No comments about Making Sense of Modern Times: Peter L. Berger and the Vision of Interpretive Sociology.

2 comments about Secret Places: My Life in New York and New Guinea (Living Out: Gay and Lesbian Autobiographies).

1. In travels through faerie sanctuaries and other exotic lands, I've enjoyed the company of many unusual personalities. One of the most memorable is Tobias Schneebaum. Reading his latest book, Secret Places, has increased my sense of awe at the uniqueness of this man.

   Toby's fame results largely from a brief encounter (an unpleasantly personal encounter) with cannibalism in the 1950s. His free-wheeling explorations of the Amazon region, searching for a life more meaningful than accumulating money and possessions, led to an extended visit with the little-known Akarama tribe. Toby bonded strongly with the indigenous tribal men, who had little or no experience of modern culture. He found himself embraced as a temporary memory of the tribe, and was included both in headhunting expeditions and same-sex celebrations of body and spirit. On one occasion, a traditional ceremony culminated in eating the heart of a captured warrior from a neighboring tribe; it would have been impolite (and probably dangerous) to decline.

   His first book chronicling these and other adventures, Keep The River On Your Right, was published in 1969, and the book soon became a cult classic. Schneebaum became a rather unlikely, and somewhat notorious, celebrity. (Recently, the story has been retold and updated in a fascinating documentary film of the same name, now available on DVD and video - highly recommended.)
   Toby's latest book, Secret Places, is one of a series of gay and Lesbian autobiographies from the University of Wisconsin Press. About half the book consists of detailed and fascinating stories of Toby's adventures with the Asmat people of New Guinea. It is probably no coincidence that he describes Asmat stories and myths as "not following any particular pattern. They do not have a beginning; they do not have an ending." My perception may be colored by the way I met the author a few years ago at a dinner party in New York, but to me, the book reads like a transcribed dinner conversation. Unlike any other autobiography I've read, the style is remarkably non-linear. For example, details are often repeated from prior pages as if brand new, as they might be in casual conversation. I found this loose approach unusual, and most enjoyable.

   Jumping forward and backward in time and space, incorporating stories of his religious Jewish childhood, of New York friends succumbing to mid-80s AIDS, of aboriginal lovers in faraway lands, of missionaries bringing permanent change to ancient cultures, Toby regales the reader with episodes of his remarkable life. He is struck by the similarity between Catholic communion - eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ - and ritual cannibalism - eating the body and drinking the blood of conquered warriors. He chronicles a multinational company's bull-in-china-shop destruction of untouched wilderness among the Asmat, in an oblivious attempt to drill oil where only water exists. And he mourns the inevitable shift in artistic style among Asmat woodcarvers, from subtle hand-tooled techniques passed down from uncountable generations, to pretty but "soulless" items more easily sold to tourists for easy packing in their luggage or shipping home as excess baggage.
   Toby's book is a small but generous gift, offering a glimpse into cultures and climes few will ever experience (and none will experience in the state of preservation that still existed at the time of his youth). It is thrilling to read about Toby's apparently fearless adventures, to enjoy them vicariously through his memoirs. Don't miss this book, and if you ever get the chance to hang out and chat with 80-something Tobias Schneebaum, it will be time well spent.

   Reviewed By Mountaine in
   White Crane Journal
   A Journal on Gay Spirituality




2. This book was written by a flagellant. Reading it is a painful experience.

5 comments about Kindness of Strangers.

1. I have purchased numerous copies of this book to give to friends. After recently rediscovering book and reading for 5th time I was checking amazon to see if Mike McIntyre has any other titles. I felt compeled to write a review. In light of the recent World Trade center attack I really need something that confirmed my belief that good people are all around us. It really lifted me out of my gloom. A++++



2. in light of recent events this book shed a ray of light on the dimming light of humanity in our world. A man leaves home with only identification and hitch hikes across the country relying only on the "kindness of strangers." Although he clearly points out that were he not male and caucasion the outcome could have been much different, the story is still heart warming. I have recommended this to sooo many friends and all have thanked me profusely for helping them search their hearts and souls with out being battered with questions of faith.



3. Uplifting, There are good people out there, and the most generous sometimes have the least.



4. This book was so entertaining. I couldn't put it down. I kept wondering what would happen on the next leg of his trip and if he would make it or not to his final destination. I would even go back and read parts aloud to my husband, who is not a reader, and he was hooked also.



5. I love all of the stories that Mike tells of his journey from the west to the east coast...He made me laugh and weep twice...I wonder where Mike McIntyre is now? Apparently this was his only book that he wrote. I wonder if he is now in middle America somewhere enjoying life...
   Mike... you need to write a follow up on what happened to you after you came back to California. Did you give up your journalist job and settle down and find peace somewhere else?...Anyway, I really loved this book and after two week I can't get it out of my mind...Bravo!!!

No comments about Arendt, Augustine, and the New Beginning: The Action Theory and Moral Thought of Hannah Arendt in the Light of Her Dissertation on St. Augustine.

No comments about Endless Crusade: Women Social Scientists and Progressive Reform.

No comments about Judith Butler: Sexual Politics, Social Change and the Power of the Performative.

4 comments about C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings.

1. I have been eagerly awating the publication of these glimpses into Mills' 'personal' life. The book is organized, for the most part, chronologically. Its contents are mostly letters written by this most influental radical intellectuall of the cold war period. The letters (and autobiographical writings disguised as letters) reveal Mills to be as intense, focused, and dedicated to his social analysis as I, a student of his work, have imagined him to be. The writings are beautifully composed; Mills was indeed both a scientist AND an artist. His musings are inspiring for any student, scholar, or critical minded person who wants an insight into Mills "private" reflections. This book could also serve as a wonderful guide to a study of Mills' life-work, as we are given insight into his concerns and struggles during his writing process. I do have a complaint...his daughters, who have no doubt taken painstaking efforts to compose this work, have been so bold as to alter the language of his personal writings... "we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people'" (p. xiv). I think we are wise enough to realize that Mills language is a reflection of the social and historical context in which he lived...Regardless, we are lucky to have this invaluable resource that provides endless reflections into the life and though of C. Wright Mills. END



2. A customer review on this site states that the editors have changed the word "men" to "people" in the letters. As the publisher, we would like to place this statement in its proper context.

   The unmarked edits only occurred in the Tovarich letters, those that were written to an imaginary Russian correspondent. Mills "made it clear [to his agent] that he wanted the Tovarich writings to be edited before they were published . . . his marginal comments included these instructions: 'very good, use it,' 'can't use this,' 'cut somewhat.'" And so, unlike for the rest of the letters, the editors "did not mark deletions with ellipses and occasionally changed the location of paragraphs, shortened a heading, or relaced a heading with a phrase that Mills had written in the text. Although we usually left the original references to men, boys, women, and girls in these essays, we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people.'"

   In the rest of the letters, the only editorial changes were spelling corrections and occasional deletions (the latter are always marked with brackets).




3. No one has written with more verve and authority about the awesome and frightening capabilities of man than the late C. Wright Mills, a prominent and controversial sociologist who wrote such memorable tomes as "White Collar", an exploration of the emerging American Middle class in the early 1950s, and The Power Elite", a provocative examination of the nature of power, privilege, and status in the United States, and how each of these three critical elements of power and property in this country are irrevocably connected to each other. At last look, both books were still in print and are still used in both undergraduate and graduate sociology courses throughout the world. After fifty years, that in and of itself is powerful testimony to his enduring value as a scholar and an original thinker.

   Here Mills focuses memorably on the qualities and uses of the sociological perspective in modern life, how such a scientifically based way of looking at, interpreting, and interacting with the larger world invests its user with a better, more accurate, and quite instrumental picture of what is happening meaningfully around him. For Mills, the key to understanding the value in such a perspective is in appreciating that one can only understand the motives, behavior, and actions of others by locating them within a wider and more meaningful context that connects their personal biographies with the large social circumstances that surround, direct, and propel them at any given historical moment. For Mills, for example, trying to understand the reasoning behind the sometimes desperate actions of Jews in Nazi Germany without appreciating the horrifyingly unique existential circumstances they found themselves in is hopelessly anachronistic and limited.

   On the other hand, one invested with such an appreciation for how biography and history interact to create the meaningful social circumstances of any situation finds himself better able to understand the fact that when in a country of one hundred million employed, one man's singular lack of employment might be due to his persoanl deficiencies or lack of a work ethic, and be laid at his feet as a personal trouble, it is also true that when twenty million individuals out of that one hundred million figure suddenly find themselves so disposed and unemployed, that situation is due to something beyond the control of those many individuals and is best described in socioeconomic terms as a social problem to be laid at the feet of the government and industry to resolve. To Mills, it is critical to understand the inherant differences between personal troubles on the one hand, which an individual has the responsibity to resolve and overcome, and social ills, which are beyond both his ken or control. Indeed, according to Mills, increasingly in the 20th century one finds himself trapped by social circumstance into dilemmas he is absolutely unable to resolve without significant help from the wider social community.

   Thus, for both psychological as well as social reasons, a person using the sociological perspective, or invested with what he called the "sociological imagination", is more able to think and act critically in accordance with the evidence both outside his door and beyond himself. Fifty years later, such a recognition of "what's what" and "who's who" based on the ability to judge the information within the social environment is as valuable as ever. This is a wonderful book, written in a very accessible and entertaining style, meant both for an intellectual audience and for the scholastic community as well. While it may not be for "everyman", any person wanting to better understand and more fully appreciate how individual biography and social history meaningfully interact to create the realities we live in will enjoy and appreciate this legendary sociological critique and invitation to the pleasures of a sociological perspective by one of its most remarkable proponents some half century ago.




4. Having regarded "Sociological Imagination" one of the few most exciting books written in the field, this one greatly disappointed me.

4 comments about Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood.

1. Good fortune was with me when I happened upon this book last year. It is now one of my all-time favorites and I went on to read the two books that chronologically follow this one. My only complaint is that Ms. Simon died before she had the chance to tell us every minute detail about her unextraordinary, extraordinary life. A Jewish immigrant household in the Bronx shaped Kate's wonderful and unique personality. She shares her childhood - engrossing tales of urban fairy tale embedded in the real world of poverty -with the aplomb of a grand story-teller. If only I could have met her. She is the baudy humorous glamorous grandmother we all wish was our own.



2. The frank portrayal of Simon's relationship with her father in this book is refreshing, as are many of the stories about daily life as a girl growing up Jewish in the Bronx after WWI. However, the parts dealing with sexual advances of older man and, in general, older people's sexual opportunism with younger people were things I found really disturbing. Simon tells these anecdotes well and evenly, but as a reader, I felt frustrated and helpless reading so much about the way the taboos of sexuality trapped kids into silence about their victimization.



3. Kate Simon's little book will doubtless become a classic of the genre: memoir, coming of age, the immigrant experience, sexual awakening, life on the stoops in the Bronx...
   Told unsentimentally and with a refreshingly straightforward style, Simon manages to convey both the sense and the essence of her unusual childhood to her readers.



4. This book is a warm, witty and intricate look at the author's childhood and teenage years in the Bronx. The prose sucks you in, and you are given enough detail so that you feel that you are right there with the author.
   
   However, if you want to give it as a gift to a young bookworm, be forewarned that it contains graphic sexual content, including a blow-by-blow description of the male and female anatomy, and several descriptions of sexual (and physical) abuse.

1 comments about Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work: A Historical and Critical Study.

1. This is the best book ever written concerning Emile Durkheim

5 comments about Still Life with Rice.

1. and this is one of them. This is a good quality book written from an interesting perspective. I highly recommend.



2. This is truly an incredible journey: A true story that reads like a gripping novel: from a mother trying to cast out the worms that gnaw at her daughter's stomach, to trying to cross the shell of a bridge from North Korea to South Korea during the war, with children in tow. It will make you appreciate everything you have: your family, the food on your table, the clothes on your back. It will make you want to read the sequel: In the Absence of Sun, which details the family's struggle to smuggle family out of North Korea--unbelievable! There can't be a more oppressive country on the planet. Helie Lee draws attention to this divided country that is often overlooked.



3. Summer reading doesn't have to be a chore. This book was required summer reading for my 9th grade communications students at an international school in Korea. While "required" might turn some off, I was pleasantly surprised at the novel's readability. It is the poignant memoir of a Korean woman who survived the Japanese occupation and civil war of her country eventually making her way to America to live in California. Her grandaughter tells the story through her grandmother's eyes, and it is truly amazing how provocatively she relates the private wishes, dreams and feelings of this woman of a different era. What is most impressive is the feelings invoked on the reader of the applicability of this woman's story to the nation of Korea as a whole. I hope that the wish related at the end of this fantastic memoir comes true!



4. This book is amazing. It really brings the Korean culture into sharp focus. The North Korea-South Korea divide was tragic and this story is beautifully told tying in the war, family, love, divide and salvation. I recommend that you also purchase In the Absence of Sun.



5. This book was recommended to me, and although I was warned about some of the "weirdness" of the approach, still thought it might be worth reading. I was disappointed on many levels, and would not recommend this book to anyone else.
   
   First off, this is not a biography in the strictest sense. It should be treated as historical fiction. The author takes the voice of her grandmother and is clearly making up a number of details (some slightly disturbing, like grandma's sexual encounters). Some of her history, however, is inaccurate.
   
   As has been mentioned elsewhere, the author isn't the best writer. As an example, at one point she is talking about the U.S.-run refugee camps around Pusan and describes numerous hardships such as being sprayed with DDT, fighting rats, cold showers, and dangerous electricity. And then to finish it off, she writes the line, "The worst hardship, however, was the lack of privacy." What?!?
   
   I think what irritated me the most, however, was what was left unsaid most of the time. I suspect part of this is because the author didn't do her research, and part of it is because of the author's own biases. The grandmother is from the yangban class, so a member of the aristocracy of Korea. The background and connections this entails are somewhat covered in a peripheral way, but not in a conscious way. Through most of her life, the lead character is well off. And when she does suffer hardships, the obvious connection between her background and the experiences and results are stripped out. It didn't come as a shock to me that such a wealthy landowner wasn't happy with land reform.
   
   Another issue here that is important to 20th century Korean history but are completely glossed over is that grandmother collaborated with the Japanese in China. This is skirted around, but there is nothing respectable about selling opium to the Chinese, even before acknowledging that the Japanese are the suppliers. There is mention that this made her a little uncomfortable, but it didn't get in the way of her greed. When they return wealthy to Pyongyang, their neighbors know about what they did in China. Again, no surprise when this comes back to haunt them; the core of the military in the north was formed from people who fought against the Japanese.
   
   All this, taken with the occasional historical inaccuracy and the grandmother's fanatical approach to religion at the end of the book took away all trust I had in the author to tell me a "real" story. Because the grandmother seems to present certain events as "miracles", you have to figure out for yourself how events really played out. When you find out that other male relatives are still around later in the book, you can only guess what role they played during the late 40s.
   
   In the end, the author's search for her Korean identity leaves us with a negative impression of what it means to be Korean. I think that's a disservice to Koreans and Korean-Americans.