Fiction Literature Books

I can't believe I'd never heard of this book before I received the list of books my church ladies book group was going to cover this year. I could not put this book down. It is the story of two elderly South African men, one black and one white, who had never met until the lives of their only sons tragically intersect. The two men find, not only that their sons were not the sons of their youth but vastly different, indeed their fathers truly had no idea what kind of men they had become.

As they try to come to know and understand the men their sons had become, two fathers learn and grow, themselves becoming new men in the process.
I highly recommend this book - I only wish I'd known about it sooner!

Oh, and I'm so glad that I did not know it was an Oprah's book club pick because, sad but true, that would have turned me off of it before I even opened the cover!

BOTH THE PRICE AND THE CONDITION OF BOOK WAS REALLY GOOD !!
THANK YOU ~

Cry, the Beloved Country, written in 1948, is relevant after all these years. Alan Paton cries for South Africa his beloved country. He cries for the Valley of Umzimkulu the home of Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis. He cries for the city of Johannesburg, the harsh city that spits at the weak with poverty, crime, prostitution and addictions.

Paton uses a third person narrative voice to tell the story of two men--Stephen Kumalo, a black priest (Book I.) and James Jarvis, a wealthy white landowner (Book II.). Paton gets inside the mind of each man, exposes human feelings with depth and restraint. The restraint, in both language and sentiment, gives power to the story. His simple declarative sentences are reminiscent of Hemingway. Paton makes Kumalo and Jarvis fully human heroes, imperfect lovable survivors. They survive after the tragic interconnected deaths of their sons; they relate to each other with dignity and respect.

Within the story of two families the larger story of South Africa emerges. Paton exposes the racism that created Apartheid. He details the loss of self sufficient farming compelling young people to go to the cities to earn a livelihood. He shows the impact on young blacks going to the city and losing their communal tribal life. He shows the generosity of Jarvis' son who devoted his life to social justice and was killed in spite of his effort by a disenfranchised black youth--Stephen's son.

Paton's tone is measured, even unhurried. The tone slows the reader down and forces the reader to look at the reality of the characters. And then the novel moves beyond Kumalo, Jarvis, and South Africa to a broader picture. Like all great art, Paton's text relates to everyone by touching the core of the human condition. Cry, the Beloved Country evokes universal experience of human life. The novel remains important because it remains relevant.

Cry, The Beloved Country is a tremendous work of art. It really, really is. It may not be as "good" as the somewhat similarly-themed The Power of One...but it is "better," if you take my meaning. Deeper, more profound. More illuminating and thought-provoking.

Author Alan Paton was a devout Christian and a Kafferboetie--two things which I, emphatically, am not--but his literary ability, dovetailed with a definite time-and-place serendipity, enabled him to fuse those aspects of his persona into a book which transcends identity and politics, and which speaks not only to the Amy Biehls of this world. It touched me, and I think that South Africa, under black rule, is doomed to Zimbabwe's fate.

But politics and dogma aside, this book is a gift, not a polemic. It is a cri di coeur, not a political tract. It's a book that espouses a Christian moral ethic which, in the abstract, non-Christians should be receptive to. It is of Paton, but not for Paton. It's for you and I, whether black, white, liberal, conservative, and so forth.

Now, one last thing: How in the hell is this book not included on the MLA 100? It is MUCH better--not just as a book, but in terms of the significant issues it raises--than some of the pap stinking up the list. (E.g., Wide Sargasso Sea, On the Road.) It is CLEARLY superior to credible books on the list such as A Bend In The River, and the Studs Lonigan trilogy. Paton was a staunch liberal activist, and his book has as its main character an extremely sympathetic black South African...how did this not appeal to the bien-pensants who composed the list?

I don't get it. It should have been included...but it wasn't. Read it anyway, though.

How much can a man love his country? How much can he love his son? His God? Can justice prevail when man cannot? What is forgiveness? Redemption? Grace? To consider all these elements in one novel is not possible. Or is it?

"Cry, the Beloved Country" is all these things and more. It is forgiveness writ large. It is agape love in the doing. It is the story of two fathers, each with a son. One son is the victim of apartheid and is lost. The other is also a victim of apartheid but of the other side. He seeks to find a way to make things better, to make things right. The lost one kills the seeking one. One is African, the other is Afrikaaner, and therein lies the difference and the ultimate. This difference, this ultimate, this absolute are what drove Alan Paton in the writing of South Africa's most famous, most searing novel of the separation of races in all ways.

Absalom Kumalo's life is limited in all ways because he is black South African. Arthur Jarvis is an engineer and has all the privileges of white South Africa, yet he is keen on social justice and works to bring it to pass. What irony then that the one without kills the one seeking to bring justice. However, it is this very irony that brings their fathers to friendship, to a bonding of black man and white man.

Umfundisi is the black priest (not Catholic) of a simple, poor church in a village located near the home of the rich landowner and farmer, James Jarvis, who really does not know his son until he is dead. It is the getting to know his son that he connects with the African, and the father becomes the son in the ways of love and forgiveness. The umfundisi is one of my favorite characters in all literature I have read because of his humility and reverence.

This novel, published in 1948, remains as one, even today, apropos to race relations, to their very real potentials and actualities. Mutual respect, sincerity, forgiveness, and grace all come to the fore in this most magnificent, lyrical novel.

It would be on my Top 10 list of books I would take if marooned on the proverbial deserted island.

The item was exactly as described and sent in a an expeditious manner. Would do business with this source again.

Wonderful play, great translation. Collier really makes ancient Greek understandable and enjoyable. Great edition.

This book is an absolute bargain at this price and the shipping was super fast. This translation is great for younger readers and speaks to them in an easily understandable tongue.

The book was in excellent condition and it was a joy to read! It was a quick and easy read. If you enjoy scandal, murder, and women overpowering men, then this is the book for you!

Honestly reading this story overwhelmed me. Considering how short the play is, at the end I found myself mentally and emotionally exhausted. "Medea" explores many different themes that are still present in life today. Although I found her undying attachment to Jason annoying, I understood after reading the play how love and revenge can overpower ones mind. I felt as if Euripides toyed with the fact that women are both the weakest and the strongest in relationships. Medea's passion was overwhelming as a reader because I felt like it was a cry for attention rather than a true plea of lost love.

Euripides' "Medea" although short, is very intense and filled with many emotions. I was lucky enough to see an amazing performance of this play. If done thoughtfully, it can engage you to the point where you sympathize with Medea and are annoyed by her at the same time.

"Darkness at Noon" is one of those books that stays in your mind long after you put it down. I first read it more than 30 years ago when I was a high school student reading "serious" books for the first time. It just knocked me over. It raised questions about personal morality and the ends of politics that made other authors I was reading (such as Ayn Rand) seem incredibly shallow by comparison.

Recently I read the book again to see if it was as good as I remembered. I'm happy to say it's even better. "Darkness at Noon" is the story of an Old Bolshevik who is forced to re-examine his life's work in the communist party when he is caught up in the purge trials of the 1930s. As such, the book is a great analysis of the pathology and twisted logic that corrupted mid-20th century communism. But it is also a broader exploration of ends-justify-means morality, exposing the traps and contradictions we fall into whenever truth and common decency are thrown overboard in the name of social utility. "Darkness at Noon" easily transcends old controversies about communism. Indeed, in an age when the U.S. government has secret torture camps to fight terror, its message has lost none of its power or relevance.

The story is gripping. The writing is superb. The characters are vivid. Dialogues of near-Dostoyevskian intensity alternate with passages of sad introspection and guilty memory. Read it. It may even make you feel 17 again -- and wide open to the impact of great literature. Six stars.

Heck, seven stars....

The brilliant and controversial writer Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" may be looked upon as an incisive diatribe against Soviet Communism under Stalin, but it was influenced by Koestler's own experience as a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War. That experience gives Rubashov's incarceration the ring of authenticity and we read about his plight with confidence in it's truth. This veracity is what gives the novel it's strength. You also have the feeling that although it is written in 3rd person narrative, it could have been based on a written diary or journal of an actual prominent victim of the Stalinist purges.

Rubashov is a victim, but not an innocent victim. He was an architect of the repressive regime that has turned to devouring it's creators and enablers. His own ruthlessness and duplicity in support of the Communist ideal has destroyed any sympathy we can have for him, but what Koestler is aiming for is understanding, not sympathy. We can empathize with Rubashov without feeling pity. We are not shown monsters, but people whose morals and ethics are weakened by fear and ambition, and who make critical decisions at the intersection of hopeful idealism and grim reality.

After reading this sobering book, you can almost understand why this great mind (Koestler), who observed first hand, the atrocities perpetrated by regimes under Hitler and Stalin, would take a decidedly dark and pessimistic view of society, especially in it's political concerns, and would turn to metaphysics and parapsychology to find a reason for prospective hope in the human condition.

Set during the Stalinist purges and show trials, `Darkness at Noon' presents a fictionalized account of the interrogation and breaking of a (former) communist leader `Rubashov'. Under Stalin, 'former communists' were limited to those persons about to be executed, already executed, or waiting to be uncovered. As an original Bolshevik, a leader of the 1917 revolution, Rubashov's disillusionment was simply inadmissible to Number One (as Stalin is referred to by Koestler).

Koestler explores the journey of Rubashov from the knock at the door through the final denouement. The reader observes Rubashov, who plays the role of narrator, as he undergoes the psychological change from a determination to resist to nearly total capitulation. Rubashov manages to hold to some crumbs of self-respect, but yields to the logic of the revolution as more important than any individual even when the accusations are complete fabrications.

`Darkness at Noon' is precisely imagined with its details of Rubashov pacing the floor of his small isolation cell, the coded tapping between adjacent cells, and the deprivation of physical comforts that make the subsequent small graces, such as limited outdoor exercise, become precious by comparison. This much of the tale was informed by Rubashov's experiences as a prisoner during the Spanish Civil War. Koestler's examination of the psychological destruction of the prisoner is fascinating, although at times it briefly lapses into stultifying disquisitions on the distorted Stalinist political philosophy.

Koestler himself was a German communist through much of the 1930's before immigrating to Britain, leaving the party and becoming an influential ex-communist. George Orwell's excellent essay about Koestler is readily available on the Internet (google `arthur koestler orwell').

Darkness at Noon was the middle book of an unusual trilogy of loosely related subjects: Gladiators and Arrival and Departure (20th Century Classics). Readers may also wish examine Victor's Serge's The Case of Comrade Tulayev (New York Review Books Classics).

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the era of communism in its Stalinist form or more broadly in the perverse ability of humans to place greater meaning in abstract and abstruse ideology than in the actual lives of other humans.

I'm afraid to read anything else by Arthur Koestler.

"Darkness at Noon," his excellent novel about an aging revolutionary awaiting a show-trial and execution in Stalin's Soviet Union, is so thoroughly compelling and readable, alive with ideas and general brilliance, and so widely recognized as Koestler's masterpiece, that I fear his other books will be disappointing by comparison.

This, on the other hand, may well be my favorite book. Ever. Despite the fact that my "to-read" pile is a paper stalagmite that grows faster than I can chip away at it, I ripped through this one twice in under six months, and if I were somehow locked in the bathroom with only this on the toilet tank, and forced to start it a third time--I can't imagine this actually happening, but bear with me here--I can't say I'd be all that disappointed.

This reads like "1984," but it preceded Orwell's book, and presumably greatly influenced it. More importantly, although the real 1984 eventually rolled around to make Orwell's dystopia seem at least somewhat absurd (in execution, if not idea and desire), this still feels incredibly realistic.

And scarily, this is more relevant to today's America. While our level of freedom and political discourse may be completely different than that of Stalin's Soviet Union, the methods they used would not be unfamiliar in Guantanamo or Abu Grahib--or in some police precincts. Not the shrill and scary tactics of "1984," but the soft and simple: psychological games, sleep deprivation, and the like. Sleep deprivation may seem downright kind in the pantheon of torture, and I'm sure it starts off relatively innocuously--"They're terrorists, they're criminals, so why should we coddle them? Why should they get a good night's sleep?"--but any tactic whereby one compels the body to betray the mind is torture. And the sad thing is that torture doesn't work. Forget all the crazy ticking time-bomb scenarios, the fact is simple. Torture. Doesn't. Work. It does not provide reliable information or accurate confessions. And this book shows why. Rubashov, kept up for days on end, becomes willing to say or do anything for a few blessed moments of sleep. He will sell himself out. He will say anything. He will lie.

The strange peculiarity of Soviet Russia is that the victim and the torturers both know these lies are lies. But he says them, and they listen, because they both have their roles to play. The show trial is not really a trial. It is only a show.

But the great thing about "Darkness at Noon" is that it isn't just a polemic about tactics or a lesson about history; it is a powerful meditation on good and evil, and the extent to which we allow the latter in the short term because we believe it will somehow help us get the former in the long term. One reads this and feels sympathy not just for Rubashov, but for his interrogators, because they grapple with a timeless question: can we, and should we, make today difficult and imperfect and unjust for the sake of a better tomorrow?

This is a weighty question, and the book abounds with such meditations: like Dostoyevsky's works--to which it is clearly in debt--it is a philosophical novel with true weight and depth. In "The Grand Inquisitor", one of the most famous chapters in literature, Dostoyevsky concocts a prison scene in which the head of the Spanish Inquisition discourses to Jesus on why the Church felt it necessary to behave in ways contrary to Jesus' teachings. And this book feels like "The Grand Inquisitor" writ large. Though it revolves around ideology instead of religion, the effect is similar--disciples explaining to the master why they needed to stray, why they needed to corrupt and pervert their beliefs in order to save them from external enemies, why they needed to destroy the movement in order to save it.

On this and many other issues, Rubashov ponders but--importantly--does not always come up with clear answers. "How can one change the world if one identifies oneself with everybody?" he muses early on, then asks, "How else can one change it? He who understands and forgives--where would he find a motive to act? Where would he not?" I don't think Koestler wants to give us answers. Like the best artists, he's not so much interested in telling us what to think as he is in making us think. It's not always about finding answers; it's about remembering to ask questions. And that's something we need to remember today.

The phrase Orwellian only deserves to be classified as a derivative of the work of Koestler whose slightly-earlier reflections are a telling reflection on the spirit of Marxism with greater poignancy since they come from one who formerly professed Marxism as a positive doctrine. While some of the narrative aspects of Darkness at Noon are slow-moving, they add to the ponderous nature of the subject at hand as the character of Rubashov questions his adherence to an ideology which has seemingly stripped the skin off humanity without the ability to graft a glorious replacement on the exposed internal organs. The doubts of a noble, high-minded reformer are poignant to any reader who has ever considered the interplay between the individual and the whole of society.

This perennially question of all philosophy, the question of the One and the Many touches the core of our questing for the Truth and easily makes one sympathetic to the trials of the reformer who desires both to enact the noble goals of the revolution but also realizes that so much has been lost on the way that it is quite possible to question the result. In the face of cold, hard, systematic logic which easily leads one to believe with certainty in the questionable fate of the future, Rubashov quavers both against his own questioning as well as against his own self-assured innocence in the face of charges against his devotion to the Party's cause. Such a duality of confidence is naturally found in all of humanity and retains a poignancy for all readers who have considered the noble weight of the Truth against the dangers of liberty-destroying force. The story of a confused Marxist is not that different from the story of any person, even the most devout of Christians who desires for adherence to the Truth of Faith while dually acknowledging the necessity of freedom, an acknowledgement which leads to difficult choices and seemingly-insurmountable contradictions. For this reason, Darkness at Noon is a read of great importance today, even for those who are furthest from the philosophical social materialism of Marxism.

This is the first book I've read by Bukowski. I first came across him due to amazon's recommendations, as I had been reading quite a bit of Henry Miller.

Well, for various reasons I got turned on to John Fante, and finally picked up some Bukowski books.

I think in Orwell's essay on Henry Miller he noted that Miller marked the future of 'literature.' I read this as "modern man will have nothing to write about except bitching." Well, I see Bukowski in the same modern light, and I enjoyed reading this book.

Bukowski (or Chinaski) does seem bitter, even selfish, unrepentant, misogynistic, and isn't a role model. Having said that, it's quite refreshing to read, as un-PC as can be, in this world of cookie-cutter bullcrap.

Having heard about the actual Post Office from insiders, Bukowski really is quite gentle with his comments, not showing them to be as backwards as is the case.

I enjoyed the book. Bukowski is not as endearing as a Henry Miller, but manages to come off like more of an A-hole despite being less XXX (at least in this book) than Miller. I kept imagining George Carlin as the narrator when I was reading. Anyway, this Chinaski is an alright guy to have a drink with. Just keep him away from your sister.

This is classic comedic literature. Hank, the main character, walks through life in a way that any burned out, working stiff can relate to. I was laughing out loud many times at the hilarious observations and how much I could relate to it. If not great and profound, accept it for being hilarious and profane. However way you look at it, it's well worth the read.

I'm not giving this book two stars because I'm one of those Bukowski-haters. I love his writing. But this isn't the best book of his that I've read. I believe it was published fairly early in his career, which might indicate better was to come from Bukowski. If you don't own any Bukowski books, I'd advise you to buy "Run with the Hunted" rather than this one.

Out of what I've read by Bukowski at this point in time (I've only read four of his books as of today) I would rank this and Ham on Rye as his best.

Most of Post Office revolves around his two stints as a Postal Worker, boozing, gambling, relationships with women and his trying to keep on with his writing while juggling all the other facets of his life. Its actually no wonder he was so miserable working at the post office considering he would drink and peck away at the typewriter every night till 2 a.m when he had to be at work the next morning. But hey you have to keep your dreams alive and it obviously paid off for him in the end.

Like everything else I've ever read by Bukowski he finds great humor in some hellish situations. This is something that kind of gets lost in the shuffle by many of the idiot hipsters that are into Bukowski. They tend to overly romanticize Bukowskis skid row/working class/bohemian lifestyle but neglect to make much of the great humor on his work. Bukowski was a VERY funny guy. Not that there isn't plenty of sad content in his books but I often feel like I'm watching a great stand up comic (including the self loathing that so many of them exhibit) when I read Bukowski.

I love this book. It's genius in it's simplicity. Buy it, read it, and pass it along.

I love it. The volume is great to look at and the feel is awesome. The text is large enough (better than the small paperbacks). The maps are great and the other embellishments (such as the gold trimmed edges and the page marker) are excellent. I am loving this volume. It was well worth the ptrice.

Very happy with this edition, it wass exactly what i expected, and once i had it with me i think it is a really good value.

My boyfriend loved this! He is an avide book junky, and thought it was well made, and also a great collectors piece

I'm not exactly sure what other reviewers have experienced regarding their reports of poor quality control with this edition, but I have a beautifully bound and printed copy, and have absolutely no complaints. This is simply the finest edition of Tolkien's timeless classic I've ever owned. I've examined my copy quite thoroughly and have noticed no defects in workmanship whatsoever. Every minute detail from the red and black text to the gilded pages make this edition worth the asking price and more. The book is kept in a handsome slipcover and fits right at home between the highly regarded "No Admittance" bookends. This is the edition aficionados of Tolkien's work should not be without.

does not disappoint! beautifully crafted, collector's item. comes with two maps charting their course; in addition to multiple appendices and indexes leaving no questions unanswered. I highly recommend this edition!

I homeschool and this is a good book for teaching K and 1st grade kids their "place" in the world. It starts with a girl mapping her room and extends all the way to her place on the globe. It is a really fun easy way to introduce geography/maps.

What a great book. Great pictures. After reading it we sat down and made a map of my 4 year old's room. If only it explained the difference between living out in the country (like on a farm) and living in a different country (like China or Australia). But I can't complain. We love it!

I homeschool and this is an excellent book for teaching elementary school kids their "place" on the map. It starts with a girl mapping her room and extends all the way to her place on the globe and back again. An excellent teaching tool for putting things in perspective! Not enough words to make this a bedtime book, but enough to cause interaction and learning.

I use this book in PS and Elem. settings to set up lesson plans related to maps and how they can be used. This book helps children to relate maps to their own environments.

My daughter is six years old, and it's tough to explain some of the more complex concepts like time and space. This series of books does a great job using colorful illustrations and text that's a lot easier to understand than anything I could come up with myself! Besides, I am a map and globe lover, so this book especially keeps our attention. I also recommend Sweeney's other books, including the one about Time.

If I could recommend a particular edition of the "Interesting Narrative," it would be this one. I much preferred it to the one published by The Modern Library. This has far more explanatory and textual notes, and it includes many letters Equiano wrote. (Which the Modern Library edition does not do.)

The Interesting Narrative (1789) is one of the earliest "slave narratives", a genre that includes classics such as Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) and neo-slave narratives like Alex Haley's Roots (1976), Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) and Edward P. Jones' The Known World (2003). What makes Olaudah Equiano's account unique is that is was the first slave narrative to find a wide audience, and it is not hard to understand why - not only is it a good story, but it is very well written, almost literary - it sold so well it was a cornerstone in bringing about public sympathy and support for the abolition of the slavery in England.

Just about everything we know about Olaudah Equiano is from his autobiography. He was born around 1745 in Africa, kidnapped and enslaved at the age of 10 or 11 and shipped across the Middle Passage to the West Indies, and soon after to a Virginia plantation (he was too small to work the sugar cane fields). From there he had the good fortune to be purchased by the captain of a British warship, where he learned English manners, language and customs - and a promise of freedom. But, in one of the great blows of his life, he was tricked and sold back into slavery in the West Indies, where he worked on merchant ships for a number of years, finally able to save enough money (trading fruits and rum between ports of call) to buy his freedom in his early 20s. He then spent years as a freed man working on merchant and military ships traveling extensively around the Atlantic, including a trip to the Arctic. His close calls with death were many, including disease, shipwrecks and run-ins with whites who would beat him to within an inch of his life. Equiano eventually settled down in England, married a white girl, had two children and died a wealthy and respected gentleman, a remarkable achievement for a former African slave in the 18th century.

_The Interesting Narrative_ can be read on multiple levels. It is a fascinating first-hand document of 18th century British mercantilism, showing the Atlantic "Golden Triangle" in action. It is a story of Christian redemption - by following the teachings of the Bible, and those who transgress against it, Equiano explains why things turn out how they do. It is one of the great works of travel literature; exotic locales and death-defying adventures fill the pages. It is a powerful expose of 18th century slavery, unflinchingly detailing the institutionalized horrors and how both victim and victimizer are turned into animals. It is a call for action to end the slave trade.

In the end, we read books like this today with a certain amount of curious detachment, it has been about 150 years since slavery ended - or has it? Some 27 million slaves - more than twice the number of people taken from Africa during the entire 350 year history of the Africa slave trade - today toil in rich and poor countries around the world. Most Americans probably know more about slavery as it once existed, than as it is currently being practiced in their own time, directly touched by the cheap goods we purchase. Reading Equiano's account we can't help but be moved against slavery, all slavery, historical or contemporary, and for that the book has immortal value.

Hemingway said of Tillie Olsen's "Tell Me a Riddle" that, however many readers it may have, it will never have enough. He expressed my feelings about this book. Yes, the "Autobiography of Frederick Douglass" is critical to achieve an understanding of the obscenities of black slavery in the New World, but Equiano's remarkable account dramatizes it in ways even more diverse. He summarizes in his single life the whole span of slavery, from his kidnapping as a child from Africa to the fiendish brutality of Caribbean sugar plantations. But he is also a celebration of the indomitability of the human spirit at its most resilient: from his insistence, against all odds, on his own worth as a person, his acquisition of seafaring and business skills, his achievement not only of literacy but of an Englishman's 18th century eloquence.
I didn't think I could learn more about the particular brutalities of slavery, but I did. An example: in the Caribbean some slavemasters "rented out" their slaves by the day to other masters for excruciating toil. Their temporary masters sometimes "forgot" to feed them lunch, and moreover sometimes sent them back to their masters without payment. For retribution, their masters then beat the slaves! This was a new twist for me, and reminded me that the psychological torture--imagining the starved and exhausted slaves returning to their masters, knowing what was awaiting--often outstripped physical torture for cruelty.
But this is no litany of abuses, and Equiano is careful to spare us gratuitous outrages. He lived the equivalent of five or six lives within his timespan, and the book likewise breaks up into episodes: the African years--during which he chronicles a clime of abundant food and privileged childhood; his adventures at sea, serving several captains on mercantile ships that faced enemy fire and perils of every kind; his strivings to buy his freedom in the Caribbean and North America; his conversion to Christianity; and his settling as a freeman in England with marriage to a British wife.
As with most primary source documents, there are lulls in the narrative. The writing about the author as a Christian aware of his "sins" (he who has so overwhelmingly sinned against) is as familiar as it is ironic. Episodes in the seafaring accounts will be of more interest to afficionados of Melville or Conrad. But what is finally amazing is Equiano's moderation and modesty in describing a most remarkable life. One wonders how many hundreds of thousands of uprooted Africans succumbed to the brutalization and denial of their self-worth for every one who managed to salvage some shred of dignity, but one is nevertheless grateful to Equiano for putting his own example in writing.
It is writing for the ages. I wonder whether it should be required reading, for high school students, for example. Perhaps it's a bit too difficult or tedious for everyone in that age group. But at the very least it should be mentioned in the same breath as Douglass's books. I was 62 before I'd even heard Equiano's name. This remarkable account should be better known.

Many people -- including myself -- read science fiction and fantasy novels to see new vistas of the imagination, alien cultures and circumstances in which we could never imagine ourselves. Sometimes we look to distant futures or galaxies without remembering just how alien the planet we live on can be!

Equiano's account -- generally a clear, crisply written and unsentimental account with detailed descriptions of the places he visits, with the occassional sermon or rare florid description (Dr. Charles Irving's device "renders fresh Neptune's briny element") -- shows a whirlwind series of adventures, from his time as an Igbo village prince, to his enslavement and trek to the African coast under a series of masters, to his horrendous voyage across the middle passage, his amazement at the terrifying new world he was brought into, his conversion to Christianity, his service in the Seven Years War, his attempts to buy his freedom, and his varying adventures as a sailor. The account goes on to include his disastrous expedition to the North Pole and subsequent spiritual crisis upon such a close touch with his mortality, his management as a commissar for an attempt to settle freed blacks in Sierra Leonne, and, finally, his marraige (something touched on very cursorily, perhaps because he didn't wish to add too much to new editions of the book, which was initially completed before his marraige, or possibly because he was very busy raising his daughters, lecturing, and testifying for the abolitionist cause).

Some parts of the account seem, perhaps, slightly too convenient. One might be tempted to wonder if Equiano's memories, as a ten year old, of the customs of his people are shaped by his desire to retrospectively turn them into Jews, or if his account of, upon hearing that a book contain words, holding it to his ear is borrowed from countless other accounts of the "primitive" who misunderstands the nature of the written word, or if his account of himself as a determined fighter for the integrity of the Sierra Leone colonization project, undermined by the other corrupt managers of the project, who stole from the Exchequer and undersupplied the intended black colonists isn't a biased portrayal in his favor. Overall, though, the records that have been recovered by historians have been favorable to Equiano's story, and inaccuracies are remarkably rare for a book so extensive and often written from memories thirty-years old.

Of all the firsthand accounts known to us as "slave narratives," Vassa's description is unique in many ways. To begin with, he takes his readers all the way back to his African roots, shedding historically-confirmed light on almost lost ancient traditions. His discussion of the harrowing and epically sad capture and separation of he and his sister are among the most moving in this genre.

He then describes the despicable, inhumane conditions in the holds of the slave ships with a "you-are-there" writing style. Again, confirmed by other sources, these are some of the most often quoted accounts in historical texts. In this same chronological phase, Vassa also depicts the shared empathy among the enslave Africans, helping us to see how they collaborated to survive.

His ongoing narrative offers one of the more balanced looks at slavery. Vassa clearly tells the horrors of this evil system and the people responsible for it. At the same time, he often shares accounts of Europeans and White Americans who befriended him. In fact, his positive statements about non-Africans lend further credence to his critique of the many evils of slavery.

His narrative also contains unique elements in his descriptions of his path toward freedom and his life as a freeman. We learn that in his era, for a man of his race, it was barely more tolerable to be free, given the hatred that he still endured.

Though some reviewers tend to minimize or criticize it, his conversion narrative is classic. In fact, it may well have been the standard from which later testimonies were crafted about how "God struck me dead." Perhaps the evangelical nature of his conversion turns off some. However, if we are to engage Vassa in his other accounts, we must engage him here. Further, coming as it did later in his life, it is easy to see how his account of his entire life is entirely shaped by his conversion experience. Clearly, Vassa sees even the evils that he has suffered as part of a larger plan. In doing so he never suggests that God condones the evils of slavery. Rather, he indicates that God created beauty from ashes.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction," and of "Soul Physicians" and "Spiritual Friends."

This is the one, only, and very likely last text from Sartre that I will ever read, but it is also one of the very few works of fiction that I'd consider worth reading more than once. It is great. The anti-Vonnegut. I can only imagine how much better it is in the original French. Highly recommended. (Albert Camus' review is useful & more critical; see that for a balanced but more heavy handed substantial commentary.)

Sartre's "Nausea" is a gripping, twitchy little novella confirming the ways one person of unpleasant station can make them self sick , nervous, an odious presence by lingering long on the ambivalent shrug .No one else could write a better tale of an intensely self-aware intellectual whose physical discomforts translate into a changed worldview. Not a lot of laughs, but Sartre does insert his descriptions of bad faith of an intellect aware of his stagnation but whose dread saps strength, and will from him, makes him powerless to do even the simplest exchange. There is, of course, transcendence of a sort, but none are comfortable with its results. The peculiar interest here is the lingering on the problem and an inspection of the illness that infects the spirit as a cumulative consequence of an individual denying their potential and getting by with a bare minimum of engagement. Sartre's fiction and his plays are for those who have an avid interest in those who live in just one room of the many in life's vast mansion.

Nausea is absolutely amazing. This is the book that started everything for me. Education and the pursuit of knowledge became priorities in my life after reading this book, thanks to Sartre. Existentialism may be "dead" to some people, but to the high school or early college student who is disenchanted with the world around them, this is the perfect book to get those intellectual juices flowing. The "self-learned man" who sits at the library reading in alphabetical order everything that he can inspired me greatly. Though not as pretty as Albert Camus, Jean as a certain dramatic and intellectual radiance that Albert had yet to perfect. Do not get me wrong Camus is my hero, but Nausea is the beginning of everything for someone on that lonely path to Truth.

Even though I'm intrigued by existentialism, I am still struggling to understand what Sartre is trying to tell us in Nausea. The main character, because he finds other humans boring, petty, phony...., he makes a choice to stand away from the rest of humanity. He is a critical observer, the constant cynic. So much easier to stand at a distance and criticize to feel the Nausea that is humanity. The nausea is only one side of the coin, because not all in life is despicable, crass and disgusting, He has chosen to focus on those parts of humanity that are. In doing so he imagines that he has found a sort of freedom and that he has risen above the fray, the ramble of humanity. The reality is that he has focused so much on the bad, the nausea, that he has built a new prison, an incomplete humanity composed of only the bad and none of the good. He comprehends only half of what we are. There is none of the joy, the spontaneity, the passion, only the ache of the nausea.

You have to be in a certain state of mind to read this- anyone who says it's stupid or not a great work or is put off by how he speaks of himself and the city he's in, needs to not read it, but immerse themselves in it, however if one would do that then chances are he'd lose everything else in life, because he cannot control it.

This is one of the best books i've ever read, it's simply brilliant, but only if you understand the feelings he's having.

This book was purchased for my daughter for a class. I remember reading it in high school and yeap, still almost as drawn out as it was back then. We both think the same thing. But, a good read nonetheless.

The story may have had some merit however the writing style was so archaic and verbose that it took 50 words to complete a sentence. After trudging through about 100 pages he never came to any points or conclusions other that some people can remember what they ate 20 years ago in detail. This guy (Nathaniel Hawthorne) could have competed with Marry Shelly for most long-winded of the year. Some of it may not be his fault due to the writing style of the time but we surly do not have to put up with this.

This is one time that just about any movie exceeds the book. If you insist on reading then it may be smart to find a child's version. Son one could get rich translating the book into today's English.

This book was well written by its author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered one of the classics, hence the reason that we read it in AP Lang. But I was most impressed with the price, quality, and speediness of the delivery and book. I was also very happy to see that it was the same version that my whole class had, despite that version's absence from numerous bookstores in my area. Thank you Amazon!!

The first review of this textbook is extremely misleading. This is THE most popular textbook in the country for Introduction to Literature courses. While the Norton is certainly popular too, it is not the "standard." Furthermore, the literature examples in the book are copious, varied and extremely well chosen. All periods and types of the genres are represented, and the headnotes are generous and well-written. The emphasis on writing is quite welcome, since in most Introduction to Literature courses the ultimate goal is for students to be able to write mature critical essays about what they're reading. The previous reviewer reveals his or her bias with the sneer about the book seeming to come from a "bygone era." By that I think the reviewer means that the book does not particularly emphasize late 20th century and 21st century authors and theoretical approaches. It does not ignore them, but it also doesn't emphasize them. I think the reason for that is that the book is an INTRODUCTION--not all first-year college students have the background to cope with the extremely abstract. Many of them have never before seriously read a poem. That's a sad comment on American high schools, but there it is. For most college Intro to Lit classes, this book is the best choice.

If you are an instructor interested in using this for your class, it is pretty good, though a bit on the conservative side. If you are a general reader or a student, you may very well like it, but the Norton series of anthologies are the standards. No anthology can do it all, but this one includes good critical sections on genres and basic approaches, as well as a little of everything: English, American, Minority, and World lit. It has pretty strong African American selections and a decent slice of classics. It has a handfull of selections from Latino writers. My main complaint is that it's pretty weak on Asian American writers and Native American writers. While it has a few of them, they tend to be pretty marginal. It works well for a class that functions as both composition and intro to lit. Unfortunately, some of the choices seem to come from a bygone era.