1 comments about Latino Writers And Journalists (A to Z of Latino Americans).

1. Latino Writers and Journalists is a book that I will have on my coffee table for frequent reference, along with my dictionaries. It includes the biographies of over 150 Latino writers and journalists who have helped shape Latino literature and who should be a point of reference to all aspiring writers, literature students and avid readers. It almost reads like a book of short stories, and features well-known contemporaries such as Jorge Ramos, Isabel Allende and María Elena Salinas, as well as others who do not enjoy the same popularity but are nevertheless cornerstones of modern literature. Interesting, useful and a must in every Latino home.

No comments about Namedropping: Mostly Literary Memoirs.

2 comments about Black & White & Red All Over.

1. This is a terrific book....full of inspiration, love, hope....it describes a real, true and enduring friendship...between two unlikely people and how far one friend was willing to go to save the other. But, in the end, the book is about much more than friendship, its about how far we have come as a collective society--without some of the social progress of the last forty years or so, one man's life (and perhaps many more) might have been cut short; as a result of his friendship with a woman from a distinctly different background, he received an organ that has aided in extending his life a bit longer.

   Both authors are dynamic, interesting people and the writing style is very accessible.

   There is something for everyone in this book, whether you like biography, are interested in race relations, organ transplant, friendship, journalists, civil rights/affirmative action....whether you're a writer, a doctor, or just a friend....this is a book that I believe a lot of different people will treasure.




2. Martha McNeil Hamilton and Warren Brown built a friendship over more than twenty years of working together at The Washington Post. What is remarkable about their story is not that they are friends in spite of race (Hamilton is white, Brown is black), but that they have shared a life and death journey.

   In November 2001, Hamilton gave Brown one of her kidneys and her generous act saved his life and made their friendship more than just a collegial bond. Brown's kidney transplant and how he and Hamilton came to their decisions is the central story of BLACK & WHITE & RED ALL OVER. Yet this memoir of their friendship accomplishes much more.

   Both journalists are members of the baby boom generation born in the Jim Crow South. As they write, "We came to the Post in the middle of a revolution." In writing about their individual lives they provide a personal view of segregation, integration, women's integration into the workforce and even AIDS. Though the focus is clearly on their growing friendship and the transplant, these personal vignettes bring the book to life. And as the nation reconsiders policies such as affirmative action, Hamilton and Brown make it clear that they got in the door with such considerations and they stand behind the idea. They are also honest about why management can sometimes fail in carrying out the idea and therefore sour others on its promise: "The management [at the Post] had been so good at discriminating against blacks and women that at first it had a hard time discriminating amongst them."

   Other tales, like that of Hamilton's post-divorce depression and Brown's concerns about his son, are more touching than historic. These moments ease the reading and provide buffers to the more complex information about kidney disease, renal failure and the dangerous miracle of organ transplants.

   This friendship memoir also raises questions about how we view such bonds. When does the person you've worked with for years become a true friend? And as we spend more and more time at work, whether it's real time or time via email, cell phones and PDA devices, how do we successfully integrate work and family? For Hamilton and Brown, work and family have nearly become one, which created a broad network of support as the two readied for the transplant surgery.

   It's unfortunate that a story about friends of different races sharing in this way is still extraordinary. Hopefully Hamilton and Brown are evidence of the existence of more cross-racial and cross-cultural friendships. Otherwise, what kind of revolution was it after all?

   --- Reviewed by Bernadette Adams Davis

1 comments about Mark Twain, A Literary Life.

1. Mark Twain: A Literary Life builds upon earlier writings, exploring the relationships between Twain's life and his literary output. Biographical and literary background probes blend in an excellent survey which draws important links between the events in Twain's life and his literary productivity.

3 comments about Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop.

1. Joseph Lelyveld's "Omaha Blues", a recollection of his growing up years, is a book that touches all emotions. Having only known the author through books like Seth Mnookin's "Hard News" and his (Lelyveld's) appearances on programs such as Charlie Rose, I felt a certain draw to read "Omaha Blues". I was not disappointed.
   
   Had the term "dysfunctional" been around in the 1940s and 1950s, Lelyveld's family could be described as such. Uprooted every few months it seems, Lelyveld spent much of his childhood with different family members (other than his parents) and with total strangers (the Jensen family in Nebraska). One wonders how this nomadic life can affect the maturity of any child, but he seems, somehow, to have taken much of this in stride. It certainly gave him a foundation for his own independence, to which he alludes.
   
   A large section of the middle of the book is devoted to his boyhood "friend", Ben Goldstein, (aka Ben Lowell, aka George B. Stern) who seems to have served as the author's mentor or avuncular presence. While Lelyveld and Goldstein appeared to have known each other for only a brief few years, the older man certainly played an enormous role in the life of the budding foreign correspondent. That so much of this relationship is left to the imagination of the reader, Lelyveld nonetheless fills in the pieces of how Goldstein was connected to his own family...that story, in itself, is worth the read of "Omaha Blues".
   
   I appreciate the author's candor regarding his own recollections of these formative years. While he was nicknamed "the memory boy", Lelyveld is not above letting us know that his own memory is sometimes very faulty. This admission adds to the charm of the book and allows him to be as human as possible.
   
   "Omaha Blues" is told straight from the author's heart. I highly recommend it to any reader who wishes to explore the depths of his or her own family relationships. Joseph Lelyveld has given us his remembrances in a most affective way.



2. my confession first, since this book is a quasi-memoir (the author calls it a memory loop, though it reads like a mobious strip of guilt, pain, poignancy, and truth-seeking), i was attracted to this book because joe lelyveld's father was my rabbi growing up in cleveland. i really didn't enjoy going to fairmont temple as a youngster, not on sundays and certainly not twice a week for hebrew school when around 4:30 p.m, once a week, we filed into the chapel, and the rabbi would lead us through the standard prayers. i rarely, rarely, rarely go to temple these days ( six months on a kibbutz in the negev when i was 19 did wonders for my belief in cultural judaism at the expense of religiousity). but this book is a confrontation between memory and loss in the attempt to untangle destiny from fate. the battleground is the uneasy relationship between father and son, arthur and joe, with his mother providing the drama that sets things spinning off-kilter. the pages are thick with loss and regret; there is none of the philip roth's comic shtick that jumps at the reader in his autobiographical writings (or thinly veiled fictional renderings.) i applaud mr. lelyveld for having the courage to confront his past, especially as he must look far back in time, decades, to pry loose shards of recollection. know thyself, socrates counseled. this book satisfies the author's need to know, though it would be foolish to expect a complete and full answer.
   
   so just how close were father and son? not very. towards the end of the book, the son lets fly this awareness: "we seldom quarreled and we were never close." nor did they engage in much shop talk; rabbi lelyvled was one of the most prominent rabbis in america, and his son rose to become the man in charge at the ny times. but they steered clear discussing their jobs or careers. which to me, is, frighteningly pathological. perhaps the need to avoid conflict at all costs was what drove this arrangement, but as a reader, i wanted to know about the schisms that had to exist, especially in matter of political coverage that the times devoted to the arab-israeli saga.
   
   naturally, with an emotionally distant father, joe needed another father figure to project his hopes and desires as he entered his adolescence, and the figure who emerged is a complicated rabbi/communist/friend of his father who occupies the moral center--and about 50 pages--of this slim book. it's here that joe's reportorial skills are in full display as he pieces together the mysterious life of ben goldstein/ben lowell.
   
   as for my own recollection of rabbi lelyvled: I remember the newspaper photo of him in his blood-soaked shirt following a vicious beating by white thugs in the south in the early 60s. I was seven or so when this occured. and i remember his rather stiff and aloof demeanor during religious services. anyway, i was too young to make sense of any of his sermons. but every time he stood in front of the congregation, I would keep picturing the rabbi, with the bandage over his eye and the blood soaked shirt. he achieved a somewhat heroic stature as a result of this constant visualization
   
   this book, alas, by his son, brings the rabbi down to earth. not maliciously, but in a careful, circumspect way, we see a man defined by his son who, in his seventh decade is still trying to define himself as a welter of repressed memories surfaced. one walks away from this sad, sad book hoping to have read these words from rabbi to son, " I love you, son." joe does tell his father that he loves him, but by then, the rabbi is lying in a vegetative state as a result of a brain tumor. the father can't hear the son. or respond to him. now, that's a painful memory loop. memories, after all, are for the living.



3. I purchased this book because I enjoyed Lleyveld's work at the New York Times and thought his autobiography would be of interest. It proved to be interesting for other reasons, as well. Firstly, it provides a glimpse of what it life must have been like for rural Jews in early-20th century America. As a native of Alabama, I've wondered how life must have been like for Jews then, and this book certainly answers that question. Also, as a reporter, Mr. Lleyveld is able to research his early years and effectively establish or disprove the validity of his memories. This proves very interesting and he deserves a lot of credit for this. It must have been very difficult to rely on objectively researched clues for the story of his life, instead of his own memories, especially considering that oftentimes his own memories proved false.

2 comments about Edward R. Murrow: An American Original.

1. Edward R. Murrow lived at a time when television journalism was being created. Prior to that he was a radio journalist during the peak period of that medium, being best known for his live coverage of World War II. He was among the pioneers who established the ground rules, expectations, and mores of electronic media journalism. Murrow was also known for his documentary work on television.

   Persico gives us a detailed account of the family from which Edward R. sprang. His roots in North America go back well before the Revolutionary War. His Scotch-Irish heritage was deeply Christian.

   He traces the family's move from the South to the West. Ed was a member of the freshman class of Washington State in 1930. There were about 2,800 enrolled in that class. Ed was from a working class background and college was a new adventure for him. He first gained media experience while there.

   Just as thoroughly as the college years are covered so are the other eras of Murrow's life. This book is well-researched and enjoyable to read. It helps one to see the philosophical assumptions and background of one of the pioneers of broadcast journalism.




2. Having read most of the Murrow histories, I've always been a bit puzzled that this one seems to reside in the shadow of the ubiquitous biography by Sperber. To my mind, this is the single best Murrow biography, lending extra and dimension to the man and insight into his bittersweet life.
   
   If you are interested in E.R.Murrow, by all means read Sperber, but you are not finished until you read Persico.

5 comments about How to Be French.

1. Author Margaret Ambrose takes us on a tedious and self-indulgent journey as she describes in detail her double quest - to learn the French language and to "be French". Page after page we read of Margaret and her girlfriend as they attend language classes at the Alliance Francaise in Melbourne, Australia, sneering at their perceived less fortunate fellow students and attempting to ingratiate themselves with their teachers. Self-proclaimed French expert, Margaret, tells us of her visit to Champagne country and the delightful town of "Eperney" (sic.) and then a visit to "the shopping centre Galleries (sic.) Lafayette", one of the leading high-end department stores in Paris. My irritation increased as I persevered, reading the book from cover to cover. May I recommend instead the thoughtful, informative and enjoyable read, "True Pleasures - A Memoir of Women in Paris" by another Australian writer, Lucinda Holdforth. This is a gem. Charming, personal, honest, well-written and with no airs or pretence, it is an intelligent story of self-discovery, inspiration and connection with the great women and places of Paris.



2. How to be French is a pathetic and thinly disguised autobiographical exercise in narcissism. Margaret, the book's heroine (and funnily enough, its author), seems to have one word in her vocabulary: 'glamorous'. The book is a collection of petty snipes at others (unfortunate enough to have been in the same French class as Margaret) attempting to learn French, while the author firmly plants herself on a pedestal above all the rest. Reading this book was a waste of about 2 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Save your money and instead try Sarah Turnbull's well-written and highly readable 'Almost French'. Margaret Ambrose has succeeding only in proving herself more vile than even the most 'French' Francais. Dans un mot: c'etait merdique.



3. This book took me on a wonderful voyage to paris without leaving my home! All the sights and sounds of Paris are captured and written with some flair. This is not a totally beautiful portrait of france or the french and I can imagine some french having their national pride wounded, but it will ring true for anyone who has ever travelled and everyone who loves paris.



4. I agree with all the one-star reviews above: narcissistic, self-indulgent and plotless. For an alleged journalist her style is inelegant, and her grasp of grammar tenuous. And she thinks she's mastered French? Well, it's the subjunctive mood, dear, not the subjective tense.
   
   All-in-all, a very poor read which makes me, too, embarrassed to be Australian.



5. There are so many reasons I didn't enjoy this book, all of which have been mentioned by other reviewers. I almost stopped reading after a particularly nasty scene in which Margaret's friend explains that her potential French lover has downs syndrome: "He's retarded ... he even put a picture of himself with the photos of my friends! ... He wants to be my friend!" To which the ever eloquent Ms. Ambrose replies: "Oh. My. God ... But what about all those dates? Who was he going out with, retarded girls?"
   
   This 'novel' reads like a note passed between bitchy teenage girls during class.

3 comments about A Life of Privilege, Mostly.

1. As the split screen cover photos suggest, Gardner Botsford (`is this a real name?' asks my wife) chronicles two sides of his extraordinary life. First, "the feel of fear" as an infantryman entering World War II at Omaha Beach on D-Day and his surviving countless adventures as the Allies drive to Berlin. Liberation of Paris, the surrender of an entire town to him personally, meeting Patton...one begins to think he is an erudite Forrest Gump - he is simply everywhere at the important moment. Second, his colorful career in journalism, from covering death-row executions in Florida as a young beat reporter through his long career at the center of the literary world as editor of The New Yorker.

   "`Before I blow out your brains' - what a way to talk! What melodrama! What had happened to me?" As a GI, Botsford wrestles in Europe with the demons of war...perhaps solid preparation for future traumas he would witness at home in New York. Booze, mental depression and suicide were to elite wordsmiths what heroin became to jazz musicians, and Botsford's life is touched repeatedly by the loss of his colleagues.

   One expects chapters upon chapter of WASPy high society lifestyles, but Botsford indulges the reader only with a taste of his pre-war jaunts through Hotchkiss, Yale and the Ubangi Club. Neysa McMein, famous socialite and illustrator, (but not Botsford's mother as indicated in the PW review posted here) is featured: a fellow native of Quincy, Illinois, Neysa introduces the author's parents to New York. Alexander Wolcott, Genet (Janet Flanner), Wolcott Gibbs, AJ Leibling, and scores of famous New Yorker writers and editors are recounted. Naturally, Ross and Shawn, the great legends of the magazine serve as bookends to the Botsford career. But you don't have to be a great student of The New Yorker to appreciate this memoir.

   Maeve Brennan's insouciant letter detailing a Christmas in the Hamptons ("It will be a long day before I have `house guests' again.") is a scream, and worth the price of the book alone. You'll also enjoy Wolcott Gibbs' 10 general rules for editing New Yorker writers. Equally amusing is Gibbs' editorial answer to a book publisher in Chicago with six accompanying notes ("#4. `For it was apple-blossom time in Normandy' is, I'm afraid, arch at best, and the ragtime beat is not appealing to the ear.")

   Mr. Botsford's keen sense of humor echoes throughout the memoir. He constantly watches for those taking themselves too seriously, and finds a treasure trove of these unfortunates in the US Army, in American politics, and in the editorial corridors of New York City. Even his best friend before the war, Bill Verity, (aka, Monsieur Calvini) does not escape his wit...alas "he took up the corporate ladder, became more stone-minded, was appointed as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Commerce - he was lost forever." Those who are too officious find little room in the privileged life of Gardner Botsford. Thank you, Robert, this was a treat.




2. The two photographs on the cover of Gardner Botsford's extraordinary memoir explain the "Mostly" in the title: While the book gives a funny, detailed description of life in the top tier of New York society, it also takes the reader into the not-so-funny life of a young soldier who fought in the bloodiest battles of World War II. The war parts are without self-pity. The privilege parts are similarly cheerful and accepting. The author, a former top editor at the New Yorker Magazine, also gives a backstage view of some of the power struggles he witnessed there. And some of his delicious anecdotes about famous New Yorker writers leave the reader weak with laughter. This is a book to relish and buy many copies of for all your friends and relatives.



3. This glimpse into the life of a gentleman is riveting. Mr. Botsford relinquishes a life to the reader of a time gone by, when a gentleman was something people aspired to be. From true gentility to personal heroism and adventure during the war, each page brings you deeper into the life of a fascinating man. This is the kind of tale that people used to sit around a cozy fire to share, when television was science fiction and storytelling was not a lost art. Mr. Botsford makes you nostalgic for that kind of entertainment, and glad that you can still find it if you know where to look. So turn off the TV and pick up "A Life of Privilege, Mostly", you'll be glad you did!

4 comments about Dear Papa, Dear Hotch: The Correspondence of Ernest Hemingway And A. E. Hotchner.

1. I had a hard time rating this collection of letters, postcards and cables between Hemingway and A. E. Hotchner, Papa's friend during the last decade or so of his life. If I give "Dear Papa, Dear Hotch" 5 stars, what do I give my favorite book of all time - Hemingway's "In Our Time"? Since Amazon's rating system won't allow for more than 5 stars, I plead "nolo contendere." This book deserves 5 stars because it is the best it could be. Comparison with Hemingway's crafted work is not the point.
   
   That said, "Dear Papa, Dear Hotch" is a gift to all who love Hemingway. I congratulate DeFazio for a job well done. Gathering all the pieces of this intriguing story must have consumed countless hours and required lots of legwork. The process of deciphering Hemingway's penmanship and the necessary research to illuminate arcane references was surely daunting at times. A.E. Hotchner's Preface & DeFazio's Introduction are fascinating and admirably set the stage for what is ultimately a poignant story of friendship & loss.



2. In his Preface, Hotchner writes:"I was young and struggling and vulnerable." What these Letters reveal is that "Hotch" was ambitious, greedy and manipulative. Just read the exchange concerning the "True" article (pp 172-179).Though De Fazio and the University of Missouri Press are to be congratulated for their Herculean accomplishment, those familiar with other Hemingway letters/memorabilia and scholarship, published and unpublished, know why Hotchner "had fallen out of favor with Mary"(Preface 12), as well as with other family members, true friends and many Hemingway scholars. Conrad Aiken, who early on saw Hemingway's genius, wrote, on the occasion of T.S.Eliot's death 40 years ago, "that this is the age of the ex-wife and the editor."I would add a third category: the "so-called friend."



3. _Dear Papa, Dear Hotch_ is a triumph of precise editing: of scrupulous annotations that make this record of the final years of a great American writer come to life. The reader goes along effortlessly, instructed as necessary in diverse particulars-baseball trivia, the names of well-known trapshooters (!), the identities of guests at long forgotten gatherings, advertising slogans, specs for aircraft, Hemingway's confusion of a story by James Thurber with one by Ring Lardner. Those who have ever tried to run down one such datum will appreciate the scholarship, variousness, exactness, and energy of Albert J. DeFazio in presenting this collection.
   
   The 161 letters here were written in the final dozen years of Hemingway's life, in his decline, after he, arguably the most famous writer living, had said what he had to say. As such they make for increasingly sad reading. We see Hemingway's effort to recapture the vitality and tragic dignity that make at least two of his novels and several dozen short stories key documents in American literature and in American self-concept. The letters from A. E. Hotchner-at once a slick, opportunistic sycophant, a cheerfully dutiful factotum, willing to do whatever the once great man asks, and a competent adaptor of original work-do not brighten the picture, nor is it always easy to read "Hotch's" imitations of Hemingway's deliberately scabrous language ("Goddam but I'm glad about the [Nobel] prize," etc.) Sometimes the interplay between them has a sick fascination, "Hemingstein" trying to persuade himself "Everybody will be okay" and "Krotchner" feeding this illusion. One comes to the notes with a sense of relief. They are the real gen.
   
   A six page appendix, in which Hemingway objects to Hotchner's proposed deletions in _The Dangerous Summer,_ reveals more about the drift of Hemingway's writing practices than anything else I have read on the topic.



4. DEAR PAPA, DEAR HOTCH: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF ERNEST HEMINGWAY AND A.E. HOTCHNER isn't a light introduction: it's a scholarly collection recommended as a college-level pick for any collection strong in the works of either writer, presenting for the first time the collected correspondence between writer and agent. Hotchner adapted Hemingway's works for stage, movies and TV: these letters cover the final quarter of Hemingway's life and packs in nearly two hundred letters, cables and cards between the two. The result offers plenty of intriguing details and will prove a 'must' for any serious Hemingway scholar, in particular.

2 comments about Les Brownlee: The Autobiography of a Pioneering African-American Journalist.

1. I just bought Les Brownlee's autobiography and read it in a day, as I couldn't put it down once I cracked it open. I was a former student of Brownlee's and good friend and reading his book was like listening to one of his great stories --of which he had millions!
   
   At the bookstore this book is located in African-American Studies. It should be located in American History because Les' story transends race. I'm not going to rehash Les Brownlee's lifestory -- buy and read the book for that. I just want to say only in America can someone overcome what Brownlee went through with courage and grace and then move on to help others who came after him!
   
   This book really is a must read for anyone who needs a little inspiration. I only wish the book was longer! Of course, I also wish my friend was still around to sign it for me.
   
   -Bob Chiarito



2. The book is amazing! It's like a visit with our good friend Les Brownlee. You sense his reassurance we can make anything of our lives. You can almost hear his rich laughter and storytelling that made us smile.
   
   The life Les lead in his turbulent time offers an insight into a life well lived. There are photos, recipes and a wonderful article "The most lethal poison is doubt." Les explained that "the challenge for us is to keep presenting a positive image of success in front of all who are afflicted..." Well, Les, I'm ready "now on this next play..." Thanks!