Book Description
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil-literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul-it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.
Customer Reviews:
In the Thick of Nothingness [T].......2007-05-05
I have now read two books by Didion - this and the Pulitzer Prize winning "The World of Magical Thinking." Each is devilishly depressing.
The similarities do not end there. The main character of this book, Maria Wyeth, physically resembles the author. Her roots are similar. And, she is an actress in the Hollywood that the author wrote and wrote more for.
But, there are differences too. This is fiction, "Year" is nonfiction. This book revolves around a plundered marriage. Her own was good until it ended with her husband's unfortunate death as explained in "Year." This book delves with reproaching nothingness - Didion's continued works evidence her life was well beyond the expanse of void. Didion survived in a world beyond Maria's nullity.
Some characteristics may or may not have been Didion's own - and the reader really cannot care. Maria sleeps around more than she probably should, drinks too much, may smoke more pot than she should, and experiences a horrible emotional scarring with an unwanted abortion.
The intense emotional depiction is painted evenly and simply by Dideon's masterful use of language. The first chapter biographically recites Maria's entire life in a Valley-girl way, with each sentence appearing to be disjunctive from the previous - but actually all tie together magnificently and very intentionally.
Portions of this book reminded me of the angst experienced by the dipsomaniacal protagonist in Malcolm Lowry's "Under the Volcano." Each book crawls under your skin as you feel the emotion -- the pain and strain experienced by the respective characters who fall into deep funks in their apparent inevitable demise.
This is a quick read, unlike "Volcano." If you wonder if your psyche is strong enough for such literature, read this first as it is shorter and much less intense.
Memorable Book.......2007-01-21
Play It As It Lays is a book that stays with you after you read it. It's also a book that you will probably want to read more than once. I read it for the first time back in November and I've already gone back and re-read it to pick up on subtleties that I missed the first time. The storyline is very sad and depressing, but quite realistic, I think. I can feel Maria's (the main character) pain and the emptiness of the life she lives. Masterful writing here.
Compelling, but depressing.......2006-09-30
If you want something to lift your spirits, this isn't it. And yet, I still found myself turning the pages to see what happens to Maria.
one of my favorites.......2006-08-17
I'm really into dry, unemotional writing like Shopgirl, the Graduate, The King is Dead, stuff full of melancholy. And this is the absolute best of that type. I've read others by Didion but they all sort of pale in comparison to what she's done in Play It as It Lays. The detachment of her lead character is perfect.
Why Not.......2006-05-06
That alternate world we know as "Hollywood" has always fascinated me, so I had no problem getting interested in this book. It's definitely not for everyone, but if you can accept people and things for what they are ("play it as it lays") without too many moral judgments; and, if it doesn't bother you to read about things like unconventional behavior, vague reality, desolation and despair; then you just might like it. I find myself very sympathetic to the main character, actress Maria Wyeth, and her friend, BZ, a producer involved in her personal life. I relate to many of their feelings and actions. Others will find them guilty of a good deal of wrongdoing. But I say, remove the blinders and you may see yourself in these pages. Technically, the book is an easy read. The prose is concise - one short sentence can generate a volume of pictures - and loaded with bitter wit. One more thing: if, as I have read, this is supposed to be a depiction of the crass and empty society of the late 60's, I don't find that our society has made any progress, since today's average American aspires to little more than owning a gas-guzzling SUV, staying attached to a cell phone and vacationing in DisneyWorld. I'll put today's crassness and emptiness up against that of the 60's any day.
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As I Lay Dying (MAXNotes Literature Guides) (MAXnotes)
Wendy Ellen Waisala
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As I Lay Dying
ASIN: 087891059X |
Book Description
MAXnotes offer a fresh look at masterpieces of literature, presented in a lively and interesting fashion. Written by literary experts who currently teach the subject, MAXnotes will enhance your understanding and enjoyment of the work. MAXnotes are designed to stimulate independ ent thought about the literary work by raising various issues and thought-provoking ideas and questions. MAXnotes cover the essentials of what one should know about each work, including an overall summary, character lists, an explanation and discussion of the plot, the work's historical context, illustrations to convey the mood of the work, and a biography of the author. Each chapter is individually summarized and analyzed, and has study questions and answers.
Customer Reviews:
Michelle Reid Always a Winner.......2006-01-02
This is the best book in the series, by far. Why? THE AUTHOR!!! Michelle Reid always spins a tale that the reader cannot put down. I love how she tells the story from the point of view of the male character, as well as the female. And her writing is so seamless, never tedious, as I find with most of the other 'Presents' authors. Her gift for creating exciting characters and situations will have you seeking out her entire catalogue, as I have.
Book 2.......2005-09-30
Back cover:
A wife at his command....Anton Luis Scott-Lee has to marry the woman who so callously rejected him years ago. His revenge will be sweet... A mistress at his service...Cristina Marques will be totally at Luis's bidding-bought and paid for! A bride by blackmail. Cristina has no choice but to accept Luis's marriage demand. But Luis will find that his new bride can't or won't fulfill all of her wedding vows...
Comments:
This is book 2 in the Ramirez series. I don't think that book 1 has to be read first in order to understand what's going on. Just as in the first Ramirez book, Anton receives a package stating that if he does not marry and produce a child within a year then he will never know the true identities of his half-brothers. So, Anton has the perfect person in mind he wants to pay to fulfill this stipulation. Cristina Marques. Though he has loathed her with a passion for six years, he still can't put out the sparks of passion he has for her. The last time they were together she callously ended their relationship and told him that under no circumstances she would bear his English children. Little did he know Cristina was spitting out empty words and trying to cover up her own secrets and pain. So, Anton goes back to England resenting what Cristina did to him and harbors bitter feelings towards her. Then the package comes and Anton sets a plan in motion. He neatly sets up a plan to get Cristina into a position that forces her to either accept his loan from his bank or lose her family home. The passion is definitely there between Cristina and Anton and Reid does a good job at giving both the heroine's and hero's POV. BUT there seemed to be an element missing in this book. Maybe it was because the reason for them breaking up could have been resolved in a different way and not dragged out for I think six years. Overall, this was a good read and it didn't drag on.
Typical Ms.Reid's ............2005-09-26
From the other source:
A wife at his command... : Anton Luis Scott-Lee has to marry the woman who so callously rejected him years ago. His revenge will be sweet....
A mistress at his service... :Cristina Marques will be totally at Luis's bidding - bought and paid for!
A bride by blackmail!: Cristina has no choice but to accept Luis's marriage demand. But Luis will find that his new bride can't or won't fulfill all of her wedding vows....
Book Description
On the cusp of their epic battle with Shinzon, many of Captain Jean-Luc Picard's long-time crew were heading for new assignments and new challenges. Among the changes were William Riker's promotion to captain and his new command, Riker's marriage to Counselor Deanna Troi, and Dr. Beverly Crusher's new career at Starfleet Medical. But the story of what set them on a path away from the Starship Enterprise has never been told.
Until now.
More than two centuries ago, the Dokaalan sent an unmanned probe into the void, bearing a distress call for anyone who could save their doomed world. But the message reached Federation space too late to save the planet or its people.
Or so it was believed....
Generations later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E are stunned to discover the last of the Dokaalan -- now only a colony fighting to stay alive in a decrepit asteroid mining complex. Although their home planet was destroyed long ago, the survivors hope to someday transform a nearby planet into a new home for their people. But bitter divisions exist among the Dokaalan, sowing the seeds of sabotage and terrorism -- and placing Picard and the Enterprise in the middle of an escalating crisis that can only lead to total destruction!
Customer Reviews:
Even Worse than "Harvest".......2006-02-08
This Book has to many repeatitive things going on. It takes to long to even get to the meat, or in other words the things you want to know about. And it ends really bad! ! !
You won't find a good story in your navel.......2004-11-24
With the first two books in the Time to... series out of the way, would two different authors be able to turn things around? In a way they do, but there is one major strike against it.
Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise are still dealing with the political fallout from the last two books, and are sent on a mission to get them out of the way for a while. It's a bit of a milkrun, really. Many years ago, a probe dispatched from a distant area of the galaxy was found, but Starfleet, still in its infancy, didn't have the time or resources to do anything about it. Now, another probe has been found. Both probes speak of a civilization on a dying planet, and it was figured that getting there would take too long to rescue any survivors (since the probe took years to get to where the Vulcans found it to begin with). The Enterprise is sent to investigate what happened and see if they can find out what happened all those years ago. When they get there, they discover an asteroid field and radiation that wreaks havoc on their systems. They also find the remnants of survivors of the planet Dokaal, scraping out an existence among the asteroids on constructed mining colonies, alone for several hundred years. The survivors hope to terraform a planet further out in the system so that they can one day walk on solid ground again. The Enterprise offers whatever help they can, but dissension is threatening to tear the Dokaalan apart before anything can be done.
A Time to Sow is actually a lot better than I thought it was, once I get past the main fault (so I'll get it out of the way first). It is extremely overwritten. Long, very tedious introspection is the norm in this book, with Picard brooding about what happened in the first two books, Crusher brooding about not being able to save some of the Dokaalans killed in the explosion that brings the Enterprise to the mining colony, Picard again brooding about his decision to emergency transport some of the people who end up floating in space and how they ended up dying anyway. He does this despite the fact that the Picard I know would realize if he hadn't done it, they were dead anyway. What makes this particular brooding worse is that Picard *acknowledges* that they would have died anyway, but still keeps wondering if he made the right decision. I think that's my problem with the whole series, so far. They've turned Picard into this pod person who's awash in insecurities that I don't believe he would have. However, since that ties into the whole series, I'll ignore that part for now.
Excessive introspection is not the only way the book is overwritten, though. A Time to Sow is very heavy in Trek continuity references, and the authors feel they have to go into great gory detail about every single one of them to explain the reference to the (one or two?) non-Trek fans who are reading the book. Ok, I exaggerate a little, but I think there is a way to more concisely explain the reference than Dayton and Ward use here. Of course, there's an easier solution: DON'T USE SO MANY REFERENCES!! A few references, even explained in a couple of paragraphs, don't bog a book down. When they are excessive, though, that means there are a lot of paragraphs used for explanation when they could be used for storytelling. This is not good.
The writing is so heavy-handed that it outweighs a lot of the good points of the novel. The characters are, for the most part, well-written (even Picard is when he's not examining his situation for the one hundredth time) and the authors have created some interesting aliens in the Dokaalans. The journal entries by the First Minister, Hjatyn, give us the history of the planet in a very interesting way that doesn't feel like an infodump (unlike the continuity references). There are a wide variety of characters among the Dokaalans (though some who are more than they appear to be, to be revealed in the next book). The plot elements are tense and there are some good action scenes, especially the ending with Geordi and Taurik. The romantic elements between Troi and Riker, which were a small part of the problem with Vornholt's books, are virtually non-existent in this one. You can tell that they are together, but they act professionally when they are on the bridge together. Everything regarding plot and characterization is done very well.
Unfortunately, every time there gets to be a little tension, or something interesting starts to happen, the authors give us some interminable description or a lengthy monologue of a character's thoughts intrudes on the whole thing and brings the book to a screeching halt. I love learning about characters through their thoughts, but sometimes too much is too much. Introspection is a good thing. Navel-gazing isn't, and that's what we get a little too often in this book. Since it's pervasive throughout the entire book, neither author can be blamed for it. They're both like that. I've only read one other Ward book (his debut, In the Name of Honor, and it's a problem he's had since the beginning (at least the continuity reference problem).
All in all, this isn't that bad of a book, it just gets tedious at times. It splits the difference between Vornholt's two books, but it doesn't bode well for this whole series if the first three books are iffy at best. I'm not holding out a lot of hope for book four.
David Roy
An Intriguing Mystery in the "A Time To" series.......2004-11-20
Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore have contributed a fascinating mystery as the third installment in the "Star Trek: A Time To" series, taking readers up to the epic battle with Shinzon and his Reman allies depicted in the latest "Star Trek" film. The book opens with a discovery of a probe - a distress signal sent by the ruler of a dying planet - retrieved by a Vulcan starship which is monitoring the activities of Captain Jonathan Archer's Enterprise. Then it jumps two centuries later as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC 1701-E) are ordered to investigate the origins of a second probe sent from an uncharted region of space; the twin of the one retrieved by the Vulcan starship.
Not only does Enterprise reach the probe's point of origin, but makes first contact with the surviving Dokaalans living in their solar system's asteroid belt. The authors do a fine job showing tension amongst the Dokaalans as they cope with their benevolent alien visitors from the United Federation of Planets. They also excel in developing some of the minor characters, most notably Engineering Lieutenant Taurik and Lieutenant Christine Vale, the head of security. Picard and Riker and the rest of the crew must contend with several fatal accidents - which may or not may not be accidental - and a serious injury to Data by the novel's end. Without question, this novel will be appealing to diehard "Star Trek" fans, especially those who are fans of the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation".
very good book.......2004-05-30
whn a probe is discovered carrying a distress signal that is over 200 years old, the enterprise is ordered to the area to see what finally became of the planet. they are very surprised to find that some of the inhabitants did survive. but as the enterprise makes first contact, they find that their is a lot of dissention and rebellion among the ranks of the people. all of them do not want the enterprise's help and will go to any extreme to keep that from happening.
the book dragged some but the story was basically very well written and definitely better than the first book in the series.
New world....and old rocks.......2004-05-29
This is the next book in the series of books showing the crew of the starship Enterprise as they struggle to deal with the problems from the previous two novels. After the sticky situation that Captian Picard got into with the demon ship, he struggles to deal with Starfleet Command and the backwater missions his ship is sent on.
This book sends the Enterprise to a remote sector of space to follow up on a message sent years ago by a dying world. Their wildest hopes are realized when they find the surviving members of the doomed world. Unfortunately this proud race, struggling to survive, is manipulated by an old enemy of the Enterprise.
This was a wonderful book and I waited until the second part to come out. I wanted to know who this enemy is and what role they are playing.
Product Description
Aging landscape painter Sam Grant of Time to Sow, Time to Reap is separated from his upwardly mobile wife. Gloria, whom he calls Old Glory. Although they live apart, she continues to visit him, and Sam is inspired to paint glory in the nude. He tells her he will immortalize her, and at the same time, transform himself from an average painter into a great artist.
He soon learns that Glory is ill. She is terrified of dying and returns to live with Sam, who persuades her to pose for him even though she is weak. Sam seemly exploits Glory for gain, but he learns something about himself in the process and ultimately triumphs over adversity.
The adolescent Mary in Innocence is fighting a battle for survival too. She discovers she is unable to experience emotions that girls of her age are expected to feel. Because she is beautiful, men are attracted to her. She drifts in and out of marriage and wanders aimlessly, getting involved with people who use her without giving her anything in return.
In her diary, Mary depersonalizes the people who exploit her, which enables her to talk objectively about profound matters. Finally, she decides that she must escape the realities of her existence. She gets on a bus that will take her to a place where she can complete her diary.
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A time to sow,
Evans Wall
Manufacturer: The Macaulay company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00087BCLG |
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A time to sow: A year of parables
Francis Sullivan
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
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W.O.I. bulletin for trade unions
William Lawson
Manufacturer: Trovillion Private Press
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ASIN: B0007KFVZ2 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Top Producer, published by Farm Journal Media on February 1, 2003. The length of the article is 1655 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: On a roll! This Montana wheat producer sows it, grows it and doughs it: How many times can you add luster--and value--to commodity wheat? More times than you might think.(Wheat Montana)
Author: Laura Sands
Publication:
Top Producer (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2003
Publisher: Farm Journal Media
Page: 10
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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"If people have had enough chicken soup for the soul, how about some Irish stew for the mind?" asks John Dominic Crossan in the introduction to his meaty new memoir, A Long Way from Tipperary: What a Former Irish Monk Discovered in His Search for the Truth. Crossan burst into the public eye in 1991 with the publication of his bestselling The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant. In this and subsequent books, Crossan's historical research has demonstrated the follies of both secularist denial and fundamentalist distortions of Jesus' significance. Tipperary is Crossan's memoir of the ways in which his personal experience "from Ireland to America, from priest to professor, from monastery to university, and ... from celibacy to marriage" have influenced his evolving understanding of who Jesus was. Crossan's struggle has always been to find a way of understanding Jesus that engages "both reason and revelation, both history and faith, both mind and heart." Here is his description of his ideal readers:
They are ... dissatisfied, disappointed, or even disgusted with classical Christianity and their denominational tradition. They hold on with anger or leave with nostalgia, but are not happy with either decision. They do not want to invent or join a new age, but to reclaim and redeem an ancient one. They do not want to settle for a generic-brand religion, but to rediscover their own specific and particular roots. But they know now that those roots must be in a renewed Christianity whose validity does not reject every other religion's integrity, a renewed Christianity that has purged itself of rationalism, fundamentalism, and literalism, whether of book, tradition, community, or leader.
Those who recognize themselves in this passage will find hope and courage in Crossan's book. --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
I have spent thirty years reconstructing the historical Jesus. I have done so self-consciously and self-critically and have tried to do the same on reconstructing myself. But what justifies this memoir is how my own personal experience, from Ireland to America, from priest to professor, from monastery to university, and ... from celibacy to marriage, may have influenced that reconstruction. Where has it helped me see what others have not, and where has it made invisible to me what others find obvious?
-from A Long Way from Tipperary
From his upbringing in Ireland to front-page coverage in the New York Times and mention in cover stories in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report, John Dominic Crossan-who has courageously pioneered the contemporary quest for the historical Jesus-has dared to go his own way. In this candid and engaging memoir, the world's foremost Jesus scholar reveals what he has discovered over a lifetime of open-eyed, fearless exploration of God, Jesus, Christianity, and himself. Crossan shares his provocative thinking on such issues as how one can be a Christian without going to church; whether God is vengeful, or just, or both; and why Jesus is more like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr. than like the Pope or Jerry Falwell.
Raised in the traditional Irish Catholic Church, Crossan inherited a faith that was "accepted fully and internalized completely but undiscussed, uninvestigated, and uncriticized." A dauntless spirit whose imagination was ignited not by piety but by the lure and challenge of adventure, he became a monk to travel and explore the world, unaware that his most thrilling quests would be scholarly and spiritual. "God had going the best adventure around," Crossan confesses.
Because he could never subject his theological convictions and historical findings to the restrictions of the Church, Crossan chose to leave the monastery and priesthood. Speaking of this time in his life, Crossan writes, "Not even a vow of obedience could make me sing a song I did not hear." But he never abandoned the Roman Catholic community or tradition and never lost his faith. He has devoted his life and career to a reexamination of what he calls "necessary open-heart surgery on Christianity itself."
Customer Reviews:
The humanity behind the heresy.......2007-03-19
Once, a Lutheran pastor went up to an author (who's also an ex-monk who spent many hours in monastic choir and Latin chant) and asked, how could one have a personal relationship with God in prayer when all was set and programmed, all was ritual, formal, and liturgical?? This author later wrote in his memoirs,
"I have never, ever, thought that Latin chant opposes personal prayer. It is simply personal prayer as part of a total community at prayer. It helps you to distinguish, in prayer, between human echo and divine response, between your own will set to sound and the divine will that allegedly transcends it. As a simple analogy: Does singing the national anthem communally enlarge or diminish personal and individual patriotism??"
It's amazing how much you can learn from people who've been deemed outcasts, super-deviants and heretics from your community. I suspect there are Christians who wouldn't touch the works of John Dominic Crossan with a 10-foot pole.
But after reading A Long Way From Tipperary: What A Former Irish Monk Discovered In His Search For The Truth, whilst I'm nowhere near agreeing with his views on the historical Jesus, I can identify with his struggles, his doubts, his pain (I can almost weep with him over the loss of his first wife).
I see a man who needs the love of Jesus Christ, yet also one I can learn from tremendously (even N.T. Wright has celebrated Crossan's genius; see the opening remarks in his chapter on Crossan in Jesus & The Victory of God). If nothing else, Crossan's wit-filled prose brings literary delight which one finds rare in evangelical works. For example:
"If, in fact, you want a parent metaphor for God, I think father is much more appropriate than mother. It is the mother who is publicly knowable, visibly provable, and legally certifiable. You do not need faith to know a mother. You need faith to know a father, because he is known only on the mother's word and sometimes not even then.?" (p.37)
Whilst evangelicals rightly ought to warn the community of the problems in Crossan's writings, we would do well to humble ourselves and learn from our enemies? (wouldn't we want them to learn from us, too?). Try this sharp observation on the Catholic-Protestant schism:
"It is the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, during which Catholicism and Protestantism forced each other into opposite extremes (faith or works, Bible or tradition, individual or community, real or symbolic, etc. or etc.)in that separation within Christianity, Catholicism lost any internal but loyal opposition, any sternly self-critical voice from within. In that separation, Protestantism lost anything to protest against save itself and has continued to fracture into every increasing diversity.?" (p.72, emphasis mine)
Perhaps we need (or God has allowed? or predestined?? [grin]) writers like Crossan, the quintessential postmodern Biblical scholar, drawing his inspiration from, among others, the work of Jacques Derrida, to shake us into seeing our own problems, to look closer at our sacred cows.
And one day Crossan was at a book-signing event, someone came up to him and said, "My pastor told me not to come here tonight because you are even to the left of Marcus Borg.? Crossan replied,
"Give your pastor my best regards and tell him that is the good news. The bad news is that both Borg and me are to the right of Jesus. And worse still, if he will recall Psalm 110, Jesus is to the right of God."
An autobiography by a well-known NT scholar.......2007-02-23
Rather disappointed with this book. Bought it at the local Borders and found its prose rushed; was the copyeditor asleep? I found long stretches rather tedious, not enhanced by the author's strong ego, which lacks discernment about what the reader might find engaging and what s/he might not. I appreciate much of Crossan's work, such as In Search of Paul, and this one has many good paragraphs. But the whole work never quite seems to come together.
What kind of Christian are you?.......2006-07-22
If you want Jesus to be what you need, avoid this book. If you want to learn about the historical Jesus, read Crossan. This book is more accessible than some of this others; but it presumes some familiarity with his other works which should, I think, come first. Then read this one by all means.
The journey of an Irish monk.......2005-06-19
Before I read this memoir, the only other insight I had of Crossan was from "Excavating Jesus", a book he and Reed collaborated on. Many times I would pause during a particular chapter and ask "Why does Crossan think that?" and I found many of my answers in "A Long Way from Tipperary." This memoir describes how Crossan's upbringining contributed to his analysis of the historical Jesus. It is the genuinity and extreme honesty with which Crossan speaks that makes this memoir truly memorable. I especially liked the parts when Crossan would describe an event in his life and compare it to the life of Jesus and ask how it influenced his conclusions on Jesus- I would have liked to see more of this for it was truly insightful. I also woudl have liked to see more of discussion on his faith in God- he makes the point that he doenst use human logic to prove God's existence yet doenst really seem to describe how he arrived at his conclusion. Overall a great read into a fascinating mind.
Witty, heartfelt, easy reading - recommended!.......2004-09-08
Book Review
A Long Way From Tipperary: A Memoir by John Dominic Crossan (2000)
Dom Crossan, the world's leading expert and best-selling author on the historical Jesus, has written a witty, hearfelt and easy reading (about 200 pages - you can finish it in an afternoon) memoir of his remarkable life. From the Prologue:
"This book is about a series of transitions, from Ireland to America, from priesthood to marriage, from monastery to university, and from academic scholar to public intellectual. It is especially about the transition from a very traditional Roman Catholic faith...to a self-conscious and self-critical Roman Catholic faith for the next [century]."
Born in 1934 in County Kildare, Ireland to parents of modest means, he entered a monastery at sixteen and remained in the priesthood for some nineteen years, most of which was spent as a professor in seminary. After leaving the priesthood to get married, Crossan taught at DePaul University for nearly twenty years. His memoir is a charming recollection of the very different worlds along his life's journey - interspersed with reminiscences of how each episode shaped his thinking.
Crossan, co-founder of the (in)famous Jesus Seminar, has been a public voice proclaiming the need for Christians to revitalize their tradition. Again from the Prologue:
"After a decade of interviews in newspapers and magazines, discussions on radio and television, lectures in parishes and seminaries, colleges and universities, I now recognize a group...who claim a center of the road between secularism and fundamentalism. They are also dissatisfied, disappointed, or even disgusted with Classical Christianity and their denominational tradition...They do not want to invent or join a new age, but to reclaim and redeem an ancient one. They do not want to settle for a generic-brand religion, but to re-discover their own specific and particular roots. But they know now that these roots must be in a renewed Christianity that has purged itself of rationalism, fundamentalism, and literalism, whether of book, tradition, community, or leader. I did not set out to speak to those people, because I did not know they existed until about 80 percent of my mail told me they did."
In the final pages of his memoir, he says:
"In conclusion, this is what I have learned between Ireland and America, monastery and university, priesthood and marriage, scholarship and public discourse. I have learned that God is more radical than we can ever imagine, that a divine utopia on this earth is more subversive than we can ever accept..."
John Dominic Crossan is a monumental figure in the reformation of the Christian tradition underway in the world today. A man of deep faith, profound intellect, and searing vision, this memoir provides a window into the humble origins and very human journey of a great modern sage. His dry Irish wit is ever present, his writing style is clear and conversational and you finish the book with the feeling that you now "know the man". That's what a memoir is all about.
Books:
- Popular Music From Vittula: A Novel
- Quarantine: A Novel
- Readings in Propaganda and Persuasion: New and Classic Essays
- Resistance, Rebellion, and Death: Essays
- Rules of the Wild: A Novel of Africa
- Rumpole Rests His Case
- Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings
- She Came to Stay
- Sittin' in the Front Pew: A Novel (Strivers Row)
- Sofia Petrovna (European Classics)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mistress to an Age: A Life of Madame de Stael
- History: Fiction or Science
- Woman Destroyed
- All I See Is Part of Me
- Captain America #25: The Death of Captain America
- Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems , 8th Edition, with ODE Architect CD
- Birds of Michigan Field Guide, Second Edition
- Contemporary American Success Stories: Famous People of Asian Ancestry Florence Hongo; I.M. Pei; Max
- A Reference Guide to International Taxation: Profiting from Your International Operations
- Money Wisdom - An Interview with Suze Orman
A Book of Common Prayer
The White Album
Where I Was From
We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (Everyman's Library)
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays
