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The Greatest Manhunt in American History
For 12 days after his brazen assassination of Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth was at large, and in Manhunt, historian James L. Swanson tells the vivid, fully documented tale of his escape and the wild, massive pursuit. Get a taste of the daily drama from this timeline of the desperate search.
| April 14, 1865 |
Around noon, Booth learns that Lincoln is coming to Ford's Theatre that night. He has eight hours to prepare his plan.
10:15 pm: Booth shoots the president, leaps to the stage, and escapes on a waiting horse.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton orders the manhunt to begin. |
| April 15 |
About 4:00 am: Booth seeks treatment for a broken leg at Dr. Samuel Mudd's farm near Beantown, Maryland. Cavalry patrol heads south toward Mudd farm.
Confederate operative Thomas Jones hides Booth in a remote pine thicket for five days, frustrating the manhunters. |
| April 19 |
Tens of thousands watch the procession to the U.S. Capitol, where President Lincoln lies in state. Wild rumors and stories of false sightings of Booth spread. | |
|
| April 20 |
Stanton offers a $100,000 reward for the assassins, and threatens death to any citizen who helps them.
After hiding Booth in Maryland, Jones puts him in a rowboat on the Potomac River, bound for Virginia. More than a thousand manhunters are still searching in Maryland. In the dark, Booth rows the wrong way and first ends up back in Maryland. |
| April 20-24 |
Booth lands in the northern neck of Virginia, and Confederate agents and sympathizers guide him to Port Conway, Virginia. |
| April 24 |
Booth befriends three Confederate soldiers who help him cross the Rappahannock River to Port Royal and then guide him further southwest to the Garrett farm.
Union troops in Washington receive a report of a Booth sighting. They board a U.S. Navy tug and steam south, right past Booth's hideout at the Garrett farm. |
| April 25 |
The 16th New York Calvary, realizing their error, turns around and surrounds the Garrett farm after midnight that night. | |
|
| April 26 |
When Booth refuses to surrender, troops set the barn on fire, and Boston Corbett shoots the assassin. Booth dies a few hours later, at sunrise. |
| April 26-27 |
Booth's body is brought back to Washington, where it is autopsied, photographed, and buried in a secret grave. | |
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Book Description
The murder of Abraham Lincoln set off the greatest manhunt in American history. From April 14 to April 26, 1865, the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, led Union cavalry and detectives on a wild twelve-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia, while the nation, still reeling from the just-ended Civil War, watched in horror and sadness.
James L. Swanson's Manhunt is a fascinating tale of murder, intrigue, and betrayal. A gripping hour-by-hour account told through the eyes of the hunted and the hunters, this is history as you've never read it before.
Customer Reviews:
a great read... i was there!!.......2007-09-29
I have not read many books lately and have just started to get back to it. Manhunt was the latest book I read and it was AMAZING!! The vivid descriptions put you everywhere John W Booth and his cohorts are and makes for a fascinating depiction of history.
Brings history to life..........2007-09-14
I enjoy nonfiction books that read like novels, and James L. Swanson's Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer provides a dose of history in an enjoyable format.
Manhunt didn't include much information about the assassination that I didn't already know. But I did learn quite a bit about the 12-day pursuit of John Wilkes Booth and the hunt for his conspirators, as well as some other assassination trivia. It was especially interesting in that my husband and I often travel this same path through Maryland and Virginia when driving south. We pass right by the historic marker near the Garrett house barn (where Booth was captured and killed), although we've never stopped to see the actual location.
Swanson does a commendable job of bringing the complex Booth to life. The author describes him as "impossibly vain, preening, emotionally flamboyant, possessed of raw talent and splendid elan." Yet, this handsome and charismatic actor was willing to sacrifice everything for "his cause." After the assassination, he was stunned and enraged to discover that his acts not only met with outrage, but also, made Lincoln a martyr. I was surprised to learn that on April 16, 1865, CSA Lt. General R. S. Ewell sent Secretary of War Stanton a letter that was cosigned by 16 other Confederate generals. In the letter, Ewell wrote of their "unqualified abhorrence and indignation" at Lincoln's killing. He claimed that they were shocked by this appalling crime and that Southern men "are not assassins" nor their "allies."
Manhunt has a good number of pictures, drawings, maps and photographs related to the assassination. He also includes an excellent Epilogue where he tells the "story after the story." Swanson also provides a poignant description of the events of that time. When Lincoln died at the Peterson house, a "crude, improvised coffin" was brought to transport his body back to the White House. The people in the street were upset. "The box looked like a shipping crate, not a proper coffin for a head of state. Lincoln would not have minded. He was always a man of simple tastes. This was the plain, roughly hewn coffin of a rail-splitter."
After reading Manhunt, I intend on reading an earlier work that Swanson co-wrote called Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trail and Execution.
What a book..........2007-09-04
I bought this book for a teachers gift, he loves Lincoln and that whole period of our country's life. He said the book is one of the best he's ever read on the subject.
Well written, a quick read........2007-09-03
As a person who's read quite a bit on Lincoln and his assination, I figured I should finally get around to this text. I've been telling people for years that Dr. Samuel Mudd's family lobbied for years to get Mudd's name cleared--that he was simply a physician treating a patient with a broken leg. A colleague of mine suggested that this book denies that. It does, indeed.
I read a lot but am a slower reader than I'd like. So I like a book (1) that doesn't have microscopic print and (2) keeps me interested. This qualified on both counts. I don't mean it was large print, like a children's book. But it didn't have so much detail that I could maybe win a trivia contest but be none the wiser.
In fact, one item that I liked most was that Thomas Jones apparently kept Booth and his accomplice, Davey Herold, in a pine thicket for something like four days and five nights. Jones was freed of any responsibility for harboring perhaps the most wanted man in the US for those 12 days, but told the truth some years later. (When he was selling a book admitting to that, he was apparently attacked by some Union veterans!)
Among the things I liked too about the book was the admission by the author that Lincoln was not particularly popular at the time of his assination. Indeed, Booth was discouraged after the assasination that he'd created a martyr there there might not have been one.
Another thing I liked about the structure of the book is that the author ended with a kind of "where are they now," or what happened to the actors in the "drama." That's where I learned of the Jones story, for example.
What I didn't like about the book was the speculation the author did on what was going on in Booth's mind while he was in the Garret barn where he was eventually shot. I'm conscious of that ever since a good friend and former boss and I talked about a book years ago in which he accused I think it was Halberstram of doing that. "How could he know was was going on in [so-and-so]'s mind?" he asked. Of course he can guess, but then such speculation needed to be stated as such.
I must confess too that I almost downgraded the review by one star too because of what I saw in the book's acknowledgements. You see, Swanson thanked is friends "at the Heritage Foundation." What's the matter with that? Well, Heritage is extremely ideological. (I know, for, among other reasons, I have a distant cousin who works there.) How would one have felt after reading such a book if the author had said, "Many thanks to all my buddies at the Communist Party." It might make you want to find another more credible book because that party tends to be ideological. Heritage may be the other side of the political spectrum but is no less ideological, so it made me wonder about the author's motives and objectivity. But, despite Heritage, I found the book worth reading and, yes, difficult to put down. So, over and above the Booth speculation, I recommend it.
Engrossing....Engaging...........2007-08-12
A thrilling page-turner! Even though the ending is known to all you'll find this book keeps you more than a little interested and at the edge of your seat. I found myself having to put the book down to grieve for Lincoln's death, but at the same time unable to put the book down because it's was so captivating, all the while savoring each page!
Average customer rating:
- Suspend your disbelief and it's pretty good
- Fascinating
- FINN, a dark chapter of racism in America
- Pretentious
- Very good
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Finn: A Novel
Jon Clinch
Manufacturer: Random House
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ASIN: 1400065917
Release Date: 2007-02-20 |
Book Description
In this masterful debut by a major new voice in fiction, Jon Clinch takes us on a journey into the history and heart of one of American literature’s most brutal and mysterious figures: Huckleberry Finn’s father. The result is a deeply original tour de force that springs from Twain’s classic novel but takes on a fully realized life of its own.
Finn sets a tragic figure loose in a landscape at once familiar and mythic. It begins and ends with a lifeless body–flayed and stripped of all identifying marks–drifting down the Mississippi. The circumstances of the murder, and the secret of the victim’s identity, shape Finn’s story as they will shape his life and his death.
Along the way Clinch introduces a cast of unforgettable characters: Finn’s terrifying father, known only as the Judge; his sickly, sycophantic brother, Will; blind Bliss, a secretive moonshiner; the strong and quick-witted Mary, a stolen slave who becomes Finn’s mistress; and of course young Huck himself. In daring to re-create Huck for a new generation, Clinch gives us a living boy in all his human complexity–not an icon, not a myth, but a real child facing vast possibilities in a world alternately dangerous and bright.
Finn is a novel about race; about paternity in its many guises; about the shame of a nation recapitulated by the shame of one absolutely unforgettable family. Above all, Finn reaches back into the darkest waters of America’s past to fashion something compelling, fearless, and new.
Praise for Finn
“A brave and ambitious debut novel… It stands on its own while giving new life and meaning to Twain’s novel, which has been stirring passions and debates since 1885… triumph of imagination and graceful writing…. Bookstores and libraries shelve novels alphabetically by authors’ names. That leaves Clinch a long way from Twain. But on my bookshelves, they'll lean against each other. I’d like to think that the cantankerous Twain would welcome the company.”
–USA TODAY
“Ravishing…In the saga of this tormented human being, Clinch brings us a radical (and endlessly debatable) new take on Twain’s classic, and a stand-alone marvel of a novel. Grade: A.”
–ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“A fascinating, original read.”
–people
“Haunting…Clinch reimagines Finn in a strikingly original way, replacing Huck’s voice with his own magisterial vision–one that’s nothing short of revelatory…Spellbinding.”
–WASHINGTON POST
“Meticulously crafted…Marvelous imagination…The Finn of Clinch’s novel is certainly a racist villain but also psychologically disturbed and disconcertingly compelling.”
–SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
“From the barest of hints in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Clinch has created a fully believable world inhabited by fully realized characters. Clinch treads dangerous ground in making one of America’s greatest novels his jumping-off point, but he brings it off magnificently…The language of this book is one of its great beauties…Finn is far from one-dimensional, and that is another beauty of the book. Clinch has a knack for putting us squarely inside the heads of his characters….Clinch draws as compelling and realistic a picture as any we’re likely to find…Finn stands on its own. The richness of its language, the depth of its characters, the emotional and societal tangles through which they struggle to navigate add up to a portrait of life on the Mississippi as we’ve never before experienced it.”
–dallas morning news
“His models may include Cormac McCarthy, and Charles Frazier, whose Cold Mountain also has a voice that sounds like 19th-century American (both formal and colloquial) but has a contemporary terseness and spikiness. This voice couldn’t be better suited to a historical novel with a modernist sensibility: Clinch’s riverbank Missouri feels postapocalyptic, and his Pap Finn is a crazed yet wily survivor in a polluted landscape…Clinch’s Pap is a convincingly nightmarish extrapolation of Twain’s. He’s the mad, lost and dangerous center of a world we’d hate to live in–or do we still live there?–and crave to revisit as soon as we close the book.”
–newsweek
“I haven’t been swallowed whole by a work of fiction in some time. Jon Clinch’s first novel has done it: sucked me under like I was a rag doll thrown into the wake of a Mississippi steamboat…Jon Clinch has turned in a nearly perfect first book, a creative response that matches The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in intensity and tenacious soul-searching about racism. I wish I could write well enough to construct a dramatic, subtle and mysterious story out of careful, plodding and unromantic prose, but for now I’m just happy to have an alchemist like Jon Clinch do it for me.”
–BOOKSLUT
“Finn strikes its most original chords in its bold imagining of possibilities left unexplored by Huckleberry Finn.”
–austin american-statesman
“An inspired riff on one of literature’s all-time great villains…This tale of fathers and sons, slavery and freedom, better angels at war with dark demons, is filled with passages of brilliant description, violence that is close-up and terrifying…Everything in this novel could have happened, and we believe it… so the great river of stories is too, twisting and turning, inspiring such surprising and inspired riffs and tributes as Finn.”
–new orleans times-picayune
“A triumph of succesful plotting, convincing characterization and lyrical prose.”
–ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
“Shocking and charming. Clinch creates a folk-art masterpiece that will delight, beguile and entertain as it does justice to its predecessor…In Finn, Clinch expands the bloodlines and scope of the original story and casts new light on the troubled legacy of our country’s infamous past.”
–new york post
“In Clinch’s retelling, Pap Finn comes vibrantly to life as a complex, mysterious, strangely likable figure…Clinch includes many sharply realized, sometimes harrowing, even gruesome scenes…Finn should appeal not only to scholars of 19th century literature but to anyone who cares to sample a forceful debut novel inspired by a now-mythic American story.”
–atlanta journal-consitution
“What makes bearable this river voyage that never ventures far beyond the banks is the compelling narrative Clinch has created. He writes exceedingly well, not with the immediacy Twain imbued to Huck's voice, but with an impersonal narrator’s voice that almost perversely refuses to take sides. And the plot is masterful.”
–fredericksburg freelance-star
“Disturbing and darkly compelling…Clinch displays impressive imagination and descriptiveness…anyone who encounters Finn will long be hautned by this dark and bloody tale.”
–hartford courant
“Jon Clinch pulls off the near impossible in his new novel, Finn, which brings Huck's dad to life in all his terrible humanness…Clinch vividly paints the origins of the amazing Huck...powerfully told.”
–winston-salem journal
“Gripping…he inventively remaps known literary territory…the descriptive riffs are lucent.”
–chicago tribune
“The best debut so far of 2007.”
–men’s journal
“Inventing Huckleberry Finn’s father using only the thin scraps of information that Mark Twain provided is a pretty admirable feat, and reading Jon Clinch’s first novel provides an almost tactile pleasure…Clinch clearly respects Twain, but he doesn’t feel especially cowed by his inspiration, and some of his inventions qualify as genuine improvements on the original text.”
–washington city paper
“In this darkly luminous debut…Clinch lyrically renders the Mississippi River’s ceaseless flow, while revealing Finn’s brutal contradictions, his violence, arrogance and self-reproach.”
–Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“Bold and deeply disturbing. . . A few incidents duplicate those in Twain,
but the novels could not be more different; instead of Huck’s unlettered child’s voice,
we have an omniscient narrative, grave, erudite and rich in the secretions of adult knowledge;
terse dialogue acts as an effective counterpoint. All along, Clinch’s intent
is to probe the nature of evil . . . a memorable debut, likely to make waves.”
–KIRKUS REVIEWS, STARRED review
“Every fan of Twain’s masterpiece will want to read this inspired spin-off, which could become an unofficial companion volume.”
–LIBRARY JOURNAL, STARRED review
“This is a bold debut that takes a few tentative steps in tandem with the familiar Twain,
but then veers off dexterously down a much more insidious, harrowing path.”
–BOOKLIST
“Jon Clinch’s first novel Finn…succeeds wonderfully because its gritty lyricism is at once authentic and original…reminiscent at times of Cormac McCarthy…the eloquence of the telling will never make the courageous reader wish for a gentler touch. Like any appealing novel, Finn achieves the force of a dream with fascinating actions, indelible characters and spellbinding language. Its ...
Customer Reviews:
Suspend your disbelief and it's pretty good.......2007-09-27
If your favorite folk song got reworked by Queen, you might like it. Or maybe not.
The writing is vivid, the "I can't put it down," type, and this is good because there are built in roadblocks: you know what's gonna happen to Pap Finn before you even pick up the book, the language and history are not in sync with the time represented, and--most importantly, Clinch fails to convince me that Huck is half black.
I am aware that the inspiration for Huck was very likely a black boy Twain knew, whom everyone envied for his freedom. However, the boy Twain talks about was not someone Twain said hated and denigrated [his own race]. In Twain's book, Huck's racism comes so naturally to him, and his realization that Jim is a human being is so difficult for him, it is not possible to reconcile that person with one raised lovingly by a black mother. In addition, by the time Finn lies to Huck about his mother Huck knows Pap to be a liar about everything else.
That said, Clinch delivers quite a few "Aha! THAT explains it!" moments, such as his explanation for why there was writing on the walls of the "house of death" or how Huck got so superstitious. And his pictures of the Widow and of Judge Thatcher are intriguing.
Good for when you're already in a nasty, cynical mood. Also good for making me want to pick up Huck Finn again.
Fascinating.......2007-09-12
Finn is not an easy book to read because, in its own way, it is even more horrifying than the fantastical books by writers such as Thomas Harris who splash gore around to such a degree that their books lose all sense of realism. The horrible crimes that are committed in Finn, on the other hand, always make the reader cringe simply because they seem to be happening to real people in a real world. As is so often the case in a man like Finn, he is the product of cold and abusive parents who warped him from the beginning. He is in constant rebellion against his father, a town judge who rules his courtroom and his home with an iron fist and who has no more sympathy for his sons than he does for the criminals he sees in court.
Clinch, of course, begins with the world created by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn but he fleshes out that world in a way that Twain himself was unable to do in the period in which he wrote. Using incidents and characters from Twain's book, Clinch provides the back story to Huck's tale that explains much of what Twain had to leave unsaid in the original.
The elder Finn depends on the Mississippi River for his very life. The river provides him with the catfish that he sells or exchanges in town for the supplies that keep him alive. More importantly to Finn, it is the sale of those same fish that make it possible for him to consume the amount of alcohol that makes life worth living for him. Equally important, the Mississippi is always there to cover a man's sins and, as the book begins, one of those sins, a dead woman who has been skinned, is floating down the middle of the river toward town. But since Finn is a psychopath this is hardly the last of his crimes that the reader will witness.
The most controversial aspect of the novel is Clinch's contention that Huck was a mulatto whose mother had been purchased off a steamboat in slave territory and taken back to Illinois against her will. That Huckleberry Finn was a black child is not a new theory, and Clinch has made that possibility the centerpiece of his novel. That fact alone determines the ultimate fate of not only Finn but of Mary, Huck's mother, and it leads to the complete moral collapse of Judge Finn.
This may not be an easy book to read, and I don't feel that I should say that I enjoyed it, but it is definitely one that will stay with me for a while. I've read many books that I can barely remember any details of just a year or two later. Finn is in no danger of becoming one of those.
FINN, a dark chapter of racism in America.......2007-09-11
When you read FINN by Jon Clinch, you are immediately taken back to the 19th century where the story begins about the detestable life of Pap Finn, the father of Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OFFINN HUCKLEBERRY FINN.
FINN is a sequel to Huckleberry Finn concentrating on the life of Huck's father and his misdeeds. The writing is formal and the slang mimics the language used at that time so much so that you sometimes don't know what they are talking about.
Clinch, a professor of American literature, breathed life into some of the characters from the original story - the widow Douglas, Judge Thatcher and even weaves the $6,000 in gold Huck found in the cave.
The thrust of this book, however, is the character Finn, a laid back drunkard, who shuns authority and all its trappings including his respectable father, Judge Thatcher and his often spineless brother, Will, who cannot stand up to the Judge.
But what comes across most powerfully in this story is the raw brutality of life, the cruelty to others, the subsistent poverty and the entrenched disregard and racism towards blacks. The characters treat blacks in the story no differently than you would a bug found in your house and don't even flinch when they sometimes swat the life out of these innocents for a wrong word or an indifferent look. The brutality is so intense in some of the scenes that I cringed reading it. However, Clinch says in his note at the end of the book that these characteristics were, "...all drawn whole from Twain's novel and followed here to their likely ends."
FINN is the dark version of Huckleberry Finn portraying the brutality and cruelty of life in the 19th century and perhaps Clinch was trying to awaken us to the horrors and senselessness of blatant racism.
Pretentious.......2007-09-04
This seems like a college writing class assignment taken too far. Or a literary publicity stunt. I don't understand the idea of attaching yourself to someonelse's work. I'm unhappy, beacause I was actually excited to read this book. Now everytime I read Huck Finn I have this book's stain to erase.
First it is so slow that it put me to sleep every 10 pages.
I don't understand why it is written so far from Twain's style. I know he's not trying to be Twain, but he's using Twain's setting, characters and some of his scenes!
Why put in big words, like micturate, when Twain didn't. Should we be impressed?
Can we also stop with novels mixing up the timeline! Is this supposed to make it more excitng or mysterious? If your story isn't good enough for a linear timeline then something is wrong.
The part that really pushed me over the top was the afterword, the author talks about being humble and reverential but then concludes that Twain would have liked what he did with his characters. Come on.
I would recommend this book to insomniacs and fishermen. We have to read about catfish every page.
Everyone else stay away and don't ruin Huckleberry Finn for yourself.
Very good.......2007-07-29
The supple and complex "Finn" is a good example of what I would call gorgeous writing. The prose loops around grandly at times, but there is a legitimate end to this approach. Layers of intent and personality are detected, examined and explained. Most thoughful readers will find delight in that process.
One minor frustration with this novel? It sometimes needed more of the hard slap of context, if only as interlude.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Readers of Black Hawk Down know Mark Bowden can tell an exciting story about as well as any writer at work today. Killing Pablo is further proof. It describes the rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, a notorious Colombian drug lord who became one of the narcotic trade's first billionaires. Pablo--Bowden refers to him by his first name throughout the book--started out as a petty thief and wound up running a massive smuggling empire. At his height in the 1980s, he owned fleets of boats and planes, plus 19 separate residences in Medellin, each with its own helipad. Violence marked everything he did: "He wasn't an entrepreneur, and he wasn't even an especially talented businessman. He was just ruthless." He bought off police, politicians, and judges throughout his country, and killed many others who wouldn't cooperate. The Colombian government tried to capture him, but without much luck; he evaded them time after time. "Now and then the police achieved enough surprise to catch him, literally, with his pants down. In [1988], about one thousand national police raided one of his mansions," writes Bowden. "Pablo fled in his underwear, avoiding the police cordon on foot." He got away, again, but his days were numbered. He was making powerful enemies in both Colombia and the United States. The final straw probably came when Pablo's men murdered a popular politician and, three months later, planted a bomb on a plane, killing 110 people, including two Americans.
The bulk of Killing Pablo describes what happened when the U.S. government put its resources behind the hunt for Pablo. Bowden describes the search in gripping detail, from the massive electronic-surveillance effort to bureaucratic infighting between rival U.S. agencies. This is an outstanding work of reportorial journalism, too: in the epilogue, Bowden drops tantalizing hints that it was an American--not a Colombian--who delivered the killing shot to Pablo in 1993. Readers looking for a real-life thriller--or any kind of thriller, for that matter--won't do much better than Killing Pablo.
Book Description
A tour de force of investigative journalism-this is the story of the violent rise and fall of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellin cocaine cartel. Escobar's criminal empire held a nation of thirty million hostage in a reign of terror that would only end with his death. In an intense, up-close account, award-winning journalist Mark Bowden exposes details never before revealed about the U.S.-led covert sixteen-month manhunt. With unprecedented access to important players-including Colombian president César Gaviria and the incorruptible head of the special police unit that pursued Escobar, Colonel Hugo Martinez-as well as top-secret documents and transcripts of Escobar's intercepted phone conversations, Bowden has produced a gripping narrative that is a stark portrayal of rough justice in the real world.
"The story of how the U.S. Army Intelligence and Delta Force commandos helped Colombian police track down and kill Pablo Escobar is a compelling, almost Shakespearean tale." (Los Angeles Times)
"Absolutely riveting. . . . Mark Bowden has a way of making modern nonfiction read like the best of novels." (The Denver Post)
Customer Reviews:
Too long.......2007-08-25
Mark Bowden wrote Black Hawk Down, as everybody knows. I was looking forward to any book by Mr. Bowden, but this one is too much. If there was ever a guy who needed to be killed it was Pablo Escobar. However, reading the endless corruption and stupidity of Columbians was depressing, and furthered my low opinions of them. There is hardly a living soul in this sorry country who is not vile or evil. Anyway, the book runs on too long and I finally just turned to the page where he was finally shot, almost by accident.
A decent true-life thriller, but that's all........2007-08-21
If you want a vivid portrait of Pablo Escobar, his personality, and his methods, this book does the job. Halfway through the volume, though, it just becomes another thriller, the story of a chase that could have taken place anywhere on earth (with of course lots of detail on surveillance gizmos, military hardware, and the colorful individuals involved--a bit like Tom Clancy). But there is virtually no backbround, nothing that helps explain why Colombia became such a huge supplier of drugs. (If it hadn't been Pablo, it would've been some other guy.) Moreover, Bowden takes for granted the notion that the cause of the drug problems is the evil men in Colombia, while never considering the fact of enormous drug demand in the U.S. Without the vast gringo appetite for drugs, there would have been no Pablo. Supply and demand is a two-way street!
On another note, Bowden's referring to the Contras in Nicaragua as "pro-democracy" forces is questionable. Those people were terrorists who killed some 50,000 people.
Runs Too Long.......2007-07-16
Black Hawk Down is one of my favorite books. From page 2 onward, there's not one dull moment. I wish the same could be said for Killing Pablo. This book really drags and at about the halfway point you're wishing that they'd cut to the chase already and kill the SOB.
A gripping account of one of the greatest out-laws and the country he lived in .......2007-04-28
Despite the apparent flaws the previous reader and reviewer points out, this is still a well researched book and these flaws do not take away from this thrilling and appalling story of Pablo Escobar. What I really liked was the description not only of Escobar but also of the country he grew up in and that let him live such a violent life and have such a horrific career. A very good read!
finding Pablo.......2007-02-22
Killing Pablo was alot easier then finding Pablo...go behind the scenes of the drug war as Pablo is hunted down with all the latest eletronic gadgetry and eventually located..Mark Bowden writes a compelling, page turner...Pablo Escobar rises to the top of the drug cartel much like Scarface only this is a true story just as compelling..
Amazon.com
When quiltmaker Ozella McDaniels told Jacqueline Tobin of the Underground Railroad Quilt Code, it sparked Tobin to place the tale within the history of the Underground Railroad. Hidden in Plain View documents Tobin and Raymond Dobard's journey of discovery, linking Ozella's stories to other forms of hidden communication from history books, codes, and songs. Each quilt, which could be laid out to air without arousing suspicion, gave slaves directions for their escape. Ozella tells Tobin how quilt patterns like the wagon wheel, log cabin, and shoofly signaled slaves how and when to prepare for their journey. Stitching and knots created maps, showing slaves the way to safety.
The authors construct history around Ozella's story, finding evidence in cultural artifacts like slave narratives, folk songs, spirituals, documented slave codes, and children's' stories. Tobin and Dobard write that "from the time of slavery until today, secrecy was one way the black community could protect itself. If the white man didn't know what was going on, he couldn't seek reprisals." Hidden in Plain View is a multilayered and unique piece of scholarship, oral history, and cultural exploration that reveals slaves as deliberate agents in their own quest for freedom even as it shows that history can sometimes be found where you least expect it. --Amy Wan
Book Description
The fascinating story of a friendship, a lost tradition, and an incredible discovery, revealing how enslaved men and women made encoded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad.
"A groundbreaking work."--Emerge
In
Hidden in Plain View, historian Jacqueline Tobin and scholar Raymond Dobard offer the first proof that certain quilt patterns, including a prominent one called the Charleston Code, were, in fact, essential tools for escape along the Underground Railroad. In 1993, historian Jacqueline Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts in the Old Market Building of Charleston, South Carolina. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to describe how slaves made coded quilts and used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad. But just as quickly as she started, Williams stopped, informing Tobin that she would learn the rest when she was "ready." During the three years it took for Williams's narrative to unfold--and as the friendship and trust between the two women grew--Tobin enlisted Raymond Dobard, Ph.D., an art history professor and well-known African American quilter, to help unravel the mystery.
Part adventure and part history,
Hidden in Plain View traces the origin of the Charleston Code from Africa to the Carolinas, from the low-country island Gullah peoples to free blacks living in the cities of the North, and shows how three people from completely different backgrounds pieced together one amazing American story.
Customer Reviews:
Myth, legend or history?.......2007-05-27
I have read pros and cons on the authenticity of this book and remain convinced it is a novel lacking authentic historical documentation. Some of the quilt patterns mentioned did not exist prior to 1900 and the story tellers are unavailable or deceased. Although several respected quilt historians believe the author's tales, I choose to accept Barbara Brackman's statement in her book "Facts and Fabrications...Unraveling the History of Quilts and Slavery." Ms. Brackman wrote on page 7 of her book "We have no historical evidence that quilts were used as signal, codes or maps. The tale of quilts and the Underground Railroad makes a good story, but not good quilt history." The book is a slow read and repetitive.
Not a shred of evidence!.......2007-03-22
Having personally had the privilege to study with three of the Underground Railroad's top historians: David Blight, James Horton, and Lois Horton; All three said that there is not a shred of evidence supporting the idea that quilts served as maps. Quilts were however sewn and sold as fundraisers for abolitionist groups.
Fakelore - absolutely no evidence to back up this story.......2007-03-12
Just do a search on the internet for underground railroad quilts and you will find many web sites that debunk the myths set forth in this book. Although the concept is appealing, there is absolutely no evidence other than one woman's story to back it up. Almost all underground railroad historians and quilt historians label this book as FICTION, not fact! There is so much factual material to learn about the Underground Railroad - it is an insult to the history of black Americans to perpetuate a myth.
Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad.......2007-02-19
Very interesting book, not quite what I had expected. The book traces the story line of a particular person, along with the different perspectives of educators and their arguments of the authenticity of the patterns and their meanings.
I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys quilting, along with an interest in American History and the importance of the Underground Railroad post Civil War.
Wonderful Reading ! Highly Recommended !.......2006-09-08
I learned about this book through the drama department at my church. We are putting on a play based on the story of the quilt code presented here. I was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. I have visited this booth many times. As an African American and a descendent of survivors of slavery, I understand the concept of an unwritten oral history. So much of my family history that has been handed done orally by the elders in my family would probably be unbelievable also. But that does not mean that it did not occur. The Timeline, Glossary, and Bibliography are excellent tools. This book has helped the cast to start discussions and learn more about this era in United States history.
Amazon.com
As readers of Janet Evanovich's two previous books about funny, feisty, family-tied bounty hunter Stephanie Plum already know, she operates in "the burg"--a "comfy residential chunk of Trenton, New Jersey, where houses and minds are proud to be narrow and hearts are generously wide open." On this turf, Plum fights for justice and fashion points--this time in pursuit of a beloved neighborhood candystore owner who seems to be moonlighting as an anti-drug vigilante. Evanovich now lives in New Hampshire, but authentic affection for Trenton energizes her prose. Plums in paperback include One for the Money and Two for the Dough.
Book Description
Stephanie Plum, the brassy babe in the powder blue Buick is back and she's having a bad hair day -- for the whole month of January.
She's been given the unpopular task of finding Mo Bedemier, Trenton's most beloved citizen, arrested for carrying concealed, gone no-show for his court appearance.
And to make matters worse, she's got Lula, a former hooker turned file clerk -- now a wannabe bounty hunter -- at her side, sticking like glue. Lula's big and blonde and black and itching to get the chance to lock up a crook in the trunk of her car.
Morelli, the New Jersey vice cop with the slow-burning smile that undermines a girl's strongest resolve is being polite. So what does this mean? Has he found a new love? Or is he manipulating Steph, using her in his police investigation, counting on her unmanageable curiosity and competitive Jersey attitude?
Once again, the entire One for the Money crew is in action, including Ranger and Grandma Mazur, searching for Mo, tripping down a trail littered with dead drug dealers, leading Stephanie to suspect Mo has traded his ice-cream scoop for a vigilante gun.
Cursed with a disastrous new hair color and an increasing sense that it's really time to get a new job, Stephanie spirals and tumbles through Three to Get Deadly with all the wisecracks and pace her fans have come to expect.
Customer Reviews:
Stephanie Plum series.......2007-09-02
I love the Stephanie Plum series of novels. I really hate reading so I purchase them both in audio for me and paperback for houseguests and friends. I'm drawn in with the excitment and adventure of the story that Janet seems to capture in every novel. It has twists, turns, Lula, mystery, wonder, and of course two very "HOT" men! Who wouldn't want a mix of both men. :} I would recommend the "Plum" series, her "Full" series, as well as her earlier novels of mixed titles. They're all great fun and keep you as a reader at the edge of your seat waiting to see if a cars going to get blown up, who's died this week, who attends the pot roast dinner, who she sleeps with next, what will burn down next, and will she get her man (love or bounty). I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. I look forward to #14 in the "Plum" series, the next "Full" novel, and the new novel Janet recently wrote with a new author being released this October. Thank you!
Not really impressed.......2007-08-14
After enjoying the first two Stephanie Plum stories, I eagerly jumped into this one. It did not meet expectations. It was just not believable. Stephanie continues to make the kinds of mistakes that you would think she would learn from by now. And while I was able to laugh at the irreverence of the earlier books, I agree with others who said this book was a bit TOO crude. I am undecided as to whether to move onto the 4th.
Grandma Mazur ... I'd like you to meet Lula!.......2007-08-09
It was a slow day in the bounty hunting business and the best that Stephanie could do was an FTA. "Uncle Mo" Bedemier, well-loved owner of the local ice cream parlour, was a "failure to appear" on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. Stephanie didn't like the idea of having to chase down one of the burg's most respected citizens and the local populace, thinking the charge bogus and ill-advised in any event, certainly weren't tripping over themselves to give Stephanie a lending hand finding her man. But business is business and Stephanie is Stephanie. She leaped into the deep end of the pool and soon found herself up to her neck in murdered drug dealers, vigilantes, bible-thumping snake-charming country preachers and the porn industry. Plenty of room for fun and games in this little story!
But from the first moment a grateful reading audience read Stephanie Plum's exploits in her debut novel "One for the Money", the plot never has been the thing. "Three to Get Deadly" doesn't change a thing about that. Character development, slapstick comedy, earthy blue-collar New York dialogue and sticky wickets that would do "The Perils of Pauline" proud are what has rocketed this series to the top of the best-selling lists. No doubt about it. Janet Evanovich continues her string of successes and laugh-out-loud hilarity reigns supreme from first page to last.
Did you like Grandma Mazur in the first two books of the series? Then you'll die for Lula, former juiced hooker, newly minted office assistant and bounty hunter in training under Stephanie's dubious tutelage. She's "f"-ing amazing - funny, frolicsome, free-wheeling, full-figured, feisty, fired-up, frantic, in your face and fabulous! She's got a salty mouth and an attitude that any self-respecting trucker would be might proud of! What a piece of work.
Highly recommended.
Paul Weiss
Probbably the best of the series.......2007-08-09
Three to Get Deadly is probably the most well constructed book of the Stephanie Plum series. It's hilarious and full of colourful characters. You will love it. I recommend it for anyone over the age of 16.
Too outlandish.......2007-05-25
I thought her first novel had a few interesting twists and, despite the excessive crudeness, was entertaining. The second book seemed to get a bit too trashy. I thought I would give her one more chance in case she turned the corner. I was disappointed and will move on to another author.
In an effort to keep people amused and laughing, she opts for shock value via crude language and raunchy characters instead of creativity and true wit. Furthermore, Three to Get Deadly crosses the line in too many ways. First, she downplays pedophilia. Next, she makes a pervert likeable and almost makes you feel sorry for him. She leads you into wanting to forgive the guy when his actions are deplorable. Plus she seems to justify vigilantism and trashes God and a church. I could list a few dozen other objectionable points - not just morally, but also from the perspective of entertainment and writing skill.
I think she started off with a good plot and an interesting idea in her first book and built some interesting characters. However, she overused phrases, (if I read "damned skippy" one more time I was going to throw the book across the room) used crudeness and trashy language to keep things going instead of using literary skill, and her content and characters went down hill. Why does every new character have to be so outlandish? Because it is easier to choose shock than to think through interesting character build up.
Save your money and read something of value.
Amazon.com
Anne Michaels, an accomplished poet, has already published two collections of poetry in her native Canada. She turns her hand to fiction in an impressive debut novel, Fugitive Pieces. This is the story of Jakob Beer, a Polish Jew, translator, and poet who, as a child, witnessed his family's slaughter at the hands of the Nazis. Beer himself was found and smuggled out of Poland by Athos Roussos, a Greek archaeologist who carried him back to Greece and kept him there in precarious safety. After the war they emigrated together to Canada. Jakob's story is told through diaries discovered by Ben, a young man whose parents are Holocaust survivors and who is a vessel for their memories just as Jakob is the bearer of his own.
Fugitive Pieces is a book about memory and forgetting. How is it possible to love the living when our hearts are still with the dead? What is the difference between what historical fact tells us and what we remember? More than that, the novel is a meditation on the power of language to free our souls and allow us to find our own destinies.
Book Description
A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
Winner of the Lannan Literary Fiction Award
Winner of the Guardian Fiction Award
In 1940, Jakob Beer, a seven-year-old boy, bursts from the mud of a war-torn Polish city, where he has buried himself to hide from Nazi soldiers who have killed his family. Though he should have died with his family, he has not only survived but been rescued by a Greek geologist. With this electrifying backdrop, Anne Michaels propels us into her rapturously acclaimed novel of loss, memory, history, and redemption. Michaels lets us witness Jakob's transformation from a half-wild casualty of the Holocaust to an artis who extracts meaning from the abyss. Filled with mysterious symmetries and rendered in heart-stopping prose,
Fugitive Pieces is a triumphant work.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant and Lyrical.......2007-10-04
I have to agree with the reviewers who say this is a brilliant piece of work but flawed. It is extremely beautiful writing but I will admit to a certain impatience to finish this book and see where it is going because there's no flesh to the plot, nor are there meat to the characters. I read books about Holocaust survivors to remember the victims and their families, so they won't all remain nameless. It is a big part of our history as well as how it shaped our world today. This is a story about three men in different stages in their lives, how the Germans tried to erase their history, their past, and how they tried to survive in spite of it all. It's just a beautifully written story or stories, as you might say.
There's Athos, a Greek man who found Jakob hiding in the woods and brought him back to Greece with him. Jakob had seen his parents brutually murdered and his sister kidnapped. Ben is the son of two Jewish refugees in Toronto who never knew of his parents' great secrets till after their death. Some of the best pages in this novel are found in these pages ~~ 159-170 (the edition that I am talking of is the first edition) ~~ that is when the suffering of Jakob's people came alive and that is some of the most poignant pieces of work I have yet to read. It is very poetical and descriptive as a man remembers horrorifying scenes from his childhood. This is a man who struggled with survivor's guilt all of his life.
Here are some excerpts in case you need to find it: "The photos capture again and again this chilling moment of choice: the laughter of the damned. When the soldier realized that only death has the power to turn "man" into "figuren," his difficulty was solved. And so the rage and sadism increased: his fury at the victim for suddenly turning human; his desire to destroy that humanness so intense his brutuality has no limit."
"There's a precise moment when we reject contradiction. This moment of choice is the lie we will live by. What is dearest to us is often dearer to us than truth."
And lastly, probably my favorite passage in the entire book: "There were the few, like Athos, who chose to do good at great personal risk; those who never confused objects and humans, who knew the difference between naming and the named. Because the rescuers couldn't lose sight, literally, of the human, again and again they give us the same explanation for their heroism: 'What choice did I have?' "
That is why I give this book a five star. I will admit that there are times when I got impatient with the author's flowing writing style and wish that she would just get to the point. But when she makes her points (scattered throughout the book, mind you), she makes them intensely and skillfully.
This is a different book on the Holocaust, but one that should be read by all serious readers.
10-4-07
A work of art!.......2007-09-10
Fugitive Pieces is one of the most beautiful books I have ever read. It is clear to me that Anne Michaels is a poet. Nothing needs to be added to the words from Publishers Weekly: Searing the mind with stunning images while seducing with radiant prose, this brilliant first novel is a story of damaged lives and the indestructibility of the human spirit. It speaks about loss, about the urgency, pain and ultimate healing power of memory, and about the redemptive power of love. Brilliant!
Listen.......2007-03-01
Every other 5 star review said it for me. I also listened to the abridged version on tape because the language begged to be heard.. When I finished a portion I listened to only that portion then went back to reading the book. And so on..It was as if I were reading the libretto to an opera. It listens like one long epic poem. I have never read a book like this.
Buried. Alive........2006-05-29
The period in my title is both optional and essential. This rich and evocative book (much more an extended prose poem than a novel) is both about the situation of being buried alive by a traumatic past (the Holocaust), and about a spiritual trajectory that begins in death and ends in transcendent life.
As a child, Jacob Beer buries himself in the ground to escape detection in the Holocaust. He is rescued by a Greek archaeologist, who hides him in occupied Greece and then emigrates with him to Canada. Images of burial and unearthing recur throughout the book, whose theme is less the Holocaust itself than the challenge of coming to terms with the past sufficiently to make a life in the present. In the end, Jacob Beer, now a well-known poet, succeeds triumphantly, and joy in life blossoms out of memories of death. Anne Michaels is a poet herself, and at the beginning her style can seem overwrought for its subject. But she has created a book which, like Sebald's AUSTERLITZ and Thomas' THE WHITE HOTEL, approaches its vast subject obliquely through the non-linear accumulation of images, ultimately achieving a radiance which is all her own.
Other readers have commented on the fact that, three-quarters into the book, when Jacob's narrative ends, another character (Ben) is introduced, whose story has only incidental connections with Jacob's own. It is a risky device, but one that I personally find successful, since it does eventually come to reflect upon Jacob, while at the same time suggesting that his story is not the situation of one unique exception, but more the common experience of all those who have been touched by great trauma and must somehow emerge from its shadow to make new lives.
Beautiful, With a Disappointing Ending.......2006-05-12
Book I of "Fugitive Pieces" (the first 3/4 or so of the novel) was one of the best pieces of writing I have read recently. The author's background in poetry is clear in her writing style. Many of the lines were so beautiful that I read them over several times. The style of writing is such that often the images and feelings inspired by the words are more important than what the words actually say. The story itself, about the life of survivor Jakob Beer and his attempts to hold on to his origins, was moving.
However, Book II took a turn for the worse. Jakob has died suddenly (not a spoiler--a pseudo-news report on the first page of the book warns the reader that this will happen), and a narrator named Ben takes over. Ben has been influenced by Jakob's poetry--he himself is a child of survivors and has had a difficult relationship with his parents. For us to be reading Ben's life story seems strange, out of context, and beside the point. It is Jakob we actually care about, and Ben does little to resolve Jakob's story. I'm not sure what the author was trying to accomplish with such a tangential ending. But I would still recommend "Fugitive Pieces" because of the beauty of the writing, and because it does a fine job portraying the sadness and struggles of Jakob's life during and after the Holocaust.
Average customer rating:
- A Peg-Legged Man and the Underground Railroad.
- Poor Illustrations
- Wonderful Story
- Follow the Drinking Gourd
- Song of freedom
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Follow the Drinking Gourd
Jeanette Winter
Manufacturer: Dragonfly Books
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Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (A Borzoi Book)
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Under the Quilt of Night
ASIN: 0679819975
Release Date: 1992-01-15 |
Book Description
Illus. in full color. "Winter's story begins with a peg-leg sailor who aids slaves on their escape on the Underground Railroad. While working for plantation owners, Peg Leg Joe teaches the slaves a song about the drinking gourd (the Big Dipper). A couple, their son, and two others make their escape by following the song's directions. Rich paintings interpret the strong story in a clean, primitive style enhanced by bold colors. The rhythmic compositions have an energetic presence that's compelling. A fine rendering of history in picturebook format."--(starred) Booklist.
Customer Reviews:
A Peg-Legged Man and the Underground Railroad........2007-08-30
During the time of slavery in the United States, many slaves were able to escape and find their way north to freedom by following the Drinking Gourd--Big Dipper. As the note at the beginning of this historical children's book tells, slaves learned a folk song entitled "Follow the Drinking Gourd". Masters and overseers thought the song harmless, though nonsensical. The song actually embedded directions on how to escape from the South into freedom in the North. I had known all of this before reading FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD. What I didn't know was about legendary Underground Railroad conductor, Peg Leg Joe.
Using the lyrics of the song "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and the legend of Peg Leg Joe, Winter crafts a short tale about a slave family that follows the directions of the song that Joe teaches them to escape to freedom next spring. Accompanying the text are Winter's earth-toned illustrations displaying the family's escape and the dangers they endure on their journey.
The last page of the book contains the lyrics and music to the folk song "Following the Drinking Gourd."
FOLLOW THE DRINKING GOURD is an excellent tool in introducing children to the Underground Railroad. It's also a good story in teaching astronomy classes to illustrate how the stars have been used for different purposes throughout time.
Poor Illustrations.......2007-05-29
I have used this book and video in my music classes for years. After retiring, I lost my book and thought to replace it with this one advertised on Amazon. Please don't waste your money! The pictures in this booklet are so dark, dim, blurry (almost impressionistic), and faded, that I won't be able to share it with my classes (even small groups). One would guess it to be a "knock-off" of the real book. Perhaps the original publisher should be notified. I will now be looking for the original hardback. Again..........don't waste your time or money.
Wonderful Story.......2007-02-13
I love this book; I have the song on a seperate CD and the two together are awseome when telling the story. A must for parents, educators, or schools that want to teach about "The Underground Railroad" or "Harriet Tubman"!
Follow the Drinking Gourd.......2006-02-25
A wonderful story about a family escaping slavery using astronomy and song. Beautifully illustrated.
Song of freedom.......2002-01-27
This fine story teaches even the smallest of children about the evil of slavery in pre-Civil War America. It shows a desire for freedom so strong that men, women and children risked their lives to escape on the Underground Railroad, following the largest star in the Drinking Gourd of the title (The Big Dipper).
The book introduces the idea of slavery, the separation of families, the sale of human beings at auctions, and the difficulties that people endured to escape--hiding in trees to avoid hounds, sleeping by day, sometimes on empty stomachs, and walking at night, sometimes without stars to guide them. Sometimes people along the way were kind, providing bacon and corn bread to share, helping them across the Ohio River, and hiding them in the attics and barns of safe houses.
The story's dramatic simplicity grasps and holds children. They fasten to it, eager to learn about the bonds that once tied African-Americans and the freedom for which they naturally yearned.
The book is a song of freedom. Alyssa A. Lappen
Average customer rating:
- An interesting look at Portland
- Oregonian loving this book
- Interesting, offbeat
- a puking bore
- good
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Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon (Crown Journeys)
Chuck Palahniuk
Manufacturer: Crown
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Rayovac SPHLTLED 3-in-1 LED Head-Lite
ASIN: 1400047838
Release Date: 2003-07-08 |
Amazon.com
It's rare to find a travel guide and a memoir joined neatly together in a single, highly readable 176-page volume. But Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Choke, Lullaby) is a writer of rare talent and his home of Portland, Oregon, is a city of rare wonders. In Strangers and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon, Palahniuk goes beyond the AAA handbooks to reveal the places, people, and legends of Portland that have long been known only to locals. The reader learns the location of the legendary Self Cleaning House, where to find the restless ghost of the founder of Powell's Books, and why feral cats are such an important part of Portland baseball. Portland, it seems, is also a highly sexual city and Palahniuk dutifully dissects the specialties of each strip joint as well as discussing Mochika, a zoo penguin with a real fetish for black boots. Along the way, he includes "postcards" from his life in the Rose City dating back to 1981 when, as a 19-year-old, he dropped acid and accidentally ate part of a woman's fur coat during a laser show of Pink Floyd's The Wall. As Palahniuk matures, the postcards reveal the author becoming increasingly a part of the city's scene, culminating with a wild and wooly Millennium Eve celebration at the Bagdad Theater that featured a screening of the film version of Fight Club. Fugitives and Refugees is a must for anyone who may, in their lives, go to Portland. But its appeal should reach beyond Oregonians. Palahniuk's love of the city is so great, and his stories so weirdly wonderful, it makes one want to get out of the house, get in the car, and drive to Portland right away. Just remember to pack the book. --John Moe
Book Description
Want to know where Chuck Palahniuk’s tonsils currently reside?
Been looking for a naked mannequin to hide in your kitchen cabinets?
Curious about Chuck’s debut in an MTV music video?
What goes on at the Scum Center?
How do you get to the Apocalypse Café?
In the closest thing he may ever write to an autobiography, Chuck Palahniuk provides answers to all these questions and more as he takes you through the streets, sewers, and local haunts of Portland, Oregon. According to Katherine Dunn, author of the cult classic
Geek Love, Portland is the home of America’s “fugitives and refugees.” Get to know these folks, the “most cracked of the crackpots,” as Palahniuk calls them, and come along with him on an adventure through the parts of Portland you might not otherwise believe actually exist. No other travel guide will give you this kind of access to “a little history, a little legend, and a lot of friendly, sincere, fascinating people who maybe should’ve kept their mouths shut.”
Here are strange personal museums, weird annual events, and ghost stories. Tour the tunnels under downtown Portland. Visit swingers’ sex clubs, gay and straight. See Frances Gabe’s famous 1940s Self-Cleaning House. Look into strange local customs like the I-Tit-a-Rod Race and the Santa Rampage. Learn how to talk like a local in a quick vocabulary lesson. Get to know, I mean really get to know, the animals at the Portland zoo.
Oh, the list goes on and on.
Customer Reviews:
An interesting look at Portland.......2007-06-26
I was given this book as a gift and did not know what to expect. Though it was not a novel like other Palahniuk books I have read, I found that the quirky and humorous writing style made this voyeuristic romp through underground Portland highly entertaining. Though some of the highlighted attractions have closed their doors or are not open to the public, this is an interesting view into a side of the city that you will not find in the Frommer's guide.
Oregonian loving this book.......2007-04-10
I live in Eugene, OR... and LOVE this book! We take "trips" to our fave town all the time and love the people and places...Chuck does a great job of describing them like a native Oregonian (even though he technically isn't).
Interesting, offbeat.......2006-08-24
This collection is an idiosyncratic and appealing mix of off-the-beaten-path sights for the visitor to Portland, personal anecdotes of the author, and brief essays about the history of Portland and its defining vibes. Entertaining and enjoyable.
a puking bore.......2006-05-28
As he writes in his epilogue, "This is not Portland, Oregon." Just scads of non-site-specific deegradation written in clipped New Yorker prose. Elliptical descriptions of perversion after perversion, spilling over the pages to become one big bore. And on top of all this, there's no index to the places he touches on, so even if you wanted to go there, you'd be hardput. Self-indulgent yet simultaneously unrevealing, as uninteresting a discovery of spirit of place as one can get.
good.......2006-02-02
I couldn't put it down. It's an important book for people who live in and around portland.
Book Description
Meet Ree Dolly -- not since Mattie Ross stormed her way through Arkansas in True Grit has a young girl so fiercely defended her loved ones. Sixteen-year-old Ree Dolly has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and belongs to a large extended family. On a bitterly cold day, Ree, who takes care of her two younger brothers as well as her mother, learns that her father has skipped bail. If he fails to appear for his upcoming court date on charges of cooking crystal meth, his family will lose their house, the only security they have. Winter's Bone is the story of Ree's quest to bring her father back, alive or dead. Her goal had been to leave her messy world behind and join the army, where "everybody had to help keep things clean." But her father's disappearance forces her to first take on the outlaw world of the Dolly family. Ree's plan is elemental and direct: find her father, teach her little brothers how to fend for themselves, and escape a downward spiral of misery. Asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake, but Ree perseveres. Her courage and purity of spirit make her a truly compelling figure. She learns that what she had long considered to be the burdens imposed on her by her family are, in fact, the responsibilities that give meaning and direction to her life. Her story is made palpable by Woodrell, who is "that infrequent thing, a born writer" (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Customer Reviews:
A great read.......2007-09-27
This was my first book by this author. I found this book to be an excellent read. Captures the Ozarks well. Characters are developed and plot builds. Highly recommended.
fantastic.......2007-09-24
This is one of the tightest and toughest novels I have ever come across. I read it in a sitting and wished it had taken a week. It is so sharp and contemporary that you don't notice the almost mythical nature of it until it is done. Fantastic job.
Story Well Told.......2007-08-29
This book was an unexpected treat. I haven't read any of Woodrell's works before but after reading this one, I plan to read more. This book is written so well, that I can still remember it vividly even after reading numerous books since. The characters and dialogues are so real and attractive, there were no boring patches in the book.
Entering a life unknown before now.......2007-08-15
It is wonderful to read a book that is so finely written.
He brings characters to life even though you may have little in common with them and makes you care and understand.
Pure poetry mixed with backwoods grammer, beautiful but lacking........2007-08-12
Transported into the main characters world., a teenage girl Ree who has been born and bred into generations of pour, hardened, country folk with an absent daddy, mentally ill mother and two rough and tumble younger brothers she is responsible for, dreams of joining the Army on day to better herself. However, keeping her family on their feet till then proves to become more difficult as she faces losing the family home and land to a bail bondsman unless she can find her father. Her kin being of more harm than help given that they are not front porch tea sipping, take their shirt off their back for you people, but crank cooking, whiskey drinking, stay off my property if you don't want to get shot people, Ree straps on her combat boots, musters up what must be half craziness and half solid gumption and sets out to find her daddy to help those she loves.
Winters Bone left me with mixed feelings that lead in turn to my review. The language was a mix of amazing, beautiful, visual poetry with back woods mountain grammar that tended to disrupt the flow for me. Given half my relatives speak in this way minus the profanity I understand and respect the writer's blended method however for me personally it was harder to read. If he didn't disrupt the poetic narration with some tossed in poor grammar and kept that separate for when the characters thought and spoke I feel it would have flowed better and read better for me. I kept wanting to care about the main character and had to put aside my feelings of her bad choices given how she was raised. The story stalled in the middle however events picked up and I became interested again. I did feel a little let down in the end by one of Ree's choices that I am not going to elaborate on as to not create a spoiler. Ree is not your typical heroin but I could see how she is a hero to her family. All in all, this book is not for everyone but I found it worth one read.
Amazon.com
Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption are only a few of the ingredients in Shantaram, a massive, over-the-top, mostly autobiographical novel. Shantaram is the name given Mr. Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means "man of God's peace," which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. He served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a string of armed robberies peformed to support his heroin addiction, which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his daughter. All of that is enough for several lifetimes, but for Greg Roberts, that's only the beginning.
He arrives in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers, an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000 people and Linbaba becomes the resident "doctor." With a prison knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. Theirs is a complicated relationship, and Karla's connections are murky from the outset.
Roberts is not reluctant to wax poetic; in fact, some of his prose is downright embarrassing. Throughought the novel, however, all 944 pages of it, every single sentence rings true. He is a tough guy with a tender heart, one capable of what is judged criminal behavior, but a basically decent, intelligent man who would never intentionally hurt anyone, especially anyone he knew. He is a magnet for trouble, a soldier of fortune, a picaresque hero: the rascal who lives by his wits in a corrupt society. His story is irresistible. Stay tuned for the prequel and the sequel. --Valerie Ryan
Book Description
"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."So begins this epic, mesmerizing first novel set in the underworld of contemporary Bombay. Shantaram is narrated by Lin, an escaped convict with a false passport who flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of a city where he can disappear.Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter Bombay's hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere.As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city's poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power.Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas---this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart. Based on the life of the author, it is by any measure the debut of an extraordinary voice in literature.
Customer Reviews:
Shantaram: A Novel.......2007-10-01
What's not to love about this book? Well, it took me a while to read it. I'm one of those types that can typically read an average page turner in a day or two at most. This one took all of a week, and I wish I could find more like it.
It's almost an epic, almost a tragedy, and almost a journey in ethics and philosophy. Its almost a romance, but not in a typical sense of one on one romance; more like, a romance on life and living. Its prose is compelling - something you can fall in love with. It's a study in characterization. It's just about everything you could possibly want in a novel, and I'm at a loss to discover what it lacks. It's so much of just about everything.
From an autobiographical POV, it's splendid.
What engaged me the most were the characters. They're the kind of people you can fall in love with, or despise in some cases. But no matter what, they're people you can see and feel as they leap off the pages into your lap as you read. If you love characters and want depth, this is the book for you. From the first line, this book is engaging. I loved it.
E Ironside
From this site the book is in Spanish........2007-09-28
I did a search for Shantaram and this site came up immediately. I ordered the book without further investigation as it had been highly recommended to me. Imagine my disappointment when I see it is the Spanish translation version. This was not clearly mentioned on the order site. My fault but the description was unclear. Now I have to wait a couple of weeks to get it sorted out.
Best Book Read in the Past Few Years.......2007-09-17
I can't remember the last time that I read a story so compelling and visual that it was impossible to put down for all 900+ pages.
dissapointment.......2007-09-13
I purchased the book after a recommendation from my son. When it arrived it was in spanish. I have returned the book hoping for an english edition. I have not received a call or followup from amazon. Only this request for a review. Very dissappoining service!
The Best Novel of the 21st Century...so far.......2007-09-06
FINALLY, a gut-wrenching, harrowing, well-penned novel, whose author suffers not from the literary constipation of most current "highbrow" authors (He's faced down far more deadly things, chronicled herein, to be affrighted by sharp penned editors.) - A book, in short, that will make your heart bleed with the depths to which the human soul can sink and the glories to which it can rise. ----I read so many books, but this is the first true work of art and genius published in this new century that I've managed to discover. It is a book from which I'm still recovering from having read. Like all great art, it leaves one with a new perspective on the world and causes one to reconnoitre the heart's bearings. The book strips away the lies we tell ourselves and leaves the heartstrings bare for the reader to see, where he/ she will recognise his/her own.
Let's get something straight here: This is not a book of "purple prose" or any form of sentimentality. Each tear shed is wrung from harrowing experience. As Roberts writes, "One of the reasons we crave love, and seek it so desperately, is that love is the only cure for loneliness, and shame, and sorrow. But some feelings sink so deep into the heart that only loneliness can help you find them again. Some truths about yourself are so painful that only shame can help you live with them. And some things are just so sad that only your soul can do the crying for you."--Your soul will have cried with Roberts's many times before the end of the book.
This is truly a book for lovers of great literature. Roberts writes, "I never found a club or a clan or idea that was more important to me than the men and women who believed in it."--This book is one that values the mystery of people and the mystery of human existence above all else. ----Including yours, reader.
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