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Many writers have engaged in the project of rescuing female figures from history, but few have tackled such an unsympathetic character as Anchee Min does in her historical novel Becoming Madame Mao. Known as the White Boned Demon during her reign of terror in China, Madame Mao was blamed for countless bloody and vengeful executions; she sought out those who had wronged her in the past and wiped them off the face of the earth. Eventually she was reviled in China and executed, even as her husband was revered as a hero.
Before her stint as Mao's first lady, Jiang Ching, as she was then known, was an actress, a singer, and a star in Communist films. Anchee Min grew up in Red China and watched Jiang Ching from afar; she was fascinated by her for many years, by tales of her independence and strength, and by images of her beauty. In a way, the great villain and demon was a role model for Anchee Min, and her teenage devotion is the engine of her remarkable novel. Moving back and forth between stories of the actress and the evil dictator, Min complicates the Madame Mao of history.
As a girl, Madame Mao narrowly escaped having her feet bound. The book opens with graphic descriptions of this process and of the ensuing infection that freed her. But if her feet were not bound, her spirit was. Reared by a mother who was the last concubine of a rich man, and a father who liked to hit his girls with shovels, Madame Mao as a young girl felt herself doomed: "I see my father hit Mother with a shovel. It happened suddenly. Without warning. I can hardly believe my eyes. He is mad. He calls Mother a slut. Mother's body curls up. My chest swells. He hits her back, front, shouting that he will break her bones." The father then goes on to treat his daughter the same way. Decades later, when Madame Mao manifests deep brutality, Min seems to be saying that what goes around comes around. Flawed by a clumsy structure that vacillates between third and first person arbitrarily, Becoming Madame Mao is nevertheless an immensely interesting work--defiant, morally ambiguous, and difficult to put down. --Emily White
Book Description
From the best-selling author of RED AZALEA, this extraordinary novel tells the stirring, erotically charged story of Madame Mao Zedong, the woman almost universally known as the 'white-boned demon,' whom many hold directly responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Bringing her lush psychological insight to bear on the facts of history, Min penetrates the myth surrounding this woman and provides a "convincing, nuanced portrait of a damaged personality" (Entertainment Weekly) driven by ambition, betrayal, and a never-to-be-fulfilled need to be loved. With all the compressed drama and high lyrical poetry of great opera, BECOMING MADAME MAO is a "remarkable accomplishment . . . Madame Mao is finally given her own voice" (Ha Jin).
Customer Reviews:
Min tells a great story.......2007-05-02
Nothing I say hasn't been said before. Min makes history come alive in her stories that are based on real people and the real record. Fascinating, descriptive, enjoyable. I will continue to buy every book she writes.
THIS BOOK IS FINE ART.......2007-04-23
Reading Becoming Madame Mao has been a terrific experience for me. Pure art, for which I thank you, Anchee Min! The story simply moved me and my new goal is going to be researching modern Chinese history.
Becoming Madame Mao.......2007-03-24
I would have not purchased this book, except it was selected for my book club to read for fall 2006. It is hard to follow and just a very boring read. Some interesting information about Mao is in it, yet hard to know what is true and what is imagined because the main character is insane. I would not loan it to a friend or buy it unless I had to! Most of the book club only gave it a 1 on a scale of one to ten!
Fascinating Portrait of an Evil Woman.......2007-01-13
Anita, my young friend from Hangzhou, tells me that Mao "is like an uncle," a paternal figure of wisdom and kindliness. His last wife, Jiang Qing? She is "like the devil. All Chinese think so." Mao's spirit must be pleased. It is, after all, what he wanted. Thirty years after his death, his fat, bald, lunar visage still looms benignly over Tiananmen Square. He is still the First Citizen, still beloved, still a fatherly figure, revered if not adored, at least for now.
Jiang Qing was evil, unquestionably so. Yet, for all the evil she did or that was attributed to her, for all the chaos, disruption and destruction that can be traced to her wasteful, mean, insane policies, for all her vindictiveness, jealousy and anger, for every loathsome attribute she had, for every death she caused directly and indirectly, for every family ruined and every person tortured and persecuted, she was, and is, a useful evil. While Mao still breathed, she was useful to him. In death, she continues to be useful to the Communist Party and the Chinese people, at least the ones who still love Mao. Whatever she was in life, her dark ghost looms large and menacing, out-Herods Herod and draws the blackness from the shade of Mao. He sparkles while she rots.
Anchee Min's "Becoming Madam Mao" is an outrageous fiction. Min, who is bold enough to attempt literature in an adopted language (and audacious enough to do it well), redoubled her boldness and took on the task of creating a novel about Mao's most despicable consort. In prose that alternates from third person to first, she attempts to take us into the mind of this strange and devious woman, illuminate her times, and provide a human dimension to the "white boned demon," this woman who shared Mao's bed, mothered one of his children and became the instigator of one of the most disastrous experiments in societal manipulation, the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Min, by alternating persons from third to first, balances her fictional portrait, narrating events from the outside, then changing to the first person to view situations from the perspective of Madam Mao.
The story unfolds in a series of fascinating vignettes, each one bringing us through the phases of Jiang Qing's life from her brutal and impoverished infancy to her final confrontation with her daughter, and her suicide. The Jiang Qing of Min's novel is a woman who creates and re-creates herself, insinuates the lives of people - men - to advance, first, her acting career, then her career in the Communist Party and in Politics. Born into poverty, the unwanted child of a concubine who has been expelled from her man's home, Jiang's early life is filled with uncertainty and misery. Even as a small child, she can't be cowed, however. Much to her mother's consternation, she refuses to have her feet bound, pulls the bindings from them, and won't be bound again. She finally finds some comfort in the home of her grandparents, where she's taught the basics of Chinese opera and learns to dream of a life on the stage. Eventually, she runs away and pursues her dream, only to find herself constrained by her choice of men and by the machinations of the KuoMinTang government. She becomes a Communist, less out of ideological conviction than out of a desire to resist the KMT and to follow her friends.
Her career on the stage faltering, she leaves Shanghai, sets her sites on Mao, follows him to his mountain lair, joins his forces, meets him, and, Mao being fond of actresses, she seduces him. She's learned much from her affairs in Shanghai. Studied and deliberate in what she does, every move and word is calculated. She manipulates well, forms her alliances, cajoles Mao into abandoning his mad third wife, and wheedles him into a dubious marriage. She is at his side as he pushes on to victory, but Mao is fickle and in time his ardor cools. A manipulator herself, she reads his moods and senses the danger that estrangement from Mao can bring.
Jiang strives for security, for power, for acknowledgment of her place at Mao's side, as his wife, partner and advisor with power of her own and a mission to fill. Her chance finally comes when Mao turns against his own Party apparatus and she joins him in the mayhem by reinventing herself as the mistress of culture. Vindictive and jealous by nature, loathing the apparatchiks in the cadre who have ignored and insulted her throughout the years, she unleashes chaos and strife with her Red Guards, tramples the educational system, and annihilates the lively arts, literature, and the stage. Resistance shattered, all culture is ultimately reduced to her eight exemplary Maoist operas, education becomes nothing more than indoctrination in the Cult of Mao. She turns her talons on everyone, motivated by jealousy and vindictiveness, indifferent to suffering (except her own), and consumed by her pathological obsession with Mao, less love than a fixation that overwhelms and obscures every villainy, every vice, every treachery, and every atrocity, no matter how monstrous.
Min's Jiang Qing is not a creature who cackles with evil. She slips into it gradually, fixed on her obsessions with power and with Mao, hardly noticing as she does. We like her as a teenager, and as a young actress. We even like her as she joins Mao and seduces him. Gradually, however, as she ages and her life becomes fixed on her obsessions and her vindictiveness, our intimacy with this appalling woman is almost too much to bear. Min brings her almost too close.
Historical fiction is difficult enough when dealing with the ancient past. Critics, forgetting that it's fiction, will carp about minor deviations from factual events. When writing about characters who are still in living memory, however, the writer cannot avoid controversy. She may trample on the emotions of some who have an investment in the character, and may be accused of obscuring or excusing the acts of a monster, glorifying a mediocrity, or in other ways exaggerating or misleading. Every omission or error will be treated as a major imperfection. Historical fiction, however, is fiction based on history, not history. The fiction writer is looking for a kind of emotional truth which may not be conveyed by a linear relation of facts. If Min is to be criticized for imagining Jiang's thoughts, then Shakespeare was equally guilty and should be criticized for virtually all his histories, as was Marlowe, Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn. Art imagines life. History tries to record it.
Whatever can be said for Jiang Qing, in history or fiction she is a character whose self-creation as the very incarnation of chaos and evil is both fightening and fascinating. Min's portrait of her is skillfully drawn, an intimate and cathartic journey through Jiang's life that in the end leaves us appalled not only at her but at the evil we humans can do, shaken by the stark realization that only a thin wall separates us from them, that people like Jiang are less exotic and extraordinary than common, banal and ordinary. This is no elegant evil, profound or even clever in its machinations. Jiang is the bitter and angry neighborhood shrew, adorned with Mao's blessing, given a country to vandalize, a culture to destroy.
"Becoming Madam Mao" was one book I could not put down. Read it, then read a history. Anchee Min provides a list of her sources, and invites us to go further. For now, however, I'll settle for acquiring more of Ms. Min's books and reading more of her remarkable stories.
Becoming Madame Mao.......2006-08-27
Another wonderful book by Anchee Min. She has such a style of writing that I felt as though I was in China living this story with her. I have found all her books fascinating and very readable. She makes history more life-like.
Customer Reviews:
Caterpillar: Diamond in the Rough? "... so shall ye reap." Buried in Mud. Shining in Sky. Either way, Beauty is Truth........2006-07-28
In the original 7 McNally novels (see list below), RISK is the third in the series, and sixth which I've read and reviewed. For me, it was one of the more intriguingly quirky offerings. It was this quirkiness which kept my attention.
We had Theodosia Johnson(Madam X, Helen of Troy, Mona Lisa, who, who, who) and Archy's continued struggle with his attractions to women, and his coming-to-consciousness of his Double Standards. I found myself wondering in this one when Connie would give Archy his "comeuppance." She did it in spades and Archy's reaction was classic. Loved the way she initiated her absolutely unsuspected counterpoint with a compassionate, genuinely loving preface. Ya gotta read it.
Here are a few quotes to prime the push, from early on, then later in plot:
>> ... Department of Discreet Inquiries. I (Archy) was the sole member, and it was my task to conduct investigations requested by our moneyed clients who didn't wish to consult law enforcement agencies and possibly see their personal problems emblazoned on the covers of those tabloids stacked next to sliced salami in supermarkets.
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>> It was like finding a hickey on the neck of the Mona Lisa.
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Just what was that "it" of which Archy was narrating in his voice perfectly styled as, "I'm telling you, reader."
The opening of this third McNally offering was an antithesis to the kidnap delights applied by the other 5 I've read so far (well, except Peaches's vomit couldn't be described as delightful). In RISK, Archy is embroiled not with a sensually captivating Lady of Spice; he's forcing himself to pretend being enraptured by the prig-of-all-prigs, Mrs. Gertrude Smythe Hersforth. What a PERFECT name!
His summary of her(sforth) nose angle came to:
>> This overstuffed matron was implying that if your name was Smith, DiCicco, or Raginowitz, you were incapable of pride and probably bought your Jockey shorts at K-Mart. In Britain family determines class. But, in America, it's money.
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On the other hand, Archy also pontificated and quoth-ed, in that delicious way of his:
>> The moment he (a dollars-down-the-drain, no donuts intended, "C" artist) used the phrase "guaranteed income," my opinion of his financial acumen plunged to subzero. Dear old dad had taught me years ago that there is no such thing as a guaranteed income. As pop said, "Who guarantees the guarantor?"
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Quoting Rubin Hagler, and Archy's "in mind" comment, P 183 of the mass market paperback:
>> "I can promise you a twenty-percent return with no risk." When pigs fly, I thought, but didn't say it.
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One of the most touching scenes I've read so far in this series was on Pages 249-250, when Arch shares a secret with Connie, a sad truth he uncovered from his investigations. The essence of the message in that scene reminded me of what I appreciated most in one of my favorite movies, CROCODILE DUNDEE. I believe those two pages convey the Heart of Archy and the carrying spirit of this series. Not only was the scene deeply touching; the way Archy dealt with it the next morning was telling. This was how Archy tempered and retained the strength of his character.
From that scene:
>> ... would dwindle away to become just another of the daily outrages we read about and eventually forget because to remember them all would be too painful to suffer.
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In my review of the pilot to this series, McNally's SECRET, I quoted a passage from the opening of the novel which I felt explained the essence of reader kidnap in Archy's mystique. In RISK Sanders adds a few tangy tits-for-tat to Archy's ongoing sass (interjected into Ongoing Cultural Conversations) about food phobias (pseudo-science-induced-and-force-fed), and other sacred cows. Archy is subtle and quippy enough that his snips stayed on this-side-of-the-edge of hardcore satire. It's that balance toward compassion which keeps me cozily in the story, that plot and character measure of retaining the mood-of-mystery and warmth-of-humor at a level to repel the painful slashes inherent in heavy sarcasm (all for a good cause, of course).
If you'd like a variety of perfectly succinct plot summaries or more details on RISK, you'll find other reviews here which provide those grandly and graciously.
And, for the never-ready diehards like me; If you want a burning brand of "in-plot" detail, feel free to read my reviews of other novels in the original 7:
-- SECRET begins the McNally saga, with sage revelations and Palm Beach essence.
-- LUCK continues and nurtures the reader capture & dunk.
-- RISK adds quirk and spice to the solutions (including zany mixed drinks from an old recipe bk).
-- CAPER draws dark and dungeness (maybe crabs, and dungeons, too).
-- TRIAL does whatever it does (it's next on my list).
-- PUZZLE does the parrot, the Florida Key.
-- GAMBLE saunters and sautes pricey Faberge eggs.
As noted above, I have one more (McNally's TRIAL) of Sanders's original 7 novels to read and review. I have not yet read any of Vincent Lardo's novels continuing Archy's shenanigans after Sander's demise, but I have a feeling they take this balance a Quantum to the true-mystery-genre side of this fulcrum of which I'm speaking. I see the wisdom of this fulcrum location. The commercial market for a P.I. (even a sort of one) mystery series is much more generous than the market for classic satire. Healthy reasons endure for this good taste in the masses seeking to escape into enthralling fiction, rather than be soul-shredded by it (possibly with cutting-edge esthetics, but ... here's the key ... without the grace of anesthetics).
Don't get me wrong. I can appreciate satire and have a taste for it when well done, as in the case of all movies in which Robin Williams has participated, and I loved Callista Flockhart's Ally McBeal series. When the balance reaches a certain mixture in a novel, however, usually the "novel" breaks down into something "else" which loses the healthy emotional glue of the STORY format. That something else is palatable if one shifts out of a Right Brain mode of escaping into an entertaining fictional world; into a Left Brain mode of cerebral analysis and appreciation of concept. In a sense, a novel of heavy satire must be read in a mode normally used for playful nonfiction rather than within a mood suitable for "storytelling."
Maybe this is why satire novels have such a hard target.
Sanders proved beyond doubt through his original McNally SEVEN that he was a high master of the art of The Novel, and of the P.I. genre, especially in retaining the precise mixtures and solutions to maintain the cohesiveness of a novel. To escape into fiction (and avoid being force-fed internal perversion or becoming toxic) most readers (especially me) seem to require a plot, setting, and characters worthy ("good" enough) of living within, yet vulnerable (imperfect, prey to glandular persuasions) enough to feel real.
Being a novelist, being entertained by the reading of one ... neither act is as simple as it seems.
Archy McNally and Lawrence Sanders are tightrope walkers, labyrinth travelers of the first water.
To Diamonds-in-the-Rough/Buff, I say "ruff, rooofff, whooff!" Purina, anyone? (Pure-ina?)
Linda G. Shelnutt
P.S. I have one more key to share about what I see as the treasures sought and received in the McNally series. I hope to be able to do justice to that in my review of TRIAL. It involves the sanctity and sacred value of cherished daily routines. It's one of the prime answers I come to whenever I ask myself the "What's it all about" questions. The answer is so beautifully simple it's nearly invisibly woven into the texture of living tapestry. The answer clears the fog as Life's final chapter begins its walk and the walker is too tired to tangle with adventure. Lawrence Sanders did this with his McNally family. It's his legacy.
No where near where a good book shoud be. .......2006-02-13
McNally's Risk to be one of the most difficult mystery/thrillers to read that I have ever come across. Not that McNally's prose is akin to Joyce or Proust, but because the story moves at such an irrelevant and plodding pace. Recently I tried to watch the old Hitchccock film `Vertigo.' I remember truly enjoying the first time that I saw `Vertigo.' As I re-watched it this time, I couldn't help notice the beauty contained in every scene and the movements of the story line. However, I found myself nodding off again and again due to the sense that on one hand I knew pretty much exactly what was going on. The other side of the coin was the fact that `Vertigo' is a very slow film to begin with. It's quiet and you must need to be in the right frame of mind to see it. Perhaps that's the way `McNally's Risk' is. I see that most of the reviewers here give the book high regard, and it might be that I missed a good book by not relaxing more and enjoying every line.
But... I did not enjoy the smug patter of Archy McNally here. The guy was someone I wanted to kick around after a while. Lawrence Sander's must have had some reason to make such an unsympathetic character. Though I can't fathom the reason. The guy interjects on every page at least once about how supperior and noble he is, though he is far from it. Mystery threads thump into MchNally's lap and the fun of witnessing classic who done its manipulative characters. That's not the way things are here.
I would strongly suggest that you pass this book by and pursue another title on your list.
A playboy indeed........2003-10-30
The McNally series is turning out to be something less than I expected. It is proving a let-down after having waded through the four deadly sin novels by the same author. Maybe the series will improve with age. If you still want to read, get the books in paperback. Otherwise borrow them from the local library.
One of the major merits of this series is that it is written from the perspective of the playboy himself rather than the perspective of a third person. And it also has the advantage of providing a different viewpoint on the pompus rich.
one word - FUN.......2003-06-06
I am in the midst of reading the most entertaining mystery series around, and I can't wait to get the next McNally book. McNally, the playboy of Florida's gold coast, wines and dines multiple girlfriends while working for stodgy old dad (the "pater", a.k.a. the "governor"). This book was no let down from the first two excellent entries in the series. The description of the bad guys was particularly humerous -- a slick con man and his thug buddy (something between a meat cleaver and a vampire, driving a gun-metal caddy). I really enjoyed the lunch scene between McNally and those two. The peripheral characters also added a lot of charm to the story. A certain element of danger enters near the end, as Archy starts to step on too many toes, but you know our hero must survive for another story.
If you like Lawrence Block's burglar series, you will love Lawrence Sanders' McNally series!
This One's Got More Twists than a Chubby Checker CD..........2003-03-31
...Dapper Palm Beach PI Archy McNally has been requested by a monied client of his father's law firm to check the background of Theodosia Johnson, a beautiful neo socialite in the south Floridian circles, and soon to be married to an heir of a fortune...McNally cajoles, bribes with meals and pays off his many sources--caterers, barkeeps and newspapermen--but information about the lass starts coming in seemingly disconnected pieces, until the artist of a masterful portrait of Theodosia winds up with a knife in his throat and a stripper who seems to be into extortion gets a bullet thru her head and the rightful heir to the artist's estate is found strangled in her SUV under water. McNally falls for the mysterious lady (Madame X) further complicating things, and a creepy thug with Michigan plates on his Cadillac is seen once too often near several of these disconnected pieces. This is Sanders in his element--a likable, idiosyncratic, quippy fella (McNally--who may or may not be like the author) who has excesses very much like the real crooks against the backdrop of a glamorous area solving a heinous crime. While you read you can probably guess who ultimately is the culprit of the dastardly deeds, but the big, big fun is how Sanders chooses to get us to the punchline. A page turning enjoyable read for all....
Average customer rating:
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Archy McNally Series: McNally's Secret, Luck, Risk, Caper, Trial, Puzzle, Gamble, Dilemma, Folly, Chance, Alibi, Dare, Bluff (Set of 13)
Lawrence Sanders , and
Vincent Lardo
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000MSXOJE |
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McNally's Risk
Lawrence Sanders
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons c1993
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OO0GF6 |
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Skin Health Information for Teens: Health Tips About Dermatological Concerns and Skin Cancer Risks (Teen Health Series)
Manufacturer: Omnigraphics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Nonfiction | Diseases | Health | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0780804465 |
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How to Structure a Lease to Protect Against the Risk of a Bankruptcy of the Tenant.: An article from: Real Estate Issues
Susan Fowler McNally ,
Carter H. Klein , and
Michael S. Abrams
Manufacturer: The Counselors of Real Estate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Bankruptcy | Business | Law | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B0008IJ8V6
Release Date: 2005-07-28 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Real Estate Issues, published by The Counselors of Real Estate on September 22, 2001. The length of the article is 8287 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: How to Structure a Lease to Protect Against the Risk of a Bankruptcy of the Tenant.
Author: Susan Fowler McNally
Publication:
Real Estate Issues (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2001
Publisher: The Counselors of Real Estate
Volume: 26
Issue: 3
Page: 35(11)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Product Description
Paperbacks
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Archy McNally Series: McNally's Secret, Luck, Risk, Caper, Trial, Puzzle, Gamble, Dilemma, Folly, Chance, Alibi, Dare, Bluff (Set of 13)
Lawrence Sanders
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000MT1IN2 |
Product Description
Selected Themes From Harry Potter and the Sorcerer
Customer Reviews:
Great buy!.......2007-04-01
I bought this for my daughter as a bday gift. She loved it! This is her first year playing the flute, and I was hoping the music wouldn't be too hard for her to play. It has songs that are for every "talent" group, from beginning to advanced. This was definately a great buy!
Average customer rating:
- It has something...
- Mystical, and brilliant
- Book that changed my life
- Most underrated book of last century
- An unsung masterpiece
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The Stone and the Flute
Hans Bemmann
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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ASIN: 0140074457 |
Customer Reviews:
It has something..........2005-11-16
This is certainly not your "classic" fantasy book. Action, adventure wonder and breathtaking scenery are definitely missing, and even the characters are quite "run of the mill". It' s more of a "philosophical" book who tells the story of a sligthly fantastic and very simple world. And here' s the catch: this book actually has a charm of its on, is written in a very fluid way, and can be even somewhat inspiring, but it 's overall too simplistic and superficial. The characters, the world, the ideals, the morals, the drama end up feeling fake and shallow compared to what real existence is. It has a value though, like a little. light, fresh flute musical diversion.
Mystical, and brilliant.......2005-05-10
I read this when i was 10, and loved the magic it contained, there are a lot of life lessons and morals to be learnt in this book. I have read it again as an adult at numerous times, always a lovely story, warning, you do need an imagination without limits!
Book that changed my life.......2004-09-23
I rescued this book off my best friend's shelf over a decade ago. It had been a gift to him the Christmas before and at the time it was almost the next Christmas. I remember seeing the cover and thinking that I like the imagery of it and wondered if the book was the same. It actually exceeded all my expecations....
I have since had almost all my friends read it and at some point in time they all considered it their favorite book they have ever read.
For me it was a truly beautiful story with a very rich and imagative world. It was almost an entire mythology. And yes the book is long and I know one friend who had some trouble with the first 100 or so pages, but in the end you will be very richly rewarded with one of the most beautifully written tapestries that literature has ever provided.
The book conveys several life lessons not in a preachy manner but since it covers the life of one character is shows you how he is changed by the lessons that life tries to teach you and how he grows as a person or fails to grow in some areas for much of the book, much like we all do in our own lives. I also want to echo the reader review comment made previously about how they are sad that they can never have that feeling when they first read the book again. For me it's been over 10 years since I read it and it still stays with me today. I have since re-read it once at a time of my life I thought I was missing the lessons that are in it to learn and it helped me again immensely.
I am sure some might have been lost in the transalation from German to English but this truly is one of those diamonds in the rough and deserves to be read and cherished by everyone.
Most underrated book of last century.......2004-08-17
I own 5 copies of this book: two in German, two in Dutch, one in English. None of them is here in my room, they are where they should be: with people that don't know it. Through me over 30 people have come to read this novel, only one of them didn't it. This person is no longer a friend of mine...
Seriously, in my humble opinion this is the most warm, intricate, and underrated book of the last century. I have read almost every fantasy novel out there: The Stone and Flute surpasses them all (except for maybe George RR Martins work).
Publishers Weekly has never been more wrong in a review. I hope they will let another reviewer give this book a second chance. Maybe the novel was ahead of it's time, and it's easy to be put on the wrong leg by it's naieve language. Yes, it's written as a fairy-tale, but the sub-stories and deeper messages are magnificent and surpass every fairy-tale I know.
In my list of favorite books only Crime and Punishment, and Don Quichot rank higher. It's on par with George RR Martin (who I deem higher than even Tolkien).
An unsung masterpiece.......2004-03-21
What can I tell you about this book? I find the fact that it is not as famous as Watership Down or the Lord of the Rings quite amazing. It has got a flavour of both, along with its own unique atmosphere, and is easily as good as either of those books.
It is a tale that starts in a deceptively simple manner like the great English and Germanic fairytales of old. Throughout the story are woven threads of history, tales and mythology, but unlike the lofty and learned history of Lord of the Rings the history of this story is always intimate.
There are so many meanings hidden in this book. Some of them are fairly obvious, but others lie deep and will need a re-reading to fully understand.
Its a story I originally found slow to warm to, as it has an unusual writing style, but after the first 50 pages I was drawn in. In its later books, particularily the third, it had become a life changing book for me.
The main character in this book is called Listener and he made many mistakes because he did not live up to his name. Don't make the same mistake. Pay attention and buy this book!
Average customer rating:
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The Stone and the Flute
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GE1DHY |
Average customer rating:
- Rich history, well-written, deserves your time
- An entertaining and different kind of book about Panama
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Stone Flute
Charles Stough
Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0595133649 |
Book Description
From conquest by Europeans, through gold-hungry pirate raids and international politics, the tropical Americas reveal their true treasure at last.
Customer Reviews:
Rich history, well-written, deserves your time.......2005-08-28
I always appreciate learning more about history in a way that is easy to digest. This book is thought out and well-written. The characters and languare are rich. This book has given Captain Morgans Spiced Rum ads a whole new meaning for me.
An entertaining and different kind of book about Panama.......2001-02-05
I read a lot of fiction and, quite frankly, loved this book as much as anything I've read lately. Stough has written an unpretentious chronicle of Panama from the Spanish conquest to the present--and beyond. The story is told through people connected by blood and also by Panama's rich, varied culture. There are enough heroic, doomed, quixotic characters--spread over 350 years--to shame the Bard, a collection of natives, Spanish conquistadors, English pirates, opportunists of every ilk and, of course, French and American canal builders.
Average customer rating:
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Peoples of the Flute: A Study in Anthropolithic Forensics
Bob Patten
Manufacturer: Stone Dagger Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Archaeology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
History of Science
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0966870115 |
Book Description
An entire year's worth of state-of-the-art conditioning for the sport of basketball. Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and former UNC Men's Basketball head strength coach (1994-2001) Ben Cook outlines five unique phases of strength and conditioning to coincide with the basketball season: Beginning of the post-season, early summer workouts, late summer workouts, pre-season and finally in-season workouts. Each phase is designed to promote optimum conditioning, and comes complete with pre-made weekly routines that incorporate the ideal sequence, frequency and duration of each week's activities. Includes over two hundred illustrated exercise drills to enhance flexibility, strength & power, speed & power, agility, running and cardiorespiratory capacity. Massive 8 ½ by 11 inch format packed with over 280 pages of information.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive. The one book you will need . . ........2004-07-05
Ben Cook clearly is an expert on this matter. I bought Total Basketball Fitness along with NBA Power Conditioning and Strength Training for Basketball. I found that Cook's book was the most comprehensive and scientific of the three.
This is a not a "for dummies" book. The information was relevant and put forth in an intelligent manner to help reader's understand the science of basketball conditioning. Cook's highlight is his 52 week plan, which in my estimatation is worth the price of the book. The plan can serve as a specific workout routine for 365 days or a general guideline for those who cannot dedicate their lives to playing basketball.
Another great feature is the in depth discussion on the dynamics of weight training. Cook tells you about all the different ways to lift and which goals they achieve. Unfortunately, he is not very specific on the importances of each individual exercise.
Cook also includes chapters on Agility exercises and conditioning which are also helpful.
In summery, this book is well suited for the college player. The high school player would be better suited with the book NBA Power Conditioning. If money is not an issue, I highly recommend buying both books.
Finally a Complete How To.......2003-03-15
Getting ready for the season. Has always been confusing for me. You hear of so many different things you should do to make yourself better, but I could never figure out how to put everything together. This book gives it all to you and then plans your week for you. And not just one week, but for a whole year. This is what you've been looking for!!
What Detail.......2002-11-02
This book is gives it all to you "ready-serve" I've never seen a worrkout book with more detail. All aspects of training are covered. My buddy bought Cook's 52-Week Football book, and it had tremendous detail. I'm a basketball guy and when this book came out I knew I needed to check it out. It's a must have book for the serious player.
Book Description
Designed for both male and female players, this book helps athletes develop the strength to set screens and convert three-point plays, the speed to run the court and get into position, the balance to change direction on a drive, the quickness to get loose balls and blow by a defender for easy baskets, and the explosive jumping power to block shots and grab rebounds. All of the 192 drills and exercises presented in 52-Week Basketball Training will help players
· develop fitness in the off-season,
· improve speed and power in the preseason,
· maintain a high level of conditioning during the regular season, and
· perform at peak abilities during postseason competition.
The ready-to-use daily and seasonal programs provide all the conditioning support needed to develop a more dominant game. For coaches and players who want to train effectively and maximize their abilities, 52-Week Basketball Training is the ticket to the championship game.
Books:
- Berlin Noir (Crime, Penguin)
- Born in Shame: The Born In Trilogy #3 (Born in Trilogy)
- Boss Lady: A Novel
- Casting The First Stone
- Cold Mountain: A Novel
- Comanche Moon
- Dead Man's Walk : A Novel
- Dopefiend
- Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters
- Escape Clause (Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries)
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