1 comments about The Life and Adventures of Daniel Boone.

1. This book is a nice sketch of the life of Daniel Boone, first published by the University Press of Kentucky in 1978. While it does not compare with the larger and more valuable biographies of Draper, and Bakeless, and lacks the primary value of Boone's own account of himself in Filson's "Kentucke" (1784), it is a nice survey, and may be more appreciated by younger readers, or by those new to the subject, than the larger volumes.

4 comments about Hugh Glass.

1. I imagine few lives have contained so many varied life threatening experiences as Hugh Glass', and few more deserving of legendary status. As sailor, reluctant pirate, honorary Pawnee and fur trapper he time and again escapes death from pirates, cannibals, human sacrifice, Indian ambush, grizzly mauling and frozen wilderness. His fending for himself while dragging his torn broken body hundreds of miles after the grizzly mauling being the most miraculous. The author admittedly takes some liberties in creating a narrative that is much more readable than any recitation of the facts could be. But the essence and significant events are all based on well documented facts. It's a very readable telling of an amazing story.



2. Enjoyable read. I have heard so much about Hugh Glass and knew of his name and some of his history, but not the full account. The man was a true man, with all of the colorful past that most Mountain Men had.
   
   I have a deep love of the mountains and part of this comes from reading books, such as this, about the mountains, men, animals and the forces of nature which is wild and will never be tamed.



3. My husband and I enjoyed the story of Hugh Glass. We purchased the book as a result of seeing a program about him on the History Channel. Lots of those same things were in the book plus lots more. I feel the author took a considerable amount of artistic privilege with some of the items in the book but it was easy to detect the real facts and it all turned out to show that Hugh Glass was an amazingly adventurous, rugged, determined and versatile man. The author lets the reader know that he has taken some artistic license in the writing of the book . My husband and I liked the fact that Hugh Glass was portrayed as a man with a conscience. With all that in mind, I would highly recommend this book.



4. It's a novel.
   
   Don't be fooled (like I was) into believing this is a non-fictional work.
   
   There is not one single footnote a reader can refer to to verify events. Long conversations take place, but only in the mind of the author. Events in the book are in the mind of the author (unless he provides footnotes, and he doesn't) and have no historical value.
   
   This book is fiction.
   
   I recommend that you buy the other book about Hugh Glass.

5 comments about Bettie Page: The Life of a Pin-Up Legend.

1. So said one of her photographers. What a marvelous book. If you're like me, and have been a Bettie fan for years, you've been waiting for this book. For years one could find stuff on her only in comic shops and the like, dealing in old memorabilia from the Fifties, or in various "alternative" shops that sold her image on T shirts. As a teen that's where I learned about her, thanks to "The Rocketeer," the comic "The Bettie Pages," and psychobilly trash-punk band the Cramps, who for a short time had a bass player the spittin' image of our fair maiden. Now that we've finally opened our eyes, we can buy several books on her, this being by far the best. It is the ne plus ultra of Bettiebooks, of pin-up books in general. What a trend-setter; a humble, troubled, open and honest woman who was not exploited, who has not turned herself into a PC victim--she's idolized by smart, hip young women who see in her freedom, sexuality, playfullness, life itself. This book had better be reprinted--it's an absolute crime to be unavailable. Get this book by any means necessary!



2. This is the ultimate book on Bettie Page. This book is for every true Bettie fan. Even contains an introduction from Bettie herself.

   If you really want to follow the history of legend, this is the ultimate book on Betty Mae Page!




3. There was one another 50's icon who rivals Marilyn in popularity today--Bettie Page. True, she didn't make any A-movies, but like Marilyn, embodied that woman who drew a fine line between good girl/bad girl and crossed the lines as easily as one drank Coca-Cola. Unlike Marilyn, Bettie survived, but like Marilyn, her legend lives on for one simple reason: she dropped out of sight in 1957 following the fall of Irvin and Paula Klaw by the Kefauver Committee on indecency and pornography and refused to have herself be photographed as she is now. Thus, she is remembered as she was back then. And as her life has become simpler, she values her privacy. She says so as much in the hand-written foreword, at the same time surprised and honoured that so many people are interested in her.Karen Essex and James L. Swanson book is a great place to start for those curious about Bettie Page. Basically, it's a biography accompanied by lots and lots of colour and b&w photos, many of them topless. There are two of them which has her completely nude. She also posed for countless magazine covers and photographers. Art Amsie's photos are the best of the lot here. Bunny Yeager is touched on briefly, but that woman has a book on herself so... Looking at the early Bettie, before she became a pin-up from 1947, is also quite a revelation. She is still beautiful, but in an ordinary way, like a typical girl growing up in 1940's America.There is clearly a dualism going on here. There's the pretty wholesome girl in the bathing suit or maybe not, and then there's the darker leatherbound fetish girl, be she receiver or giver. That latter half led to her downfall. The point also was that she enjoyed her work, mainly the lighter beach stuff. You can see it in those twinkling eyes and smile of hers.The last section of the book features models who have been influenced by her, be they in clothes or just looking like her. Of the lookalikes, Eva Herzigova, Debi Mazar, and Janice Dickinson have got it down to the bangs, (it's the bangs that did it for Bettie, after all), long black hair, and prominent eyebrows.Apart from being one of fantasy artist Olivia's favourite subjects, Bettie's images appear on album covers by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult and the David Lee Roth Band. Her three videos, Teaserama, where she acts opposite stripper legend Tempest Storm, Varietease, and Strip-O-Rama have come out. She'll live on, no doubt about it.Anyone interested in Bettie Page-start with this book. You won't be disappointed.



4. I bought this book for my husband's birthday last year; he has always thought Bettie Page was great, and he is the one who enlightened me about her. As an artist, I was drawn to her style and unpretentiousness, and have drawn her twice so far.
   
   This book is well-written and leads the reader through Bettie's life; from her start and to her present day in a respectful and fascinating manner. I came away from this book understnanding the appeal she had to men, and wanting to draw her portraits over and over.



5. This is an outstanding summary of Bettie's life and her impact on modeling, art, pin-up, photography, and those needing encouragement in overcoming obstacles. The book is a nice way to learn about Bettie Page and those individuals she worked with during her career and growing up. It stops short of telling about recent events, but gives one a good understanding of the lady. The information is factual and well written. Much speculation has been made about the time she walked away through the present, but this is a nice account with the facts that we know to be true without the speculation. The pictures within this book are amazing and many won't be seen anywhere else. The information about those individuals she touched, encountered was interesting as well. Good read.

1 comments about Out of Babylon: Ghosts of Grossinger's.

1. Grossinger, a teacher, writer, and publisher, opens the journey of his life to us in this huge, sprawling tangle of threads and tales. He is--and is not--of the Grossinger family that founded and lost the famed Catskills resort, and he writes compellingly of it rise and fall, rich with memories for New York Jews and others whose childhoods and families were inextricably bound to the resort. He writes of marriage, children, and university life in the `60s and `70s, painting a darker picture than some might remember but capturing its elusive, cannabis-scented texture. He chronicles his extended family and its enormous secrets and terrible demons, probing with relentless attention his haunted brother and, especially, his beautiful and quite monstrous mother. He does all of this more or less simultaneously, so the reader moves from one to another of these stories in wonder at their inevitable links and segues. It is rich in the evocation of New York and the Catskills in the '50s, New England and the Bay Area in the `60s and `70s, and amazement of watching your own children become people, and the sustaining pleasures of baseball, especially the Mets. Somehow it not only hangs together but is actually richer for is energy: one doesn't wish to deconstruct it into the many books it could have been. Exhausting, exhilarating, extraordinary. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido

5 comments about LBJ: Architect of American Ambition.

1. Almost all reviewers acknowledge that this book is well written but filled with factual errors. The real debate is over how important the errors are. I think they are very important for two reasons. First, the number of errors and kinds of errors suggest the author does not have a grasp of his subject. If this historian knew his period, he would not have made most of these mistakes in the first place, and if he did, he would have caught them himself in a less fatigued moment. Didn't he even read his own manuscript? Accuracy is the responsibility of the author, not the editor. These errors just would not have slipped by a competent historian, not in these numbers. Second, if the reader finds that what he or she knows about is wrong, how can the reader have confidence in what he or she doesn't know about? The short answer is one can't. There is no way of knowing if what this author says is right or wrong. For these reasons, the whole book is unreliable. Interesting as it is, and it is very interesting, one just can't have confidence in it. This is not trivial. This is not an editorial problem. This is fundamental. Too bad. The author is trying to make an important argument that needs making. In more reliable hands, this book would have been an enormous contribution to the literature, perhaps a masterpiece.



2. This is a substantial book--both in its length of 884 pages and the character of the man that it records. LBJ was an enormously controversial President--albeit not as much as this fellow that is presently "Occupying" the White House. He was hated on the left for his hawkishness on the Vietnam War. He was hated on the right because he was an FDR Democrat and was big on civil rights. Something that conservatives fought tooth and nail during that period of time--I know, I lived thru that period of time, and I remember it quite well.
   
   Johnson was a tragic figure. A President who tried to do very much good for poor people and civil rights, but was brought low by the Vietnam War and his fear of being labeled a "Communist appeaser" by the rabid right of that time. Time does not see to have improved the right's disposition--or judgment for that matter.
   
   Woods records Johnson's lamentable personal infidelities towards his wife, his overbearing and immature egotism, and his larger than life presence in his social and political environments. Despite all of his many faults, he always maintained a sincere and deep concern for the least amongst us. Along with his egotism, he was also a profound idealist. He truly believed that by promoting the right government policies that he could help change and transform America for the better. And he was capable of delivering. Whether it was civil rights, the war on poverty, job corps, the beginnings of environmental oversight by the federal government. He was a true successor of FDR.
   
   A fair and sympathetic book about a most interesting man and extremely able President. If you believe that the civil rights legislation was a worthy endeavor, then you might want to read this book to get some idea of one of the two--along with Martin Luther King--main architects of the civil rights revolution of the 60's. Additionally, Woods gives a very good overview about how Johnson was pulled deeper and deeper into Vietnam--against his better judgment.



3. Informative and absorbing, "LBJ: Architect of American Ambition" is certainly one of the best bios I've read in a while. Woods' narration, though somewhat uneven at times, never loses focus on the long reach of Johnson's ambition, which is apparent from his boyhood to the halls of Congress, and throughout his controversial presidency. Not content with only explaining his forceful and often manipulative methods, Woods allows the reader to dive into LBJ's mind to explore the (largely) altruistic motivations behind his eccentric, almost schizophrenic behaviors.
   
   Heralding over an era that he envisioned as a continuation of FDR's New Deal, LBJ's dreams came crashing under the events of the tumultuous 60s; that of Vietnam and urban riots. To paraphrase a comment once made by the father of a friend of mine, no political figure fit the mold of a Shakespearean Tragedy as LBJ did.
   
   While I agree that the editing was most certainly shoddy and that Woods' standing as a historian gives him little room to allow such careless mistakes, I must respectfully contend that the book should not suffer anything more than a 2-star deduction as other reviewers have done. Save for situations in which an author is purposefully misleading or misconstruing the facts to push foward an agenda, such errors seem more benign in nature, and as such, context should be the focus. Should I use this book as a source for a future paper and/or project, I'll be sure to take note to double-check for accuracy; but as a more casual reader looking for a book to bring this character to life, I found that Woods' overall style accomplished that objective.
   
   This book tells his story in a way that is sympathetic to his cause, but unflinching in revealing Johnson's flaws in more ways than one. With such a larger-than-life character as its subject, I can only hope a revised edition is not too far ahead in the future.



4. Randall B. Wood's brilliant biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson was ten years in the making, but came out at exactly the right time. As is the case with George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson's administration was undermined by a war that became deeply unpopular: "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" became a popular chant, and though the sloganeers of the sixties were better than those of today, the sentiment is exactly the same. As Wood shows, the Vietnam war had profound consequences for LBJ's administration, in the same way Iraq is having disastrous consequences for George W. Bush.
   
   There the similarity ends for the two presidents from Texas. LBJ's days were marked by what may be called a "revolution from below." Profound attention was paid to the needs of the poor and blacks in Johnson's Great Society programs. nd in a glaring difference with what is occurring today, the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 really changed the lives of the less well to do, so that far fewer of them went into bankruptcy, as they had in Johnson's growing up years in east Texas. The ush years have been, by contrast, marked by the increasing inaccessibility of the best medicare care to the poor, along with profound pressures on middle-class and poor Americans who just can't afford to pay for private health insurance.The Bush administration has been inclined to ascribe rising medical costs to innovation that allows doctors to do more. But this is only part of the story. The other part is a tendency for Washington to allow the healthcare industry to charge more and more.
   
   What is most fascinating about the Woods biography is the demonstration that Lyndon Johnson was profoundly influenced by his family's embrace of early 20th century progressivism.And it wasn't always easy. his father, deeply in debt, and an alcoholic to boot, stood up against the Ku Klux Klan. He very easily could have been murdered. As a state legislator, Sam Ealy, Jr. always voted against moneyed interests in the state. LBJ's mother, Rebekah, had been a reporter for an Austin newspaper, a prolific reader her entire life, and probably would have felt comfortable with today's social justice Christians. In his early twenties, Johnson spent more than a year teaching and becoming the principal of a small school made up of poor Mexican children. He never forgot them.
   
   The book is not all about doing good. Johnson's womanizing, abusiveness and egoism all come out very clearly, but Woods's complex, 900 page biography carefully and intelligently demonstrates the full measure of Johnson's prolific talent. "He (LBJ) is far ahead of most of the intellectuals--especially those Northern liberals who have beco0me, in the name of the highest motives, the new apologists for segregation," writer Ralph Ellison wrote in a magazine interview i early 1967. "President Johnson's speech at Howard University spelled out the meaning of full integration for Negroes in a way that no one, no President, not Lincoln nor oosevelt, no matter how much we love and respected them, has ever done before."



5. Many,many, many layers. Author Woods sets out to create the ultimate LBJ biography, and partly succeeds. On the plus side, it is obvious that he put a considerable amount of work into looking into both older and fresh research, coming up with new facts or forgotten ones about one of the most complex American presidents. As some of the professional reviews indicated, Woods created a comprehensive set of information. In addition, Woods does not leave LBJ off the hook historically, but is far more balanced in his overall assessment of LBJ as compared to other bios, probably partially as a result of the passage of time as well as author effort.
   On the negative side, this weighty book (around 900 pages text) could have used some serious editing. Besides the numerous small factual errors (which state a Senator is from), several paragraphs are simply a mess and should have been cut. Probably could have removed some passages about the Kennedys - this is, after all, a biography of LBJ, and should be focused on his relationship with them.
   I found this book informative, but I think I am still waiting for a more definitive LBJ bio to emerge.

3 comments about Edge Of The Sword: The Ordeal Of Carpetbagger Marshall H. Twitchell In The Civil War And Reconstruction.

1. In recent decades, many historians of Reconstruction have been drawn to the story of Marshall H. Twitchell, an idealistic carpetbagger who braved ferocious reactionary violence in postbellum Louisiana. Honest, courageous, and committed, Twitchell was not the stereotypical northern opportunist of southern lore, and he has, as a result, surfaced in studies by Eric Foner, Lawrence Powell, George Rable and other historians who have revised the old Dunning-school interpretation of the carpetbaggers. Twitchell has, nevertheless, remained largely unknown to non-specialists because, until now, no one had written a full-length account of his life. With the publication of Ted Tunnell's superb biography, Edge of the Sword, Twitchell's extraordinary story should reach a wider audience.
   In recounting Twitchell's life, Tunnell tells "one of the great stories of Reconstruction."(p.4) Born in Vermont, Twitchell joined the Union Army at the start of the Civil War and fought in most of the major battles in the Virginia theater. Severely wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness when a minie ball entered his skull through his eye, he was left for dead by army surgeons. But after a miraculous recovery, Twitchell went on to be an officer for a black regiment comprised mainly of ex-slaves. Following Appomattox, he became an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in Bienville Parish, Louisiana. While serving in this capacity, Twitchell met and married a southern woman, Adele Coleman, whom he hoped to someday bring home with him to Vermont. But when Adele refused to move North, Twitchell made the best of his situation, purchasing a modest cotton plantation, moving some of his relatives down from the Green Mountain state, and establishing a small "Yankee colony" in the town of Coushatta.
   In 1868 Twitchell entered local politics and, with the support of African-American voters, was elected as a Republican to the state senate where he successfully fought for funding to build black public schools. He also displayed remarkable courage in the face of repeated threats from the Knights of the White Camellia, Louisiana's version of the Ku Klux Klan. In one instance, Twitchell, having fallen asleep in his saddle, avoided assassination when his mule took the wrong road, thus circumnavigating the bushwhackers waiting in the woods ahead. Twitchell's brother Homer was not so lucky, however. In August 1874, while Marshall was away in New Orleans, conspirators killed his brother and six other Republicans in what became known as the "Coushatta Massacre." Undaunted, Twitchell returned to the town despite threats that he would be next. Refusing to be intimidated, he continued to defend the political and economic rights of blacks and poor whites. Finally, in May 1876, a disguised gunman rode into town and shot Twitchell six times with a rifle. Although Twitchell survived the attack, both of his arms had to be amputated. Only then did he leave the South for good.
   Throughout EDGE OF THE SWORD, Tunnell places Twitchell's life within the complex context of local and national politics and current historiographical debates. But he does so as part of an evocative narrative that skillfully recreates the dramatic events that make Twitchell's story so compelling. Thus, this work will be of interest to both historians and lay readers. Tunnell is to be commended for writing an important biography of a courageous man who truly believed he was fighting a righteous battle.



2. His life-and-death struggle with the notorious White League was started by a group of Pulaski lawyers and judges. It was not a part of the Confederacy at all, formed to protect Southerners from the Northern Carpetbaggers during reconstruction. We still need their protection, as a director of the Carpetbagger Theater hoodwinked $100,000 out of the City Council on false pretenses. She used her trained actress voice and acting abilities to pull one over on the cooperative group, with undercover help from those of her acquaintance who had the ability to hide the truth that she indeed was the owner of the condemned property in a bad neighborhood.
   
   His ordeal was nothing like today when the carpetbaggers have returned to the South 220 years later to rook the dumb Southerners. I was told by a Pulaski native about how the carpetbaggers had to be stopped and they were not only taking from the defeated but from the underlings as well. They were a group of vultures.



3. How long have we heard from Southern apologists that if it hadn't been for the scalawags and carpetbaggers that Southern whites and {their} negroes would have gotten along just fine. Not that he had to but Tunnel goes along way in providing information that proves that the post Civil War South was viscious and violent place whose people preferred to use the bullet to the ballot. What a shame that President Grant and Hays did not have the courage to crush the White League and the KKK.

1 comments about My Army Life and the Fort Phil Kearney Massacre: With an Account of the Celebration of "Wyoming Opened" (Bison Book).

1. The 1860's were turbulent years throughout the west and the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming were no exception. Francis Carrington's reminisces of these times are essential to understanding not only army life on the frontier, but also the true facts of the horrid Fetterman Massacre of 1866.
   Venturing west as a young bride to Lt. George Grummond, she describes in detail the landscapes, people and day to day existence of trail life while on their way to establish Ft. Phil Kearney on the eastern flank of the Big Horn Mountains. The fort's purpose was to protect emigrants traveling to the gold fields of Montana.
   With the land initially promised to the Sioux in treaty, the government's newer policies of allowing a road and forts to be built through this region fueled acts of violence from the Sioux.
   Frances' husband Lt. Grummond, along with Lt. Colonel William Fetterman and a total of eighty-one men were led into ambush by the Sioux in December 1866 and all killed. The post commander, Colonel Henry Carrington, gave explicit orders which were disobeyed resulting in the slaughter of these men.
   An informative and expressive read which also upholds Colonel Carrington's command.

3 comments about Memoirs of a Soldier, Nurse and Spy In The Union Army: A Woman's Adventures in the Union Army.

1. I have in my possesion a leather bound with goldleaf letters on the cover(somewhat faded). A first edition which I purchased in Michigan in 1969. Emmas's story is profound. It provided quite an insight into the civil war and I have no doubt as to the veracity of the story. It interests me as she is a Canadian from New Brunswick, and I believe it would make an interesting series and could well become a Candian "content" movies for Global/ CTV/ CBC.

   [...]




2. I found the first two thirds of this book exciting and very interesting, the author certainly was a brave lady who played a significant part in the Civil War (masquerading as a man). Just how significant is open to debate as some historians say her claims are embroidered.
   Anyway, I started to lose interest towards the end of the book as it got a bit weighed down with factual information such as letters from Generals etc about the Civil War, which I am inclined to think the author added to add weight to her elaborated claims about her involvement as a spy! Regardless it is an exciting read, and a good historical account of battles during the Civil War.



3. This is an original source for Civil War History, and it's been meticulously documented with endnotes that set the text in context of what else was happening at the time. Amazing job on the part of the 20th century editor, and facinating reading for the history buff or researcher alike.

No comments about The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, 4-volume set: Legal Documents and Cases.

3 comments about Mysteries of My Father.

1. Acclaimed historian Thomas Fleming has written popular histories of the Revolutionary War, several controversial re-examinations of such hallowed 20th century figures as Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and best-selling historical novels.
   
   No one, however, could have guessed that his personal history, as told in "Mysteries of My Father," would provide the material for arguably his most gripping and powerful work.
   
   "New Jersey" and "corruption" go together like "hot fudge" and "sundae." The phrase recalls cliched images of fat, cigar-smoking pols raking in the big bucks and stealing from the poor.
   
   Fleming's family memoir takes an inside look at the ultimate political machine run by Jersey City Mayor Frank Hague, a boss who had presidents coming to him to curry his favor. But the picture is not quite what the tsk-tsk tone of the stereotypical history book would suggest.
   
   Fleming points out that the old-fashioned political machines often were all that certain poor, ethnic communities had to stand up for them.
   
   Like Homer Hickam's "Rocket Boys" (the basis for the movie "October Sky") and Brian McDonald's "My Father's Gun," this is the story of an important subculture going through the pressure cooker of 20th century changes, told by a narrator who is close enough to the action to take an inside look but enough of a nonparticipant to have the distance required for a proper perspective.
   
   Above all, these books tell, at their heart, the universal story of sons struggling to make their way out of their fathers' shadows - very big shadows, in fact, cast by larger-than-life figures.
   
   At the center of "Mysteries" is Thomas "Teddy" Fleming Sr., who fought bravely in the trenches of France during World War I though he had little use for the cause. Irish-Americans at the time had no interest in saving Britain from Germany, and they had legitimate trouble with the argument that Germany was any more expansionist than the country that had occupied the auld sod for centuries.
   
   However, the war would pave the way for two fateful factors of Teddy's life. First, he was away while most young people his age married, and second, his heroic status brought him to the attention of the Irish Democrat political machine that held power in Jersey City.
   
   It was only logical that the city's most eligible bachelor and the most popular single girl would be thrown together by their friends. Kitty Dolan was a pretty socialite who still was available only because her fiance had fallen fatally ill.
   
   What even her friends and family did not realize, however, was that Kitty saw her beau as a ticket out of what she thought of as low Irish life and society.
   
   Like the politicians, Kitty saw the potential in Teddy and how she could use it to her ends. Unlike them, however, Kitty had wholesale changes in mind for her husband, while the political machine gave him a job that perfectly suited his abilities, personality and skills - and immersed him in the life that Kitty so despised.
   
   The war hero and the tragic figure seemed like the perfect couple to the outside world, but there's no loathing like self-loathing, and when Kitty turns it outward, it's breathtaking in its intensity. When their children were old enough to recognize it, they were not merely caught in the crossfire of a contentious marriage, but Kitty also tried to enlist them as combatants.
   
   Fleming presents his parents, warts and all, but also with affection. While showing Kitty as the aggressor, he refuses to take sides, as each person reacted in the exact wrong manner to make amends - perhaps because each was so ill-suited for the other and not prepared to change.
   
   By the time the usually taciturn elder Fleming -?hen a county sheriff and arguably the second-most powerful man in the nation's most effective political machine - tearfully exclaims to his sons, "You're all I have," the reader's heart will be as broken as if it were his own family's trauma.
   
   "Memories of My Father" shows the inside of ethnic politics, such as how genuine grievances become excuses for corruption though the justification of "It's our turn to get ours now." This manifests itself in vote-stealing (the author personally was responsible for keeping his deceased grandmother on the absentee voter roles for years), heavy-handed patronage and outright theft.
   
   Fleming also takes shots at the notion of "hyphenated Americanism," noting that no matter how much reverence is expressed for the Old Country, after a generation, immigrants invariably become so Americanized as to be completely alien to those in the country they left.
   
   This book has enough subplots for at least another couple of hundred pages. If he had chosen to, Fleming could have serialized his and his family's life like the great memoirist Tobias Wolfe. He takes a hard look at the role of the Catholic Church in the Irish immigrant culture of the time, and the author's Navy experiences during the fall of China undoubtedly could have filled more than just one chapter.
   
   "Mysteries of my Father" is a uniquely American memoir and a story as old as Genesis. As Father's Day approaches, this heartfelt, powerful and ultimately loving book is an ideal gift for the reader on your list.
   (review run in the Flint Journal, Flint, MI)



2. Ernest Hemingway observed that there is nothing more difficult to write about than a man's life. In Mysteries of My Father, novelist and historian Thomas Fleming superbly does just that, as he examines his father Teddy Fleming's entire life in "downtown" Irish-Catholic Jersey City in the first half of twentieth-century America. Soul, verve, wit and heart emerge throughout.
   
   
   Teddy Fleming, with an eighth grade education and an indomitable will, overcomes the limited opportunities of his impoverished environment by first leading men in World War I combat. There he learns to trust himself while at the same time accepting the role of luck, or fate, in life. Once home, he rises as a ward organizer for legendary political boss Frank "I am the law" Hague, who eventually appoints Teddy as sheriff of Hudson County, New Jersey.
   
   
   The author weaves family history with the shared experience of early Irish-Americans who struggle for security against Protestant domination. This rich document speaks of fathers and sons, urban politics in the Tammany Hall era, the education of a historian, the imperative of finding a vocation, the power and influence of the Catholic Church, the pressures of poverty in the days of "Help Wanted---No Irish Need Apply" signs, and most directly, the dissolution of the marriage between the author's mother and father.
   
   
   The first half of the book, which predates the author's birth, introduces many extended family relatives. The time you spend getting to know everyone is a modest chore as the son deliberately assembles his father's portrait. As we move toward the author's first person perceptions in the second half of the account, though, the book begins to sprint.
   
   
   We watch as Teddy courts and marries refined schoolteacher Kitty Dolan, who detests her husband's immersion in lowbrow political chicanery and the Hague machine's reciprocal hold on Teddy's identity. Kitty's frustrated desire to transform her husband from a "thick mick" into someone more upright and discerning informs her estrangement from him. She hardens her resentment with efforts to alienate father from son, and the author labors to find the cause of his mother's sorrow. Teddy Fleming, the man, is much more than the simple hack Kitty sees him to be, but the author never judges either parent. He accepts the love they can give.
   
   
   Thomas Fleming is an elegant writer with a raconteur's facility for storytelling, tempered by a historian's devotion to accuracy. The author tells it like it is, to the extent he can, given his involvement in the events. The writer's willingness to confront his parents' disconnections all but verifies this commitment. He takes us to dark places but thankfully never loses a sense of humor along the way.
   
   
   Lively tales of Teddy's varying roles as a Hague functionary and family patriarch are aplenty. Amid the systemic graft, massive corruption, and revolving cast of rogues, decency lies in Teddy's delivery of jobs for the needy and votes for the boss. Teddy Fleming, hardly a paragon of good government, is not without honor. He lives modestly and obeys his conscience so as to look proudly at "the guy in the glass"---his reflection---every day. Teddy's abetting of odiousness is secondary to his ethic of self-reliance. He is, at all times, true to himself.
   
   
   This dignity makes Teddy's drift from Kitty all the more crushing. His rise in the Hague organization corresponds to an increasing distance from her, and a free fall ensues.
   
   
   Thomas Fleming yearns to excavate his father's ways in the unforgiving political, cultural and economic landscape of Irish-Catholic Jersey City. To his son, Teddy Fleming's outward adherence to an iron code of loyalty, nerve and force conceals an inscrutable inner life which the author aches to know. The author's empathy and unforced voice are just right for this journey to find his father's spirit.
   
   
   In this tender account of a tough man's whole life, Thomas Fleming reminds us that to love is to risk pain but also to know the fullness of being.



3. This is an excellent book that mixes the talents of a good story teller with that of an historian. While the title has "An Irish-American Memoir" in it, it is certainly far more universal than that. It shows how people have to adapt to the world they live in not the one they wished they lived in, and how someones outward appearance can be quite different than the real inner person. This books works at several levels: the inner workings of marriages, parents and their children, making it in America as a newcomer or child of a newcomer, politics, and history. It's accuracy makes me realize how far we have come in 70 years but it also reminds me that for many of us our success and happiness traces back to some pretty tough, not highly educated, ward bosses like Teddy Fleming who cleared the way probably never fully realizing how much their day to day hard work would slowly change the world's major superpower to a more pluralistic and democractic country--even if some of their methods might shock our modern sensibilities.
   I recognized the authenticity of this boook immmediately. My grandfather was also, for a while, part of the Frank Hague machine but as county engineer. He eventually left to be county engineer for Bergen County because he refused to approve a sewer project that Hague wanted to give to a friend of Hague's who my grandfather felt was not qualified to do the job properly. With a degree in engineering it was much easier for my grandfather to pick and choose where he worked.
   Overall, a very enjoyable book at many levels.