Average customer rating:
- Are All Fallen Angels Damned?
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The Black Angel: A Thriller (Charlie Parker Mysteries)
John Connolly
Manufacturer: Pocket Star
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The White Road
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Dark Hollow
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Every Dead Thing
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The Killing Kind
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Bad Men: A Thriller
ASIN: 0743487877 |
Book Description
When a young woman disappears from the streets of New York City, ties of friendship and blood inevitably draw ingenious, tortured detective Charlie Parker into the search. Soon he discovers links to a church of bones in Eastern Europe, a 1944 slaughter at a French monastery, and to the myth of an object known as the Black Angel -- considered by evil men to be beyond priceless. But the Black Angel is not a legend. It is real. It lives. It dreams. And the mystery of its existence may contain the secret of Parker's own origins.
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" To those who have been forsaken, hell has no geography. The Black Angel begins with the disappearance of a young prostitute from one of New York City's seamiest neighborhoods. Like so many tormented souls before her, the girl's mother is inevitably drawn to Charlie Parker's doorstep desperate for redemption and revenge. Despite the danger that his chosen profession imposes on his wife and newborn daughter, Parker knows that the woman and her troubles cannot be ignored. As always, he is driven as much by the evil that simmers in the hidden honeycomb world as he is by the ties of friendship and blood. As Parker gets closer to the girl's captors, he discovers that her disappearance is linked to a church of bones in Eastern Europe, to the slaughter at a French monastery in 1944, and to the myth of an object known as the Black Angel -- an object considered by evil men to be beyond priceless. But the Black Angel is not a legend. It is real. It lives. It dreams. And the mystery of its existence may contain the secret of Parker's own origins. "
Customer Reviews:
Are All Fallen Angels Damned?.......2007-10-03
I thoroughly enjoyed BLACK ANGEL, John Connolly's fifth novel featuring the brooding private investigator Charlie Parker (EVERY DEAD THING, DARK HOLLOW, The KILLING KIND, The WHITE ROAD being the previous four).
BLACK ANGEL begins with Parker helping his friend--and sometime enforcer--Louis to find his missing cousin Alice, a drug addict and prostitute who worked the Bronx's notorious Hunt's Point. Parker and Louis' search for Alice amongst the junkies, hookers and pimps, leads them eventually to the more sophisticated and much more perverse occult circles of secret societies and demon worshippers. A world where Charlie Parker will learn much about himself and what compels him.
For BLACK ANGEL Connolly takes inspiration from a wide variety of religious and occult lore, further blending the genres of detective novel and supernatural thriller, which provides a fresh and enticing spin on familiar themes. Connolly's recently published The UNQUIET continues the Charlie Parker saga.
In Need of an Editor.......2006-10-08
I have read everything Connolly has writen and on the whole it has been very good, particularly the early stuff. This one, however, is sadly in need of a good editor who could have cut it down from around 600 pages to three.
Everything is described in great detail, over two pages devoted to telling us how a minor character became a pimp, (as if we cared), pages of historical data printed in italics, and endless psychobabble of Parker's emotional problems with himself, his family and the world at large.
The writing is good when it sticks to the action, but one part hard boiled detective (where it should have stayed),one part supernatural hokum, one part history and one part romance, equals a total mess.
Connolly at his Best.......2006-08-05
I've been a Fan of Colly's of Charlie Parker detective since EVERY DEAD THING, which showcased Parker's tragic burnout. You FEEL for this poor SOB. He's really been through it all, and the rage he must have inside is nicely filtered out by the author. Never too much at once...always the feeling that this guy is going to lose it one day. Or maybe eat his gun.
All that said, THE BLACK ANGEL is a breathtaking novel. It elevates Connolly's writing to the status of literature of that rare and special kind The Black Angel takes your breath away by the writing and by the premise that Parker is a member of a terribly select chosen few --guys like James Lee Burke and Peter Straub. Writers who can build a straight mystery around the seemingly unnatural.
silly!.......2006-06-16
I've read some silly books in my time, but this one takes the biscuit! It starts off as if it's going to be a "normal" thriller -- which is what lured me into buying it... -- but rapidly descends into the supernatural. I would give away the ending if I could, but it got so ridiculous I couldn't get more than halfway through it...
Worst novel I've ever read.......2006-06-15
I read up to the middle of the book and the story was going nowhere. I simply gave up...
There are much better novels to spend your time with.
Book Description
A lone Jesuit Priest, Father Dominic Lindquist, a spy for the most powerful and feared Secret Society on Earth, has gone rogue to unravel a conspiracy to bring about Armageddon. From the filthy vice ridden back streets of Paris and running gun battles in the bazaars of Istanbul to the gilded hallowed halls of Vatican City, Lindquist moves in a corrupt world behind the purple and gold of Papal power. A world of despotic men who will go to any extremes to maintain control of Mankind and Humanity's future. A fanatic cabal within the Church has aided former Nazis in the creation of an advanced DNA-SPECIFIC "GENE-BOMB." With it, Hitler's ultimate dream can finally be realized: The Mass Extermination of the Jewish Race. Unraveling at BREAKNECK SPEED, with more hairpin twists and turns than a Monaco mountain road, Lindquist races against time to unravel the conspiracy of Cardinals aligned against him inside the Vatican. Their plan: assassinate the Pope, and bring about Hitler's FINAL SOLUTION with the ultimate weapon, CODE-NAMED: BLACK SERAPH.
Customer Reviews:
Not Great but not bad but I have seen it before..........2007-05-19
Is Sean telling us there is a hell of a lot of evil here on earth in the Vatican no less?
If there was a ranking of 3.5 stars I might have given the book this rating. It did hold my interest somewhat. But genetic time bombs kind of bore me with just targeting the JEWS.
There was a fictional story some time ago,I can't remember the title of the book or story, sorry about that, about a genetic bomb to decimate the Pakistani population in London.
So, I have read a similar premise before.
Sean, how about in your next book you have the main character that is someone who has all your talents and experiences fight and deal with the bad guys of the world. The story would begin in the teen years of the main character and would follow thru his adulthood.
Of course, your story would probably have to be a triology. The growing up years, your military training and what you now do. But these three books would have to tie everything with the illuminati and maybe the end times, as well as the satanists that run, the governments of the USA, Europe, China, Russia, Japan, and other Far East Nations and the Muslim world, not restricted to the Middle east either. I almost forgot, don't leave out the international drug cartel that keeps Wall Street in the Green. This book may be a little dangerous for you to write. But it is easy for an author to pick on the Vatican and Jews. It has been done to many times before. Let's think outside of the Catholic and Jewish box.
Or how about writing about a book about the development of satelites that
kills muslims when they are in a state of prayer. The sophisticated satalite picks up the brain waves,instead of using biologicals picking up on genes, of those who are praying to Allah and they are zapped by a beam weapon or scalar technology in mosques.
Or if this is to hot of a topic, how about satelites picking up brain waves of mormons in prayer. Pick your religion, but please don't use the color of a persons skin as the killer determinant, unless of course it is white.
But in all serious, Sean, your next fictional book(s) should have its main character be based on you and your extrodinary talents and experiences. Maybe you don't want to do this, but it would be terrific, I know, I remote viewed it.
Best of Luck in your future endeavors,
Book Description
The newspapers dubbed her The Black Dahlia. Nathan Heller knew her-intimately- as Elizabeth Short. To discover the identity of the fiend who destroyed her, Heller must lay bare the terrifying truth behind Hollywood's make-believe facade.
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"Over the course of ten novels and one story collection, Max Allan Collins has garnered nine Shamus award nominations for his Nathan Heller series, winning twice, an unprecedented achievement in the history of the Private Eye Writers of America. Now, in Angel in Black, Collins brings back his fictional hero to tackle his eleventh high-profile case, the notorious Hollywood murder known as ?the Black Dahlia.? She was a woman of uncompromising beauty, who had come to Los Angeles to seek fame and fortune. Her quest ended in an abandoned lot on the outskirts of the city. First on the crime scene is newshound Bill Fowley, and at his side is Chicago private eye Nathan Heller, in town to help launch the west coast branch of his famed detective agency. The police arrive at the brutal scene of the crime and suddenly the post-war world of Hollywood is plunged into the terror that is the Black Dahlia case. Only one problem persists, uncovering the woman?s identity. Her name was Elizabeth Short, and Heller vividly remembers her from Chicago. But revealing that he knew her can only land him atop a very short list of suspects. Heller?s own investigation starts with what he knew of the doomed wannabe starlet, with the crazed phone call he received from her just days before her death. But looking into her past means opening old wounds?and secrets of his own. At the risk of his marriage, his career, and maybe even his life, Heller is drawn into an inescapable maze to lay bare a terrifying truth behind the façade of Hollywood?s make-believe world. With this gripping tale of suspense, Max Allan Collins once again re-imagines a real-life crime, and through an impressive array of research and his gifted imagination, presents a dazzling solution to this still unsolved crime. Brimming with an authentic sense of Los Angeles in the late 1940s, and filled with a cast of characters both real and imagined, Angel in Black is Max Allan Collins at his best. "
Customer Reviews:
Another case from Nate Heller.......2006-08-21
Another fine entry in the Nate Heller universe. This is one of the great unsolved cases in the history of crime. What more could you want? A beautiful girl horribly murdered and mutilated. A beautiful girl with a sordid and ugly past. Famous people including movie stars and such. True this sound like a pure novel, but it is based on research of a real crime. Learn what life was like in another era where this crime was viewed as something monsterously evil, but today might not get much time on the news except for the salacious nature of the deed.
Terrible.......2002-09-23
This is a lack luster book. If you want to read a really great fictional story about the black dahlia case then read Ellroys The Black Dahlia. Collins should stick to Dick Tracy.
A brilliant read -- a haunting book.......2002-06-28
Max Allan Collins is as good as it gets when it comes to mysteries, and especially in his chosen genre -- true crime solved by his own fictional detective, Nathan Heller -- Collins is unbeatable. ANGEL IN BLACK is a haunting rendition of the Black Dahlia murder in L.A. -- a story I didn't know when I began reading the book. As usual, his research is impeccable (I've since done my own research on this) and his rendering of the people involved brings you straight into the heart of the story. His solution may not be correct, but it is compelling (and no one really knows, either -- the Black Dahlia murder remains officially unsolved). And like his other brilliant Heller stories -- STOLEN AWAY (the Lindbergh kidnapping), FLYING BLIND (Amelia Earhart disappearance), MAJIC MAN (Roswell, New Mexico UFO incident) ... you believe it and cannot help but be drawn in further. Don't miss this; it has its gruesome moments (which I know will automatically recommend it to some people) but it also has some marvelous characters and surprising relevations. Heller solves this one the way he does all his investigating -- he's tough, sexy and can't help but get involved. This one is a five-star winner.
Heller vs. the Black Dahlia killer.......2002-04-24
Max Allan Collins is a sort of a Renaissance Man. He's an independent film-maker, scripted the Dick Tracy comics series for 16 years, and writes mystery novels (ten Shamus nominations, won twice). You wonder how he has time to breathe and eat, let alone make a life with a wife and son. Of these accomplishments, the mystery novel series is perhaps the best known. A dozen of the books are private eye novels with a main character who's a sort of guide to the crime world of the late 20's to the late 50's. This character is Nathan Heller, the half-Irish half-Jewish ex-cop who is friends with Capone, traded shots with Dillinger, and searched for Amelia Earhart and the Lindbergh baby. You have to be willing to accept that one person would be involved in this many different famous crimes of the century, but once you make this leap of faith, the books are wonderful evocations of life in the first half of the century, replete with characters and scenes that stay with you. The solutions to the real-life mysteries are well-researched and believable, and often the author has done original work that leads non-fiction writers to new sources and accounts of the crime in question.
The crime in question is the Black Dahlia murder case, in which an aspiring actress was tortured and murdered, the body being cut in half at the waist after death. Collins has to hook Heller in somehow, and as is often the case, his libido gets him involved: he had a short affair with the victim, Elizabeth Short. Coincidentally, Heller is in Los Angeles, and happens to be there when the body's discovered, and recognizes his former lover. Soon he's working for a local paper, doing background, and unofficially looking to find the killer himself. Admittedly, this beginning is a bit of a stretch, but if you read the series, you're used to this sort of thing and accept it. If you're not, just go with it, it's worth it.
Heller has an interesting problem, which is two-fold. First, he has the problem that if the L.A. cops figure out that he was having an affair with the victim, he might wind up a suspect, especially as he's in L.A. with his new wife, who wouldn't be amused by an old girlfriend. Second, and perhaps worse, he's the only cop on the case who thinks this killing might be something other than a bizarre sex-crime. The plot zips right along, with Heller crossing paths with Orson Wells, Mickey Cohen, and other famous figures from L.A. history, entertainment, press, and politics. There's even a cameo with Heller's old friends Barney Ross and Eliot Ness. The solution is something of a surprise, possible but a bit of a stretch, but fun none the less. I would highly recommend this book, with the caveat that if you haven't read the author's earlier book Butcher's Dozen, you're going to be a bit taken aback when the twist comes. I know I was, even though I'd read the previous book.
Nate Heller's Back and Better than Ever............2001-05-21
It's 1947 and Chicago private detective, Nate Heller, is in Los Angeles for two very good reasons...he's honeymooning with his new wife, the lovely Peggy, and he's opening a branch office of his A-1 Detective Agency. All is going perfectly until, while riding with a reporter friend from the Herald Examiner, they happen upon an incredibly grisly crime scene, a once beautiful young woman tortured, mutilated, murdered and left, cut in half, in a vacant lot. Heller is shocked when he realizes he knew the woman. Her name was Elizabeth Short and he had had a brief affair with her a couple of months ago while he and Peggy were on the outs. To make matters worse, she had called him, just the night before, claiming she was pregnant from their little fling and needed money. Afraid that he'll be at the top of the cops' suspect list if they find his connection to the murdered girl, Nate gets himself hired by the Examiner to investigate the crime for the paper and try to stay at least one step ahead of the police..... Max Allan Collins has blended fiction and fact and come up with a well researched, clever and entertaining historical mystery/thriller, based on the infamous and unsolved Black Dahlia murder. His well paced, intricate plot is compelling and his scenes are vivid and riveting. But it's Mr Collin's crisp, spare and often irreverent writing and superb dialogue that really makes this book stand out. This is a story that transports you back to Hollywood in the forties, full of mobsters, movie stars, flamboyant women and tough talking, cigarette smoking, hard drinking guys with big hearts. Angel in Black is an intense read and a novel that should be on every mystery/thriller fan's "not to be missed" list!
Product Description
5 Titles By Eric Van Lustbader : Sirens Black Heart Zero French Kiss Angel Eyes. Five mmpb books.
Average customer rating:
- Angel in Black Sparks Hometown Memories
- Updating Chandler
- Gripping thriller
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Angel in Black
Bill Rapp
Manufacturer: Pemberton Mysteries
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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ASIN: 1563153769
Release Date: 2006-01-31 |
Product Description
Private investigator Bill Habermann takes on a client who suspects her husband of having an affair. When the accused ends up dead, Bill attempts to find the killer. When his own life is threatened, he realizes that his military history is tied somehow to the case. Bill turns to his old comrades from Vietnam, who may hold the key to solving the murderâ¦and another that took place in Vietnam. In doing so, Bill uncovers a long buried secret. Creative and fast-paced, Angel in Black is the first book in the Suburban P.I. Series.
Customer Reviews:
Angel in Black Sparks Hometown Memories.......2007-09-04
Throughout this exciting mystery I was constantly bombarded with memories of my hometown of Naperville, IL. Bill Rapp was able to intertwine the history of this fast-growing community with a spellbinding whodunit. As I searched for clues to solve a murder, I got constant reminders of my own past, and often put myself in the main character's life-threatening predicaments. Mix a solid mystery with hometown fun and you have one enjoyable book to read.
Updating Chandler.......2007-07-13
Rapp has revived and updated the genre all but perfected by Raymond Chandler nearly 70 years ago. (I've read the latter's The Big Sleep and The Lady in the Lake.) There's never a slip in Rapp's prose. The characters develop nicely through dialogue and are always true to themselves. Rapp puts them in richly described physical surroundings that he obviously knows well, using some wonderful turns of phrase. The plot unfolds in a most satisfying way, and includes--what shall I say?--an "appropriate" tease of sex without being gratuitous. And it all wraps up in a plausible and satisfying way in the last few pages. A most enjoyable weekend's read.
Gripping thriller.......2007-07-12
Mystery in Ohio...and not over a presidential election result. Rapp's story of death and deception in his own home ground has the sound of authenticity and is a winner. Looking forward to more of this anyman private eye series.
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Zwarte Engel (Haven - or Black Angel)
Manufacturer: Karakter Uitgevers BV
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Terrorism
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ASIN: 9061121124 |
Product Description
DUTCH text. Action thriller novel. Elizabeth Stride,a former Israeli assassin known as the "Black Angel" has moved to Hilton Head Island to make her home. She is also trying to escape her past lover Martin Kessler, a former Stasi agent. Elizabeth starts dating a surgeon, but Martin Kessler reappears. A teenage girl is about to be abducted by an English bounty hunter named Pratt who has been hired by her uncle. This is holds the key to a terrible terrorist act. Elizabeth and Martin join forces to protect the teenage girl, and the action begins.
Product Description
3 Titles By John Connolly Charlie Parker Series : Every Dead Thing The White Road The Black Angel. three mmpb books.
Product Description
9 massmarket paperback Titles in Dave Robicheaux Series - Heaven's Prisoners - Black Cherry Blues - Morning for Flamingos - Stained White Radiance - In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead - Dixie City Jam - Burning Angel - SUnset Limited - Purple Cane Road
Book Description
Jane Austen is enjoying August, 1806, among Derbyshire's craggy peaks, sparkling streams, and cavernous gorges. That is, until she discovers the corpse of a young gentleman whose blond curls and delicate features suggest the face of an angel.
More shocking still is the coroner's revelation: the deceased is no man but a maidservant — clad in the garb of her master, Mr. Charles Danforth of Penfolds Hall. Tess Arnold had ruled the stillroom at Penfolds for many years — until she was labeled a witch and dismissed for indiscretion. Was Tess the prey of a madman loose in the hills, or perchance the cast-off impediment to a gentleman's marriage?
As usual, Jane's acute perception and her nose for trouble place her supremely at risk — from a killer who may strike as violently by day as he once did by night....
Customer Reviews:
fine recovery.......2005-09-04
Jane and the Stillroom Maid is a nice comeback from the disappointment of the fourth installment in this otherwise spritely series. Unlike Jane and the Genius of the Place, the reason for the servant's odd dress isn't obvious from the very first. Indeed, I found myself being constantly surprised. You won't guess "who done it" until you're told in the very last pages.
As with all the Jane Austen mysteries, you'll find yourself enjoying the style and historical footnotes as much as the mystery itself. Ms. Barron has mastered imitating the voice of Restoration "ladies" books and scrupulously researched the customs of the early 19th century. I felt a little thrill when she alluded to the customs of mourning and "half-mourning."
Lovers of Jane Austen won't be disappointed, of course. But neither are mystery lovers who want something a little bit off the beaten path.
Fifth Time's a Charm.......2005-07-17
Having read the previous mysteries in this series, I've admired the way that Stephanie Barron has brought Jane Austen back to life. At times in her efforts to capture the time period, the language and story have been forced; but all in all she has been true to the author's world. I believe that "Jane and the Stillroom Maid" is by far the best mystery out of the first five books in this series.
The fifth saga of Jane Austen as detective finds her in Derbyshire, with many a hint of "Pride and Prejudice" settings, in August of 1806. While out walking, she discovers the corpse of a young gentleman who has been gruesomely murdered; Jane is even more shocked when it turns out that the victim is not a gentleman, but a maid disguised in her master's clothes. Unable to leave a mystery in the hands of the local (perhaps inept, backwater) town's justice, she begins investigating the matter herself, along with the help of the Gentleman Rogue, Lord Harold Trowbridge. Jane is insinuated in the plots of the local gentry and must uncover the truth behind the maid's death - not a random act by a madman, but possibly by someone who had everything to lose or gain by the maid's life and death; and there are several characters who fit the bill.
Barron has re-created Jane Austen's time perfectly, and the series progressively improves. This mystery offers plenty of twists and turns, but enough clues are scattered throughout the narrative to lead reader's to the conclusions that Jane herself reaches. If the next novels are as well-written as the fifth one is, I truly look forward to more of Jane's exploits in sleuthing out the truth among the most dastardly acts.
fine mystery .......2004-11-29
I've enjoyed the previous books in Barron's series about Jane Austen as sleuth, and I will proceed to read the rest of the series, though I was slightly disappointed in the details of this crime. I thought the murder itself was unnecessarily brutal and distracted from the otherwise fine writing.
Barron captures the tone and style of Austen very well, and the series in general is a pleasure to read. Regular readers will be pleased to see Lord Harold Trowbridge, and the secondary cast -- from Austen intimates to the elevated residents at Chatsworth -- are excellently drawn.
Predictable.......2004-07-09
Altogether too predictable, making it a huge yawn. An excellent idea going to waste under this author.
A Darker Tone Than the Earlier Books.......2001-09-03
I continue to be very impressed with this series of mysteries. This one took me a little bit more time to get into, perhaps more because of busyness in my own life than actually having trouble getting into the story, but, as in the past with these books, I ended up being very satisfied. There is a slightly larger cast of supporting characters here than in the past books, and this one is a little less overtly political (not so much worry about Napoleonic France here) but there are certainly class and social issues. Jane is more socially anxious than in the earlier books, as she heads off to the opulant home of her Whig friends. Some of this is a class and political consciousness, and some of this comes from the growing sense that she is older, without money, and without some of the prospects for happiness that she has to admit she yearns for. This is stronger here than in any of th earlier books. Jane's relationship with Sir Harold Trowbridge brings her both great joy and terrible pain, as she confronts the abyss between their social positions and knows that she can never home to cross the divide between them, no matter how beautifully their minds work together and they appreciate each other.
The actual plot here is as clear and direct as the plot of the ealier books as well--solving the mystery is not the ultimate satisfaction here. It is coming to that solution with the very satisfying characters.
Book Description
This scarce antiquarian book is included in our special Legacy Reprint Series. In the interest of creating a more extensive selection of rare historical book reprints, we have chosen to reproduce this title even though it may possibly have occasional imperfections such as missing and blurred pages, missing text, poor pictures, markings, dark backgrounds and other reproduction issues beyond our control. Because this work is culturally important, we have made it available as a part of our commitment to protecting, preserving and promoting the world's literature.
Book Description
"The sorcerer began to tremble. Terror and amazement kept us motionless for some time. I seized a pistol. The sorcerer snatched it out of my hand, and fired it at the apparition. The ball rolled slowly upon the altar, and the figure emerged unaltered from the smoke. The Sorcerer fell senseless on the ground.
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The sorcerer began to tremble. Terror and amazement kept us motionless for some time. I seized a pistol. The sorcerer snatched it out of my hand, and fired it at the apparition. The ball rolled slowly upon the altar, and the figure emerged unaltered from the smoke. The Sorcerer fell senseless on the ground.
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Bohn's standard library
Friedrich Schiller
Manufacturer: G. Bell & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
German
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ASIN: B00085UAAM |
Book Description
A scintillating collection of writings on the mysterious, controversial, and intimateprocess of psychotherapy.Everyone with an interest in the art and science of psychotherapy - practitioners, patients, students, and avid readers of Freud, Jung, et al-will find this lively anthology an engrossing read. A varied mix of essays, book chapters, case histories, and compelling fiction written by veterans of both sides of "the couch" and representing many schools of thought, Inside Therapy includes:Janet Malcolm's The Impossible Profession * Mark Epstein's Thoughts Without a Thinker * Eric Fromm's The Art of Listening * A. M. Homes's In a Country of Mothers * Theodore Reik's The Third Ear * and others. The foreword by Irvin D. Yalom, author of Love's Executioner, offers additional wisdom, humor, and perspective. At a time when managed care threatens the psychoanalytic tradition, this dramatic, inspiring collection reminds us of the healing power of insight and the unique gifts of the patient-therapist relationship.AUTHORBIO: ILANA RABINOWITZ is also the editor of Mountains Are Mountains and Rivers Are Rivers: Applying Eastern Teachings in Everyday Life. She lives in New York City. IRVIN D. YALOM's most recent book is Momma and the Meaning of Life.
Customer Reviews:
contrary to the review below..........2007-05-10
...i found this book to be enlightening and enjoyable. the reader is allowed a rare insight into the psychotherapist's feelings and personal struggles when dealing with patients. in addition, it makes an obvious point to the reader that psychotherapists are human. although some of the excerpts do border on arrogant, i would still recommend this book to anyone who is considering going into the field of psychotherapy.
Self-congratulatory trifle fills these pages.......2007-03-21
Never before have I read such a series of offensive arrogance about psychotherapy. How nice for these psychologists and psychiatrists to receive cases in which they have no need to truly care about their client or their client's emotional pain but instead be able to know what is best for their client, be incredibly insightful and heal their client with their "wisdom." (All neatly summed up in an essay or excerpt with a Happily Ever After Ending.)
The most offensive essay (and believe me, it was hard to pick just one. Leston Havens' "Freud's Invention" was runner up. "Therapy even changes your appearance!") was Herbert S. Strean's "Sometimes I Feel Like A Dirty Old Man: The Woman Who Tried to Seduce Me." Strean repeatedly pats himself on the back about how well-analyzed he is and how this woman's tricks will never work with him! I read it with borderline nausea--realizing that this man in no way had any sort of connection with the woman in the room, he was too busy ruminating on how SHE affected him. Her pain, his effect on her, was a horrible pathology, but his pathologies (self-centered arrogance, narcissism)had no effect on him or her because he (allegedly) knew about them! If this woman actually did experience healing it was very probably in spite of her analyst, not because of him.
This is an outdated and frustrating overview of psychology, and of the therapist/client relationship. Basically the editor has collected every client's worst fear about therapy. According to this collection the client is not a person to be cared about with a unique set of hopes and fears and histories. NO, each client is a "hysteric", a "borderline", a "neurotic". Each client is fraught and ready and ripe for transference, each pathology pursued with bloodhound zeal and little realization that most people who are seeking help, do in fact just want to get better. The collection copyright is 1998 and I feel that might be a typo of about 40 years because Freud's stench rises from each page like fresh fish left on the counter overnight.
The three exceptions in the book are Irvin Yalom's prologue, the excerpt from his novel "Nietzsche Wept" and his excerpt from "Love's Executioner." Yalom's caring for his clients, his appreciation of their uniqueness, shines through every word of his prose and he is a good enough writer that his work is quite accessible to even non-readers. Yalom is the only reason I gave this book two stars.
I would suggest you buy any of Yalom's works or "In Session" by Deborah Lott instead of this. Reading "Inside Therapy" might make you crazy.
Outstanding Introduction to the Power of Psychotherapy.......2003-08-20
What can I add to the praise listed below? This book really is as good as they say. Superbly chosen excerpts that are well written and provide a thoughtful, amazing window into the inner workings (and chaos) of the patient's and therapist's minds--and how their relationship can bring healing and tremendous insight into our lives.
Brilliantly Chosen!.......2001-11-29
Whether you are a therapist or client, you are sure to find these carefully chosen excerpts enlightening and amusing. The volume Ms. Rabinowitz has woven from such disparate strands is one of the best I have ever read. Each excerpt is strong enough to stand alone. Many of the authors were new to me when I read Inside Therapy, but not any more. I've looked for the original works, and been glad to meet such fine thinkers.
Samuel Shem's excerpt alone is worth the price of the book. If you are not howling with laughter over his witty pokes at Freudian analysis... well, you might want to give more serious consideration to the role of therapy in your life.
Excellent, instructive narrative.......1998-11-07
This is an excellent, instructive narrative about the healing powers of psychotherapy.
Books:
- The Boys and the Bees
- The Candlestone (Dragons in Our Midst, Vol. 2) (Dragons in Our Midst)
- The Dew Breaker
- The Drowning Tree: A Novel
- The Gilded Chamber: A Novel of Queen Esther
- The Hot Kid: A Novel
- The House of Thunder
- The Hundred Secret Senses
- The Illustrated Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
- The Ladies of Covington Send Their Love: A Novel (Covington)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Atomic Bomb: Voices from Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- History: Fiction or Science
- Ali and Nino: A Love Story
- Between Necessity and Probability: Searching for the Definition and Origin of Life
- Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour
- History: Fiction or Science
- From Sand Creek: Rising in This Heart Which Is Our America
- Giftwraps by Artists: French Provincial
- Contested Memories: Poles and Jews During the Holocaust and Its Aftermath
- Mori Arinori
