Book Description
Set in the 1950's in New York City, CHAINS AROUND THE GRASS is a portrait of a Jewish-American family that glows with affection, tenderness, and courage when tragedy changes the lives of all who are left behind. A passionately personal and heartfelt book, based heavily on autobiographical material, this is the book Ms. Ragen says that she became an author to write.
Sara is barely six years old when her beloved father unexpectedly vanishes from her life. Her mother, Ruth, a dreamy and reluctant housewife, is now left with three small children to bring up, and the knowledge that she will somehow have to pick up the pieces, if she is to survive and fend for the family. But Sara takes up a vigil at the window of their dismal apartment, refusing to accept that her father won't be coming back.
"She thought of herself as a lighthouse keeper, a watchman on guard, a sailor on the topmost rigging, scouting for land. It was her duty to be there when the magic moment happened as it surely must, for no other explanation made any sense.
She scouted the men passing by, searching for those of a certain height, a certain weight, a certain walk... She followed each with hope until he turned right instead of left or left instead of right, or drew close enough to prove too tall or too short, too thin or two heavy. And each disappointment chipped away at her hope, reducing it, but never actually killing it. Like a plant cut to the ground, the roots sent up foolish new growth that twined around the facts, embellishing them, giving them something akin to beauty."
To this bittersweet and moving tale of childhood and the loss of innocence, the author brings the added intensity of a personal memoir. This is Naomi Ragen at her best, her writing charged with a searing, emotional truth as she unravels a tale of childhood, betrayal and the unending resilience of family love.
Customer Reviews:
beautiful in every way.......2006-08-20
I LOVED THIS BOOK.It made me laugh outloud and it made me cry.Mostly it made me think.
This is a story about real life and not the usual immigrant founding a dynasty cliche.
All of the characters are well devoloped and I found myself loving them and hating them as if they were members of my own family.And of course they could have been.
The universal message of what the measure of a man is is profoundly moving especially in our materialistic world.
Measuring Your Life with the Right Yardstick.......2006-04-21
Naomi Ragen is an international bestseller novelist, a writer of and about the core of human life. Chains Around the Grass (The Toby Press, USA, 2003) is the book Ms. Ragen says that she became an author to write. Setting the story of a poor Jewish family in the heart of America, Naomi Ragen calls for a revision of attitudes shaped by the sickness of reckless capitalism and its people who have turned into machines fuelled with business.
The novel's prologue is captivating. Through the eyes of the moment, little Sara Markowitz is shown sitting in humility in her rich uncle's house with her mother Ruth and brother Jesse out for the funeral of her father David Markowitz. Pursuing the old American dream of a well-off future, David never realizes the greater need of familial love that is showering him all along and the lives of his family chug along the uncertain paths of the business world. With the loss of David the family slumps into an indefinable channel of struggle against the demands of the society and its own integrity.
Chains Around the Grass is one of the semantically richest works carrying a number of issues. Sick capitalist values are questioned in the suffering of widowed Ruth and her children with several close, rich, relatives. The dilemma of a poor minority's identity under social pressure speaks in Ruth's resentment of changing Jesse's family name to `Marks'. What underlies insanity is illustrated cogently in Jesse's character. Sara's character embodies the process of personality development under early childhood traumas. The best explored is, perhaps, gender inequality prevailing in the social world, best instantiated in Sara's feelings of hatred towards her own brother.
Naomi Ragen's striking symbolism in her novel's situations is the quality of her work that best complements other merits. The heaven of idealized life is shattered to `chips flying away under time's relentless chisel'. When they were united and beautiful like young lush grass, they were out of reach on account of `chains' around them. One set of `ropes' is replaced with another and the dream of catching your life's beauty is never actualized until you see your life's time ending abruptly like a dream. Naomi Ragen is at her best in justice with her characters. Reality comes to them as they finally learn to `measure their life with the right yardstick'. Through Ruth's faith, we all know that a purely humanistic relationship is possible if we know the beauty of our inner self. It is an illustration of Eric Fromm's humanistic psychoanalysis; a story as real as reading one's own mind.
With all its beauty of language and elements of realistic fiction, Chains Around the Grass carries a problem as a book. The title and the prologue are suggestive of Sara as being the protagonist. It is through Sara's eyes that the tenderness of life and monsters of fear are revealed to us but Sara's character is treated scantily as compared to that of her parents and her brother Jesse. Essentially it is the story of Ruth's life. Her figure could have given a better illustrative title and prologue.
Depressing novel about a family mired in poverty........2002-03-10
Naomi Ragen's four previous novels dealt with Orthodox Jews and their personal problems and struggles. These novels were intensely human, very frank and controversial. In a departure from these themes, Ragen's new novel, "Chains Around the Grass," focuses on the unfortunate Markowitz family and their myriad personal problems.
The time is the 1950's and David Markowitz, husband of Ruth, and father of three children, is again forcing the family to move, for the fourth time in ten years. He is a dreamer who thinks that one day he will strike it rich, and his family will then have the life that they deserve. For the time being, however, the Markowitz family is moving into a low-income housing project in Far Rockaway, Queens, while David plies his trade as a taxicab driver.
"Chains Around the Grass" does not succeed, mostly because Ragen has no central focus beyond describing the family's miserable lives. She touches on many themes, but they do not coalesce into a satisfying whole. Ruth Markowitz stays at home with the children, as was traditional in the pre-feminist fifties, although she has few domestic skills. Her considerable brains and talent are underutilized, which contributes to her depression and keeps the family income low. David is a charming but unstable man. He fights with his relatives who are better off than he, and he is simply unable to work at a steady job long enough to make good. None of these themes has enough resonance to make the novel come alive.
The book does have its poignant moments, especially those that center around the middle-child, Sarah. She is an excellent student, who believes that school and perhaps religion will be her ticket out of her dead-end existence. However, Ragen does not show us what is unique about this family and why their story is worth telling. "Chains Around the Grass" is little more than a very bleak story about a very unhappy family.
skip it.......2002-02-24
I've read other books by this author and couldn't even finish this one. It was an extremely depressing story and there was far too much philosophical mumble-jumble. Read her other books instead.
I've read better by her.......2002-02-06
I typically love Naomi Ragen's book, but this one left a lot to be desired. I believe that she felt that she needed to write a book and this is the first thing that came out of her pen.
While the first half of the book is the story of Dave, the husband, the second half is the story of no one. Depsite the fact that the back of the book leads you to believe it is about the daughter, Sara, she is not the main character in any sense.
There is no story for you to follow and the characters don't develop well. Their characteristics just sort of "appear."
The Jewish thread seems manufactured as if she had to insert it somewhere.
If you want to read a bood Naomi Ragen book, read ANY of the others.
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Chains Around the Grass
Manufacturer: TOBY PRESS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSM5TU |
Average customer rating:
- Different and good.
- Roo's the Man!
- Good continuation to a fantatic story
- Awesome!!!!
- Gripping. A great book!
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Rise of a Merchant Prince (Serpentwar Saga)
Raymond E. Feist
Manufacturer: HarperTorch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Rage of a Demon King (Serpentwar Saga , Vol 3)
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Shards of a Broken Crown (Serpentwar Saga, Book 4)
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Shadow of a Dark Queen (The Serpentwar Saga, Book 1)
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The King's Buccaneer
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Prince of the Blood, 15th Anniversary Edition
ASIN: 0380720876 |
Book Description
Surviving the wrath of the fearsome Sauur—a hideous race of invading serpents—noble Erik and cunning Roo have delivered a timely warning to the rulers of the Midkemian Empire, and are now free to pursue their separate destinies. Erik chooses the army—and the continuing war against Midkemia's dread enemies. Roo lusts for wealth and power—rising high and fast in theworld of trade. But with luxury comes carelessness and a vulnerability to the desires of the flesh. And a beautiful seductress with her ruthless machinations threatens to destroy everything Roo has built and become—summoning catastrophe into his future . . . and terror into his world.
Customer Reviews:
Different and good........2006-04-24
Mr Feist departs from his prior action/fantasy to deliver political and commercial intrigue in a fantasy setting. Quite good.
Roo's the Man!.......2006-02-26
When Roo kicked butt generating wealth in the market and put his enemies to shame, it was just too much for me. True, this isn't what you'd call classic style fantasy, but it still has many elements. I love it when they go back after coming from down under and Barrets Coffeehouse, the site of Roo's greates manipulation of the market. Man, what an awesome story.
**A book I would also recommend is The Unsuspecting Mage by Brian S. Pratt. This, the first installment of The Morcyth Saga is a great beginning for a new author. Battles, magic, gods, secret passages and intrigue, all the elements of a classic epic fantasy! Any fantasy reader will enjoy it
Good continuation to a fantatic story.......2006-01-09
Rise of a Merchant Prince by Raymond Feist is the second book in the Serpent War Saga, the first book being shadow of a Dark Queen. This book seems to polarize fans of Feist, as they either love it or abhor it. Me, I really enjoyed this novel for several reasons. 1) It is a deviation from standard fantasy novels in that it doesn't focus on things that are `out of this world so to speak 2) the character development (mainly Roo's) is second to none, and 3) Feist can pen a tale with the best fantasy writers in the business today. With that said, there are a few things that I Wasn't overly fond of, but I will touch on those later in this review.
The main plot of this book is just as the title implies, which is the rise of a merchant prince who is Roo or Rupert Avery. There are a few sub-plots to continue the over-riding story of the saga as well, such as the Serpent's continuing domination of their continent and how that is being dealt with by the main characters Erik and the rest of the army. When I firs found out the plot centered on Roo and dealt a lot with being a merchant and trading etc, I was a little apprehensive as it didn't seem like all that interesting of a book to read. Yet, Feist MAKES it interesting. I have read some reviews on-line that say the pacing of this book is slow; but quite honestly, I didn't see that at all. In fact, I thought the book was hard to put down. There is just enough written about Erik and the army to move that story along, but this book is clearly written for Roo and the emergence he makes as a merchant and how powerful he becomes. With that said one of my complaints is it seemed almost to easy for Roo to advance as he does, but for fear of writing spoilers I won't say more.
As I mentioned above the character development of Roo is fantastic. Feist really does a great job at defining Roo and allowing the reader to see just what makes him tick. The character development of the rest of the cast of this saga seems to be lacking a bit in that nothing much new is really introduced for Erik or Calis. It almost seems like Feist was overly concerned with Roo that he may have `misplaced' the development of the other characters a bit. A minor detail, but none-the-less a little bothersome for those who really enjoy character development and the twists it can bring.
Overall, I thought this was a very good book and right on par with what I have become accustomed to when I crack open a Feist book. If you are a fan of Feist, I think you will enjoy this one if you know what to expect. If you are looking at starting to read a new series and are thinking about this series, I would caution you, and suggest you read Magician: Apprentice first and start from the beginning and get the background, you can't go wrong with that book. All in all a solid read and a enjoyable read for a fantasy reader.
Awesome!!!!.......2005-09-06
Raymond Does it again I loved this book, Rupert Avery is the entrupanuer of all ages i swear and Erik von Darkmoor is awesome I loved this Second installment as much as the first it was both riveting and Exciting it kept me turning the pages again and again i loved it.!!!
Gripping. A great book!.......2005-07-14
In this sequel to Shadow of a Dark Queen, author Raymond Feist takes us back to his magical world of Midkemia. Now that they have returned to the Kingdom of the Isles, Erik von Darkmoor has decided to reenlist in the fight against the dark powers that threaten his world, while Rupert Avery has decided to follow his original plan of marrying a rich merchant's ugly daughter and building a mercantile empire. But, life is going to prove interesting to both. Becoming a merchant prince is no cakewalk, and Roo will find his abilities taxed to the limit. And, the dark power rising in Novindus has not been deterred from its purpose.
Raymond Feist's Riftwar books were great, with epic adventure and magic, while his later books enjoyed a somewhat smaller scope. This book succeeds in walking on both sides of the street. While armies marshal and wizards weave great spells, we also follow the life of a man trying to build up his wealth and his personal life. And, I must say that it succeeds in doing both admirably.
I love stories of wizards and armies, and one gets a bunch of that here. But, I must say that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Mr. Feist's tale of Roo Avery. I was captivated by the choices he made, both for good and for ill.
I am surprised to say that I enjoyed this book as much as I did the Riftwar books and Shadow of a Dark Queen! The action is gripping, grabbing you right on the first page, and drawing you along. Yep, this is a great book, and a wonderful addition to my fantasy library. I loved to presence of Boldar Blood, and hope that Mr. Feist will consider writing a book that develops the Hall of Worlds more!
I loved this book, and highly recommend it to you!
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Beyond Prince and Merchant: Citizen Participation and the Rise of Civil Society
Manufacturer: P A C T Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Anthropology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books | Cultural | Ethnobotany | Ethnology | Evolution | General | History & Philosophy | Physical | Primitive | Religious | Sociobiology
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ASIN: 1888753099 |
Product Description
paperbacks
Customer Reviews:
Hard and very Political, my cup of tea!!.......1999-03-17
If you love political and political history, keep reading.
"This book is Poetry in political dialogue".
This book for it is political minded, to those which can relate to hidden international political issues, with an open mindedness. Professor Ikime wrote history which is not wanted to be known by Britain.
The book is concerning itself with two local areas known as Countries. From Benin and Nigeria, and it's governing system of people living within the area of Niger Delta. The inner trials and tribulations of the events and issues of Merchant TRADERS, the corruption's, as well as slavery, and the domination of the British exploitation through manipulation to deceive and destroy to control it. All while secretly destroying a perfectly running system which was culturally sound and prospering but exploited as non-Christian like business operations.
One man realizes that the British were wrong, now has to fight against there exploitations. Eventually, all is turned upside down and inside out and the best of the worse happens......
"The Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta" hit all the basis with facts and details. My utmost repect for Professor Ikime work.
If you love hard core political work, there is another similar book called "The Peasants Interview" which goes into a general world view look into all of the aspects of political issues of Africanism.
Average customer rating:
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Rise of a Merchant Prince
Raymond E Feist
Manufacturer: HARPER COLLINS 1 PAP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Alternate History | Anthologies | Arthurian | Contemporary | Epic | General | Historical | History & Criticism | Magic & Wizards | Series
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ASIN: 0006497004 |
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-26
This book is much funnier, and the situation certainly helps. War is looming with an alien race, and yes, they are pretty much bug eyed monster types. The Stainless Steel Rat and relatives have to do something about it.
Infiltration is tricky, but all undercover super thief/spies are good at disguise. He can even do alien sexy. Pretty funny.
Building A Better Rat Trap.......2005-11-22
The title of the latest escapades of the "Rat" is a bit of a stretch of the imagination as it suggests images of vintage WWI era posters of Uncle Sam recruiting enlistments for the United States military. What actually occurs, though, is that after freeing his family members form various forms of incarceration the Stainless Steel Rat plays upon the gratitude for a good deed done and gains their support in battling an assortment of bug-eyed-monsters (BEM) bent on invading the human inhabited galaxy and making it thiers alone. At times silly, each BEM is more fearsome and funny than the last resulting in a plesant mixture of mayhem, hilarity and adventure. Enjoyable to the last, James Bolivar DiGriz proves once again that no rust has tarnished his stainless steel rat's hide.
This Rat Has Teeth!.......2002-07-16
What a relief to read The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You after the disappointing Stainless Steel Rat in Hell! What a difference fifteen years can make!
This Stainless Steel Rat is the Rat we all fell in love with - biting sarcasm, acerbic wit, the lapses in attention that land him in trouble, the daring escapes from that trouble, and a plot that moves briskly at all times, always staying a half step ahead of the reader. Just under 150 pages, it is just the right length; short enough to be read in one sitting, but long enough to draw the reader in.
The only downside to this one is the packaging. Contrary to the title and cover propaganda, the Rat does no recruiting (beyond his lovely yet dangerous wife and the twins). A better title would have been, The Stainless Steel Rat: Bug-eyed Alien Sex Goddess. Read the book and you'll see what I mean.
The best SSR book yet.......1999-02-21
I have read & enjoyed a number of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books, but this has got to be the best one yet. The book is loaded with the same slap-dash sense of humour and spontaneous action as found in the other SSR books, but this book's clever, well thought out plot puts it far above them. Slippery Jim's final solution for dealing with the slimy alien problem-makers is ingenious and satisfying, as is his surprising insight to the behaviour of the galaxy's sadistic grey men.
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The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You
Harry Harrison
Manufacturer: Bantam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Harrison, Harry
| ( H )
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| Science Fiction & Fantasy
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ASIN: 0553271490
Release Date: 1982-06-01 |
Customer Reviews:
A Light Easy Read.......2003-09-14
Science fiction for the most part isn't that humorous. Harry Harrison, with his Stainless Steel Rat novels, isn't part of that "most part." The Rat, one Slippery Jim, is a crook who has gone straight, and now works for the government saving the universe and whatnot. In this case a bunch of really ugly aliens unite to rub out the human race because they think we're not as cute as they are. Hey, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Enter the Rat, who engages in all kinds of adventures and visits a lot of planets and puts everything right. This is almost a Young Adult novel--a "juvenile." But not quite. I think everyone will enjoy it, though. And obviously, Harrison has his head on straight--he despises the government, the future version of the (interstellar) IRS, and bureaucracy. Pretty funny stuff, written in an endearingly goofy style.
Customer Reviews:
Little do they know..............2006-02-28
I find it interesting how many people try to discredit John Allegro with the profound evidence he conveys in this work. The thing most of these "fundamentalists" don't realize is that Allegro was commissioned by these same folks to reinterpret the New Testament but found incredible information that seems to discredit this new religion called "Christianity". The truth is this work isn't even necessary to discredit Christianity; history does a good enough job of that. The only problem is the Catholic Church, probably the most influential force on "people" on the planet, has a vested interest in not having certain information "mainstream". (The Catholic Church influences 3 times the people in every Country in the world politically and otherwise, than the US and the USSR goverments combined!) All one has to do is start asking the right questions and stop asking questions based on the ignorance they already find themselves steeped in. (But that would mean having an open mind and unfortunately most Christians believe that if they do that a demon might jump on them!!) A vicious circle for the faithful I am afraid...
One Star or Five Stars.......2003-09-23
This book does not deserve the three stars I gave it. As a work of scholarship it deserves one star (if any), as a speciman of original thinking, it deserves five. Three is just an inappropriate average. It is one of the great crackpot books of all time, ranking with When Worlds Collide, The Day after Roswell, and The Lost Continent of Mu. It is a work of sheer genius. It is also absolute nonsense. Christians misunderstand the New Testament because they don't realize that Jesus was really a mushroom. Why hadn't this occurred to me before?
This is what your mind looks like on mushrooms.......2003-07-07
I really like the historical Jesus genre and there are many excellent reads. But this one takes the cake. Why oh why do so many of these writers become enamored of enormous conspiracies that involve structures and plots so convoluted it would take an army of ciphers to dissect them?
Here's the latest: Christianity is all about a sacred mushroom. While thousands were being martyred for a new faith, their real thoughts were on a lowly plant. Or by that time, maybe the fake story (Jesus) had replaced the real story (mushrooms with a kick) or who knows? This has to be one of the worst pieces of pseudo-scholarship combined with an idea from left field I have ever attempted to wade through. I actually had to check out the book from the library because I was laughing so hard.
I am convinced that Allegro wrote this under the influence of his favorite subject. The "evidence" is one of those things that you have to connect to something else that connects to .... you get the picture. Avoid it like the plague.
reading between the lines.......2002-11-11
what convinced me of the validity of allegro's theory are the passages in the bible,,, exodus 16, and the discription of manna( its small ,round, appears in the mist, and rots in the sunlight),,,, appearing in the mist is a key,,,,, as ancient man couldn't understand how mushrooms grew. as mushroom spors are micromscopic, and they do appear in the morning mist its quite understandable that they thought it was a miracle. and what really put the cherry on the cake is the passage in revelations 2/17,,, hidden manna...... this idea of hidden manna could very well mean exactly that .. a secret cult of priest that used manna to aquire visions, a peak into spirt world.... at any rate ,its an interesting book........ enjoy.
Profound.......2002-05-09
I can honestly say that my reading of Allegro's book The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross very much changed my life. The book inspired my deep interest in researching further into comparative mythology, whereas before I had never really understood the 'point' of most of the complex tales, and the Bible I had always felt was utterly depressing! But when i saw how playful, humourous, and earthy the mythographers could be, I was HOOKED. As a visual artist now (probably also insome way inspired by that book) I love layers - of colour, meaning, and so on. So it makes sense that mythological writing also aspires to this aesthetic. Whatever the critics of Allegro's revolutionary work say, it IS extraordinarily plausible, and much more so for those who have partaken of sacred sacraments!!!!
Books:
- Count Belisarius
- Crabwalk
- Dance for the Ivory Madonna: A Romance of Psiberspace
- Days of Atonement: A Novel
- Dream of the Walled City
- Enchanted Night: A Novella
- Geniuses of Crack
- Harlot's Ghost
- Hens Dancing: A Novel
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
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- The Nia Guide for Black Women: Achieving Career Success on Your Terms
- Economic Systems & Comparative Economics I: Harwood Fundamentals of Applied Economics
Women's Minyan
The Covenant
The Sacrifice of Tamar (Readers Guide Editions)
The Ghost of Hannah Mendes
Jephte's Daughter (Readers Guide Editions)
