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5 comments about A Thousand Suns.

1. I have read almost all of Lapierre's books and loved them. They were vivid, well-researched and absolutely riveting. But this book seems dated. He takes old pieces and pieces them into a book. We've been there.



2. This is an interesting book by a man who has obviously had a fascinating life. He takes us across many continents and interviews many people, throwing in anecdotes about his life and interests.

   However what stops me giving this book a 5 star rating is the fact that I feel that some of the topics are given superficial treatment (despite the lengths of the chapters), and there is too much emphasis on the author's own involvement. Fair enough, you might say, it is his book about his experiences, but I feel it is these experiences which should take central stage.

   This is however only a small criticism, and it is a VERY interesting book, about interesting people in interesting times.




3. After reading Beyond Love and City of Joy, I expected this to be just as good. Two third of the book is interesting - although I discovered what a prejudice author this is - but the nearer I got to the end of the book, the more disappointed I was. I expected a great ending, instead I found a very slow one.



4. 1. 'A Thousand Suns', a fascinating book by Dominique Lapierre, famous author of books like `Is Paris Burning' and `City of Joy' takes its title from and Indian proverb that the author chanced upon during his stay in South India. It comes from (as indicated by the author) "Behind every cloud, there are a thousand suns". A perfect message for life in present day's gloomy outlook of life.
   
   2. It goes without saying that the book, which has such a beautiful and motivating title ought to be full of life energy and epitomize everything that is the very essence of meaningful life. This book actually is a byproduct, but a beautiful and useful one. It consists of 15 independent well researched real life stories, which the author encountered in the run up to doing a specific assignment mainly related to the prime characters or places related to these stories, initially as a news correspondent and later as a writer.
   
   3. At the end thus, he filed his reports / wrote his books, but the enduring beauty of life enshrined in the background of these reports / books remained. The author has really done a wonderful service to mankind by writing this book; else such beautiful pearls of human endeavor, wisdom, perseverance and enterprise would have been lost forever.
   
   4. Written in a simple style with stress on delivering the message right, the author might have not achieved perfection of narrative, but what needed to be achieved i.e. delivery of the essentials of beauty of life has been achieved with perfection.
   
   5. It is rightly said that `make your hobby your profession and you would not have to work for a day'. It is evident from reading this book that Mr Lapierre seems to have not worked for a day but have thoroughly enjoyed this life following his passion for writing.
   
   6. All those who have faith in life and mankind and all those whose faith on these is wavering for some reasons must read this book to derive the requisite benefit.



5. 
   
   Dominique Lapierre was one of the twentieth century's most prolific international journalists and a highly prolific author of both novels and historical works, many together with his lifelong coleague Larry Collins.
   In this digest he takes us through some of his greatest journeys and encounters with people who shaped the course of events. He includes some of the encounters behind his joint works with Dominique Lapierre, such as his interview with Ehud Avriel, who helped Jews to escape Hitler's infernos to get to the Holy Land, and gathered together arms to help the fledgling State of Israel survive the overwhelming military force of six Arab armies who attacked the tiny state, as soon as the United Nations agreed to partition of Palestine.
   He also describes the starvation and misery of Jerusalem's Jewish inhabitants during the siege of that city by Arab armies intent on massacring all of Jerusalem's Jews.
   Some of the events described in his article about Avriel, who Lapierre was a good friend of are recorded in O Jerusalem!
   He also recounts his interviews with Lord Louis Mountbatten, who was instrumental in negotiating the independence of India and it's aprtition into the two states of India and Pakistan.
   Lapierre was with Mountbatten a few days Mountbatten's assassination by IRA terrorists in 1979.
   He also recounts his meetings and interviews with the men behind the assasination of Mahatma Ghandi, as result of Gandhi's favorable policies towards India's Moslems.
   These events form part of the bakground to Freedom at Midnight.
   Lapierre details his relationship with the man who was executed for somebody else's crimes, Caryl Chessman, and Chessman's campaign from prison against the death penalty.
   He describes the refusal by General Dieter Von Choltitz refusal to obey Hitler's orders to completley destroy Paris but ignores the evidence that Von Choltitz had been involved in the massacre of Jews in Russia.
   He also writes of his interview with the evil terrorist murderer Kozo Okamoto from the Japanese Red Army Faction, who together with two other psychopathic Communist terrorists murdered 26 Puerto Rican pilgrims in 1972.Interesting that even then those hellbent on murder and destruction chose Israel as their first target for butchery.
   But the world made a lot more sense then, as most the world reviled these horrible terrorists acts, unlike the macabre Orwellian nightmare we are living through today, were so much of the world supports terror against the tiny nation of Israel.
   Interesting even that the first t
   He also writes of his encounters with the great conservationist Rafael Matta in the Ivory Coast, and the authoir's first car and how he acquired the foal of a prize horse in San Tropez France, by the name of Preferido.
   
   Most touching is Lapierre's recounting of work in Calcutta, which the author was involved in with Indian leper and other orphan children
   Lapierre donates half of his royalties to the foundation set up to save these children
   It is heartbreaking to read of their plight and uplifting to read of their joy in life despite their suffering and death all around them. You can read more about these poignant and heartrending accounts in The City of Joy
   "behind every cloud" as the author recounts "there are a thousand clouds."
   Overall a fascinating and exciting read.

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5 comments about Celestine Sibley: A Granddaughter's Reminiscence.

1. Sibley Fleming has captured the true essence of a relationship between a grandmother and a granddaughter. I found myself relating to Sibley, even though my own grandmother wasn't "famous" --- I am getting copies for my surviving grandmother, mother and aunt. We can all share in the bond of family by reading this book. Thank you, Sibley Fleming.



2. Is there a writer's gene? If so, Sibley has inherited it from her talented grandmother. It is so refreshing to see young people value and honor the lessons of their elders. Sibley is a fine writer in her own right and I look forward to hearing more from her.



3. This is a very well written tribute to the author's grandmother and one I was anxious to read. She is on her way to being a very fine writer and one for 'tine (as she calls Celestine Sibley) to be very proud of. She gives the reader the sense of becoming close to the subject. In fact one gets the feeling of being welcome to go to lunch with the two of them!



4. Fleming is a chip of the old block. I look forward to hearing more from this charming granddaughter!



5. Fleming is a chip of the old block. I look forward to hearing more from this charming granddaughter!

5 comments about Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse.

1. Mr. Parker has written a terrific biography of a fasinating man. The book is meticulously researched and beautifully written. I was very impressed with this scholarly work and I am anxious to read Mr. Parker's next endeavor. Highly recommended!



2. Many of us probably recognize Ogden Nash as the creator of humorous poetry, but he was a man of far greater accomplishments than might be generally known.In this biography, Doug Parker gives a very complete and fascinating overview of Nash and the diversity of his works, which included movie scripts and--much to my surprise--song lyrics. Parker relates his story in manageable sequences, interspersing just enough famous lines from Nash to lure the reader into wanting to read more of the man's work. One would think that Parker knew Nash personally because of the skillful manner in which he discreetly discusses the poet's health problems, his devotion to his family, his dislike of confrontation, and the entire span of his creative life.
   
   It took an impressive amount of research to create this interesting account of Nash's life, and Parker made much use of Nash's personal letters. He does not overwhelm the reader with excessive detail, rather, he leaves the reader feeling like one who has enjoyed a great meal but has not overeaten, and who knows he can come back for seconds by reading more of Nash's work. This is an enjoyable and informative book that gives the reader a real appreciation for the talents of Ogden Nash.



3. The philosopher poet, Ogden Nash,
   Though born and wed to privilege,
   was throughout his lifetime frightfully far from bogged in cash
   (Or at least he so lamented).
   Doug Parker says,
   while assuring us his penury never quite prevented
   Nash from keeping house or houses
   Servant-staffed while traveling
   in luxury with wife and kids and friends with kids and spouses.
   Though his efforts yielded flops
   In Hollywood and Broadway ventures,
   rhymes he wrote for glossies and anthologies and his hops
   Around the lecture circuit
   (Which, though ruinous
   To his fragile health, he never would quite shirk it)
   Kept his ledger black enough.
   Indeed, couplets comparing
   the speed of bonbons versus bourbon and similar wacky stuff
   (Like rhymes that ridiculed
   A bluenosed "Ut" named Smoot
   whose Senate stint by tariff acts and smiting smut was fueled)
   Consistently kept Mr. Nash `n'
   Fran `n' Lin `n' Isabel
   (his wife and daughters) living in quite comfy fashion.
   Nash's life was not a bore,
   But Parker's grand obsession
   With minutia made me often want to holler "Less is more!"
   And, moreover, many others'
   In the story, though tangential,
   Had lives of greater interest were I to voice my `druthers.
   
   :-)
   - stanwhjr -



4. When I think of Ogden Nash, I think first of a poem I read in school a long time ago titled "The Purist." I have read it too many times to actually laugh out loud again, but I still smile when I read it. I become the kid I once was somehow, happy to hear the joke over and over again.
   
   I think Ogden Nash brings back memories for many older Americans. When I was reading the new biography Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light Verse by Douglas M. Parker, while eating a sweet roll in Panera last week, an older man noticed. As he passed my table he said, "Ah, Ogden Nash, he was a wonderful man." I noticed the older man, who looked like a retired executive, having a look of competence and industry, was cleaning tables. Was he laid off by a corporation, replaced by someone young? Was he working at Panera because he was unable to find a management job in the new economy, which disvalues the older, experienced worker? Is Nash for him a link to a happier time, his time?
   
   Nash has often been a bright spot in a dark time. He became popular for his humorous poetry during the Great Depression when his works began to appear regularly in The New Yorker, Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines. Because he was never paid much for his poems, he had to write and sell a lot of them, which he continued to do into the 1960s, when changing tastes made his work harder to sell. By the time of his death in 1971, he had published over a thousand poems.
   
   Nash did not only write poetry. He tried his hand as a book editor, magazine editor, screen writer, playwright, lyricist, and game show panelist. He was valued as an editor at Doubleday and other publishers, but the pay was poor and he left the profession to write fulltime. His efforts in Hollywood and on Broadway always started with lots of promise but usually fizzled. Radio and television appearances eventually paid fairly well, but poetry was his steady income.
   
   Being a writer, he often worked from home. Unlike many men of his era, he seems to have spent much time with his two daughters. On several occasions, he was the primary parent as his wife took long European vacations. It may not have been difficult to do, as the family always had servants. His wife had her own money inherited from her "old family" Baltimore ancestors. She and Nash were always able to live the country club and martini life.
   
   I think readers will enjoy learning how involved Nash was in the literary scene of the 1920s and 1930s. He knew Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, and many others. Douglas M. Parker also tells much about mid-twentieth century world of publishing. Fans of The New Yorker will especially want to read this book.
   
   Some will enjoy the book for their own memories. There are many Nash verses scattered throughout the text.
   
   Read "The Purist." The punch line ends with a word that rhymes with "smile."



5. Loved the book. Ogden Nash? Not so much. As a little boy I loved his verses and would browse through THE NEW YORKER slapping the pages from left to right to see if they were carrying a new Nash poem that week. Often as not, they were, then I'd be happy, crawling away toward my treehouse to memorize his goofy sense of humor and his sophisticated attitude towards marriage. I can see how, without Ogden Nash, there might never have been a Stephen Sondheim. Parker is his ideal biographer. Obviously he had a lot of assistance from Nash's two enigmatic daughters, Linell and Isabel, whose photographs make them look like two grave Snow Whites. And yet he is not afraid to call a spade a spade, and we get the picture that the mother of these two girls, Frances, was often a Xanthippe for reasons unknown.
   
   It's great that Parker did so much work towards reconstructing Nash's other life as a Broadway lyricist, and I'm sure that his account of Nash's work with Kurt Weill and with Vernon Duke will never be excelled.
   
   He doesn't really pay much attention to the Hollywood work, however, and I don't know if he even bothered screening the Jeanette MacDonald starrer THE FIREFLY (co-written with Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett), which is nothing short of excellent.
   
   The story gets grim as Nash ages and his career takes a nosedive. You get to despise Roger Angell, Nash's editor at THE NEW YORKER, for being such an obseqious Uriah Heep, even when he's rejecting Nash's latest efforts. It's like he delights in kicking Nash's butt while kissing it at the same time. Nash seems aware of Angell's double nature, but doesn't really know what to do about it. THE NEW YORKER seems like a velvet trap--can't live without it, but it tears you to pieces inside. I also enjoyed reading the parodies or pastiches of Nash's verse that Parker has collected from all different sources, from Dorothy Parker to Scott Fitzgerald, everyone wanted a piece of the man.
   
   To top it all off, Dorothy Lamour got upset with Nash and laid into him with both barrels, when he wrote a poem for her to read on the air that contained the word "conundrum." She thought it risque, perhaps confusing it with "condom," and refused to save her reputation. Furious, she lashed out, "If you don't think I know what that word means--and that I'll be fool enough to say it on the air--you're crazy! I wasn't born yesterday!" Nash wrote to Frances, "she's very pleasant but as dumb as you would imagine." (Not as bad as his opinion of poor Ginger Rogers: "coarse, painted, dyed.")

5 comments about Will This Do?.

1. If you have ever lived amongst the literary or monied class of England, this book is a bittersweet retrospective, a tattle-tale, and an apology all in one. If you haven't, then it seems to be a pompous, overblown biography of a rather ordinary life of a rather unordinary aristocrat. Waugh tells tales of his youth, adolescence, and adult life as best as sees fits, which is to say he writes what he wants you to know, and HOW he wants you to know it. It is, at every turn, witty and funny, and worthy of reading for those reasons alone. For those of you who don't know, Waugh edits the Literary Review magazine, which is available in most English speaking countries, including better parts of the United States.



2. .

   The death of Auberon Waugh in January 2001 marks the end of an era. Auberon and his father Evelyn were masters of the English language. Together they perfected the use of ironic wit.

   "Will this Do?" is much more than an autobiography. It is an encapsulation of an era and a culture. His work covers that incredible period of British history (1960 - 1980) where the "old order" Establishment, with its upper class "born to rule" social structures were overthrown.

   In that period political satire became part of popular culture. Witness the rise of "smart" young men like David Frost and the circle of comedians that arose from the Cambridge Footlights. The weekly newspaper "Private Eye" was one of the most influential outlets for Auberon Waugh where he wrote a column for many years. The "Eye" did more for exposing political and social scandal in Britain than any other forum.

   Waugh's membership of both the "upper" class and influential, activist intellectual circles put he him in a unique position to observe and comment on the quirks and absurdities of his Britain.

   Occasionally he was overtly a political activist. The most prominent example was his very public support of the Biafran cause in the Nigerian Civil War in the early 1970s. This put him at loggerheads with the British government.

   In Waugh's biography his ironic tone is pervasive. Even those readers who know his work well, will at times struggle to figure out whether he is joking, serious or merely "going over the top".

   Auberon's humour didn't travel too well across the Atlantic. He found American's far "too earnest", who take his words too literally. However the gulf in styles of humour between the Anglo and the American world must have been closed to some degree thanks to Waugh's writing.

   Waugh's influence on the world of wine was huge. For many years he wrote a wine column in the English "Spectator". In the early 1980's he "discovered" New World (Australian and Californian) wine. Although the Spectator at that time had a subscription base of only 14,000, it was hugely influential. The cellars of the House of Lords were probably restocked on the advice of Waugh. When you look at the exponential growth of New World wine exports since that time we may have a perfect example of viral marketing, thanks to one man's words in an obscure journal.

   Many people who are not familiar with the style and wit of Waugh may find his writing pompous and haughty. It is well worth persisting though. He was probably the first writer to do a demolition job on Political Correctness. His favourite targets were the self-righteous. If they happened to be humourless as well (a strong correlation?) they would get both barrels from Waugh.

   The influence of both Evelyn and Auberon Waugh will be felt for many years. Any body who loves the English language should read Auberon's autobiography. His work is the ideal example of that old aphorism " The Pen is Mightier than the Sword".




3. There's something almost irresistible about the memoirs of a child of Evelyn Waugh, and there's much pleasure to be had in the first half of the autobiography. Auberon Waugh's dealings with his splenetic, conservative father--among the posh country houses of his family and their relatives--makes the stuff of a fine story, and Waugh brings great ironic humor to the table. Unfortunately, Auberon's own literary career is much less interesting, and concerns mainly petty squabbles and encounters with figures who are only of passing interest today: it's hard to get very worked up one way or the other, for instance, about Claire Tomalin's libel suit against him.

   Waugh's humor (like his father's) is not to everyone's tastes, but if you find his snobbish summaries and appreciations for the bizarre droll (as I do), you'll enjoy yourself very much. He is very much aware of his snobbism, as well as his father's, and his self-deprecating awareness of both men's failing is greatly appreciated, and makes the entire matter much easier to take.




4. Waugh was not only the best journalist of his generation, but also the funniest to boot. This book is a glorious romp through a life which added greatly to the gaiety of a nation.



5. I enjoyed the book a great deal. It is a series of interconnected vignettes, which almost encourages the reader to open the book on any page and start reading (certainly my preferred technique for reading this book). Funny, yet with a lingering sadness, written in a prose style that is precise while being still extraordinarily natural and carefree. I am not sure everyone will like the book, but those who do will tend to love it.