Book Description
"A sensitive Southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor." -E. L. DoctorowFrom the day that Morgan Lee is born, her extraordinarily beautiful and withdrawn older brother, Ginx, is obsessed by her. As Aunt Lois recalls: "Ginx thought you belonged to him Morgan Lee. He would sit on our big couch right there in his sailor's suit and hold on to you for dear life . . . He didn't speak normal till he was five, then-bang-one day he's just talking away in complete sentences. But he wouldn't say, 'I.' He said 'we,' meaning you and him."Inhabiting their own parallel world, the two communicate through a secret language and make-believe stories; when Morgan Lee begins to explore friendships beyond their closed circle, however, Ginx becomes increasingly disturbed. In luminous prose, Martha Witt explores the intense and private world inhabited by these siblings and the inevitable and necessary pain of their separation.
Customer Reviews:
Very disappointed.......2006-07-25
I bought this book based on all the great reviews and was very disappointed. I personally don't see what all the excitement is about. The author doesn't expand on the characters enough to make you care what happens to them or why they are doing the weird things they do. The book is just unbelievable and odd.
not worth fixing.......2006-06-06
I admit it: I was taken in by a blurb. Front and center on the cover of my paperback edition of Broken as Things Are, is this misleading recommendation by E. L. Doctorow. "Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Conner."
Doctorow is correct only in the sense that Martha Witt's prose style is both polished and modest. But in this book she has wasted her time and mine on a tale not worth telling.
Broken as Things Are tells the story of a young girl, Morgan Lee, and her family who are being torn apart by the illness of her psychopathic brother. (Here again the cover is misleading in stating that the brother has Asperger's Syndrome. But Asperger kids are not sadistic, manipulative, or progressively disassociative.) Her brother's illness envelopes Morgan Lee in sadomasochism and incest - obvious horrors to which neither narrator nor children pay any attention.
The author provides a bizarre solution to Morgan Lee's predicament. She falls under the spell of Sweety-Boy, a Really Bad Girl who simultaneously seduces Morgan Lee from her brother and scares her straight. In the penultimate scene, Sweety-Boy accepts a transferrence of Morgan Lee's problems and runs off naked into the night. Never mind that this is cheap fantasy - it preserves the moral ambiguity that is the book's only excuse.
Broken as things are..........2005-08-29
BROKEN AS THINGS ARE by Martha Witt
August 28, 2005
Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars
Martha Witt's debut novel is the story of a young girl's relationship with her older brother who has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition related to autism in which a person has difficulties with social and communication skills, and may view the world differently than others do. Morgan Lee is one of three siblings. Ginx is the beautiful withdrawn older brother who latches onto Morgan Lee when she is born, the two becoming inseparable. Ginx develops an obsession over his younger sister, which becomes apparent when Morgan Lee tries to find her own friendships. She learns to live in Ginx's world, even acquiring the skills to communicate with him in a secret language only they understand. Though this is the only world she knows, the relationship isn't healthy, as the reader will eventually understand.
Though the complexities and dynamics between these family members may be hard to understood at first, they become clear by the time the reader has finished the story. It ends with a bang, but at the same time there is no real resolution. Broken as Things Are is a dark novel that follows in the tradition of classic Southern Literature, and a promising beginning to a literary career. Complete review at Bookloons. - M Lofton
"The prison of solitude".......2005-08-01
A dysfunctional family in denial, the thin line between social acceptance and the taint of poverty and a lack of personal boundaries between brother and sister, mother and son; everything factors into this disturbing coming-of-age tale, all the more painful for its immutability. For years Ginx and Morgan-Lee have lived in a world of their own making, where affection for one another is unquestioned and without boundaries, creating a place of comfort and seclusion. Ginx suffers from a form of autism, functional enough to attend high school, but still given to withdrawal and ritualistic behavior. In the summer of Morgan-Lee's fourteenth birthday, subtle shifts have already opened a shallow breech between brother and sister.
With a mother too distracted to care for Morgan-Lee, Ginx and their sister, Dana, the children create their own landscape. This is the summer of Morgan-Lee's search for identity, defined by her own needs and wants, rather than the sheltering of Ginx's fragile ego. Morgan-Lee has literally belonged to her fifteen-year old brother, their youth a patchwork of imaginary fables and shared secrets, but she is a survivor who subconsciously acknowledges that she can never provide all that her brother needs.
Morgan-Lee has long flirted with romantic attachments, but it is not until the children socialize with a very strange young woman, Sweety-Boy, and her half-brother, Jacob, new to their part of North Carolina, that their careful surface develops fissures, threatening to change their relationship irrevocably. The three children are isolated from their peers, Morgan-Lee gladly shepherding Ginx through his emotional difficulties, but when the siblings attend an intimate birthday party thrown by Sweety-Boy, the status quo is altered by the drunken exposure of naked needs blooming in the humid summer air.
In some ways, Sweety-Boy's world-weary cynicism acts as a catalyst for Morgan-Lee, a role model for accomplishing goals; on the other hand, Morgan-Lee is perplexed by the other girl's actions, mistaking her stubbornness for confidence. Prematurely worldly, Sweety-Boy is conscious of her own currency in a stingy world, while, in contrast, Morgan-Lee is still wrapped in innocence, her desire for the opposite sex deepening, but she remains incapable of reading the signs around her, grappling with unfamiliar emotions, knowing the price will be the loss of her brother and the solace they offer each other. Ginx, Morgan-Lee and Dana are thrown into unexpected betrayals. The most keenly observant of the three, Morgan-Lee recognizes the storm on the horizon, helpless to change the inevitable, "the prison of solitude that so often kept people together, no matter how unhappily, was constructed out of pure, empty yearning".
Against a southern gothic background, Morgan-Lee, her brother and sister play out their fates, all of them branded by a lack of emotional support and affection, the suggestion of forbidden intimacies and the chaotic behavior of a family desperately clinging a hope of normalcy. Many scenes are wracked with the painful awkwardness of adolescence and the yearning for love, the carefully constructed walls of their house of cards all but destroyed by Morgan-Lee's impulsive lurch into her own identity. Written in deceptively simple prose, Broken as Things Are is both disturbing and poignant, the protagonists victims of the harsh realities of life. Luan Gaines/2005.
Emotionally Powerful.......2005-07-19
Morgan-Lee is a 14-year old North Carolina girl who is a writer of love letters for fellow students, though she's never needed one herself. Morgan-Lee doesn't fit in. She is growing up in a difficult family and is having a hard time of it.
Her older brother, amazingly handsome Ginx, has a form of autism and though he can talk to others on occasion, he prefers to speak in a language of words based on sound and tone that only he and Morgan-Lee can understand. Increasing their exclusive bond are the stories that Morgan-Lee makes up for Ginx. The characters in her imaginary stories sometimes acts out the otherwise hidden sexual tension between the siblings.
With a mother who is too self-absorbed to contribute much help to Morgan Lee's growing up, she relies on her aunt Lois whose career in beauty and cosmetic make-overs underlines her overwhelming concern with how everything in life looks. Morgan Lee's younger sister Dana, is painfully aware that her family is different and disassociates herself from them by living with Aunt Lois. Morgan-Lee's father is an educator and only wants quiet in the family.
Into this heated setting enters an uninhibited young woman named, Sweety-Boy. Armed with a glib-tongue and a brash manner, Sweety-Boy sells jams door-to-door, barging her way into the homes and lives of the community. Morgan-Lee, along with her sister and brother are soon pulled into Sweety-Boys orbit, which proves to be the catalyst for Morgan-Lee's coming of age, the burgeoning of her sexuality and the violent rift that opens and becomes public between the siblings.
As told by Morgan-Lee, this story is deceptively quiet on the surface. The readers feel the tension growing, but until the end, we aren't told the reasons for those stresses. Many scenes open slowly and finish with powerful emotions or they unravel to transform into almost unbearable situations. The birthday party and Morgan-Lee's first day as a jam saleswoman both end with staggering unexpected twists.
BROKEN AS THINGS ARE is writer Martha Witt's first novel and I'm thankful I read it. I'm already longing to read her next work.
Average customer rating:
- An insane rolicking ride
- Some of the stories are perfect, some are flat-out boring (3.5 stars)
- Pure poetry!
- Probably not what you are expecting, but worth checking out
- I Mourne The Trees That Died To Create This Book
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From the Dust Returned: A Novel
Ray Bradbury
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
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ASIN: 0380973820
Release Date: 2001-10-02 |
Amazon.com
High on a hill by a forked tree, the House beckons its family homeward, and they come--travelers from the lyrical, lush imagination of Ray Bradbury.
From the Dust Returned chronicles a community of eternal beings: a mummified matriarch who speaks in dust; a sleeping daughter who lives through the eyes and ears of the creatures she visits in her dreams; an uncle with wings like sea-green sails. And there is also the mortal child Timothy, the foundling son who yearns to be like those he loves: to fly, to sleep in daytime, and to live forever. Instead, his task is to witness the family's struggle with the startling possibility of its own end.
Bradbury is deservedly recognized as a master of lyricism and delicate mood. In this novel he weaves together individuals' stories and the overarching family crisis into a softly whispered, seductive tale of longing and loss, death and life in the shadowy places. --Roz Genessee
Book Description
Ray Bradbury, America's most beloved storyteller, has spent a lifetime carrying readers to exhilarating and dangerous places, from dark street comers in unfamiliar cities and towns to the edge of the universe. Now, in an extraordinary flight of the imagination a half-century in the making, he takes us to a most wondrous destination: into the heart of an Eternal Family
They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois -- and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids.
Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the farflung branches of this odd and remarkable family. In the past-midnight stillness can be detected the soft fluttering of Uncle Einars wings. From her realm of sleep, Cecy, the fairest and most special daughter, can feel the approach of many a welcome being -- shapeshifter, telepath, somnambulist, vampire -- as she flies high in the consciousness of bird and bat.
But in the midst of eager anticipation, a sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And death, no stranger, will always shadow this most singular family: Father, arisen from the Earth; Mother, who never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandmére; Grandfather, who keeps the wildness of youth between his ears.
And the boy who, more than anyone, carries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothy, the sad and different foundling son who must share it all, remember, and tell...and who, alone out of all of them, must one day age and wither and die.
By turns lyrical, wistful, poignant, and chilling, From the Dust Returned is the long-awaited new novel by the peerless Ray Bradbury -- a book that will surely be numbered among his most enduring masterworks.
Customer Reviews:
An insane rolicking ride.......2007-04-15
I had read pieces of this work before scattered through various Bradbury anthologies, and so it was surprising and somewhat unsettling to encounter them in their original context. This is a short, odd book, populated by characters that only a wonderfully-sane madman could dream up. Like most Bradbury works, it leaves you with a simultaneous feeling of satisfaction, but also the puzzlement of wondering what exactly just happened.
Some of the stories are perfect, some are flat-out boring (3.5 stars).......2007-03-11
After reading a fair amount of Ray Bradbury's work, I searched for more. I found From the Dust Returned (Hardcover) in a used book store for six dollars, and I feel a bit robbed. Some of these stories previously published (Homecoming, The April Witch, On the Orient North) are some of Bradbury's best short stories. So then, what is wrong with this novel? It all doesn't flow together well. Bradbury should have just left his short stories alone and should not have tried to make a full novel based around them. Ray Bradbury's writing is, as always, gorgeous, and I do like a few of these chapters, but overall, it wasn't a very exciting read.
3.5 stars.
Pure poetry!.......2005-10-25
This is the first Ray Bradbury book i've read. *cringes* But it was the most beautiful story i've heard in a long time. Mr. Bradbury knows how to paint the most vivid pictures in ones mind with his words. The dream-like atmosphere is enough to lull one into a mind-set where truly, a family such as this, can exist. It is a quick read, but so worth revisiting. Overflowing with imagery and poetry, this book is just amazing....
Probably not what you are expecting, but worth checking out.......2005-09-04
I purchased this book having heard nothing about it, but knowing much of its author, the legendary Ray Bradbury.
An unquestionable leader of American Literature, Bradbury has dazzled his readers with tales of science-fiction, horror, and fantasy. And while whimsical writing conjuring thoughts of poetry rather than prose is almost a Bradbury staple, I have never read anything by him as poetic as "From the Dust Returned".
This story of a family comprised of mummies, vampires, ghouls, and the peculiar trio of mouse, spider and human, should not be approached with expectations for a plot driven story.
Rather, Bradbury uses excessive (though not to a detrimental degree) poetic conventions, and vivid tone and mood to tell the story of a family in danger of losing the house it has occupied as far as time can remember (though not nearly as long as grandma and grandpa can remember), a metaphor for the steady decline of belief in that which must be trusted by faith. As it is so eloquently put by one of the characters in this novel, this lack of faith is as detrimental to this supernatural family as it is for such faith based religious figures as Jesus Christ.
Through it all, Bradbury effectively makes his case for the loss of true joy that occurs whenever we look at life with a purely logical and ovely-skeptical mind. His story... scratch that, almost epic-like poem, reminds us that our imaginations help us to create another world of possibilities. A world made real by the creative power of our minds. His characters make a desperate call for a return to this faith as a way to maximize the enjoyment and vibrance of our lives. While many readers will become quickly frustrated by the never-quite realized plot of this book, those who approach it as simply a text of literary quality will be pleasantly surprised by the masterful writing, and thought-provoking message.
I Mourne The Trees That Died To Create This Book.......2005-08-05
After reading a book I was so looking forward to, I feel violated as if Mr. Bradbury himself wanted to rip out my fondest memories of his brilliant tales and replace them with raw sewage. (See, I can write arty farty rubbish just like Ray did with this book!!) My sole comfort is that I purchased it on the secondary market so Mr. Bradbury procured no money from it. Shame on you, Ray!! What a waste of a Charles Addams art work!!
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FROM THE DUST RETURNED.
Manufacturer: Earthlight
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books | Alternate History | Anthologies | Arthurian | Contemporary | Epic | General | Historical | History & Criticism | Magic & Wizards | Series
ASIN: 0743207599 |
Average customer rating:
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From the Dust Returned: Mixed Prepack
Ray Bradbury
Manufacturer: William Morrow & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 006621517X |
Amazon.com
In the series that started with The Star Fraction, Ken MacLeod has created a future history whose genesis was an argument about anarchism between a group of left-wing students in the '70s. The destruction and renaissance of civilization, here and elsewhere in the human galaxy, turns on this argument. In the fourth book, MacLeod productively fills in some of the gaps. This is the story of Myra, Trot-turned-entrepreneur, whose nuclear deterrence-for-hire is central to the event known by some as the Fall and others as the Deliverance. It is also the story of young Clovis, part-time worker in the yard where the first space-ship in centuries is being built, part-time scholar trying to find out what Myra the Deliverer was really like.
MacLeod's readers are used to his quirky and intelligent take on the world of power politics and his charmingly cynical gift for engaging and engaged protagonists. What this book also has is a profound sense of the beauty of a simpler and stiller world; MacLeod's real gift is his capacity to see all sides of a question, even when he is sure of the answer. --Roz Kaveney, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
Centuries after the catastrophic Deliverance, humanity is again reaching into space. And Clovis, a young scholar working in the spaceship-construction yard, could make the difference between success and failure. For his mysterious new lover, Merrial, has seduced him into the idea of extrapolating the ship's future from the dark archives of the past.A past in which, centuries before, Myra Godwin faced the end of a different space age--her rockets redundant, her people rebellious, and her borders defenseless against the Sino-Soviet Union. As Myra appealed to the crumbling West for help, she found history turning on her own strange past--and on the terrible decisions she faces now.The Sky Road is a fireworks display, a bravura performance, and the most amazing novel yet by one of the powerful new voices in science fiction.
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-03
This is a solid book, but a pretty quick read. One nice highlight is that one of the two main threads is centered around Kazakhstan. That certainly doesn't happen very often. Some funny computer jokes at the expense of the characters in the other section, and something that we, of course see coming, but the protagonist, does not.
Then he throws in one sneaky, very political AI, and it is not a bad story, along with being hopeful, even with a bit of the good old nuclear destruction.
This is my favorite novel, and i read a *&!%-load........2006-09-27
This is the most mind-opening book I've ever read. I frequently impose MacLeods questions on other people because the book poses questions of philosophy on such a level that forming an opinion on some sends the reader into the most interesting paths of cognition.
For instance: (the responses to this always very) Let's say I can plug my head into this computer, and download every memory, every single feeling and second UP UNTIL this very second. Let's say I do that, and then I open the window of my 7th story apartment and take a running leap onto a taxi below. When I die, and the computer brings the three-minuite-old me back, is it really still me? More importantly, When I'm flying to my death, am I thinking "Well, I'm sure glad I made that backup". Personally, I think i'd just be thinking "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!", but then what's the point of making a backup?
I mean, exploring principles of high-technology and how it can completely smash political barriers in ways that we're so used to not thinking of that we completely don't see them; this is what the book does. It's a study of political-techno-biological relations in different stages of a world. Ironically, the 'past' section of the story less resembles the present than the 'centuries-in-the-future' sections.
Truly, the characters are merely vessels for carrying a greater message and simply acting out the functions of the story, they don't seem to have personal depth - but that isn't a fault of macleod; failing to delve into expressing a character's personality traits through action and dialogues. There's fair amounts of that, although the reader fails to connect at times because the fact is simply this: Macleod's characters are representations of external circumstance. The book's main message is that we really are products of our circumstance, and we do and think what's in front of us.
That's why it ends like it does, and clovis never does understand maya's story. It's outside of his societally-conformant way of thinking: history only makes sense in it's own context BECAUSE we only understand ourselves in our own history's context. The entrancement of the book comes from truly questioning how much we really can understand as we're stuck in the frame of mind that we've grown into. The true genius of the book is the mind-popping questions of new political-technological systems that are actually believable when considering the possibilities of the futures that the book presents. What effect would immortality have on a society? What effects would nano-technology instant fabrication have on a capatalist society? If the cost of production was zero, would anarcho-communism come into effect? Would the very greed principle guiding humanity dissolve if we were immortal? If we truly had all the time we needed to live out whichever life we choosed 800 times, The world changes inevitably.
Ultimately, it is usually those who ask such questions whom see a bigger picture in every aspect of any situation. As legs will grow musclar if forced to run, a mind will be more receptive and open to unfamiliar ideas if a mind is used to fathoming the completely unfamiliar.
I read the cassini division too, and found it equally (maybe a bit less) thought-provoking and generally 'neat'. I haven't read any others in the series, and i tried to read 'Dark Light' from the 'Engines of Light' series but couldn't dig it..
Reading Fiction, Lesson One: Start at the begging of the series........2005-11-29
I couldn't help but to leave this small piece of advice for those complaining about obscure references and an overwhelmed feeling due to plot points they failed to grasp (or indeed, viewed as inconsequential rambling on Mr Mcleods part).
If the fourth book in a series is the first you read, then OF COURSE you're not going to have a clue with regards to obscure references and knowing-winks-and-nods to past events and characters.
For the love of god, read the series and put the book into some form of context before slapping a 2 star rating on it. You're putting off more patient prospective-readers who may well take the time and effort to become properly versed in the back story before leaping in for the final lap and then moaning that they don't know what's going on...
An excellent book and a wonderful series, the more positive elements of the other reviews here are all spot on... Not to be missed if you are a fan of Hamilton or Reynolds... Or like myself, have strong leftist/socialist tendencies and a love of sci-fi.
Would Have Been Better off as a Fantasy.......2005-03-22
www.angelfire.com/zine2/fictiononline/myworks.html
The story is set in a far future - so far in fact that it could be a story about another planet and another culture or it could even be a fantasy. The story has two parts. The protagonists of the first part are Clovis colha Gree (male) and Merrial (female).
The story starts with the meeting of the two protagonists at a festival. Merrial seems to be out to get Clovis. It may not all be love or even sexual attraction. She may have a hidden agenda.
The society depicted is quite confusing. Way, way back in the past, humankind, led by Myra Godwin, had reached for stars. It had ended in a catastrophic destruction at the hands of the Sino-Soviet Union. In spite of this catastrophic end, the western world remembers Myra as the Deliverer. If this is not confusing enough, get a bite into this: the world is once again reaching out for the stars. Space ships are being built, but computer programmers are called tinkers and are shunned by the society.
Clovis colha Gree is also a student of history and his topic is the life of the Deliverer. Merrial coaxes him into finding the secret files of Myra Godwin and looking into them, hoping that the new space age would benefit from her experiences.
Clovis delves into these secret files, and the story jumps from the present (of the narrative) to the past -- to the time of Myra Godwin. And then Myra Godwin's story starts to unfold.
It is a story within story. The story of Clovis and Merrial is told in first person, Clovis being the narrator. The story of Myra Godwin is in third person. The times are not very well realized. The characters are not very interesting. The story has overtones of myths when talking about the Deliverer, and this is well handled. This and the fact that computers and computer technology is referred in magical terms like "demons" and "invoking", prompted me to the earlier comment that the setting could as well be a fantasy.
Just OK.......2003-05-08
This book was ok. It was interesting to read, but there was nothing particularly special about it.
I never really felt much concern over what was going to happen with the characters or the story. I wanted to find out what happened, but I didn't have any strong feelings about the characters or what I thought should happen.
I've seen other reviews here that seem to indicate that this is part of a series. If that is the case, then perhaps I missed something in an earlier book that would have made this more enjoyable. I will probably investigate this and try to read any earlier books because I do think MacLeod writes well. Hopefully, in one of his other books I will find the spark that I think was lacking in this one.
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Sky Road
Ann Tonsor Zeddies
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
General
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ASIN: 0345378652
Release Date: 1992-12-23 |
Book Description
The Sky's the Limit
·Killer stats on all featured war planes and weaponry
·Advanced aerial combat strategy and special maneuvers
·Hints for using the environment against your enemies
·Locations of secret zones, bonus weapons, and more!
·Special excerpt from Crimson Skies: Paladin Blake & The Case of the Phantom Prototype
·Complete walkthroughs for all 20 missions
·How to beat the Hollywood Knights, Red Skulls, Die Spinne and more
Book Description
Traveling Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road is an experience like no other. Laborers toiled for nearly 20 years to complete the 50-mile road that winds an impossible route through the heart of Glacier. One of the most scenic highways in the world, this marvel of engineering set the standard for all national parks. C. W. Guthrie tells the intriguing tale of the history and the construction of the epic Going-to-the-Sun Road. More than 60 black & white historic and color photographs, maps.
Customer Reviews:
I was there when she started.......2005-05-07
This is not an impartial review. My copy of Country Doads, Painted Skies came with the following inscription on the fly leaf:
This is not an impartial review. My copy of Country Doads, Painted Skies came with the following inscription on the fly leaf: To friar Phil Kelly, who was the first to watch the school bus travel 'Country Roads'. She had submitted a number of free-lance short stories to Companion, a little Franciscan magazine I was editing.Among them was the first 'Story from the School Bus' and from that to the book you are holding in your hand has been quite a journey. She tackles very complex and contemporary issues, offering no pat answers or easy, miraclous solutions. She confronts the whole range of current societal issues and touches your heart with her honesty. Every story carries a wallop before she lets you 'off the school bus.' Brilliant contemporary dramas.
Friar Phil Kelly
Awsome! One of the best!.......2005-03-09
This book is truly one of the best books of short stories I have ever read! I cant believe how wonderful this book turned out to be! My hat goes off to Judie Gulley for Country Roads, Painted Skies. This really brings life into perspective. I cant wait to read her other stories. I say everyone should have this book on there bookself.
Average customer rating:
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Field Road Sky
Steve Clorfeine
Manufacturer: Codhill Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
20th Century
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
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General
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General
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ASIN: 1930337205 |
Product Description
Collection of poetry
Book Description
Many scholars are convinced that The Holy Chalice of Valencia is the Holy Grail, celebrated in medieval legneds as it was venerated by monks in the secluded Monastery of San Juan de la Peña, built into a rocky outcropping of the Spanish Pyrenees. The tradition of Aragón has always insisted that the flaming agate cup of the Holy Chalice was sent to Spain by St. Laurence, the glorious Spaniard martyred on a gridiron during the Valerian persecution in Rome in 258 AD. Now there is new evidence: A sixth-century manuscript written in Latin by St. Donato, an Augustinian monk who founded a monastery in the area of Valencia, provides never-before-published details about Laurence, born in Valencia but destined for Italy, where he became treasurer and deacon of the Catholic Church under Pope Sixtus II. It explicitly mentions the details surrounding the transfer of the Holy Cup of the Last Supper to Spain. Janice Bennett acquaints the reader with the enthralling story of the Holy Chalice, the renowned relic that embarked from the Last Supper on an amazing pilgrimage that providentially ended in the Cathedral of Valencia, a miraculous odyssey that has been characterized by dnager, greed, martyrdom and fire from the very beginning. The author presents abundant evidence for authenticy, delving into many provocative topics, such as the importance of relics for early Christians, the difference between legend, tradition and history, and the veracity of St. Laurence's death on the gridiron. It is a fascinating account that will dispel forever the notion that the famous relic was ever lost. The mythical Quest for the Holy Grail is now over.
Customer Reviews:
A fascinating odyssey: This IS the Holy Grail..........2006-11-26
Janice Bennett has researched and authored this marvelous study providing virtually indisputable evidence~The Holy Chalice of Valencia (Spain)IS the Holy Grail. A legendary cup that served as vessel of Consecration[of Seder supper wine used in Jewish Passover Commemoration of Exodus]into His sacred blood by Jesus Christ at First Mass/Holy Thursday anamnesis of Last Supper with His Apostles...preceeding trial and crucifixion the next(Good Friday)morning...is subject of this fascinating odyssey...
The Grail is described as luminous cup of flawless,translucent agate stone rippled with fire-like spires. An ornate gold monstrance-mounting,adorned of 28 pearls,2 rubies and 2 emeralds comprises the chalice base. The story of the treasured relic's entrustment to St.Laurence by PopeSixtusII(before his execution by Roman Emperor Valerian in AD 258);Laurence's spiriting of The Grail to his homeland in Spain and subsequent martyrdom in the same persecution)relates legendary adventures and mystery unresolved until this century's Spanish Civil War;and ending in Sacred Reliquary Tabernacle of The Cathedral of Valencia...
Bennett's book is beautifully appointed,throroughly documented work of
accessible scholarship. There are photographs of drawings,engravings and primary source materials. There are technical diagrams(describing Cup structure;elaborating mystical entendres implied in gem configurations).
There are maps and detailed chronology of "Grail's trail". Most interesting (part III:chapter6~bks 1-14,pp64-163)is translation of "The Life & Martyrdom of St.Laurence" written in sixth century by Augustinian Abbot named Donato and recovered in 1636 by Doctor of Theology Father Ausina;NOW residing in the National Library in Madrid.The tract provides powerful proof that The Holy Chalice of Valencia IS the Holy Grail.
For students of theology,history,mythology, ST.LAURENCE&THE HOLY GRAIL~The Story of the Holy Chalice of Valencia is book sine qua non.His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI(July 6,AD 2006)has so affirmed authenticity of the AGATE CUP reposing therein as(hoi poterion;sacer calix):El Santo Caliz.The greatest Quest Mystery is answered~Take & Read.(10 stars)
Will the real Grail please stand up!.......2005-08-13
Perhaps in response to the DaVinci Code's historically spurious claim that the "real Grail" was Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus of Nazareth was married and by whom he sired progeny which endure to the present day, Bennett clarifies that the "Grail" of myth, legend and history was always identified with the cup Jesus used at the Last Supper. She then proceeds to trace the history of the search for this relic, and of its survival and veneration, seeking to separate historically defensible evidence from pious legend and tradition. One chapter provides the complete first translation into English of an early document which she insists provides key evidence that substantiates the claim that the originally stemless agate cup of the Last Supper has indeed made its circuitous way (though with later mountings and embellishments)from 1st century Palestine to the Cathedral of Valencia, Spain. Replete with drawings and photographs, the work reads at time like a mystery story (particularly the details of how the Grail was spirited out of the Valencian cathedral during the Spanish Civil War, and hidden in all kinds of unlikely places). The treatment is reverential, and Bennett tends to credit unbroken traditions in the Western Church with historical reliability whenever there is no clear evidence to the contrary.
Books:
- Bronstein's Children
- By Salt Water: Stories (New Island New Fiction)
- Cincinnati and Other Plays (includes the plays Cincinnati, Nightmare with Clocks, Captain Cook, Dead Men's Fingers, Axis Sally, How Many Children Had Lady Macbeth, and Full Fathom Five)
- Cleopatra: Being an Account of the Fall and Vengeance of Harmachis, the Royal Egyptian, As Set Forth by His Own Hand (Works of H. Rider Haggard)
- Collected Tales and Fantasies of Lord Berners: Including Percy Wallingford, the Camel, Mr. Pidger, Count Omega, the Romance of a Nose, Far from the Madding War
- Colored Waiting Room
- Communities in Nature - Shorelands (Communities in Nature)
- Confessions of Zeno
- Cuba Libre
- Dearly Departed
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