Cosmopolis: A Novel

Book Description

It is an April day in the year 2000 and an era is about to end. The booming times of market optimism -- when the culture boiled with money and corporations seemed more vital and influential than governments -- are poised to crash. Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager at age twenty-eight, emerges from his penthouse triplex and settles into his lavishly customized white stretch limousine. Today he is a man with two missions: to pursue a cataclysmic bet against the yen and to get a haircut across town. Stalled in traffic by a presidential motorcade, a music idol's funeral, and a violent political demonstration, Eric receives a string of visitors -- experts on security, technology, currency, finance, and a few sexual partners -- as the limo sputters toward an increasingly uncertain future.

Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo's thirteenth novel, is both intimate and global, a vivid and moving account of the spectacular downfall of one man, and of an era.

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"It is an April day in the year 2000 and an era is about to end -- those booming times of market optimism when the culture boiled with money and corporations seemed more vital and influential than governments. Eric Packer, a billionaire asset manager at age twenty-eight, emerges from his penthouse triplex and settles into his lavishly customized white stretch limousine. On this day he is a man with two missions: to pursue a cataclysmic bet against the yen and to get a haircut across town. His journey to the barbershop is a contemporary odyssey, funny and fast-moving. Stalled in traffic by a presidential motorcade, a music idol's funeral and a violent political demonstration, Eric receives a string of visitors -- his experts on security, technology, currency, finance and theory. Sometimes he leaves the car for sexual encounters and sometimes he doesn't have to. Cosmopolis, Don DeLillo's thirteenth novel, is both intimate and global, a vivid and moving account of a spectacular downfall. "

Customer Reviews:

Don, We Hardly Know Ye!.......2007-09-20

Don DeLillo is someone I regard as a serious, engrossing, remarkably *talented* writer. But as much as I enjoy reading him and as engrossed and mesmerized as I am by his breathtakingly masterful use of language ... I'm disappointed. ... Let me try to explain.

DeLillo describes one of his characters in "Cosmopolis" as follows: "She talked. That was her job. She was born to it and got paid for it. But what did she believe?" ... This is what frustrates me about Don DeLillo: he writes, masterfully; indeed, he was "born to it." But what does he believe???

He falls, for me, into quite a populated category of modern-day writers, that is to say, he knows and understands the pathologies of modern life, but the cure either eludes him or else he's not especially interested in exploring it. And that leaves him (albeit in a great deal of contemporary literary company) profoundly incomplete as a writer.

Put another way: "Et tu, Don?"

If not you, Don DeLillo, who???

Ideology .... is not something that concerns many modern-day novelists, and indeed that may be the overarching problem regarding the current crop of fiction writers.

One has no problem saying: "Sure, I get it, Orwell had an ideology. Hemingway had an ideology. Fitzgerald had an ideology." But modern-day novelists "play it safe" when it comes to an overarching socio-political point of view. In fact, may I suggest that taking a strong ideological stand would probably alienate a certain percentage of their potential audience (read: market share) and where's the profit in that?

After all, beliefs may be sacred, but profits are divine.

And so novelists today, it seems to me, "play it safe"; with others (e.g., DeLillio), while outstanding in their craftsmansip, still leave us wondering: Yes, but what's the cure? Are you outraged by all this, or is it simply more grist for your literary mill (talented though you may be)?

Where, for example, can we place Norman Mailer nowadays, ideologically? He was FOR the first Gulf War, AGAINST the current Gulf War, but supports Hilary Clinton, who is FOR the current Gulf War. Evidently, self-professed "tough guys" dance pretty good when it comes to taking a consistent stand -- Mailer early in his career quite proudly labeled himself a "liberal-conservative." Indeed.

Or Philip Roth -- how does he feel about the current state of affairs in and around Israel? How much mileage (fame, wealth & popularity) has Philip Roth accrued writing about Jews, and yet where has he written about Israel's relationship to the Palestinians and the West Bank? I'm not saying he should take this, that or some other stand on the matter, where he stand ideologically is up to him: but, as far as I'm aware of, he hasn't taken ANY position on the issue.

Here's how desperate Philip Roth is for ... grist. If you read his autobiography, "My Life as a Man," you'll see that he confesses that he married his first wife knowing *beforehand* that she diabolically tricked him into marrying him by faking a pregnancy. Why then did Roth go ahead with the marriage knowing, in advance, his wife's deceit? Well, as Woody Allen put it at the beginning of "Annie Hall," "He needed the eggs," that is to say, he freely admits that, diabolic though she was, his scheming wife would provide him with interesting "experiences" that he could transform into so much literary gold. (Oy, the humanity!)

Lenny Bruce once said: "Never trust a preacher who owns more than one suit." To the extent that novelists are our secular "preachers," from a strictly prescriptive point of view, you'll excuse me but I prefer those novelists who don't know one yacht wax from another. Or if they do know one yacht wax from another ("Because Don Corlieone ... money isn't everything"!), I rather prefer those who have the guts to "disturb" their readers by taking a stand and in doing so offer a *cure* to the maladies they (so promiscuously) write about, and not simply a play-by-play of the diseases.

Writers such as DeLillio, Mailer and Roth all profess to be "progressive" in their point of view, but it takes guts to be TRULY progressive. It takes ideology & prescriptions, not just grist and talent.

Alas, Don DeLillo, you have my great and awe-struck respect as a master craftsman when it comes to the English language, and your books are full of delight and intelligence, but ... I hardly know ye, paisan. Upon what rock do you stand?

Up to his usual utra-high standards.......2007-09-11

Okay: This is more of a relaxed and fun novel than, say, "Libra," Libra (Contemporary American Fiction)or "Underworld" Underworld: A Novelby Delillo, but few can match the heights (and depths) those novels plumbed. This is more a sprint than a marathon, or, if you will, like a great chef making a hamburger. Those who criticized it would probably have hailed it as a masterpiece if it had come from the pen of an unknown writer. This guy can write, and he is always relevant and always enlightening. This would seem to be the ideal Delillo to be made into a film, for, like Ulysses, its plot spans precisely one day, and it has cinematic elements. Definitely recommended.

Cosmopolis.......2007-09-05

Don DeLillo's short novel "Cosmopolis" (2003) is a tale of modern life filled with violence, money and materialism, the lust for sex and power, the apparently all-encompassing nature of technology and gadgetry, and self-centeredness. The novel fails because it is too full of itself and loses touch with the world it purports to describe.

The novel is set in New York City in April, 2000. The primary character is Eric Packer a wunderkind who at the age of 28 has become a billionaire as an investment manager. The story takes place over one day as Packer, suffering from sleeplessness and loneliness, decides to get a haircut across town. He so instructs the crew of his fully-equipped white stretch limo, who advise him that this is not the best of days to be out and about in the streets of New York. The President of the United States is in town and their have been threats to the President's life and to Packer's own. No matter. A haircut across town it will be.

In addition to insisting on his haircut, Packer shows his stubborness and hubris in another way. He has taken the most severe risks financially by borrowing money in the currency exchange thinking that the Japanese yen will lose value. During the course of the day, the yen continues to rise, and Packer goes broke.

Packer's day-long journey in his limo is filled with visitors, including his doctor, who examines him every day, various economists and financial advisors, and sexual encounters including one with his young and wealthy wife of 22 days. There are scenes of riots in the streets, shootings, a suicide by burning, the funeral of a famous rapper of whom Packer is fond, a movie shooting in which 300 extras lie on the street naked, and violence, by and against Packer.

Portions of the book, especially the earliest pages, have a directness and immediacy to the writing that hold out promise. Unfortunately, the book does not succeed. I think the book's major shorcoming lies in its polemical style and in its attendant excess. DeLillo has no sympathy with what he perceives to be the modern world of high-tech and high finance. His writing about it is skewed, shrill, and unconvincing. On an individual scale, Eric Packer is portrayed as on the whole a brilliant but dislikable character whose human traits have been buried in the pursuit of wealth, power, knowledge, and sex. With the exception of a few moments, Packer and his fate didn't engage me. DeLillo draws him simply to fit his ideological vision of the unjust character of modern capitalism and the cataclysmic finish to which he believes it is leading. Packer's escapades are too outlandish in themselves to be meaningful commentary. For me the book falls flat.

In the book, Packer is shown as computing every logarithm and performing every study to support his belief that the value of the yen "must" fall. There is a strong message in the book about the limitations of knowledge and of chance -- the folly of thinking that, in any given case, any individual or group can be astute enough to identify and assess all the options and to reach a certain conclusion. This is wise advise indeed. Alas, in the case of this book, this wisdom is overwhelmed by a mass of stridency, shrillness, and self-certainty in the author in his own critique of aspects of modern life of which he greatly disapproves. The virtues of humility and the sense of human fallibility are valuable traits for writers and social critics -- as well as for billionaire financiers and for those obsessed with money and power.

Robin Friedman

Not bad.......2007-08-08

A fast paced book that takes place in a limo in one day. Our hero is a fabulously rich man who has married on heiress that he keep losing. He conducts business in his limo and his people come to him. Anyway a very odd, compelling book

In a world of skyscrapers, this novel falls flat.......2007-03-03

Reading Cosmopolis is a rather disjointed, but not entirely unenjoyable experience. Often, it's difficult to follow what's happening in the story, if there is a story, and ultimately, what the conclusion of the story is.

This is the fourth work of Don DeLillo that I've read, and it seems that this is his typical style. It's clear that he's a very accomplished writer through his sentence structure and the flow of his paragraphs, but as far as character development... forget about it.

The lead character in this book, an investment banker or money changer of some kind named Eric Packer, starts out the book depressed and wanting a haircut. As he rides through the city in his limo, stopping to visit his wife and mistresses several times throughout, he becomes more and more disconcerted with his place in the world. He's constantly on the watch for an assassin, consulting with his team of bodyguards often.

The events that unfold in the pages of Cosmopolis are hard to recount. Maybe because they don't really make sense. Is this a surrealist (sometimes metaphorical) account of the crumbling of a banking tycoon, or is the lead character's mind simply so far gone that this is how he sees the world?

There's some interesting philosophical dialogue between characters, and perhaps some stunning suggested imagery, but overall this entire book seems remarkably uninspired and flat. Amidst all the technology and philosophy discussions, nothing seems to be happening. In the heightened reality that DeLillo has created, you would think the events taking place would be more exciting.

Although I didn't necessarily dislike this book, I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. It's just a mediocre story disguised with clever, sometimes almost pretentious writing.

Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H.G. Wells

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Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H.G. Wells
John S. Partington
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0754633837

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Cosmopolis a Novel
Paul Bourget
Manufacturer: tait, Sons & Comapny
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000TXVAHK

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Cosmopolis: A Novel
Don DeLillo
Manufacturer: RB Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Literature & Fiction | Large Print | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000U3HBGS

Product Description

From Publishers Weekly DeLillo skates through a day in the life of a brilliant and precocious New Economy billionaire in this monotone 13th novel, a study in big money and affectlessness. As one character remarks, 28-year-old Eric Packer "wants to be one civilization ahead of this one." But on an April day in the year 2000, Eric's fortune and life fall apart. The story tracks him as he traverses Manhattan in his stretch limo. His goal: a haircut at Anthony's, his father's old barber. But on this day his driver has to navigate a presidential visit, an attack by anarchists and a rapper's funeral. Meanwhile, the yen is mounting, destroying Eric's bet against it. The catastrophe liberates Eric's destructive instinct-he shoots another character and increases his bet. Mostly, the action consists of sequences in the back of the limo (where he stages meetings with his doctor, various corporate officers and a New Economy guru) interrupted by various pit stops. He lunches with his wife of 22 days, Elise Shifrin. He has sex with two women, his art consultant and a bodyguard. He is hit in the face with a pie by a protester. He knows he is being stalked, and the novel stages a final convergence between the ex-tycoon and his stalker. DeLillo practically invented the predominant vernacular of the late '90s (the irony, the close reading of consumer goods, the mock complexity of technobabble) in White Noise, but he seems surprisingly disengaged here. His spotlighted New Economy icon, Eric, doesn't work, either as a genius financier (he is all about gadgetry, not exchange-there's no love of the deal in his "frozen heart") or a thinker. The threats posed by the contingencies that he faces cannot lever him out of his recalcitrant one-dimensionality. DeLillo is surely an American master, but this time out, he is doodling. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Utopia and Cosmopolis: Globalization in the Era of American Literary Realism (New Americanists)

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Please help me!
Transcendent -- This Book literally changed My Life
not what you expect
Powerful, bleak book
A Return of Peyser's Aphasia

Utopia and Cosmopolis: Globalization in the Era of American Literary Realism (New Americanists)
Thomas Peyser , and Thomas Peyser
Manufacturer: Duke University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

The Incorporation of America [25th Anniversary Edition]: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age

ASIN: 0822322307

Book Description

When did Americans first believe they were at the center of a truly global culture? How did they envision that culture and how much do recent attitudes toward globalization owe to their often utopian dreams? In Utopia and Cosmopolis Thomas Peyser asks these and other questions, offers a reevaluation of American literature and culture at the dawn of the twentieth century, and provides a new context for understanding contemporary debates about America’s relation to the rest of the world.
Applying current theoretical work on globalization to the writing of authors as diverse as Edward Bellamy, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, William Dean Howells, and Henry James, Peyser reveals the ways in which turn-of-the-century American writers struggled to understand the future in a newly emerging global community. Because the pressures of globalization at once fostered the formation of an American national culture and made national culture less viable as a source of identity, authors grappled to find a form of fiction that could accommodate the contradictions of their condition. Utopia and Cosmopolis unites utopian and realist narratives in subtle, startling ways through an examination of these writers’ aspirations and anxieties. Whether exploring the first vision of a world brought together by the power of consumer culture, or showing how different cultures could be managed when reconceived as specimens in a museum, this book steadily extends the horizons within which late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American literature and culture can be understood.
Ranging widely over history, politics, philosophy, and literature, Utopia and Cosmopolis is an important contribution to debates about utopian thought, globalization, and American literature.

Customer Reviews:

Please help me!.......2004-08-01

Please say this review is helpful to you. They told me that if I post another unhelpful review they're going to kill my ferret.

Transcendent -- This Book literally changed My Life.......2001-09-21

You know, this is not the sort of book I would normally read. But there it was, suddenly, on the coffee table one night. How it got there I have no idea. Just curious, I began to leaf through the pages, and the words began to resonate with me. Unable to sleep, I read it through in one sitting by candlelight. The next morning, I began to look at things around me differently. First, I removed several unessential appliances from the house in an effort to simplify my existence. Then it became time to de-clutter and I threw out several items I realized I had no more use for. Then, and this all seemed so logical in light of the things I'd read, I divorced the wife and sent her on her why. Sure, she cried a bit, but I knew I was doing the right thing. And I've never regretted it. This is, indeed, one of the best books I've read all year.

not what you expect.......2000-12-23

I don't usually tolerate so-called theory, but this was fun!

Don't let the title fool you--this is a down-to-earth, engaging work that deserves to be read by a much larger audience than the academic field it's probably relegated to.

Powerful, bleak book.......1999-08-12

This is a powerful, bleak book. None of the writers Peyser deals with is particularly optimistic. The possible exception is Howells but there is a dark undertow even to his work which Peyser makes sure we see. So a book about utopia is also a strangely, depressing read. 40 years or so after Brooke Farm, who would have thought things would have gotten so sad? Of course it was the turn the century and the best of the Western thinkers were thinking sad and pessimistic thoughts. And now here we are at the turn of another century and we have this powerful, bleak book. Have we come all that far after this century of bloodthirsty carnage? Is Utopia even further away than it was 100 years ago? Read Peyser's powerful, bleak book and see if you can answer some of these sad questions yourself. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A Return of Peyser's Aphasia.......1999-07-27

It was obvious to anyone who has known Peyser that something like this was bound to happen. I refer, of course, to Peyser's bout of aphasia during his freshman year at the College. Clearly this mysterious illness has returned in book-length, perhaps even a global, form. We may never really know what Peyser is up to in this book. Oh, for some Young and Champollion to decode this, the Rosetta Stone of post-modernism!

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Cosmopolis; a novel, (World library)
Paul Bourget
Manufacturer: The Waverly Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008AVNEY

Book Description

Rabbit is a trooper on the Border Guards, just another body in the King's army. But when his patrol encounters a Faena-one of the magical guardians of an uneasy ally-Rabbit is thrust into a political and magical intrigue that could start a war. Because Rabbit isn't just another trooper. He is the son of nobility-and a mage who doesn't know his own power...

Customer Reviews:

TERRIFIC FANTASY PAGE TURNER.......2007-08-18

Wow. THis is what I call state of the art fantasy fiction. A fascinating, fresh world peopled with interesting characters and a story that won't stop. Can't wait to read the next two books in the borderlands series. Kudos to the author!

Excellent !.......2007-04-15

I was thoroughly impressed with this book and the follow up, The King's Own. It took the basics of fairy tales and broadened it to be a much more complete world and reality. Lord Rabbit is endearing in his somewhat haphazard rise as a magician of his elements. This is a storyline I will definitely keep on my bookshelves to read over and over again in future years. I recommend it highly.

Pretty Good.......2007-03-05

There's a lot to like about this debut fantasy, though the book has some flaws, which I'll address below. I give it three stars, but it's really a three and a half.

First, the good stuff. The book's most obvious strength is its main character, Rabbit. It's a first person narration, and Rabbit's voice is naive, frank, wry, funny--and completely compelling. The voice, alone, makes the book worth reading. Rabbit's conflicts, both internal and external, are interesting; as a reader, I followed his adventures with great enjoyment.

I also appreciated how the author used the revelation of information to create tension in the plot. I found myself flipping back to earlier scenes, and saying to myself, "ah-ha, so that's why so-n-so did such-n-such."

The magic system is cool, and the concept of the Borderland is rich with possibility. I have no trouble believing the author will write other fun books in this world.

That said, the book has some problems.

J. Hulet's comment is right on: he/she complains that Rabbit and Co don't seem like actual soldiers. I agree that the military structure here is awfully loose. The men are constantly insubordinate to their officers and don't seem to have many duties to keep them busy. Military discipline seems nonexistent.

Freeman could have cut 30,000 words from the middle of the novel. There's loose prose all over the place, and many, many redundant scenes.

For example, one writing 'tic' I see repeated here is an action scene followed by a chatty scene in which those involved in the action scene rehash in conversation the action. Yeah, yeah, we get it: you don't have to show the scene and then tell it.

Another problem is that there are too many tertiary characters. That is, the stage is too crowded with extras that lack personality and purpose. Pointless set dressing.

'White room' scenes. This might seem to contradict my previous point, but too many of the scenes are poorly blocked (I don't know why I keep using movie terms!). The setting is often not adequately described, and the characters' positions in relationship to each other are not clear.

The plot structure is way off, especially at the beginning. There's way too much pointless wandering around before the plot gains traction and starts to move. Seriously, with the overblown wordcount and the plot problems, I wonder if Freeman's editor was asleep at the wheel.

Ordinarily, these kinds of problems would have made the book unreadable for me. Yet thanks to the compelling voice, I still enjoyed it. It's fun, and I'll consider reading the second one in the series, though I'll hope to seem some improvement.

aight.......2007-01-26

This is a good book, the style is very hard to comprehend and understand. Eventually you get used to it, overall it drags when it is not supposed to and goes through major events way to quick or just does not really acknowledge it and goes on with the story. The plot was good and that is the only reason it is getting four stars, if written a little better with more thought then yea it gets five stars.

A fabulous fantasy adventure.......2007-01-23

I picked up this book on a whim with about fifteen other books of the same genre. Two months later, most of the other fourteen books are still in the bag and I ended up heading to the mall on Boxing Day to pick up the sequel.

It's hard to pin down exactly what makes this book so engaging, but a large part of it may be due to the author's ability to avoid many of the standard fantasy pitfalls. The large cast of characters is never overwhelming, and all of them are distinct enough to be interesting in their own right and therefore memorable. Seeing everything through Rabbit's eyes means that you end up feeling very invested in the storyline, while at the same time it also means that you spend a large portion of the book having *no idea what is going on*, which is much more enjoyable than it should be. The questions are all answered in ways that make sense, the powers used never seem to veer into the godlike, and the evil characters range from the merely petty to the humanly greedy to the sadistically deranged. Funny as all heck, too.

I guess that the reason this book is so enjoyable all comes down to the likeability of Rabbit himself. It's not that everyone likes him, and certainly he's not the typical hero type, but rather that there is a strong current of affection for him that runs through the book and you end up sharing in it. The guy needs a keeper, really, and there are several characters in the book who seem to feel the same way. It's hard not to feel fond of a character whose insistence on being 'just a horse soldier' passes all reasonable limits fairly early on, just as it's hard not to feel fond of a world where the human invaders lost the war but the magical residents couldn't stop arguing amongst themselves long enough to kick them out.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, fiction of the 'men-with-powers' type, humorous POV, strong friendships, quests, fallible narrators, and generally excellent writing. (In other words, everyone. Everyone should read this book.)

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The morons march on

A Fine Literary Legacy

Best collection ever?

Fascinating collection by too often overlooked writer

One of the best books I've ever bought

His Share of Glory: The Complete Short Science Fiction of C.M. Kornbluth
C. M. Kornbluth , and Timothy Szczesuil
Manufacturer: Nesfa Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Anthologies | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Short Stories | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
20th Century | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0915368609

Book Description

His Share of Glory contains all the short science fiction written solely by C. M. Kornbluth. Many of the stories are SF "classics", such as "The Marching Morons," "The Little Black Bag," "Two Dooms," "The Mindworm," "Thirteen O'Clock," and, of course, "That Share of Glory". His Share of Glory includes all of Kornbluth's solo short science fiction, fifty-six works of short SF in all, with the original bibliographic details including pseudonymous by-line. The introduction is by noted SF writer and life-long friend and collaborator of C. M. Kornbluth-Frederik Pohl. Hardbound with cover art by Richard Powers.

Customer Reviews:

The morons march on.......2007-02-04

I tend to think of collections like these as a public service, an archive of sorts, gathering together all of the writer's stories in one place to save interested parties the trouble of an Indiana Jones-like foray through libraries and used bookstores hunting down anthology and magazine appearances. Speaking for myself, I had only had previous encounters with a couple of these stories, and the most famous of them, "The Marching Morons," I had, by some mischance, never read at all. It seems likely that many readers be in roughly the same situation as me, with the majority of your familiarity with Kornbluth's work coming in the form of his collaborations, most notably with Frederik Pohl.

My first observation: there are a lot of stories here. My second observation: there are a lot of stories here, written over a very few years, all the more impressive considering how much other work Kornbluth, working with others, produced during his short career that isn't even included here. Most of them lack the sort of timeless quality present in stories of a similar vintage by, say, Ray Bradbury; that is to say, they read like SF stories from the 1940s and 1950s, which is what they are, and no shame in that. The sophisticated reader of SF will judge them on their own merits anyway.

An overview (there are entirely too many stories here to evaluate each one individually): "The Marching Morons" is here, of course; those of you haven't read it probably think you know what it's about, but I'll wager that you'll find it's nothing like you imagined. "MS Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie" is that rarest of gems, a story about science-fiction writing that isn't too inside or too cute for its own good (and its use of the epistlary form is inventive as well). "Thirteen O'Clock" is notable as an early example of the story wherein a person from our mundane world is transported into a parallel world of magic, faries, trolls, and so forth. "The Words of Guru" is simply disturbing, and there is no other word for it. When you read "The Luckiest Man in Denv," you'll think the premise is obvious, and that the twist ending is telegraphed; you're wrong. "Shark Ship" is probably one of the most unique stories I've ever read, taking two original ideas and jamming them together in a manner that took my breath away. And the opening story, "That Share of Glory," is a minor masterpiece of extrapolation and conjecture, wonderfully inventive. There is an appendix of stories that most people would consider hackwork, stories written in a hurry under psudonyms to fill space in magazines. Read these; it's true, they aren't up to snuff (I found "The Core" practically incomprehensible), but there are many interesting ideas here, nonetheless.

His Share of Glory is equal parts hopeful and pessimistic. Many of Kornbluth's futures are, indeed, glorious. But other stories mitigate humanity's technological development with a corresponding cultural and intellectual backslide, and Kornbluth often projects a future in which people have degenerated to the point of imbecility except for a very few who frantically try to keep civilization afloat on their own. In any case, this is a book that may overwhelm you if you try to read it straight through; perhaps it is best appreciated over several readings. But this isn't something you'll want to have just so you can read it through and put it aside anyway; it's not that kind of book, and it serves a greater purpose than that. Kudos to NESFA Press for making this resource available.

A Fine Literary Legacy.......2004-10-13

Kornbluth came out of that New York science fiction circle that produced Isaac Asimov and Fred Pohl, among many others. He died in his mid thirties or he would likely have been as familiar as these others to today's readers. Some of the finest moments in mid-Twentieth Century short science fiction are found here, including the award-winning "The Marching Morons." And some very interesting if quirky stuff. Kornbluth was prone to experiment, not content to mine the "mainstream." If you haven't read any Kornbluth, you may want to start elsewhere. His Share of Glory is a treat for the addicted, a newcomer to this author may want to try a lesser dose.

Best collection ever?.......2004-05-29

This may be the best collection of stories ever published, science fiction or not. Even anthologies that pluck the classic short stories of an entire decade would have trouble matching the works collected here.

Cyril is cynical, at least he appears so, but he was also brilliant and entertaining. There is not a weak story in the collection and many are superb. The work is so good it is difficult to be dispassionately critical rather than gush with praise.

We see many of the tropes of science fiction, common then and now used by Kornbluth, however they will appear new and brilliant even to the most well-read and jaded reader.

The book may not make you feel good about humanity, but it will make you feel good about buying and reading it. It is one of the most entertaining, well written collections of short fiction I have come across and I am a big fan of short fiction.

NESFA has done a huge service by collecting and publishing this volume, as well as other collections.

Also pick up "Not this August" by Kornbluth, as well as "The Space Merchants" by Pohl and Kornbluth.

Fascinating collection by too often overlooked writer.......2002-08-20

Cyril Kornbluth died almost a half century ago, leaving behind many great stories written in SF's golden age. The short stories have been conveniently collected into one hardcover.

Kornbluth's stories are not sweetness and light, he writes of the darkness in the human spirit, even in the point of view characters in the books. "The Little Black Bag" is an example of how the urge to do good can fall to evil. "That Share of Glory," perhaps his greatest work, is the tale of a young man of the future who learns that even our urge to violence, that we attempt to keep hidden, is very much a necessary part of the human spirit.

Every story is a gem. While some are written in a style which now seems somwhat dated, it is easy to get past that and recognize the genius who wrote them.

One of the best books I've ever bought.......2001-08-04

OK, I've read most of these stories already. And I already knew that Kornbluth was a great writer. But reading this volume all the way through -- and in pretty short order because I couldn't stop -- just reminded me how great a writer he was.

If you have only dim memories of these stories, I guarantee that upon rereading them you'll be amazed at how much *better* they are than you remember. (Not all science fiction of that era holds up so well). If you've never read these stories, prepare to be amazed. This is a book that every lover of science fiction -- or just good writing -- should own, and read.

Book Description

Reclaim Your Spiritual Power is filled with inspiring information on how to tap into the tremendous and never-ending abundance of God in our lives. Ron Roth says that anyone who is willing to listen and trust, basically having a "heart-to-heart" with God, can access a direct line to God's infinitive abundance. He tells us that the Holy Spirit is a boundless energy that can work through you when you truly connect with God through prayer and contemplation. Through prayer, you can be filled with the inner knowledge that you were made in God's image, and that you are a joint-heir in God's abundance.

Book Description

In this book, Father Leo inspires us to reclaim our spiritual power and make the moves that can lead us into a powerful, adult relationship with God...a partnership, a co-creatorship, rather than a passive dependency.

The God Game: It's Your Move will empower and guide you to:

Move from spiritual pawn to powerful player with God through Choice, Responsibility and Action.

Customer Reviews:

A religous refugee thinks twice with this one!.......2001-02-07

I have claimed to be an agnostic for years with a strict penticostal background and according to my therapist a grudge with Jesus. A friend gave me this book to read who herself is a "recovering catholic" who shuns most religous-osity. I hesitated opening up the cover which has God in bright blue letters across the cover. But I was hooked before the end of the first chapter.

This book takes everything I ever learned and loathed about God, spirituality, and religion and twist it around, throws it out or clears it up in a mere 176 pages. All the things that have kept me stuck and stunted in my spirituality were addressed by Father Leo in a realistic and nurturing way. He suggest we clear out our "God Box" those things that keep us beat down, guilty and judged in our religions and work on co-creating our destinies with God. I now know I have a lot of work to do with my spiritual side... I've simply been lazy due to my fears. Who knows if I'll ever claim the description of christian again... but I know I'll be more spiritually sound in what ever path I take. Thank you Father Leo!

Required reading in an age of mass market sectarianism.......2000-03-31

Leo Booth's book describes just how addicting conventional religion can become when it is taken as a final step in the spiritual life rather than what it really is meant to be: a first step in adult faith development. In an age when adults are turning to conventional piety in greater numbers, it seems, Booth's book is a practical guide for developing authentic adult spirituality rooted in wisdom when the "God Box" offered in contemporary forms of True Believerism loses its allure.

I consider works like Booth's (and many others) to be a kind of "warning label" on the real dangers of devotion associated with the resurgent fundamentalism and parochialism found today in most religious institutions and spiritual movements. Booth's work meets a growing need for spiritual recovery among adults who become disillusioned with the polarization, polemics and proselytism too ofetn associated with naive forms of religious enthusiasm, however orthodox and "grown-up" in nature.

Chapter by chapter, Booth leads the reader in recovery from the "numbing effects of... religiosity" (page 11), to the "reclaiming of spiritual power lost to dysfunctional or outmoded religious messages." (page 13).

Thanks to Leo Booth for encouraging us all to "experience 'The Way' demonstrated not just by Jesus, but by so many great spiritual leaders and teachers in all cultures and walks of life. Writing a new story for ourselves helps us discover the sacred in the secular that reveals God at work in so many diverse places- not only in the traditional religious scriptures, but in the words of ordinary people who challenge us to connect with our world." (page 183)

Average customer rating:
Reclaim Your Spiritual Power
Ron; Occhiogrosso, Peter Roth
Manufacturer: Hay House Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J4NBMQ

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