nancy Steinbeck at a booksigning. I went because I wanted to talk to her about the way alcoholism has affected my family. She confirmed that although she had to divorce her husband because of his drinking and her fear of being held legally responsible for his accidents or debts, they legally established a commonlaw marriage and she continues to receive Steinbeck's royalty payments which she inherited from her husband. I found the book to be a loving tribute to a difficult but enormously creative and fascinating husband who was plagued by serious addictions.

   Hazelden Foundation, the foremost treatment center in the country, has endorsed The Other Side of Eden as the story of a journey of victory over the disease of alcoholism and codependency. Anyone who is familiar with alcoholism knows that the way John Jr. died, with three years of sobriety, is a triumph and a cause for celebration.

   This book is a Rorschach test for the reader. If you are committed to the sanitized version of Steinbeck that appears in the authorized biographies, if you are disturbed by any form of icoloclasm (witness Joyce Maynard's crucifiction for writing about Salinger) then this book will, indeed, upset your fantasy world and rattle your cage. If you are ready to take a ride of transformation and raw honesty, read the book. It is, as Andrew Harvey claims in his powerful introduction, one of the most unique biographies of the century.

   I admire both John Jr. and Nancy Steinbeck for having the courage and commitment to tell their story for the sake of history and in service to others whose lives have been devastated by substance abuse. And, judging from the cover blurb by a Steinbeck scholar, I daresay most academics are appreciative that this story will be part of Steinbeck Sr's archives. There is a saying in the 12 step program: You Are As Sick as Your Secrets. The Steinbecks broke the silence of keeping family secrets, and that's a huge accomplishment. Let the groupie scholars who make a living on propagating the Myth of the Great Writer worry about whether their academic myopia will result in their own lack of credibility. Anyone who earns money glorifying the exaulted side of a writer while at the same time denying their shadow, is a fool. And who would have encouraged the Steinbecks more than the John Steinbeck Sr. himself to show a character, warts and all? Isn't that what Steinbeck is admired and loved for? His understanding of the human condition? How did he achieve that depth? If you want to find out, read the book.




2. This biography of life with John Steinbeck is written by his son, who grew up in a privileged world of the intellectual elite, but one laden with abuse and estrangement. His memoir ended with his life and here is reconstructed by his wife of twelve years who adds her own insights to full out the life of John Steinbeck. Haunting and revealing.



3. I checked this out of the library during one of my research 'attacks'. I was actually researching the life of Ed Ricketts and got dragged back into a Cannery Row-John Steinbeck 'binge'. I thought it would be interesting to read about John Steinbeck through the eyes of a son. However, the is very very little in this book about John Steinbeck and way too much about a weak-minded son. Boring. If you are interested in reading about someone who spends his life trying to find meaning in life via others (ie. cult life) and who cannot find strength within himself....who is too weak to deal with life without chemicals....this may be interesting to you. But there wasn't anything insightful here for me. Be warned....



4. I'm reading this book in conjuction with Oprah's book club choice, East of Eden. I just had to respond to the person below who called the book boring, because I cannot put it down! People who drink alcholically are not weak minded, as the poster states. If self control could stop an addict, there would be no need for treatment centers and 12 Step programs. I found the story of recovery which weaves its way through John and Nancy Steinbeck's marriage to be tremendously inspiring and uplifting.
   And I'm glad there's more to the book than an expose of Steinbeck's shadow side. This is an epic page turner which runs the gamut from the Steinbecks involvement with Beatniks, Hippies, Tibetan Buddhism, Viet Nam Vets, Anti-war protests,
   Recovery, New Age gurus; it's truly a chronical for any baby boomer to find something that resonates in their own mythology.
   The book has also helped readers on the Oprah Book Club board understand the psychological dynamics amongst the characters of East of Eden, as played out in the real lives of Steinbeck's sons. I love this book.



5. This is a great book about Steinbeck IV. I found his account of his father's visit to Vietnam fascinating - truly moving account of father and son while the VC are [perhaps] stealthily moving in the night. Steinbeck IV served with AFNN in Vietnam - though not at the Saigon HQ where Airman Adrian Cronauer [played by Robin Williams in the movie Good Morning Vietnam] was. Bob Morecook AFVN News 72/73

5 comments about Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled.

1. As I live my life, going from one task to another, there is a part of my brain that yearns for more, something a little closer to the edge of my comfort zone. I received "Metal Cowboy" as a gift a few years ago and there it was, the life less ordinary that always seemed to escape me! Joe Kurmaskie tells wonderful stories about true humanity and the good that exists in this world. Sure, I only get to experience a slice of this life on long weekend rides and the last full week in July on RAGBRAI, but the Metal Cowboy makes me hopeful for the future.



2. I have just completed Metal Cowboy and have ordered a couple of copies for riding and non-riding friends. Joe reminds me of Bill Bryson or an early Peter Egan.



3. This is the first book that I read about long distance and adventure bicycle touring. I loved the stories about the people Joe meets and the situations he got into. I liked it so much that I immediately read the second book and ordered "Momentum is Your Best Friend". I would recommend the same to anyone! This was a great book.



4. From my blog: [...]
   I started reading Metal Cowboy, a collection of stories by Joe Kurmaskie, a few weeks ago at my Dad's suggestion and have had a hard time putting it down. I finished it on Thanksgiving day and knew I had to get a review up in short order. Metal Cowboy is a collection of some of Kurmaskie's stories from his long distance bike tours but I promise you that you don't need to be a cyclist to appreciate this book.
   
   Kurmaskie is a top notch storyteller who writes in a way that is relatable to anyone who would come across his material. He also has a knack for showcasing what is good among people. Joe's optimism shines through even when he is in the worst of situations while on the road. He manages to make you feel as if you are right there with him experiencing everything he does.
   
   One of my favorite stories in the book is called "The Tree Huggers versus the Tree Cutters as Told by the Fence-Sitter" and it begins with this quote from Theodore Roosevelt:
   
   "Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory, nor defeat."
   
   The quote is a powerful one and it foreshadows the rest of the story nicely. In a nutshell, Joe runs across a logger while at a campsite who he becomes friends with. The logger then offers to let Joe stay with him when Joe makes his way towards his house in the coming days of his trip. Joe ends up at the loggers house but he is not home so Joe decides to camp in the woods where he meets a number of the "tree huggers" who are protesting the company that Joe's logger friend works for. Joe, trying to be friends with both the loggers and the tree huggers, ends up having to explain himself to both the logger and the tree huggers and everyone ends up not caring for Joe too much since he wasn't really up front about his true beliefs.
   
   The story reminds us to not be afraid to talk about what we believe in and to be up front. It also urges us to step out of the gray twilight and take some chances. As entrepreneurs and VCs we are all taking our shot at changing the world. Yes, a lot of us will fail at some point in our lives but I, for one, would rather fail while taking a chance on something I believe in than to have never taken a chance at all and I think a lot of you probably feel the same way.
   
   That said, I highly recommend picking up Metal Cowboy. You won't regret it. My only warning is the book may cause an overwhelming urge to grab your bike, load it up and head out on an extended bike tour of your own!



5. A "born again bicyclist" who thinks bicycles will save the world, I went to the library to get books about cycling & bicycles. I discovered The Metal Cowboy and hung on to it even though it wasn't "technical". I tried to read a funny bit aloud to my family but I was giggling too hard.
   The almost-romantic chapter is my favorite.
   Reading this book makes you feel like there is hope for America's privileged middle class kids. By getting lost on a bike we can find ourselves.
   Joe's most recent book (Momentum is Your Friend) is equally excellent.

5 comments about The Three of Us: A New Life in New York.

1. The authors have managed to capture the bizarre nuances of daily life in New York while overlaying this with the difficulties and emotions attached to a first pregnancy. As resident aliens, my wife and I have recently been dealing with the similar issues associated with the upcoming birth of our first child.

   This light hearted look at the processes required to give birth in the New York also provided us with forwarning of the costs, bureaucracy and personalities that are inevitably encountered along the way.




2. Joanna and Peter are far from the 'smug marrieds' Helen Fielding talks about but they are just as engaging and enjoyable as Bridget Jones. Their writing makes you feel like one of their best friends. They share their daily observations on pregnancy and impending parenthood with honesty and wit.

   Read it and then share with all your friends!




3. Maybe I didn't get it since I am not a New Yorker. I don't really care that this couple wasn't married, but the lack of love between them was such a turnoff. Peter seemed to have a hard time believing that he had something to do with the pregnancy at all...he kept saying how he was being dragged to doctors and forced to do this and that....My conclusion is that not all writers should write....



4. Great to read this humourous account of pregnancy. The honest male perspective is refreshing. An easy, gentle pregrancy diary-like story, which leaves the reader wishing Joanna, Peter and their precious son, Thomas, well.



5. I've just finished this book, and as a first time mother to be in her 30's (like Joanna) , and an Ex-Rhodesian now living in the U.S. (like Peter), I found it a very interesting read. I enjoy Peter's writing a lot - this book was very different from his usual style. I was mildly uncomfortable that both Peter and Joanna seem to be very critical of everyone they meet or know - I'd feel like I was under a microscope if I had to meet them in real life. They also seem miserable a lot of the time, no matter where they go. To read their criticisms of people and places was amusing in the beginning, because I also have a dry sense of humor, but by the time I'd finished the book I was left with a sense of unease - these two don't seem very happy with each other or their life choices. Also too much 'name dropping' - that irritated me - I don't care what Puff Daddy does with his free time. I am looking forward to reading Peter's new book though, if it's as good as Mukiwa I won't be dissapointed.

1 comments about William Randolph Hearst: The Early Years, 1863-1910.

1. This is a good book! Well researched! Smoothly written! But after a while, just reading about Hearst's frantic life, his manic style of newspapering, got a little tiring... (or tiresome!) Still, if you're looking for an account of the man's early years, YOU COULD DEFINITELY DO WORSE!!!

3 comments about American Character : Curious Life of Charles Fletcher Lummis and the Rediscovery of the Southwest.

1. Mark Thompson's long & deeply researched biography of a forgotten, complex American born just before the Civil War, is fascinating. Over a long & restless life, Charles Lummis became a poet, prolific letter writer, journalist, photographer, archaeologist, editor, champion of Spanish heritage in the Americas, & Indian Rights advocate - the classic workaholic of the late 19th & early 20th Centuries.

   It was his TRAMP ACROSS THE CONTINENT in 1884, which he weekly serialized in newspaper articles, that catapulted him into the public's eye. In time, as his assignments for the newly-formed Los Angeles Times, took him deeper into the Southwest which would capture his heart & soul, & closer to the American Indians for whom he would advocate mightily, he caught the ear of a President. Theodore Roosevelt came to consider Lummis a vital part of his "cowboy cabinet," & often invited him to Washington. Lummis enjoyed a life-long influence, via his editorials & many books, on the way Americans thought of themselves.

   In this era of bland plasticity, AMERICAN CHARACTER, reminds us of how individualistic, passionate, offensive & charming our forefathers were. It also reminds us of how devastating was our impact upon the people & the land in a time when a man could bemoan the wholesale slaughter of buffalo & Indians, while not batting an eye as he shot other critters just for the thrill of it!

   In the light of today's political correctness, Charles Fletcher Lummis' love life was as gilded with misogyny as you would expect from a man of his time - he kept his first marriage secret all through his Harvard years. As in every other aspect of his life, his thirst for affection & companionship was both utilitarian & fascinatingly eccentric.

   AMERICAN CHARACTER: Charles Fletcher Lummis & the Rediscovery of the Southwest, has been named by the Western Writers of America as Winner of the 2002 Spur Award in the biography category.




2. Charles Lummis is a very interesting person in American and Southwest history, but author Thompson goes way beyond what most biographers would do and produced a richly researched and highly readable story. I read this book in my car, under a streetlight, while my wife attended a Christmas function. Does that tell you how interesting it is? I've passed Lummis's home/museum thousands of times but never visited--now I will.



3. I live within walking distance of Lummis' home El Alisal. It's fitting that it perches on the edge of what was the Arroyo Seco (dry gulch) whose raw beauty had attracted Lummis and early settlers. And symbolic in that the world's first freeway rushes past it now. In fact, El Alisal faced demolition until preservationists--always outnumbered in L.A.--saved the site. Lummis gave his adopted city a complicated heritage: he boosted its Spanish Californian image and so lured many newcomers who overwhelmed the vistas of fragile arroyo, hills and valleys with millions more homes. The millions clogged the roads, and so freeways followed, along the riverbeds now encased in concrete.
   
   Mark Thompson's biography follows that assembled two decades earlier by Lummis' daughter and edited by his son from Lummis' own manuscripts, and one biography from the mid-70s that dwelt on Lummis but with far less access to personal papers. Thompson has access, and has used his resources well to more fully explore the complexity of a truly memorable character whose legacy spanned the Southwest, as he sought to preserve and conserve Native American artifacts and cultures as well as restore the California missions, create a world-class municipal library, write for what became the city's leading newspaper, and still found time to build El Alisal from boulders in the arroyo, hold there wonderfully wacky parties, carry on love affairs, conduct archeological research, ruin three marriages, keep a menagerie of animals and people at his home, and roam off from it on even more travels that followed his first publicity stunt--he sought sponsorship by keeping a travelogue weekly sent to newspapers in an early commercial tie-in for one who sought celebrity-- on his "tramp across the continent" (or most of it!) to Los Angeles from Chillicothe, Ohio, a Harvard dropout at 25 in 1888.
   
   Naturally an exciting story, but Thompson digs deeper into how Lummis reflected but overcame some of the prejudices common to the East Coast elite from whose lower ranks he came, and how he struggled with a tempestuous personal life and a libido that created tension, led to an early stroke, and led him on even more intimate adventures much less documented. The readable yet thoroughly documented text reads at a brisk pace; all facets of Lummis' many angles gain clarity. Well-chosen photos capture the idiosyncracies of this unforgettable sombrero-bright green corduroy suit-and-Navajo belt attired eccentric, who did so much to both sustain and unwittingly erase the traces of the Spanish and Native California he came to love.