The Tidewater Tales (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf)

Book Description

"Tell me a story..." Katherine Shorter Sherritt Sagamore, 8 1/2 months pregnant, is a blue-blooded library scientist and founding mother of the American Society for the Preservation of Storytelling. Her husband Peter, 8 1/2 months nervous, is a blue-collar storyteller with a penchant for brevity. Sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, they tell each other tales to break the writer's block handed Peter by his Muse, to ease the weight of Katherine's pregnancy, to entertain, and to enlighten. Along with their stories, we learn of the Bay itself--past and present. The beloved Chesapeake, where young Peter once indulged his Huck Finn fantasy, is in danger of becoming what he dubs a moral cesspool; where nature is in a losing struggle with man; where the hallowed Deniston School for Girls is being pressured by the CIA to sell land to the Soviet embassy; and where the old Sagamore homestead might or might not be the newest espionage station on the shoreline.

"The Tidewater Tales takes the form of a narrative encyclopedia, a pre-natal crash course in the politics, social life, literature, history, and mythology of late-twentieth century America... It sits... on the map of modern American fiction as a gigantic memorable construction."--Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement

"What is so moving about The Tidewater Tales is its frequent and frequently incidental richness as a love story--marital, filial, domestic--and also in its love of a place, of a country, even as place and country are scarred by depredation."--William Pritchard, New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

Set me a task!.......2007-03-28

Set me a task indeed! It has become the catch phrase my wife and I use to pull ourselves out of a funk... and reading this book will pull just about anyone out of theirs. Following Peter and Kate's sailing adventure over the course of the last 14 days of their pregnancy (with twins) is a celebration of life. Don't be daunted by it's length! It's like reading multiple books in one: a travel book, a play, throw a little espionage and environmentalism into the pot and meet some of literature's greatest characters along the way. Get through the first 50 pages, then sit back and enjoy the ride. By the end you'll find that you just don't want it to end.

What he's done is what he'll do.......2002-11-01

Of the maybe five novels of Barth I've read so far in my young life, this is probably my favorite of them all (Sot-Weed Factor does run a close second, however) if only due to the laziness factor since I didn't feel I needed a doctorate in English literature or mythology to understand everything that was going on. All told, on the surface this is probably one of the lighter books he's done . . . it's basically about a couple (teh wife's eight months pregnant) going out sailing in Cheaspeake Bay and to pass time they start telling stories. Except it's about everything else too and slowly the novel starts to incorporate local history, the knots of the characters' lives, mythology, plays, short stories . . . you name it. For someone not of Barth's skill this would come off as a tedious academic exercise merely to show the author's genre bending abilities. Once in a while it teeters toward that but manages to stay on the right side of the line. What helps is the sheer exuburance of the book, the people all seem to like each other (not that there isn't conflict), folks are happy with their lives, never before has Barth managed to create a more three dimensional set of people or given them a more realistic world to inhabit. It's just genuinely enjoyable to read, especially as the stories and stories-within-stories start to bounce off each othere. There are echoes of several of Barth's earlier works here, I spotted definitely Lost in the Funhouse and Chimera (and the Sot-Weed Factor is mentioned) so for long time readers it's a bit of a revisit with old friends. Is the book probably longer than it needs to be? Yeah, but if long books are your problem than you shouldn't be reading Barth. The main couple Peter and Katherine are sometimes a bit too precious for words (the constant renaming of the babies got annoying real fast) and in spurts there is just too much love going around but I can't really level that as a flaw now, can I? Politics does threaten to creep in every so often but it's dated eighties style politics now so I didn't pay much attention to it. Overall, it doesn't break any vibrant new ground for Barth but serves as a fine summing up of his strengths and his skills, the man can tell a decent story and he can write the pants off just about anybody (and no, those aren't the same thing) so if you want a fun "literary" novel that won't overwhelm you with all those nasty post-modern tricks those oh so erudite authors love to pull on unsuspecting readers, this might just be what you're looking for. Just stay away if you're allergic to mythology, if you want to read Barth it's not something you can easily escape from. But I like it anyway.

Sailing while nine mos. pregnant???! Can you imagine it?.......1999-05-06

Barth is a fine writer who does a marvelous job in creating believable and likable characters. it was fun to sail with him and his yuppy friends in the Chesapeake. (A non-sailer would miss much of the action and pleasure of this novel) The story of the couple and the boat would make a fine but smaller novel. Barth's politics are those of aca- deme and perhaps intrude too much into what is supposed to be only a story...not an effort to convert those who are not PC already. But he sure

can write and OH, I do love KISS just as he does.

Truly the most pleasurable read I've ever experienced........1998-12-29

I'm 5 pages from the end of this book, but I'm postponing reading them because I just don't want it to end. Like The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, this book is escapism at its most extreme.

The framing is phenomenal, mirror images abound, pairs proliferate, and while things constantly remain at the edge of confusion, Barth always reins you in just before you teeter off into chaos. So deft with words, and even more so with their meanings, Barth has written what is quite possibly my favorite book of all time.

Like the tide, Barth's stories cleanse and refresh our life.......1996-07-11

I suppose it is inevitable that, as the post-war boomers approach the big six-zero over the next decade, we will see a tidal flood of tender, soul-searching narratives. Boomers want to understand rather than simply experience life, and most have been frustrated by life's refusal to obey our expectations.

John Barth seems to have made such soul searching his life work, and I seem to have followed him book for book, life experience by life experience over the years. A clever "academic" writer (read: "he writes like a dream but his wit sometimes overwhelms the story"), Barth has addressed boomer experience and frailty .

Seeming to be five to ten years ahead of boomers, his books have ranged from the tragedy resulting from a terribly botched abortion (long before we openly spoke of this horror), through the visionary and usually misguided quest of the idealist (Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goatboy), the terrible pain of realizing one is an adult (the clever but exhausting Letters), to more leisurely and accessible mid-life reassessment as protagonists take "voyages" on the emotional seascape of middle age (Sabbatical, Tidewater Tales, Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, Once upon a Time...).

Each five years or so, I eagerly await his newest offering, devour it, and then feel frustrated when his literary games seem to detract from his story.

But, then, each time I realize (as if for the first time), the essential nature of his writing. Like the age-old games from which his writings spring (the quest/redemption stories of the Iliad and Oddessy, the "doomed" prophet stories of the Old and New Testaments, the mistaken identity games of Shakespeare and thousands of authors since, and the metaphor of story as voyage and voyage as growth from Chaucer, 1001 Nights, etc), Barth plays his games to remind us that the act of story telling *is* the experience, it *is* the reason we read: the experience of hearing ghost stories around the camp fire remains with us long long after we have forgotten the actual story.

And then I remember that, as a reader, I have no more "right" to expect neatness and closure in a Barth story than I have the right to expect neatness and closure in my own life. Try as we might, our own work, our own story is always in progress. And like Barth's beloved Tidewater, the ebb and flow of our own story defies our attempt to capture to master it.

In the end, life and Barth's stories remain as delightfully cleansing as the tide itself.

Book Description

This fifth volume in W.C. Jameson's Buried Treasure series contains 38 tales gathered from the breadth of the American South. Eight states are included: Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

Jameson includes "The Lost Treasure of Pirate William Kirk" (Virginia), "Chief Sontechee's Silver Hoard" (North Carolina), "Natchez Trace: Treasure Trail" (Mississippi), and legends of Indian hoards, Civil War caches, lost mines, and robbery stashes. He even includes a report of one recovered treasure in "Found: The Long-lost Treasure of the SS Central America."

Customer Reviews:

Southern Treasures.......2006-02-24

This is a great tool to get you started on a lifetime of treasure hunting. A must for your collection.

Average customer rating:

Another Ghostly winner

Ghosts of Tidewater
L. B., Jr. Taylor
Manufacturer: Virginia Ghosts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Parapsychology | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Ghosts & Haunted Houses | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0962827193

Customer Reviews:

Another Ghostly winner.......2007-01-06

Mr. Taylor delivers again with another book of ghost stories for the Virginia area. Each story has history attached. Even if you are not into paranormal books the history alone is enough to captivate you. As for the parts about the ghosts he writes about each one with an open mind and let's you the reader decide if you want to believe it or not.

Average customer rating:

The Tidewater Tales, a Novel
John Barth
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H55LBQ

In Search of This & That: Tales from an Archaeologist's Quest : Selected Essays from the Colonial Williamsburg Journal

Average customer rating:

In Search of This & That: Tales from an Archaeologist's Quest : Selected Essays from the Colonial Williamsburg Journal
Ivor Noel Hume , and Ivor Noel Hume
Manufacturer: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

The Muses of John Barth: Tradition and Metafiction from Lost in the Funhouse to The Tidewater Tales

Average customer rating:

The Muses of John Barth: Tradition and Metafiction from Lost in the Funhouse to The Tidewater Tales
Max F. Schulz
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth

Average customer rating:

Not essential Styron but a good intro to his work
Picturesque and memorable
Enter the world of Styron HERE!
Youth revisited through the sanctuary of memory
I was and still am captivated by this novel, it's been 2 yrs

A Tidewater Morning: Three Tales from Youth
William Styron
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0679427422
Release Date: 1993-08-24

Book Description

In this brilliant collection of "long short stories, " the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Sophie's Choice returns to the coastal Virginia setting of his first novels. Through the eyes of a man recollecting three episodes from his youth, William Styron explores with new eloquence death, loss, war, and racism.

From the Trade Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews:

Not essential Styron but a good intro to his work.......2000-06-12

Styron revisits old themes in this collection subtitled "Three Tales from Youth" and set, two thirds of the way, in Tidewater Virginia in the earlier part of the twentieth century. In it we see three episodes from the life of Styron's autobiographical protagonist Paul Whitehurst at ages twenty, ten, and thirteen.

In "Love Day" Paul, a young Marine lieutenant, experiences intense homesickness in the Pacific Ocean during the waning months of WWII. This is well-written but perhaps the least impressive of the three tales. Next is best. "Shadrach" is a wonderfully affecting, funny, and touching story of a 99-year old former slave who walks all the way from Clay County, Alabama, to Virginia to die and be buried in his homeplace. The title story shows Paul's struggle to accept his mother's approaching death from cancer and pays especial attention to the complex relationship between his parents.

Despite Styron's wonderfully indulgent and rococo style, these stories make for fairly quick reads, as we are carried along on a stream of telling detail and crystalline reminiscence. Not that the work lacks complication. As with his larger-canvased works, Styron deals with issues of race, Southern identity, heterosexual love, courage, cowardice, religion, and art. Here and there the stories are marred by facile liberal pieties and stilted dialogue, but for the most part it is a pleasure to watch this old master cast perhaps one last look at the familiar but still-fertile landscape of his heart and imagination.

Picturesque and memorable.......2000-03-14

Styron raises enough intriguing issues and questions that A Tidewater Morning could have been a full-bodied novel. Instead, we are treated to three short stories that, while somewhat disjointed, do manage to flow with relative ease. There's little new material addressed here: Styron returns to his favorite themes of slavery, war, and death, but he does manage some fresh twists that allow Tidewater to stand memorably on its own merits.

Enter the world of Styron HERE!.......2000-01-17

This book is a beautiful intermingling of past memeories and present strife. The war time world of Paul Whitehurst is made apparent; his childhood battles were fought just as passionately as any battle in WWII. Paul is a fictional character full of wit and wisdom. He comes alive in the three separate stories of his life. Your only thought at the end of this (way to short) novel is that you wish there was some kind of continuation or sequel to Paul Whitehurst's story.

Youth revisited through the sanctuary of memory.......1999-01-20

William Styron has penned a remarkable trilogy of tales which are an "imaginative reshaping of real events." His word-craft is both highly engaging though over-wrought at times. Nevertheless, his recreations of scenes are palpable. The last tale, "A Tidewater Morning", is a tour-de-force of the short story medium. His command of the movement of the events, punctuated by inserts of past dialogue between key characters, sensitively sets up the reader for an emotional cascade of grief as shared between father and son. Styron approaches the veil of the mystery and vividness of childhood events with a delft mind and hand conceived of respect and midwived with love.

I was and still am captivated by this novel, it's been 2 yrs.......1998-07-20

"A tidewater morning" was truly the most inspirational and exhillerating short story of the decade. The closing two pages when the boys father breaks down and goes to his knees and asks his son to repeat a certain song or quote. This will bring any person with somewhat of a sensitive side to their knees. Possibly, one might never recovering from the titilating experience.

TIDEWATER MORNING: THREE TALES FROM YOUTH

Average customer rating:

TIDEWATER MORNING: THREE TALES FROM YOUTH
WILLIAM STYRON
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWUE7I

Average customer rating:

Tidewater Tales

Manufacturer: Tidewater Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HVS37O

Average customer rating:

Tidewater Tales
John Barth
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000URGMHS

Average customer rating:

What more could you want?

Great read!
Something Wanton
Jacqueline Meadows
Manufacturer: Ellora's Cave
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Romance | Subjects | Books
General | Contemporary | Romance | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Something Wicked

Blackmailed

Against the Wall

Crime Tells: Cady's Cowboy

Waiting For It

ASIN: 1419951017

Customer Reviews:

What more could you want?.......2007-10-01

A terrific heroine with the wit and humor of Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum", the witchiness of Kim Harrison's "Rachel Morgan", and the action/romance of Laurell K Hamilton's early "Anita Blake". I will be looking for anything this author writes.

Great read!.......2005-06-23

I read Something Wicked and immediately ordered this book(the sequel). Des is hillarious as usual and Armand is extremely patient and sexy. Des found out that she is a witch(a High Priestess)and is in a state of denial. Throughout the book, she finds herself using her powers more and more to help others. Armand (who happens to be a High Priest and in love with Des) helps her to learn her craft and to try and accept who and what she is.
They work together to stop another High Priest from taking over the Coven and all the while are falling head over heels for each other.They also have GREAT sex scenes. Armand is open about his feelings for Des, but she is in denial about her feelings for him. Oh yeah, Nick tells Des that he's breaking up with his wife because he's in love with her. Nick is Des' business partner at the P.I. firm and her lifelong best friend. The plot thickens. Who will she choose and will she ever accept being a witch? Will she express her true feelings? Read the book to find out. You'll enjoy it.

Average customer rating:

Outstanding!

ANDERSON'S DEBUT IS A GEM

Fear the Darkness: Anderson PSI Division #1 (Anderson Psi Division)
Mitchell Scanlon
Manufacturer: Black Flame
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Adventure | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Anderson PSI Division: Red Shadows (Anderson Psi Division)

Psykogeddon (Judge Dredd)

Anderson PSI Division: Sins of the Father (Anderson Psi Division)

Honour Be Damned! (Nikolai Dante)

The Quartz Massacre (Rogue Trooper)

ASIN: 1844163261

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding!.......2006-05-08

By the year 2126, atomic war has decimated humanity and the world is a bleak wasteland, inhabited by mutants and freaks. Most people live in vast, walled cities. Boredom, unemployment, and crime is sky high. The authorities must use an iron fist to keep the 400 million citizens in check. Justice is upheld by the implacable Judges. They are empowered to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Radioactivity has given some people dangerous talents: telekinetics, pyromaniacs, telepaths, and more. It is the Psi Division's task to do what the regular judges cannot: deal with supernatural phenomena and hunt mutant psychics down. Its ranks are comprised of telepaths and psychics, able to scan minds, even those recently deceased. Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson is the best in the division.

For unknown reason power is briefly being shut down at random times within Sector House 12. Upon regaining power a felon is found burned to death in a holding-cube. Those first on the scene find the word "Judged" written upon the wall with the victim's blood. However, when others arrive on the scene, the bloody word has disappeared and forensics cannot find any evidence that it had ever been there. Psi-Judge Cassandra Anderson is sent to investigate.

Judge Anderson soon realizes that a malignant psychic presence is at work. This dark presence can possess normal civilians and even some judges. But what this entity wants is worse than anyone could possibly imagine.

***** This is Psi-Judge Anderson's debut novel. It combines futurisic sci-fi and horror in such a way that I had chills traveling down my spine often. I strongly recommend that you not begin this novel until you have lots of spare time. I absolutely could not force myself to stop reading; therefore, I ended up reading the entire book in a single sitting. I eagerly await the next Judge Anderson episode! OUTSTANDING! *****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

ANDERSON'S DEBUT IS A GEM.......2006-03-17

Over the past few years the Black Library from Games Workshop has put out a number of books featuring the longtime 2000 AD hero Judge Dredd. But now, finally, they are giving Psi-Judge Anderson her own series and Fear the Darkness is the debut novel. You know whenever Anderson is involved, that the supernatural elements are going to be ratcheted up a few notches. The opening chapter serves to introduce Anderson, should anyone need it, and gives us a quick glimpse into her powerful psychic powers. She and a rookie Judge named Whitby have to descend down into the depraved world of the Undercity of Meg One to locate a young boy who was kidnapped by Satanic cultists. Whitby is quickly getting skittish as the growing number of cannibalistic trogs that are massing while Anderson admonishes him to be quiet so she can get a psychic trace on the boy. They locate him in an abandoned church and rescue him just as he is about to be sacrificed but they're not getting out so easily as the pair soon find themselves battling a demon who has come through the door opened by the cultist's leader.

The opening chapter helps new readers get acquainted with Anderson's powers and personality and while long-time readers certainly need to introduction, it was still an exciting little mini-adventure. Anderson gets little time to rest however. She is summoned to Sector House 12 to investigate the death of a convicted man who was being kept in one of the holding cells. The man was burned to death yet oddly no other part of the cell was burned. Futhermore, a message scrawled in blood reads "judged". But when Anderson investigates the holding cell she is surprised to find there is not a trace of phychic aura. An investigation of the body itself ends up the same way. Such a trauma would have left psychic residue but the victim seems to have been completely erased from existence leaving only an empty shell. There is no trace of memory whatsoever! Anderson soon learns that this is the sixth such murder that has taken place at the Sector House, all beginning with a power outage, followed by the victim being burned alive.

Tom complicate matters, the SJS (Special Judicial Squad) the group that judges the Judges, has become involved in the investigation as they think the murderer may be one of the Judges. They are not happy when a Psi-Judge becomes involved, especially when that Judge is the well known Anderson. The chief of the SJS investigation, Hass, does everything he can to slow Anderson's investigation but even he cannot deny some supernatural activity being involved when a veteran Judge seems to go insane, and attacks other Judges. Anderson soon detects the presence of a malevolent entity within the Sector House but what may be worse is that the entity is aware of Anderson as well.

Fear the Darkness works well not as just a sci-fi story set within the futuristic society of Mega City One, but also as a dark horror tale. Anderson proves she's every bit as tough as Judge Dredd, but also has to face psychic horrors that Dredd never has to deal with. They make an interesting pair with their contrasting styles. Mitchell Scanlon has written a true gem for Anderson's debut story.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Book Description

In this series of notes, opinions, and reflections kept since 1956, Thomas Merton examines some of the most urgent moral issues of the modern era.

Customer Reviews:

Monk Shares Insights with a Busy and Violent World.......2006-10-16

Thomas Merton was a troubadour of contemplative life from America's Gesthemane Abbey. His books, including the famous autobiography 'Seven Storey Mountain' have made him one of the greatest spiritual writers from America. While this reviewer has read nearly a dozen of his sage works, 'Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander' is among his most colorful and engaging. Journal-like in its presentation and conception, Merton reflects upon the headlines of the Black Movement, Kennedy's assassination, and the Cuban Missile crisis with great depth and insight. The wisdom he provides doesn't date the topics he covers. 'Conjectures' would be fine as a historical document, but his commentary provides more than an antidote for history repeating itself. There are also trappings--no pun intended--of his little anecdotes of the monk's life. His observations of new candidates and the liturgical calendar hold simple truths that we can embrace with the variety of seasons.

I would hope every Catholic, and every non-Catholic, would embrace this book. It straddles the value of Eastern spirituality and widens the scope of Catholic experience. While many conservatives embrace G.K. Chesterton and Peter Kreeft as beacons of light and truth, Thomas Merton expands the scope and splendour of that truth without contradiction. Personally, I loved the part where Merton talked about medeival "Passion" plays demonizing Jews. He railed against the practice, and I read it just when the controversy about 'Passion of the Christ' was brewing, just before its release. I could see why there was so much trepidation after reading his historical perspective.

Wild ride if you can stay with it.......2005-08-03

This book is terrific for the advanced reader and who has read Merton before. These are a compilation of his notes, which means he's rambling ALL over the place. I found that I could only read a few notes at a time. I had to reflect during or at the end of each. They don't all resonate all the time, and some will be taken aback by Merton's views on U.S. military adventures of his day. Clearly, his comments are as pertinent today as ever.

Reflections from the 1960's, still important today.......2004-01-23

CONJECTURES OF A GUILTY BYSTANDER is the second collection of brief reflections by Thomas Merton, a book which he called in his Preface "a personal vision of the world in the 1960s". The format of these reflections is quite reminiscent of the modern weblog, so consistency should not be expected. Some are evocative and interesting. Others are intensely personal and opaque, such as one that says only, "Every time Kennedy sneezes or blows his nose, an article is read about it in the refectory."

Some of this book is quaint and linked too much to the time of its writing. Merton's writes nearly vitriolic reflection on communism but does not foresee the rise of liberation theology in his own church. However, there are many other portions where the author moves beyond the context of his time. Merton's reflections on race-relations, for example, are unusually compassionate for a writer of his time, for he believes that African-Americans are blessed by God, who was bringing them in freedom from exile, slavery, and oppression like the Hebrews.

When I was younger and full of idealistic fire, having just left the Navy as a conscientious objector, I couldn't understand Merton. Here was a man who was full of zeal for the gospel, but who turned away from the community for a hermitage in rural Kentucky. From CONJECTURES, however, I can better appreciate this writer. Though he was alone, he has made a considerable contribution to society through books like these. Merton essentially wishes to make people live more authentically, to always be more conscious of Christ's social teaching and reject the false values of the world. Merton may have been a recluse, but if more people out and about in society read his writings, then the world would be a better place. For example, though Merton is not one to overtly recommend political engagement, he often calls the American reader to consider that his nation has strayed from the values on which they were founded and needs righting.

If you have never read Merton before, I'd recommend starting with THE SEVEN-STOREY MOUNTAIN, the story of his youth, conversion, and entry to a Trappist monastery, a book which occasionally rises to true greatness and might be a modern-day CONFESSIONS of Saint Augustine (well, almost). CONJECTURES is an excellent book for those interested in Merton who want to know better his social ideas.

Personal and compelling.......2002-08-16

This book is a series of reflections on and examinations of topics ranging from the flora and fauna of Kentucky to studies of grammar by Cassiodorus. This is a later work of Merton's, and what comes across more than anything is his all too human moodiness. At times he seems to despair of the human condition. But then a tremendous hope wells up in him as he sees Christianity reaching out in brotherhood to all men of all faiths and non-faiths. But regardless of his attitude, Merton, as always, maintains the highest standards for fidelity to one's self and to God. His rather caustic critiques of Western culture seem more true today than when he wrote them in the 1960's, as he exposes the moral rationalizations and spiritual hollowness that necessarily accompany a mass culture devoted to materialism and pragmatism. His understanding of the human condition is so clear and so true and so universal, that his writing seems to be speaking to each of us alone, much as a parent might speak to his child. And like a child, our first reaction to his challenging words might be resentment or denial, but in the end, if we reflect and examine, we begin to see his truth-that is, his pointing us to God. I imagine one of Merton's hopes in this book is to move us beyond words and arguments so we might dispense with temporal intellectual distractions and concentrate on what counts-personal salvation.

Truth Prophesied To A Violent World.......2002-05-13

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander is Thomas Merton's response to the terror of the world around him, the world he had been raised into, and the world he sought to leave behind as a monk in the back corners of Kentucky. It is a collection of thoughts which had been developing in him from the very beginning of his life. He came to monastic life to retreat from the world. He came to find quiet. And yet he remained more connected to the outside world than most people within that world, and certainly more than anyone behind his monastic walls, even as he wrote and compiled Conjectures itself from his secluded hermitage.

This book is his reaction against the violent century which he was born into and which was born into him. He speaks against issues including such things as the true nature of the monastic relationship with the world (he calls "separation from the world" an illusion); unity/ecumenism; war & violence; false "truths" (particularly what he calls the American myth); technology versus nature, etc.

He calls himself a "bystander" relating to his aloofness as a monk. He calls himself "guilty" in relation to not living up to his responsibility for the outside world. As a monk, he calls himself a contemplative activist. As a collection of "conjectures," it is a compilation of thoughts or pensees grouped together loosely, only slightly tied together by five section titles. Because of this format it is not the easiest thing to read; it is helpful to read topically (a good guide for this can be found in Something of a Rebel by William Shannon). But I would say the experience is worth it. The book is deeply moving and convicting. Merton stands out as an authoritative voice on how Christians, all people in fact, should be aware of the world around them, while they also should not neglect the contemplative life that feeds their love for that world.

There is a short observation Merton gives us in his Conjectures as he witnesses the way of the world around him:
"This morning, before Prime, in the early morning sky, three antiquated monoplanes flew over the monastery with much noise followed by a great heron." (15)

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books