Soundproof Room: Malraux's Anti-Aesthetics (Cultural Memory in the Present)

Book Description

In this, one of the last published books planned by one of the major cultural philosophers of our time, Lyotard addresses, in his powerful and allusive critical voice, Malraux’s reflections on art and literature. The result, more than a sequel to Lyotard’s acclaimed biography Signé Malraux, tells us as much about Lyotard and his critical concerns as it does about Malraux. It gives us Lyotard’s final thoughts on his long study of the critical, disruptive possibilities of art and of the relation between aesthetics and politics. At first glance, Lyotard’s sympathetic and generous analysis of Malraux might be surprising to some, for Malraux’s metaphysics of art seems far removed from, if not diametrically opposed to, Lyotard’s postmodern, experimental approach. But this is perhaps the book’s greatest achievement, for Lyotard succeeds both in giving a compelling critical reading of Malraux (and through him of an entire era of art criticism) and in presenting, complicating, and developing his own position on art and aesthetics.

In order to present Lyotard’s exquisitely compact style in the best possible way, the original French text appears on facing pages with the English translation.

Average customer rating:

unbearably pretentious
Salvation for all of us!
The Poetry of Horror
hope
Excellent!

The Memory Room: A Novel
Mary Rakow
Manufacturer: Shoemaker & Hoard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1593760183

Book Description

Barbara is musical, well educated, a good friend. What leaves her cowering in the corner of an elevator? Drawing from the power of friendship, music, art, the Psalms, and the poetry of Paul Celan, we watch as Barbara saves herself and slowly finds a way to a new world of faith and love. The Memory Room explores her willingness to mine painful memories in order to construct a new life. The sentences in this novel, each its own masterpiece, manage, when strung together, to connect the dots of human cruelty and salvation. It is a portrait of lost innocence, and one woman’s choice to see beauty in the world even as she faces the darkest side of her own human nature.

Customer Reviews:

unbearably pretentious.......2005-06-26

Unbearably pretentious. The sort of faux-profound diction and slightly twisted syntax that reeks of a second-rate MFA program's seminar room.

The protagonist is a painful egotist of the spiritual sort, with a dark secret: she was abused as a child, in some kind of exaggeratedly implausible manner. The weird -- but "profound" -- things she does over the course of the book would be laughable if the author had any kind of awareness of how silly it sounded.

I pushed through about 2/3rds of this, hoping it would improve, but it never did.

Salvation for all of us!.......2005-03-21

Nothing makes my interior glow more than discovering great writing or great music all by my lonesome. However, I like to be an early discoverer, not a member of a secret society.
"The memory room" would have been my greatest reading experience of last year, if my list had not included Lonesome Dove and a reread of The Brothers Karamazov. What astounds me, and what I have told my writers group and anyone else who will listen, is that this is the kind of book I should deeply dislike.
From a craft perspective, Rakow expertly combines poetry and prose. This is dangerous, difficult territory for a writer and I can't think of anyone that has pulled it off so successfully.
What one might suspect of being a long, boring, interior, reflective tome on yet another psychologically battered woman is anything but. It is true that all the male characters are either weak, despicable (the father, the priest), or wholly subservient to the women characters. But in the case of The Memory Room, there is nothing canned, cliche, or disposable about these males. They are properly drawn through the exploration and psychological discovery and trauma work-through process that Barbara has undertaken.
Religion, morality, art, and music (Barbara is a cellist) are front and center in this novel. It is almost unbearable what Barbara does with her cello, just as how the priest reacts to her "discovery" is unbearable. Yet these elements, to me, triumph, albeit in a completely different form.
There are passages for interpretation in this book that MFA programs could offer whole course credits for. Two are: "The earth exhales music because it wants to be holy," and "And in this way, you leave behind the world in the condition you expect it to be. Because even as a child, you demand a moral order. And you create it if it cannot be found."
Yet from the unspeakable horror visited on this narrator as a child comes hope and perhaps this is the strength of the work. Hope lives, even within all of the elements that once created despair in this woman's life. The world isn't necessarily a better place for Barbara, but your world is because of her and her creator. It is as if Rakow, through Barbara's work-through and willlingness to undergo the pain involved, is offering a unique sense of salvation to all of us.
On the one hand, I want The memory Room to be the discovery I share with my friends. I want the singular reward of having turned them on to this powerful novel. I want this book to remind the people that I know that I make the effort to find treasures like this in darkest recesses of mass-marketed entertainment. It is only for pure selfishness that I can justify why Mary Rakow isn't being hailed as the next great deliverer of extraordinary literary fiction.

The Poetry of Horror.......2004-09-24

This book is simply brilliant. The author uses poetic phrases to describe a childhood too horrific to remember. But through it all, comes music as a balm for the wounded soul, comes phrases of poetry and the poetry of the King James Bible as she calls on psalms for redemption. The music of Rakow's language is startling and beautiful. The journey she takes with her psychiatrist is extremely moving and very real. At times I found myself re-reading a passage just for the aesthetics of a phrase. Other times I found myself too caught in the pain and so had to leave the book for a short time. Always, though, I returned to find out how Barbara found her way to healing. I tasted the beautiful words through the salt of my tears and remembered Sylvia Plath. This author should receive highest awards for this wonderfully-written story and her memorable characters. Anyone who loves beautiful language will be thrilled with this book.

hope.......2003-05-28

The first time I read this book, I was struck by her suffering, I could not bear to read it all. With about a fourth of the book left, I skipped to the end and read it backwards. Glad for an ending that seemed hopeful. This time I read the book normally, knowing what would happen and not as worried for an end I couldn't read.

The poetry in this book traces out a past that almost feels like it could be mine. Yours. Any readers. I read a review of this book where the reader complained that memory does not work this way. That the story is ridiculous for it's portrayal of repressed memories. I don't know the truth of that, and I don't care to. This book is not about repressed memories as much as it is about confronting our fears. Reaching deep inside of ourselves, through all sorts of darkness, to find whatever hope and love and beauty that we can.

This book is beautiful. It is entirely characterized by this quotation: "A conspiracy of language gently bending my perception in a more hopeful arc." I found hope in this book.

It reminded me to focus on the things that I love rather than the things that I fear. The first time I read it, I needed that reminder very badly. Today, I'm just glad to once again realize that there is a great deal of beauty in the world.

Excellent!.......2002-07-30

This book was incredible from start to finish! Mary enables you to explore your past safely, walk through the present gently, and guide you into the future with comfort and assurance.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from International Fiction Review, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 5393 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: The frummer in the attic: Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair's Rodinsky's Room and Jewish memory.
Author: Ruth Gilbert
Publication: International Fiction Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 33 Issue: 1-2 Page: 27(11)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Travels in the Scriptorium: A Novel (Unabridged)

Average customer rating:

Will Auster ever recover his greatness?
Intrigued
In a room full of ideas
Our very own prison!
The Artist As an Old Man

Travels in the Scriptorium: A Novel (Unabridged)
Paul Auster
Manufacturer: audible.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Download
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ASIN: B000MTETE2

Customer Reviews:

Will Auster ever recover his greatness?.......2007-09-17

It's hard to be ungrateful as a reader. I have no idea how hard it is to write and continue to write good books. But it's also hard to continue to ignore diminishing qualities of Auster's writings, in directly opposite proportion to his fame. What happened to the writer who wrote Invention of Solitude, New York Trilogy and Moon Palace? He's turned into someone else. But that person is not Auster. It's almost as if Auster has turned into a lesser character in his novels. A writer publishing materials written by other writers? What is going on?

Intrigued.......2007-07-22

I've never written a "review" before, but after reading my first Paul Auster novel, I felt somewhat compelled to do so. Having never read any of his work, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I certainly anticipated an earth shattering conclusion with a bit more of a WOW factor. I initially thought it may end up being a morality tale of some description, then I began to wonder if he was simply an old man suffering from severe memory loss and that the pictures and words were visual aids to help him make it through his days. Of course, having never been a fan of Auster's I didn't realize that his characters were recycled from his other works (Brilliant, actually!) But this morning I woke with a start! I believe Auster was reminding his readers (and a few others) on the powerlessness one feels when growing older---a reminder that so many of us in our youth obsessed culture desperately need. Mr. Blank filled in a lot of blanks for me. Every single thing he did in a day was a struggle..and his memory was agonizingly blurry. So, I considered the political morality tale, I considered several other possibilities, but this morning I awoke and smiled. I think Paul Auster is Mr. Blank. I think that the "obscure tormentor" represents Paul's publisher or manager..Or somebody who is making demands on him that he's struggling to meet. Typically, in most novels, a paragraph is dedicated to the many people who have "helped" the author complete each novel--whether it be through research, or emotional support etc. As mentioned, this may not be a habit of Auster's in his earlier work, I don't know, but there were certainly no thanks to anyone for their "help" with this novel. I think the point of the ending of "Travels in the Scriptorium" was for Paul Auster to remind his readers AND his publisher that although he may be seemingly losing control in other areas of his life, he, and he alone, is in control of his stories. Perhaps this is an oversimplified idea...I don't know. But it seemed as if he left everyone hanging deliberately--to remind us that Mr. Blank had more control than others gave him credit for and to remind everyone that he won't be pressured and that he controls his work. Shot in the dark, but that's what I'm walking away with...I'll definitely read his other work.

In a room full of ideas.......2007-06-24

It doesn't take a lot of things for Paul Auster build up a narrative. And so he proves in his latest novel "Travels in the Scriptorium", where an old man in locked in a room with not so many things, and from time to time he is visited by strangers, who seem to know him - although he has a slightest idea who some of them can be. With only a couple of elements, Auster develops a short novel, a novella, actually. But that doesn't mean his work is satisfying this time.

During the past few years, Auster's books have looked more like a work in progress rather than a finished novel. Sometimes it works better than other times. In his 2004's "Oracle Night" that was useful, and effective in the end. But here then finished narrative seems to lack stamina and elements to call it an actual narrative.

As the protagonist, we know as Mr Blank, the readers don't have much clues of what is going on. This can be an useful device sometimes, to build tension and increase the interest in the narrative. However, here this strategy is kind of annoying since we expect something that never happens to happen.

The people who comes to Mr Blank's room are always giving him and us tips of who he is but they never seem to mean much. Like the protagonist, we never know who to believe in. Experienced Auster readers will identify that all the visitors are characters from his previous books. Locking the whole story in a single room makes the novel claustrophobic, and the obsession that the protagonist has with writing and blanc pages, makes the whole room become a potential notebook.

In "Travels in the Scriptorium", Auster returns to his literary obsessions - he took a break in his previous "The Brooklyn Follies" - but here he is not at the top of his game, as we was in previous novels.

Our very own prison!.......2007-06-21

Paul Auster is a brilliant writer! This book continues to prove just that.
I think if david Lynch would be a writer he'd be Paul Auster. Actually, David Lynch should consider directing a film taken from one of Auster's books especially this one! I could so see something like that happening.
There isn't much of an explanation given in this story as to why Mr Blank is in the situation he's in. There's only a hint that can be interpreted in so many ways. Is he in jail? Is he in some private insane asylum?! Is it all just simply a dream???
A great read!

The Artist As an Old Man.......2007-06-15

I doubt that Paul Auster is trying to make us believe that his strange-loop narrative technique (twisting full circle and from inside to out) is original, and thus I don't find "Travels in the Scriptorium" to be self-indulgent or overly writerly. Surely he just finds this particular technique, made up as it is of elements now well-worn enough to qualify as classical, to be a congenial way to express his ideas and get the necessary images out of his head and into ours. He does a fine job of it, even if his sentences are a little leaner and less marbled than what I usually have a taste for.

I also don't see the book as a political allegory. Believing it to be a critique of current U.S. politics would require believing that Mr. Auster is slightly more paranoid than--I dunno--Gore Vidal, and I for one am reluctant to believe that Mr. Auster is insane. If the book is a more general allegory, then the author seems to put a smiling face on authoritarianism at the end of the book, which is a plausible but deeply improbable reading. That would be akin to taking Nabokov's comment about his characters' being "galley slaves" as an endorsement of actual galley slavery.

What is "Travels in the Scriptorium" about then? In part, it's about growing old, about the ache and embarrassment of it, and about how aging makes one both cling to memory and curse memory's imperfections. The book is a meditation on imagination, especially as imagination is realized in art, especially when art is understood as a species of eternity, a kind of antidote to disintegration; but I don't get the sense that Auster is making some fatuous postmodern point about life being no more consequential than inky wriggles on paper. Far from suggesting the real isn't real, much of the matter of the book itself reminds us that the art in the book comes from the real mind of a real person who lives a real life in the real world. And we can safely surmise that this person, like Mr. Blank, eats and drinks and excretes and feels pain and loss and lust and genuine affection. Sound like anyone you know?

Customer Reviews:

Could be Better.......2003-06-24

In this novel by Mercedes Lackey, a young orphan unwillingly Gifted with magic, sees his village demolished by barbaric men. Escaping into the Pelgaris Forest, Darian meets up with the legendary Hawkpeople, who help him overcome his pent-up grief. In my opinion, Darian overcomes his sorrow a bit too fast. In the beginning, Lackey makes an enormous deal about how tragic Darian is, and how misunderstood his entire life was. After a few days with the Hawkpeople, he seems as happy as you could wish. However, the plot is good (if not a little faulty) and the characters are usually quite convincing, especially the gryphon Kel. But I know Lackey has written better novels than this before.

Decidedly mediocre.......2003-02-10

"Owlflight" isn't the worst fantasy novel that I've ever read, it's just the most unnecessary one. Rebellious thirteen-year-old Darian is an apprentice wizard in the remote village of Emmond's Grove. One day the town is attacked by barbarians, and Darian barely manages to escape after his mentor, Justyn sacrifices himself to delay the approaching army. Fleeing into the woods, Darian meets a band known as the Hawkbrothers. They talk for awhile, there's a climactic battle, and, needless to say, Darian's courage and new magic powers turn out to be the key to defeating the bad guys, after which everybody lives happily until the sequel. The point is that we've seen this entire book before, countless times. The authors are utterly unable to dredge up as much as one unique element in the entire story. The characters, plot, settings, and everything else seem like they were borrowed from earlier works, and everything is completely predictable, to the point where you're almost able to predict exactly how many paragraphs will be spent on each blazingly obvious plot point before moving on to the next one.

I'll admit that the authors do a reasonably good job of capturing the emotional turbulence of an teenager who's lost his parents, but other than that, the writing in "Owlflight" is embarrassingly bad. The dialogue never even comes close to sounding like normal conversational speech (how many thirteen-year-olds do you know who say 'intoxicated' rather than 'drunk'?) Also, the authors don't maintain a good balance between internal introspection and plot movement. "Owlflight" is 350 pages long and contains only three action scenes. Most of the space in between is spent on characters endlessly wondering what they should say or do, wondering how other people will react to what they say or do, wondering how people have reacted to what they just said or did, and inevitably taking ten pages to communicate even the simplest point.

Some people might defend "Owlflight" on the grounds that it's aimed at a 'young adult' audience, and thus shouldn't be judged by the same standards as real fantasy novels. My response to this is that there are plenty of authors out there who are capable of writing books that appeal to all age groups. I've never understood why some people insist that anyone under the age of fifteen should be satisfied with inferior work. Readers in that age group are actually capable of distinguishing good and bad books. If they get fed only predictable, mediocre nonsense like "Owlflight", they're likely to quit the fantasy genre before they even have a chance to read some of the world's greatest books.

Another Valdemar trilogy to enjoy........2002-12-14

This book is about an orphan, Darian, who is apprenticed to a used-to-be wizard against his will. His parents were trappers, who one day went out during a mage storm and never returned.
One day, his village, Errald's Grove, was attacked while Darian was out picking herbs. The wizard Justyn, who did much but was not appreciated by the villagers, sacrificed himself so the people could get away.
Darian fled into the woods, and was caught by some of the enemy men. He was rescued by a Hawkbrother, Snowfire, and taken to his vale (the homes of the Hawkbrothers; there are many of them).
After a while, he was adopted into the clan as Snowfire's little brother. After another while, they found the villagers had not escaped, but were slaves of the ones who attacked the village.
Darian wants to go free the villagers, but will the Hawkbrothers help him?

If you have read other books in the Valdemar series and enjoyed them, then you will definitely enjoy the Darian trilogy. And if this is your first time reading Valdemar, this is a good trilogy to start off with, but it might be better to start with the Black Gryphon and/or Arrows of the Queen which come earlier in the series.

Great Story! Excellent Characters.......2002-10-29

Owl Flight is the story of Darian, a precocious teenager, unwillingly apprenticed to mage Justyn after his parents (trappers) fail to return from one of their extended hunting trips. Resenting Justyn and believing him to be incompetent senile old man, Darian 'acts out' by running away and slacking off on his daily chores. This causes trouble with the local villagers who believe Darian does not act appropriately 'grateful for the charity they have given him. The hostile environment makes Darian wish he could run away from his problems and do as he pleases.

Punished by his mentor, Justyn, for slacking off, he is sent into the woods one day to gather mushrooms, and his village is attacked by raiding barbarians. Darian is befriended by the Hawkbrothers (a tribalesque group of people), and forms a friendship with Snowfire, a Hawkbrother hunter/scout.

Together with his newfound friends Darian must find a way to free the village of Errold's Grove from the ruthless clutches of the Bear Clan barbarians.

While Darian's whining and self-pitying attitude can get annoying at times, I found Darian and his mentor Snowfire believable. I especially liked Snowfire and the other Hawkbrother characters and would like to learn more about him. I admit, I was pleased to read about a character that was not a herald, and it was nice to learn how some of the more provincial characters view things. I am anxiously looking forward to reading to picking up a copy of the sequel! Great Work MS. Lackey and Mr. Dixon!

Liked the story, hated the writing........2001-07-13

I'm a big fan of Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books, and this is the first one I read that was co-written by Larry Dixon. The story satisfied my hunger for more tales of Valdemar, but the language was difficult to process. I found myself reading passages over and over again to try to figure out what the heck was going on. It was very distracting. I'll read more of Darian's tale, but I know I won't enjoy it as much as the other trilogies.

Darian's Tale Trilogy: Owlflight + Owlsight + Owlknight

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Darian's Tale Trilogy: Owlflight + Owlsight + Owlknight
Mercedes Lackey , and Larry Dixon
Manufacturer: Daw
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000U9B7Q2

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Darian's Tale Trilogy: Owlflight + Owlsight + Owlknight
Mercedes Lackey , and Larry Dixon
Manufacturer: Daw
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UXCNA2

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Owlflight :Dariens Tale 1
Mercedes Lackey
Manufacturer: PENGUIN PUTNAM * TRADE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UCGW00

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Owlflight
Mercedes Lackey Larry Dixon
Manufacturer: Daw Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NPH2QW

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This is a great series!

Third in a beautiful series of eight books

Book Three in A Man of His Word Series

Part 3 of a Man of his word

Getting ever more ponderous...

Perilous Seas: Part Three of A Man of His Word
Dave Duncan
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Duncan, Dave | ( D ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Emperor and Clown (A Man of His Word, Part 4)

Faery Lands Forlorn: Part Two of A Man of His Word

Magic Casement

Stricken Field (A Handful of Men, Part 3)

Living God (A Handful of Men, Part 4)

ASIN: 0345366301
Release Date: 1991-06-15

Book Description

Queen Inos was badly shaken. Loyal, trustworthy Rap, who was supposed to have died, appeared to her. With this as a sign, Inos knew that she would serve her people, no matter what. But Rap was alive, and he would do whatever he could to help, even as his life took a turn for the worse....

Customer Reviews:

This is a great series!.......2007-04-16

This is book 3 of Dave Duncan's 4-book, "A Man of His Word", series. The characters are enjoyable, but the situations are even better! Read! A note of caution though, Don't read Mr. Duncan's sequel series, "A Handful of Men". It is simply terrible!

Third in a beautiful series of eight books.......2006-11-07

"Perilous Seas" is the third volume of "A Man of his Word" which itself is the first of two marvellous fantasy quartets.

The first quartet, "A man of his word" has titles taken from Keats' "Ode to a nightingale" and the titles perfectly match the themes of the books.

The lines which inspired the titles are as follows -

"The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days, by Emperor and Clown ....

... The same that oft-times hath
Charmed magic casements, opening on the foam
of perilous seas, in Faery lands forlorn"

The four books of this quartet are

The Magic Casement
Faery Lands Forlorn
Perilous Seas
Emperor and Clown

These four books tell one complete story and are best read in this order.

There is a sequel quartet, set 15 years later in the same universe, which is called "A handful of men" and has its titles taken from Masefield's poem, "Tomorrow." The four books in that story are

The Cutting Edge
Upland Outlaws
The Stricken Field
The Living God

All eight books are set in a world of Gods and Sorcerers, where magic abilities are conferred by the knowledge of words of power. The descriptions of magic powers and how they work are far more effectively and consistently thought through than in the typical fantasy novel, and as the hero and heroine travel through a strange and diverse world a picture both of that world and the serious threat which it faces gradualy takes shape.

At the start of "Perilous Seas", Inos, rightful Queen of Krasnegar, is in exile in the desert land of Zark, where the local sultan, Azak, is seeking her hand in marriage. Inos was told by a God when she was a child that she must "trust in love" and is wondering if this means Azak's love for her. Meanwhile the stableboy and her childhood friend, Rap, who was sent to the other side of the world from Inos by the Magic Casement, is in bondage as a galley slave. But he is still seeking to cross the world to rescue Inos and put her back on the throne. Can he reach her before she makes a terrible mistake ?

The original editions of the "A man of his word" quartet had beautiful covers painted by Don Maitz, and the books would almost have been worth buying for these covers if they had not also comprised a beautiful story

Book Three in A Man of His Word Series.......2004-05-13

Perilous Seas picks up right were Faery Lands Forlorn left us with Queen Inos still stuck in Zark, land of the Djinns, captive of the Sorceress Rasha. Inos is about to despair of ever escaping the sorceress and she still doesn't know if she should accept the Sultan Azak's marriage proposal or not. The gods told her long ago to trust in love - but what does that mean! Surely it must mean to trust in Azak's love for her, even though she doesn't love him, or does it? When Inos and Azak make a desperate bid for freedom, Inos drags her beloved Aunt Kade all across the desert in strange disguises. She will do anything to make it to the Imperor to plead her case for her beloved people in her shabby little kingdom of Krasnegar. Along the way, she is stunned to see Rap's image appear in the middle of the desert. Surely he must be a demon come to torment her for leaving him to die in the tower long ago. But how could Rap be that cruel...

Rap is anything but dead. After escaping the land of Faerie in a Jotunn boat, captained by Gathmore, Rap is all but imprisoned on the island of Durthing. He was bought as a slave to work on the boat, but earned his freedom, however, his gift of farsight makes him far too valuable to risk losing. When the vicious Jotunn raider, Kalkor, arrives on Durthing, he slaughters every man, woman and child he finds - but he takes Rap and Gathmore on board his ship. For the first time Rap gets to see what the power of multiple words turns a person into. Kalkor no longer has a heart and Rap wonders if he even has a soul left. Desperate to get to Inos and restore her to her throne, Rap finds himself playing a cat and mouse game with Kalkor, playing his magical powers off of Kalkor's. But even if Rap finds an opportunity to escape, how can he find Inos in time to stop her from making a terrible mistake?

Perilous Seas is the third book in A Man of His Word series by David Duncan and it is the weakest of the quartet, but it is still superbly written and I still loved most of the characters. It is true that Inos is kind of grating in this book and that I found myself rushing through her misadventures to get to the better story with Rap, but I like to think that Inos is growing as a character and getting to be more likeable. Still, it would be great if she dropped that whole I-am-a-princess-and-can't-believe-this-is-happening-to-me attitude. On the other hand, Rap is a great character who is still humble and completely oblivious to the fact that he doesn't live anything approaching a normal life anymore. Again, the host of secondary characters are superb and give additional life and sparkle to the third book of the series. I can't wait to see how it ends! If you like fantasy books that are just a bit different with clearly defined magical rules and different races set in an intriguing world, don't miss this set of 4 books!

Part 3 of a Man of his word.......2003-02-19

Dave Duncan is one of the best scifi/fantasy writers there are every story is original and fresh he builds characters you love to see succeed and vilans you can't wait to see die a horible death. This is the third book of one of the best series ever written; Rap the lost stable boy with slowly emerging magical powers wonders the world in search of his love and his queen, Inos. Facing pirates and worse he tries to reach a distant waste land to save Inos from a barbarian king.

Getting ever more ponderous..........2002-11-12

One of the problems with this series is that it has two protagonists, separated except for the male's love and devotion to the female, and that although I find the male protagonists' adventures rather interesting, I am expected to put up with the female's tiresome circumstances as well. By the end of this volume, which I finished reading back in '99, I was no longer interested in reading about "Queen Inos." Her sorry plight was an old cliche to begin with: can the high-born, well-bred princess overcome the "stuffiness" of her training to become a successful queen without losing her sense of humanity and connection with the masses? Puleeez!!! The answer is only of concern if we truly felt she was one of "the masses" (that includes US, the readers) to begin with. For this sort of thing, done in a real and thus more interesting setting, pull some volumes of Charles Dickens off the shelf. Books like these are what gives fantasy a bad name in the minds of many... There is no indication so far that ANY of this will resolve in a way that was worth devoting nearly 2,000 pages to! Although I suppose that I will eventually read the third book in the series, given enough time... no one should hold their breath waiting for my review of it. For those who actually enjoyed this series, I recommend the numerous series of David Eddings that dealt with the same sort of scenarios, but did it with a lot more gusto, humor, variety, and INTERESTING CHARACTERS! Still, it should surprise no one that the genre is dominated by formulaic adventures in which authors seem to be paid by the word. I would steer readers away from THIS Duncan series and back toward some of the better ones. To me it looks like Duncan is merely churning out more of the same. My tastes have turned toward the more humorous vein of fantasy. For ponderous outings like this, it is far better to read ACTUAL historical fiction where there is at least some educational benefit for the time that is spent. These sorts of formulaic meanderings are no longer of interest to me, or (I suspect) many fantasy readers who have already read the same sort of thing but in a different package (and probably, using far fewer words to relate the same content!!!)

Book Description

With keen psychological insight and disarming humor, Elizabeth Cunningham re-imagines the beginnings of Christianity from a Celtic point-of-view. Her Celtic Magdalen invites us to wonder how a woman trained in the mysteries of Druidism and ancient Celtic spirituality might have fallen under the spell of the young Jesus of Nazareth and cast her own magic over him. The evolving tale of love, challenge, and triumph will captivate readers seeking fresh perspectives into the Celtic and Christian elements of our Western spiritual heritage.-Tom Cowan, author of Fire in the Head, Shamanism and the Celtic Spirit

"Cunningham wears her reverence at a such a rakish angle that it's easy to overlook the deeply religious sensibility that informs her work. In treating the pious and priggish denial of Christ's physicality as the set-up for her outlandish comic effects, she is fall-out-of-your-chair funny. She could crack up the Mater Dolorosa. But she is also mounting a serious challenge to that denial. Nor does she spare the more recent pieties of New Age spirituality, which tend to bury the personality of Magdalen under a mawkish heap of female archetypes. Her mouthy Magdalen won't sit still for being anyone's icon or emblem. She is here to tell you that Jesus, her friend, sweetheart and "cosmic sibling rival" was adorably, poignantly--and sometimes annoyingly--human. In less grace-full hands, this sassy treatment might amount to no more than a smart-aleck deconstruction of Christ's divinity. But Cunningham is up to no such thing. She insists on humanity as one who sees in its every awkward aspect the image and likeness of God. Beneath her sense of the ridiculous and the ribald, is a subtext that sings "Alleluia!" -Catherine MacCoun, author of The Age of Miracles

"Cunningham has outdone herself. Always an imaginative writer, as such books as The Return of the Goddess and The Wild Mother show, Cunningham here mixes Celtic mythology with the emergent feminist tradition of the Magdalen to create a powerful and spiritually charged visionary novel. Red-haired Maeve was born on the legendary Isle of Women, where her weather-witching mothers (yes, the plural is intentional) raise her to be utterly self-assured as

Customer Reviews:

Spoiler Alert: Book contains sexual violence.......2007-03-16

Confused tone, modern narrator voice with ancient setting, is not convincing. Also, there is confusion between who is speaking as the narrator. Is it the young Maeve, the older Mary Magdalene, or the author herself 2000 years later looking back. (Are we supposed to believe that the narrator is Maeve/Mary living 2000 years after the story occurs?)

The story tries to be a comedy at times, a drama at others.
Warning: In the midst of a humorous section, there is a violent rape and incest scene, wherein the main character is violated. This contradictory tone failed for me and ruined the entire story.

I also didn't buy the notion of Jesus and Mary meeting up as children in Celtic Britain. This is myth, and it makes the dramatic portions of the story less credible as an attempt at alternate history.

The concept and technique (story-within-a-story) appear clever, but they ultimately don't work. I agree with Publishers Weekly that this book misses its mark. This is another among the plethora of stories along the lines of the Da Vinci code fantasy. There are some good ones, but this isn't one of them.

Since zero is not available, I justify giving even 1 star, for the author's ability to get the book published.
Don't buy this book; check it out from the public library.

BRAVO !.......2005-04-03

Three cheers for Elizabeth Cunningham and `Daughter of the Shining Isles'.

While weaving a picture of the ancient cults - their mysteries, their ceremonies, and their assumptions - this novel defines the concept `incarnate' like nothing I have ever read.

Between the lines of a dramatic love story, (I'm not a fan of love stories, so believe me, if I was yanked in, anyone who already likes them will be swept away.) Cunningham shows us how Roman civilization collided with the long established culture of the Celts. The feminine side to our understanding of `deity' is clearly explained through parable, and I for one was in awe as the balance was struck in page after page.

Quotable quotes: Maeve, speaking of Esus: `To lay on him a geis of danger and destruction was an act of sheer redundancy.' (I cannot define this word, `geis' accurately without context)

If her earthy indulgences seem offensive - the pissing, the fornication, the bleeding, and all that, you must chalk up your discomfort to the fact that you are being whisked away into ancient history by a pro. The symbolism of earth goddess to earthly existence is intricately layered as only a writer with complete authority over her subject matter can do. While she is wooing you with mundane metaphors, you are actually being set up for the lighting strike.

As with all great works, Cunningham's humility is the fiber holding irony and discovery at one.

I'm sold.

-Moe Dickson (author of Atlantis Continued...)

Excellent start!.......2005-01-09

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I don't usually enjoy first-person fictional accounts; however, this was an exception. There are a couple of reasons why I didn't give it five stars, however:

1. The protagonist occasionally wanders off on tangents in the middle of some of the premier events during the story. I do expect some tangents, especially when a book is written from a first-person POV; however, it seems like these could be a bit shorter to make the story more powerful.

2. The menstrual blood thing was kind of...strange. It didn't bother me the first time, and it at no point disgusted me, but I thought that the differences between the protagonist and the way other women were brought up were quite marked without the incident with the menstrual blood while she was at the druid college.

In all, I loved the story and am very much looking forward to reading the next one in the trilogy.

Bawdy, but entertaining.......2003-08-09

This is the Magdalene.org review: "Daughter of the Shining Isles" is the first part of an ambitious trilogy by Elizabeth Cunningham. She takes us to the Celtic-speaking world of 9 C.E. where the main character, Maeve Rhaud, is born and raised by eight weather-warrior witches on the island of Tir na mBam. There, she has a startling vision of her cosmic twin, Esus, in a back alley of Jerusalem: he is relieving his bladder.

If this is a startling image for you, then you should avoid the book. Cunningham's Maeve Rhaud is a headstrong, earthy character with no qualms about speaking of bodily functions, and she does so with great frequency. They are, in fact, important plot points in the story. This was a great drawback for me when I first started the book, and it wasn't until I was halfway through it that I decided the story was entertaining enough to compensate for Cunningham's Celtic witches' apparent scatalogical fascination.

A majority of the story takes place at the legendary Druid college of Mona, where Maeve Rhaud undertakes bardic training. The author accounts for the "lost years" of Jesus (Esus) by placing him in the college with her. He has a difficult time believing that his cosmic twin is someone so "unclean," and they have frequent theological arguments about monotheism versus her polytheistic ways. Maeve is constantly in trouble with the faculty of the college, clashing with personalities and breaking taboos. It is in this setting that she falls in love with the 15 year old man from Jerusalem and pledges her life to him.

Cunningham's novel is narrated by Maeve, who uses modern metaphors to describe the events in her tale. In spite of this chronological inconsistency, the story is extremely entertaining and told with good humor. It moves along quickly, and the main characters are well developed. If you are familiar with biblical accounts of the life of Jesus, you will be amused by the references to how his legend was shaped by people after his death.

If you're able to laugh at bawdy humor and don't have an easily tweaked sense of the blasphemous, this book will leave you satisfied and waiting eagerly for the next novel in the series.

Blessed Be !.......2003-07-26

Hark fellow pagan wymen ! Here be a tome of most rightious truth and beauty, consistent with the guidance of the Goddess! Herein all honor is given to the sacred moon-time flow. Blessed Be!

Average customer rating:

Daughter of the Shining Isles
Elizabeth Cunningham
Manufacturer: Station Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KBHBRE

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