Average customer rating:
- The River Warren
- Portrait of community, friendship, family
- A small town tries to comprehend a bizarre act
- Haunting, wonderfully written novel
- Fine Work from the hinterlands of South Dakota
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The River Warren: A Novel
Kent Meyers
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0156010623 |
Amazon.com
The River Warren begins with a resounding crash, as a packed tractor-trailer plows through a hardware store, killing all the cattle aboard as well as the driver, Two-Speed Crandall, and his wife, LouAnn. The accident--or lack thereof--sends the little farming town of Cloten into a veritable orgy of speculation: "The talk goes around and around about Two-Speed Crandall, but the talk's all about something else, like a whirlpool still in its center and everything going around it," says Angel Finn, owner of the hardware store. "It's like Two-Speed, now that he's dead, and dead's about as still as you can get, he's drawn other stories to him, and they're all whirling around, and people're trying to see it all." A drunk, idler, and notable eccentric, hated and feared by the town as well as his sensitive son, Luke, Two-Speed Crandall is the still place at this dreamlike novel's center, drawing stories to him as inexorably as swirling water. Before the novel is over, Luke and his best friend, Jeff Gruber, uncover the secret of their families' tangled histories, while the rest of the town rehashes old rumors, gossip, and slights both real and imagined. Told by seven distinct voices, in prose that is by turns lyrical and down to earth, this ambitious and powerful debut novel never quite solves the mystery that was Two-Speed Crandall--but it goes straight to the heart of what makes small towns tick.
Book Description
One early spring morning Two-Speed Crandall, with his wife at his side and a semitrailer full of cattle, drives through the middle of Cloten, plowing into the hardware store and killing himself, his wife, and most of the cattle. Was it an accident or suicide? No one will ever know, but a few people, including the town doctor and Two-Speed's son, have their theories. Gossip, half-truths, and painful memories are unleashed as the town tries to understand the tragedy as well as untangle their intertwined pasts. In voices as rich as the muddy river that runs through Cloten, each narrator shares what they know-always circling closer to the mystery that ties them all together. Moving back and forth through time, The River Warren creates an unforgettable sense of place and community, and introduces a remarkable new voice in American fiction.
Customer Reviews:
The River Warren.......2005-09-07
An intriguing exploration of human behavior and motivations. The story line develops through separate chapter characters. However, Meyers does a better job of plot and writing in his later work "The Work of Wolves," which I consider an outstanding novel.
Portrait of community, friendship, family.......2005-03-18
Kent Meyers is my new favorite author. I find his writing to be very powerful and moving and I am totally drawn in to the life of the town of Cloten.
The ache to communicate and understand family member's motivations flows through this book. Assumptions and false assumptions are made that may or may not be correct. Through it all runs the River Warren. I have two more books of Kent Meyers to read and then I will anxiously await the next one to be written.
A small town tries to comprehend a bizarre act.......2001-12-05
Using the voice of various citizens of a small Minnesota town, Kent Meyers tells the story behind a tragic act.
Two-Speed Crandall crashes his semi through town, killing himself and his doomed wife and cutting a pointed path of destruction. Though no one in town claims to really know Two-Speed (even his own son), they fumble with their collective knowledge of this man and his past behavior in attempt to understand his final act.
The reader begins the book hoping to learn more about Two-Speed Crandall's life, but instead, we are shown the inner-workings of a small community and how intertwined their lives are. Each voice is distinct and each character well-defined through his/her own thoughts as relayed to the reader.
What's so fantastic about this book is how the author nails each character, makes them unique, quirky, yet solid. In the end, there are no unanswered questions, just acceptance.
Haunting, wonderfully written novel.......2000-06-19
When Two-Speed Crandall crashes his pick-up in the middle of town, killing himself, his wife, and a load of cattle, his surviving family and townspeople speculate as to whether the crash was voluntary, and what led up to it.
This story is told through various persons' thoughts and observations: family members, the only person who witnessed the crash, the local gossip, and others. Each one has separate pieces to the puzzle, so the book made me think of the old story about three blind men trying to describe an elephant, each feeling a totally different part.
The writing is brilliant. You feel like you "know" each of the narrators. At the same time, these differing perspectives result in the development of complex characters. For example, Two-Speed, who generally is a jerk to most people, at the same time secretly befriends a local mentally retarded man in a truly kind way.
The writing also was so clear that I vividly "saw" the town of Cloten, the fields, the river and the events as they unfolded.
I understand that this is the author's first novel, and hope that there are more to come.
Fine Work from the hinterlands of South Dakota.......1999-11-04
Ordinary folks inhabiting any small town in rural America are the multifaceted characters plying the pages of "The River Warren". At the same time the insights brought to the reader through these people living on the fringe of our culture are rather extraordinary. The story is set in motion by Tow-speed Crandall who crashes his tractor trailer loaded with cattle through the streets of a quite Minnesota hamlet, killing driver, passenger and most of the cattle on board. The main characters of the book are connected to the dead occupants in interesting and surprizing ways that are revealed layer by layer as the story unfolds. Every chapter's title is the name of the person speaking, each character offering a varied perspective of the commings and goings of Two-Speed and his truck. Using this interesting literary device Kent Myers gives his story solid form, a backbone so to say. Still the pros are as fluid and varied as the person doing the talking. By design the town(the community) comes to know itself a little better, and I might add, so does the reader. Myers infuses the story line with an undertow tension, a mysterious ebb and flow, not unlike the River Warren itself. At novel's end, we are sitting with people much like ourselves, men and women of light and shadow, maybe a little rough around the edges, all in need of some form of redemption. The author does not disappoint in this regard, transforming his characters and readers in subtle, lasting ways. A fine piece of work that easily warrents its place on the printed page, no doubt worthy of further reflection and much more praise than I am able to give here.
Customer Reviews:
Good human stories.......2007-08-24
"Astro City: Local Heroes" collects 9 stories that have only one character in common: the city itself. Astro City is home to many superheroes - and supervillains - and as such isn't like any other place, but most of the people that call it home are "normal" people that wouldn't be out of place anywhere else. Yet the presence of these extraordinarily powerful people plays an important role in the lives of the everyday people that also choose to make Astro City home, and each of the tales in "Local Heroes" focuses on these people, using the Super heroes and villains as background characters (although not unimportant ones) to tell the tales of ordinary folks living in a world where the extraordinary isn't uncommon. The main characters of the tales include a hotel valet, a comic book writer, a stuntman/actor, a trial lawyer, a young boy, and an elderly retired super hero.
The ability to tell good human stories is something of a trademark of Kurt Busiek, and this one is on par with Marvels and Secret Identity two previous excellent works of his. It is a type of writing that I wish was more common in comic books. Highly recommended (and not just to superhero comicbook fans), 4.5/5 stars.
Not Busiek's best, but not bad.......2006-01-31
This collection of nine mostly separate stories is considerably above the average, much better in my opinion than the earlier Astro City stuff I've read. "Knock Wood" and "Justice Systems" is the only two-parter, about a criminal defense lawyer who finds a new way to defend his obviously guilty mob client and finds himself in a bad place for doing his job; it's easily the best story here, with the attorney's musings (in 1974) about losing faith in society and the government, and in the legal system generally. "After the Fire" is a short one without even any superheroes in it, about real heroism; it's actually a very affecting short story with pictures. "Shiny Armor," which won an award, is about a superhero trying to learn to become human, and it's pretty good, too. The other stories aren't up to that level, but none of them are badly done.
Tales From A Different View.......2005-11-30
Astro City has been a favorite of mine ever since I first stumbled upon it. Bringing to mind Hero Alliance with its non-standard approach to superhero comics, Astro City is about the people and the people behind the mask and not about the fights and defeating the supervillains. This collections contains stories of different sorts of heroes than what are usually found in a comic.
We start with Astro City as seem through the eyes of a doorman at one of its finer hotels. Next we see the city through the eyes of a local comic book company and includes some industry cameos. Next a soap opera star playing a super hero gets caught up in reality. Then we see a love story from the view of the mortal woman who loved and lost. Next an Astro City resident learns about heroes in the heartland. Then a two-issue story examines the legal system as it meet the hero world. Then a retired hero is called back into service. Finally a short story honoring firemen and 9/11 ends the collection.
A wonderful collection that shows not all superhero comics are cast from the same mold. Some aren't cast at all but finely crafted as unique works of art. If you are unfamiliar with Astro City, this volume would make an fine introduction to the series. Existing fans will still find it fresh and original. Check it out.
Not my favorite AC, but still very good........2005-11-28
This volume in the Astro City series (vol. 5?) was a little different than the previous volumes. While the Astro City series has always tried to portray its heroes and people in a realistic light, this book seemed to focus more on the people and what it's like to live in the world of Astro City. The heroes are still there, but they are in the background. The stories follow the regular people and how they live their lives. This happened once before in one of the previous volumes. The story focused on a newspaper editor and his first story about the Shirrak shark worshippers. But here, all but one is about everyday people. Newcomers is about hotel doorman, Pete Donacek. Where the Action Is is about comic book writer Sally Twinings. Great Expectations is about stuntman turned actor, Mitch Goodman. Shining Armor is about political aide, Irene Meriwether. Pastoral is about city girl Camilla spending the summer at her Uncle's farm. Knock Wood is about attorney Vince Oleck. Justice Systems is also about Vince Oleck and continues from where the previous story ended. Old Times is about retired superhero Dale Enright, aka Supersonic. Since the Fire is about former firefighter Arnie Prentice. Don't get me wrong. Every Astro City book is well worth the price. And while I appreciate the intent behind focusing on the real people, I do still like reading about the super heroes rather than the local heroes.
Book Description
Based on the screenplay by Jonathan Mostow, John Brancato, and Michael FerrisThe novel of the blockbuster hit filmFor two generations of moviegoers, the Terminator movies have defined adrenaline-soaked action filmmaking. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a machine from the future, a machine who can take-or save-lives, capable of enormous violence and destruction, these films are the quintessential action thrillers of the new millennium.Now, twelve years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Schwarzenegger is back in a new Terminator film that is even more exciting and action-packed than the first two films. With incredible new computer-generated imagery and an enormous arsenal of new effects, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is a roller-coaster ride that moviegoers won't be able to resist.David Hagberg, the bestselling author of dozens of action thrillers, has written a novel that goes inside the minds of the terminators and shows readers the post apocalyptic future as they've never seen it before, creating a thrill-packed novel. On the screen, Terminator 3 will dazzle and delight the eyes and rivet viewers to their seats. With masterful storytelling and a pulse-pounding pace, Hagberg has written a novel of heart-stopping tension that will keep readers in suspense until the very last page.
Customer Reviews:
T3 for english.......2004-04-01
John Connor, now older, is still a target for killer cyborgs from a possible future. The human resistance of the future has also sent back a Terminator, who saved Connor's life before. John's cyborg assassin, a Terminatrix(T-X), is far more advanced than anything ever seen in previous models. If he doesnt survive, the future of humans is lost. His only hope lies within himself, a girl from his past, and a Terminator(who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger).
I thought it was a good book and helped further explain the movie. It added more detail to the scenes. Its action packed and hard to put down. This novel will be a favorite for any terminator or schwarzenegger fan. While the movie may not be as good as the others, the book is just as good as any.
Terminator 3 rocks.......2003-12-10
This book is the most thrilling and exciting book ever. It has awesome details to show the reader what is happening in the scene combined with an all ready spectacular plot this book is awesome and deserves all the complements it gets.The book tells an awesome story and has amazing events that will keep the reader reading intensly. The movie was also great but I think that reading the book before the movie sort of ruined the ending but all in all it was okay. I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes to read and is a fan of the terminator series.
An those who like the Governer of California.
Based on the Movie with A Little More Insight.......2003-10-21
I watched Terminator 3 in the movies before I read the book. It was good to refresh my memory of the movie, because the movie was intense and, the way memory works, you inevitably forget certain important scenes.
If you have not seen the movie, I would highly recommend the book. It describes many of the scenes in great detail. Also, some events in the movie that are a bit unclear are explained quite well in the book. For instance, when the T-X reprograms Terminator's memory system, it would seem as though it would be impossible for the Terminator to be on John Conner's side again. But the book explains that the Terminator re-booted his computer system, and thus was able to have a fresh start. In the movie, this is not explained at all, and the Terminator just comes back to save John Conner, which appears puzzling since he was, at that point in time, programmed to harm John Conner.
The book is very action-focused - with very vivid descriptions of the actions that are occuring. I am actually quite impressed with the ability to write a book based on a movie of this complexity -- and still make it very readable, exciting, and a fun read.
-- Michael Gordon
Los Angeles
Inconsistent storyline.......2003-09-02
I read the book after having seen the movie. A book is supposed to give more of an insight into characters and the storyline than the movie can convey, but if a book is based on a movie (not the other way around) I would expect to see some consistency. I have to note one major mistake in the storyline from the book: Both in the book and in the movie, the Terminator tells John and Kate that Kate sent him back, not John, as the future John was dead. However, the book clearly shows the future John Connor sending the Terminator back through time (right in the beginning chapters). Unless there's something I'm missing here, that's a pretty bad blunder. On a positive note, it's still fun to read!
The machines are rising........2003-08-02
Artificial intelligence has been growing by leaps and bounds in the last 40 years, but advances in the field have been difficult, and recognition that advances have indeed been made prove to be very transitory. Research in AI is very odd for this reason: the belief that one has discovered an intelligent software system is very short lived, unlike other fields of research. It seems that researchers in AI are too hard on themselves, too easily persuaded, that their discoveries do not represent true intelligence.
Writers though have expressed considerable enthusiasm regarding AI, and this book, and the movie that accompanies it, is ample proof. If only the field was advanced as this book portrays it to be. Concrete results and applications of AI though are currently accelerating, and there is little doubt that battlefield robots will be a natural consequence of the current AI technology.
The book illuminates to some extent the method of time travel that was not discussed in the movie: the Hawking/Einstein wormhole scenario but generalized to superstrings. The superstring wormhole/time travel machine was discovered in the story by a graduate school at Oxford...an incredible achievement for one individual, and even more astounding given the fact that current superstring theory has no experimental ramifications, except for predicting a huge value for the cosmological constant. To go from the current state of superstring theory to one where one can do spacetime engineering as a consequence is quite a leap in knowledge. The wormhole is opened by the focusing of sunlight using of all things a solar sail, which results in several hundred terawatts of energy over nanosecond time scales to arrive at the place of the singularity equipment. Objects are able to travel backward in time, and the time machine has a replica under human control.
The story has some plausibility in light of the current use of artificial intelligence in network engineering, especially network security, network event correlation, and network capacity planning. Indeed, it was announced this week that a technology is now available that will identify security risks and take action using auto-adapting artificial intelligence. The story makes Skynet one of these smart network applications, so intelligent in fact that it becomes "self-aware", gets paranoid about human intentions, and therefore orders a massive nuclear strike in order to remove the human threat. This move by Skynet makes the story somewhat implausible, for if, as the story holds, there is no "central core" to Skynet, it being instead a distributed application that runs on computers all over the world, then it would destroy itself in the very act of a global nuclear strike. It would have been better for Skynet to "lay low" and make sure power systems cannot be tampered with instead of ordering such a self-destrucutive act. It is the power systems that are most crucial for the survival of Skynet, and its distributed nature requires such power sources to be left intact globally, and not just "under the mountain" where its inventors program it. In addition, there is no need in the story for Skynet to become "self-aware" in order for it to engage in reasoning that will protect it from harm. The agents and spiders it moves around in the global Internet could make logical deductions to this effect. Such agents would then spend most of their time insuring that power supplies are redundant enough to keep Skynet's global nature intact.
The action in the story is typical of the Terminator movies and book series, with the female-emulating TX Terminator robot, highly sophisticated technologically, taking the story for sure in this regard. But the story also captures the introspection of John Connor, the main character and hero, and the one responsible for leading the future war against the machines. A human being facing this knowledge of the future would be under considerable stress, and this is brought out in the story via his dreams. The dreams are of a nightmarish future, with a devastating war of humans against machines, a war that Connor and his lieutenants will eventually win, much to the chagrin of the machines. The machines can't accept their defeat, and consequently send replicas of themselves through time to try and kill Connor and his lieutenants.
Should we label the machines as intelligent considering their behavior? Do intelligent entities engage in the violence and horror that these machines do? One can of course imagine schemes and plans that might justify such behavior, but a more practical strategy would be to ignore human interactions, or possibly engage in a mutual symbiosis. Intelligent entities realize the waste of resources and intellect in the making of violent confrontation, using it only as last resort. There are so many scenarios that would be more optimal for the course of action of these machines, and it would not be a credible argument to hold that they act as they do because of their training via humans, considering the relative sparsity of human violence throughout history. One should interpret therefore the machine decision for war as a mistake, and not one that is practical, and therefore not moral. They failed to seek alternatives that would insure their survival, and this is ample proof that they are not intelligent, or at best marginally so.
The book though in a sense is a portent, however inaccurate, of things to come, and things that are happening right now in artificial intelligence. We do not have robot armies, but we have AI invading many domains: financial engineering, network engineering, mathematics, physics, Ecommerce, bioinformatics, to name just a few. The applications of AI are accelerating, and there is every indication that this trend will continue. We are entering a world of the silicon geniuses, the world of the avatars: we are indeed witnessing, and are priveleged to do so, the rise of the machines...
Book Description
Be the Ultimate Weapon
·Complete walkthrough of all 22 levels
·Detailed maps of every level
·Character profiles and stats for all humans and machines
·Deadly combat moves and combos
·Indispensable weapons stats and strategies for futuristic and modern-day weapons
·All secrets and hidden areas unlocked
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Semana, published by Spanish Publications, Inc. on July 20, 2003. The length of the article is 1745 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Pantalla grande. (En Proyecci?n).(pel?culas )(Rese?a de pel?cula)
Publication:
Semana (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 20, 2003
Publisher: Spanish Publications, Inc.
Volume: 9
Issue: 542
Page: 31(1)
Article Type: Rese?a de pel?cula
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Semana, published by Spanish Publications, Inc. on July 27, 2003. The length of the article is 1827 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Pantalla grande. (En Proyeccion).(peliculas )(Resena de pelicula)
Publication:
Semana (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 27, 2003
Publisher: Spanish Publications, Inc.
Volume: 9
Issue: 543
Page: 33(1)
Article Type: Resena de pelicula
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Reading Aloud is famed playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie’s poetic adaptation of traditional Tibetan passages used to aid and comfort at the time of death. His lyrical and insightful poetry is accompanied by Gerry Vezzuso’s vivid photographs, Tibetan art, and other images evocative of this process. This text leads us through the stages we experience after death and helps us to overcome the ambitions, desires, jealousies, and fears that can obscure our understanding of ourselves and our transition into the next life.
Customer Reviews:
A Beautiful, Accessible, Deep and Poetic Book.......1999-04-23
Jean-Claude van Itallie has done us all a wonderful service by adapting his rich and meaningful play into a lovely book that is a feast for the eyes, ears, and mind. This book makes a perfect, accessible introduction to one of the core teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Without being morbid, the text takes us on the journey of a soul facing death, and gives ageless advice on how to approach not only death, but also the little deaths we face in everyday life. The combination of poetic yet pragmatic text, with evocative photos and images, is achieved simply and elegantly. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially to those learning about Buddhism or interested in Tibet, or to those who know of one who is facing death or loss. This book would be a treasured and memorable gift. Bravo to van Itallie for bringing these ageless teachings into the modern world with such elegance and spirit!
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