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I think you need a quiet place and state of mind to really appreciate this book, because it is not only the stories of these characters but the way they are presented...so incredibly tragic, poetic and beautiful. The author did an incredible job in inviting readers into the labyrinth of hope, despair, conflicts, alienation of the characters so intimately. Great book.

"Tender is the Night" is a poignant story of a psychiatrist who fell in love with his patient and married her to stay close. Fitzgerald wrote the book under the impression of psychological problems of his wife Zelda; thus, the story is very real and sincere.

The book manages to show complexity of characters underneath the casual masks. Dick Diver (the psychiatrist) is not merely a great doctor; he is a husband as well, which means two most important things in his life (work and Nicole) closely intertwined. Nicole (the patient) is not merely a rich psycho; she manages to remain strong through her disease, understand and forgive her husband, and find a new, happier marriage, after Dick became miserable in his alcohol addiction. Rosemary (a young promising actress) does not have a crush on Dick; she loves him for the first and, arguably, only time in her life. Fitzgerald's characters are not ordinary people, as there are no ordinary people in life, in general.

Fitzgerald did not create a happy ending for the story, as there would be no happy ending in life. Confessions are made, and characters found their niches in life, but at the same time, there is some sense that the story is not over by the end of the book. "Tender is the Night" leaves the reader astonished, eager to know the end, at the same time showing that there is no end to some stories. They dissolve in the air and disappear slowly, as the letters from Dick to Nicole.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's book, Tender is the Night, is widely regarded as his second best offering (after The Great Gatsby) and, as with other second best efforts, it suffers by comparison. There are three things wrong with this book, two of which can be corrected and one which cannot. The first problem is that Fitzgerald uses far too many obscure (to an American reader) references and words in French. While such use lends a certain authenticity to the book, it also makes it difficult to read without a considerable amount of knowledge of France, French culture and the French language. One way to overcome this obstacle is to read the Wordsworth Classics edition which provides a list of 399 notes to explain the text. It is somewhat awkward in that you have to flip back and forth between the text and the notes which are in the back of the book. It would be a good idea to make a photocopy of these notes so that they can be referred to as you read the story.

The second problem, also correctable, but more awkward, has to do with the structure of the book. The main story idea is the disintegration of an idealistic and decent man, Dr. Richard Diver, who is corrupted by money and the loss of purpose in his life. To fully experience this tragedy the story should begin at the beginning, namely when Dr. Diver is working as a young psychiatrist in Switzerland. Instead Fitzgerald starts in the middle, that is to say after he is married to Nicole and they are on the French Riviera When we first meet him he comes across as a rich, indolent man given to hanging around with rich, unpleasant people. We also don't know, as Malcolm Crowley has pointed out, what the book will be about--some Americans in the South of France or its true purpose, the "the glory and decline of Richard Diver as a person." The Introduction to this edition by Henry Claridge of the University of Kent does a good job of explaining this problem. Professor Claridge indicates that in fact another edition was put together to correct this very situation, but for various reasons it is no longer in circulation. One could, of course, simply start reading the book at the chronological beginning (the start of Book 2) and then backtrack as necessary.

But the biggest problem, the one that cannot be corrected, is that we just don't care about these people, this insufferable group of Ugly Americans. The book begins by introducing us to Rosemary Hoyt, a 17-about-to-be-18 year old actress who has made one teeny bopper movie (Daddy's Girl) and regards herself, and is regarded by others, as the next coming of Greta Garbo.(For those of you too young to remember Garbo think Meryl Streep with a Swedish accent.). Rosemary has the de rigor mother who is micromanaging her career. She arrives in the South of France and meets a whole host of unpleasant people. There is Tommy Barban, a soldier of fortune apparently on leave between wars, Abe North, an alcoholic who gets more unpleasant as Book 1 continues, the fey Luis Campion, Earl Brady, the stereotypical Hollywood movie director, Mr. McKisco whom nobody likes, Mrs. McKisco who "sees something in the bathroom" and touches off a duel) and other assorted neer-do-wells. Even the Diver children, Lanier and Topsy, seem too too perfect, singing a tune in French. In this bunch Nicole comes off as clearly the best of the lot. And then there is Dick. But this isn't the idealist Dick, this isn't the tragic Dick. It's the idle rich Dick, whiling away his life on the beach, giving parties, doing the tourist thing in Paris.

One is hard pressed to admire Dr. Richard Diver at any point in the novel. He is certainly bright--Yale, Hopkins, Oxford--but the picture that Fitzgerald paints of him is more one of professional ambition than service to humanity. We are not talking Dr. Switzer here. He is also a bigot, witness his attitude toward Italians, which gets him into an argument with Italian taxi drivers and leads to negative consequences. And then there is his problem with women or should I say young girls? When we first meet Nicole she is barely 16 and still in shock from a traumatic incident that would affect any child. Yet we find him "falling in love" with her. At this point Diver is 27 years old. Later (chronologically) when the same thing happens with Rosemary Hoyt she is just turning 18. This is not Romeo and Juliet; it is not even the 47-year-old Bogart and the 19 year old Bacall in To Have and Have Not. It is Humbert Humbert and Lolita redeux. Perhaps the problem is that Fitzgerald is trying too hard. It took nine years to write the book and after creating one of the most memorable characters in American fiction, Jay Gatsby, Fitzgerald was trying to top him. But the result is just not very successful. On the other hand Book Three is easily the best of the lot. Here Fitzgerald picks up the action and includes some scenes that are basically slapstick comedy, such as when Mary North (now Mary Minghetti) and her friend Lady Caroline Sibly-Biers are thrown in jail for impersonating two sailors and picking up some local girls. The scene ends fittingly when the local person who can arrange their release (Gausse), after taking much abuse from Lady Caroline, gives her a well-deserved boot in the rear.

The ending is also disappointing. Instead of a dramatic climax the book goes out, as t.s. eliot might have said, "not with a bang, but with a whimper." The whole Nicole and Tommy thing is simply not believable--and Dick as a GP in Palookaville??

When we read a novel it is like entering into another world. The characters become real and we want to care about what happens to them. When Quasimodo meets a tragic end at the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame we are saddened because we have come to care about him. But by the end of the first book of Tender is the Night I found myself not really caring about any of these people and plunged on with the novel only because it is Fitzgerald.

Then is there any reason to read the book? The answer I think is yes, for two reasons. First of all for the language. Fitzgerald is simply a marvelous writer of English prose. His language here is beautiful and evocative. Take for example, these lines from page 129: "She crossed and recrossed her knees frequently in the manner of tall restless virgins." "...she was a compendium of all the discontented women who had loved Byron a hundred years before..." All this about a relatively minor character, Baby Warren. And this line from page 193 about a policeman: "He had possessed the arrogance of a tall member of a short race, with no obligation save to be tall." Then there is this exchange between Nicole and Tommy Barban on page 246: (Tommy) "You know, you're a little complicated after all." Oh no," she assured him hastily, "No--I'm not really--I'm just a--whole lot of different simple people."

The second reason for reading Tender is the Night is that one should not confine one's self to just one book by an author. Just as we cannot fully appreciate Thackeray if we just read Vanity Fair or Dostoyevsky if we limit ourselves to Crime and Punishment we should read more of Fitzgerald's work than his masterpiece, The Great Gatsby. To fully appreciate this book and Fitzgerald, one should read his first novel, This Side of Paradise and a good biography of his life as well as Gatsby. As with many authors much of his work is autobiographical and it is only by knowing his life that you can understand and fully appreciate his writing. In the end Fitzgerald is writing about himself and his own wife, Zelda. Knowing the lives these two led is vital to a full appreciation of this book.
Amazon forces reviewers to make a choice between a positive or a negative review. But this is a false dichotomy. This book is both very good and very bad. I recommend reading it as a part of Fitzgerald's body of work,, but not as his only work and not as your first reading of his novels.

Not the most cohesive of Fitzgerald's work, Tender is the Night does deliver on Fitzgerald's beautiful prose and heartbreaking characterizations. The novel explores the disintegration of a promising young American doctor whose idealism comes under the crushing weight of hard capitalistic power. At times it becomes difficult to believe in the main character's steady decline since early in the novel he is depicted as so brilliant and thoughtful. However, Fitzgerald tries (and generally succeeds) in making the argument that American idealism is a fragile thing and not impervious to the destructive power of money.

Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets

Dick Diver has studied hard to finally gain his role as a Psychiatrist. But his meeting with the ethereal Nicole proves to be the one thing that could take it all away from him. Nicole is unlike other women he has met. She's willing to convey her deepest and darkest thoughts to him. She cares little about the current fashions. She worries about him when he's not around. Basically, she's everything he could have ever dreamed of. But the circumstances of their meeting aren't exactly perfect. Nicole is not some random women he has met out on the street. Quite the opposite, in fact. Nicole is a resident at a mental health facility. The victim of Dissociative Identity Disorder (a.k.a. split personality). While she is loaded with money, the poor thing has fallen victim to DID after an indiscretion with her father - something she has buried in the back of her mind. While Dick is not Nicole's personal Psychiatrist, he can't help but feel that, by becoming romantically involved with her, he may risk her completely losing her mind; or him losing his license to practice. But he marries her nonetheless.

As a couple, Dick and Nicole Diver are wealthy and fabulous. People are drawn to them like moths to a flame, and shower them with love, attention, and affection at just the mention of their names. They are glamorous and respected by all. Even the young Rosemary, a screen actress who has the world at her fingertips. Rosemary is quickly drawn into the world of the Diver's, and finds herself falling in love with Dick, and he with her. But Dick is not one to place Nicole's mental health on the line, and must work to control himself when around Rosemary - which proves harder than he ever expected. Between shopping sprees on the French Riviera, and glitzy dinners at the most wonderful restaurants, Nicole and Rosemary become better and better friends; of course, this is at the risk of damaging Nicole even more than she already is. And if Dick is not careful, he may find himself lonely once more, if Nicole is driven into the dark depths of madness.

I read THE GREAT GATSBY quite a few years ago, and have always counted it as one of my favorite novels. Now, however, TENDER IS THE NIGHT has also garnered a spot on that particular list. Perhaps it is the fact that I am a Psychology student; or because I love tales full of romanticism and riches, but F. Scott Fitzgerald's TENDER IS THE NIGHT spoke to me in more ways than one, and truly gave me a glimpse inside the lives of a wealthy socialite and her husband/Psychiatrist. Nicole is such an elegant character whose frequent trips into madness are riveting, and impossible to tear your eyes away from; while Dick's constant philandering, yet extreme passion for his wife is hard to ignore, and makes the reader sympathize with and adore him, yet, at the same time, loathe him. Together they are a couple full of power and popularity who stay on your mind long after the last page is turned. Fitzgerald has an uncanny ability of glamorizing anything and everything - from mental illness to starlets and everything in-between. His descriptive language, and impossible to ignore characters are poetic and lovely; while the undertones conveyed within TENDER IS THE NIGHT are somber and tragic. Another winner from Fitzgerald!

Erika Sorocco
Freelance Reviewer

"Ham on Rye" was my first introduction to the writing of Charles Bukowski, and tells the story of his alter-ego, Henry Chinaski. It is semi-autobiographical, so when reading, it is best to approach the entire book as fiction, rather than trying to attribute events in the book with the real life of Bukowski. It begins with Chinaski's youth during the Great Depression, and relates his struggles with social and familial acceptance from elementary school through college. The book focuses on his relationship with poor relationship with his parents and a puzzling general disdain for his peers. One of the reasons this book is so fascinating is because it is written in a seemingly crude and blunt prose, detailing a hard life surrounded by fighting, drinking, and women. It shows a culture where daily fights were a necessary part of life and brings forward an image much like we would consider our lives to be like if we lived back in the Old West, and were forced to challenge a man for cheating at cards or looking at you funny.

With my air-conditioned office, feather bed, and teeth whitening strips, I can't imagine I would ever have survived in Chinaski's world, so it's enjoyable to experience it from the safety of Bukowski's novel. Although I mentioned a "crude" writing style, that should not be confused with poor writing. Bukowski's to-the-point style makes for an extremely easy read that I was able to finish in a few hours, unlike the usuals novels that I pore over for weeks to get through. Even though Chinaski is portrayed as a "tough guy," Bukowski does not shy away from detailing all of his faults as well, which describe a young man filled with self doubt and a lack of ambition. While I'm not sure how Ham on Rye would fare with female audiences, I highly recommend it for males in the 15-35 age range.

To read Bukowski's novels about Pinaski chronologically, follow this order:

Ham on Rye: A Novel - Early life, elementary school to college
Factotum - Young adulthood, World War II era
post office: A Novel - Later years, 1952 - 1969
Women: A Novel - Later years, as a poet and writer
Hollywood - Dealing with Chinaski's later life as a screenwriter

I read this book, and I loved it. It's from this novel that I had to read four or five more Bukowski novels, and I wasn't disappointed. This book is brilliance. I really loved it.

Charles Bukowski's Ham on Rye details the early childhood of his fictional alter-ego Henry Chinaski through his teen years up until the attack on Pearl Harbor. A majority of the novel finds Chinaski growing up in the depression-laded lower-middle class part of Los Angeles, and details his discoveries of alcohol, women, authors, and writing. What is most likely an autobiographical fueled novel, Ham on Rye ends up becoming a startlingly poignant piece of literature, much like many of Bukowski's novels. The reader becomes impassioned with Chinaski's hard, young life as he discovers and withstands the futility of his own existence, gets into fights with his privilaged schoolmates, and develops an extremely painful case of acne that leaves him physically scarred. Though we don't always feel sorry for Chinaski as his actions make him labeled a "truly ugly person", there's no denying that Ham on Rye is a stunningly powerful and bleak portrait of the life Bukowski himself lived. Not as quintessential as Post Office of Factotum, but an essential piece of Bukowski's work nonetheless.

At times in his life, Charles Bukowski may have lived like the dissolute Hank Chinaski, his alcoholic protagonist in post office: A Novel, Factotum, Women: A Novel, and HAM ON RYE. But in reading HoR, the quality that communicated most clearly to this reader was Buk's immense discipline. There's no self-indulgence, anywhere, in this book. There's no material, anywhere, that doesn't immediately contribute to the development of Hank's character. This discipline means that HoR has absolutely zero bloat. There's not a word that's wasted.

HoR has 58 chapters, few longer than five pages. It begins with Hank's first memory and then gradually moves from his childhood, through his adolescence, and to his young manhood, with each chapter developing some new aspect of Hank's personality and life. The amazing thing is that the perceptions never get ahead of Hank's age, with the boyish Hank seeing boyish issues, the adolescent Hank showing how his upbringing and experiences affected his teenage outlook, and so on.

This discipline makes HoR a remarkable reading experience. In one chapter, you can see Bukowski, say, add a little depth to the adolescent mentality of Hank. In the next, he adds a little breadth. In fact, Buk's control in each chapter is so tight that the chapters lend themselves perfectly to capsule summations. In my marginalia, for example, I find: Hank wins a medal but declines to pursue success (chapter 41); head games during and after baseball confirm the funny Hank's sense of failure (42); bold Hank humbled by his failed seduction of his only friend's mother (43). What am I saying? In every chapter, Buk shows something new about Hank. This is character that is always developing.

Furthermore, Buk always stays within voice--not an easy task for an author taking a character through his formative years. Here's that voice at the start of Chapter 44, with Hank, a high school senior, considering his future.

"I could see the road ahead of me. I was poor and I was going to stay poor. But I didn't particularly want money. I didn't know what I wanted. Yes, I did. I wanted someplace to hide out, someplace where one didn't have to do anything. The thought of being something didn't only appall me, it sickened me. ...To get married, to have children, to get trapped in the family structure. To go someplace to work every day and to return. It was impossible. ...was a man borne just to endure those things and then die? I would rather be a dishwasher, return alone to a tiny room, and drink myself to sleep."

One final point: In Chapter 52, Hank's father throws him out (he's enraged his son is writing short stories) and Hank is made to begin his adult life. In this and subsequent chapters, Hank's shenanigans morph from sad but hilarious contrariness to something darker, as the masterful Bukowski clarifies the underlying story he's been telling.

So asks (p. 245) Bukowski's alter ego, Henry Chinaski, as this gripping romansbildung draws to a conclusion. The rather mysteriously-titled Ham on Rye is undoubtedly Bukowski's finest and most obviously autobiographical novel. In it, he gives us a variably chilling, pathetic, hilarious, and defiant portrait of Chinaski's first 20 years, taking us right up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and Chinaski on his way to the Skid Row existence brutally chronicled in Factotum, the second volume in the Chinaski series.

There's something heart-wrenching in Bukowski's description of the early years of his anti-hero Chinaski. A loser father who vents his self-hatred by sadistically beating his son; a spineless mother who can't stand up for either herself or her son--and whom Chinaski loves as little as he does his father; a sometimes comic assortment of misfit schoolmates who attach themselves to a reluctant Chinaski; boring, unrewarding, and mind-killing classes in primary, middle, and high schools; the wondrous discovery of books in the public library; the horrors of out-of-control acne, so like leprosy in both appearance and social consequences; the initial vagueries and eventually fires of pubescent longing; the (d)evolution of an abused and lonely boy into a hard-drinking, hot-tempered, bullying youth; and the beginning of a series of one dead-end job after another: these are the moments in Henry Chinaski's life captured in the novel. It's little wonder that by the story's midpoint, Chinaski is a young cynic, disgusted with the "proper" socially successful world to which his parents aspire. As he tells us (p. 174),

'The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil or another, and no matter what you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of a--holes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves.'

Bukowski's brilliant, disturbing novel is a chronicle of hope defeated and tenderness abused. By novel's end, Henry Chinaski has turned from a lovable, mistreated child into a genuinely unlikeable lost soul. To a certain extent, in later novels and in real life, both Chinaski and Bukowski will save themselves through art. But the climb up from the hellish youth and adolescence chronicled here will be long and difficult.

I wish that the book was shorter :( Especially because it's 387 pages and I have to write a report on it (10 paragraphs on 10 quotes from the story that I believe show the importance of the story in the next 10 days :( YUCK! However, it still hasa very interesting storyline that is very very detailed :D

This is an excellent coming-of-age book with which many people will be able to relate. I will admit, the beginning was rather grueling, but looking back, I am glad I finished the book. Dickens has a fabulous vocabulary and an excellent sense of people. The characters are dynamic and quite various. I would recommend this book to other scholars.

Great Expectations is an amazing novel that truly upholds the style of literature found during the Victorian period. Although some parts are the book were less adventuresome in comparison to other sections, the book over all was quite pleasant to read. If you like a little thrill and narratives that grasp your attention and have huge climactic endings, then Great Expectations is for you!

Without a doubt this has to be one of the greatest novels of all time. I won't say it's the best just because once a work of art attains greatness I find it quite incomparable to other great works. Great works are ones which have fully succeeded in expressing the emotions and convictions of the artist, and without a doubt Great Expectations acheives this. Unfortunately I only hold this view of the book containing the original ending, which was not the originally published ending. (spoiler) The original ending at first seems sad and frustrating, but one can't help but to feel satisfied in knowing that through suffering Estella had gained a heart, which is much more than she would have gained through a cold and heartless relationship with Pip. The happy ending which was published is almost a fairtale ending and it perverts the themes which make the novel so relevant to reality. I must admit, like Dickens' friends and publisher, the original ending was hard for me to swallow, but as I dwelt on it and how it related to the novel, no other ending seemed appropriate, especially not a happy one.

Well, i have read all of the previous reviews, and it is apparant that people either love this book or hate this book. I was 15 when i first read this book, and have since read it again and it is probably my favorite book of all time. Yes, it is rather boring at times, and yes, it has a long, involved, and confusing plot, and yes, Charles Dickens gives very tedious descriptions of everything. But the morals and meanings portrayed in this book far outshine the faults. If you cannot find them, then it will most likely be boring and dull. If you can, it will probably become one of your alltime favorites.

When Mr. Dashwood dies, the family estate passes to his son, John. The widowed Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters are left homeless and with little money. A kind relative offers to rent them a small cottage on his property.

The two eldest Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, find both romance and heartbreak in their new home. Elinor is sensible and restrained, so that even when she falls in love with Edward, she keeps her feelings to herself because she knows that marriage is not a possibility. She has no money for a dowry.

Marianne, on the other hand, wears her heart on her sleeve. When she falls in love with handsome playboy Mr. Willoughby, she doesn't care who knows about it.

Both sisters experience heartbreak before they find love and happiness.

Taking place in Norland, England, in 1811, Jane Austen astounds her wide audience with yet another uplifting and eye-opening novel. Sense and Sensibility explores the life of the Dashwood family, consisting of the new widow Mrs. Dashwood and her two daughters, the composed and affectionate Elinor along with the sensible and spontaneous Marianne. Inheriting all of his father's money, John Dashwood visits his sister Mrs. Dashwood and gives the three devastated ladies a good share of his inherited money. During the visit, John Dashwood's wife, fanny, brings along her sensible older brother, Edward Ferrars, who develops a very close relationship with Elinor Dashwood. Although they are given a hard time by Fanny, Mrs. Dashwood, and the later promiscuous old friend Lucy Steele, Elinor and Edward establish and progress their love throughout the entire novel. As their love grows, Austen compares and contrasts the trait of sensibility, possessed by Marianne, and the trait of sense, possessed by Elinor. She does this through the two sisters' interactions with their significant others.
Just like almost all of Jane Austen's preceding novels, Sense and Sensibility dives into the themes of love and judgment. The reader learns how the characters in the novel become blind when they are in love, and the effect this has on their judgment.
Although it is a great read, I do not recommend it to just anybody. Readers must stay attentive to the multiple characters that are introduced throughout the novel; readers must also have strong patience because the novel is written with the old English dialect of the early 1800's. This is one of Jane Austen's best novels, in my opinion. In her novel Mansfield Park, she merely spends the whole novel demonstrating the progression of love in a New England town. In Sense and Sensibility, however, not only is the reader able to explore the development of love in a relationship between two people, but also the progression of individual character qualities, such as those of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. In totality, this novel is one of Jane Austen's best works.

Once criticised as being "least interesting" of Auten's works, I entirely disagree. Sense & Sensibility is one of my favourites, if not favourite Austen novel. Perhaps not as "light, and bright, and sparkling" as Pride & Prejudice, it is still a wonderful and enjoyable read, and definitely not as dense as Mansfield Park. Personally, I could not put this book down, when usually with Austen I read a chapter or two a day.

The dual heroines is one of the most interesting literary techniques here, interlaced with the usual infuriating members of society (John and Fanny, Lucy Steele), silly women (Charlotte Palmer) and men (Robert Ferrars).

My only criticism of the plot would be the somewhat rushed ending, but the story goes through regular "ups and downs" and enough changes of scenery to keep interest.

I often prefer the Penguin Classics versions of the Austen novels. They are easy to carry around and have comprehensive footnotes as well as interesting and thought-provoking introductions and appendices. In this version I prefer the original introduction by Tony Tanner, but the introduction by Ros Ballaster is interesting in its discussion of the opposing themes of the novel i.e. first and second attachments, scream and screen, and of course, sense and sensibility.

My only criticism of the Penguin Classics version is the cover art, which I don't feel encompasses the true characters of Elinor and Marianne. While I appreciate the use of 19th century art on the Penguin Classics covers, I never feel that they truly embody the character (except for maybe sickly Fanny Price). As a side note, I do like the cover art of the Sense and Sensibility (Oxford World's Classics) edition.

In ending, if you are an Austen fan, and haven't read this, you must. Furthermore, if you are considering Austen I would recommend either Sense & Sensibility or Pride & Prejudice as first reads. In any case, the Penguin Classics version will not disappoint.

The dual natures of these sisters is what truly makes this novel special. Their natural differences and their abilities in the end to overcome their inborn instincts demonstrate Austen's talent in creating interesting and dynamic characters. For me, this is Jane's best novel (I have not read them all). There is so much to learn from these characters! The men in the novel are complex and interesting as well. Recommended reading. (and yes, the 21st century reader will need to be patient with the language, but the novel is well worth it.)

Jane Austen's comforting classic is based on the dichotomous relationship between reason (Elinor) and emotion (Marianne). Austen's greatness lies in her backing out of the box of 19th-century literary moralism and seeing the areas of gray in human relationships and within the individual. Over and over again in this "early" work (Austen was only 41 when she died) we see characters acting in unexpected ways, even while social strictures are so much in evidence. The most outstanding characters are those who go against the social grain, and Austen unfailingly creates classic foils against whom these interesting individuals can stand out. Entertaining, existing in a stable social world, clever, and funny, this novel is like "comfort food." If you're in the mood for a diverting stroll into another century, let this book be your guide. I also highly recommend the Penguin Classic that has an introductory section by Tony Tanner (if you can find it). Tony Tanner's brilliant insights into Austen and this work deeply enriched it for me. But this section must be read after you read the book.

First, I'd strongly suggest that anyone considering this book should first read the others in the series. Knowing the other characters, and understanding their stories, is very helpful to appreciating this one.
Second, I loved the fantasy of this one, with the wounded woman finding just the right man, however unlikely the match may appear on the surface. Wiggs did an excellent job of making both lead characters three-dimensional [loved Noah's interest in STAR WARS!] and I liked the fact that other characters didn't always behave in ways the reader expects.
Third, the business of the U.N., the court at The Hague and the fictional country were all unnecessary to the plot, except insofar as they provided background on Sophie. Frankly, I skipped those parts and still enjoyed the book.
This is a good read, especially for a winter's day - or to cool off on a hot summer's day.

Well, I enjoyed the book. It is VERY light reading. You know what is going to happen from the very beginning of the book but you would be disappointed if the book did not have a happy, planned ending. Not as enjoyable as the first boook in this series. I think it is time to leave AVALON.

An easy enough read, but I didn't really care about Sophie or Noah. Worth reading just to catch up on the lives of the other people in this series.

Love it! Love it! LOVE IT!!!! This is the 4th book in a series. I can't wait for #5! Ms. Wiggs keeps her work fast-moving, entertaining, and humorous. Sophie Bellamy, the heroine, makes a life altering decision and learns to live with it. It's GREAT!

Fans of the popular Lakeshore Chronicles by Susan Wiggs will be delighted with this addition to the series - especially pleased when it is read by the always splendid Joyce Bean.

A high powered international lawyer, Sophie Bellamy, would seem to have it all. She's seen her share of misery as much of her career has been assisting those in countries ravaged by war. Thus, it comes has no surprise that when she's visiting one of these areas she finds herself in the middle of a terrorist attack. This experience affects her in a number of ways - causing her to reassess her life, her values, and goals.

Suddenly Sophie not only feels compelled but wants to return to Avalon, a small town in the Catskills. She wants to be reunited with her family, her two children, Max and Daisy, and hopefully make up for lost years, time not spent with them.

As a divorced recently career obsessed woman she doesn't seem to be a very good candidate for romance, but this is a Susan Wiggs story! Upon arriving in snowy Avalon she finds not only a heavy blizzard but a skid that takes her into a ditch. As luck and the author would have it Sophie is rescued by Noah, the handsome local veterinarian. Despite freezing temperatures sparks immediately fly and she falls in love.

But wait, there's more to come. As she often does this author tosses in a few surprises leaving listeners to wonder for a while whether or not love can really conquer all.

- Gail Cooke

A Gathering of Old Men / 0-679-73890-8

A Gathering of Old Men is an incredibly powerful and moving look into a community that has collectively had enough discrimination and pain to last lifetimes and decides, as a whole, that enough is enough.

When racial tensions are charged over the murder of a white landowner by a local black man, the sheriff is astonished and amazed at the number of black men who come forward to insist that they are guilty of the crime. While this flood of confessions seems, at first, to be an attempt to shield the "real" murderer (a respected and loved member of the community), it quickly becomes clear that there is more at stake here. The men relate, one by one, the horrors they have witnessed, the rapes, the beatings, the murders, the crimes that the local white men have committed against them freely and without fear. Each of them insists that they had simply "had enough" and that this - and nothing more compelling - was their motive for the murder. The sight of these weathered old men, camped stubbornly about the dead body, each insisting that he is the killer, each detailing the horrors they have silently watched, moves the reader to tears. At the end, the community is deeply shaken by the realization that the reality they have always taken for granted does not reflect the deep inner feelings of the members.

Old black men in a Louisiana town protect one of their
own from a racist sheriff. The writing is fast-paced
and moves through the story quickly but I just didn't
enjoy it as much as A Lesson Before Dying. I guess for
me the plot and the storyline were a little too easy
to figure out or maybe it's because the characters came
off a little too grumpy and not sympathetic enough.

Overall, a good effort.

Ernest Gaines's novel, A Gathering of Old Men, is an excellent and inspiring story. Gaines did a great job at bringing his audience right into the action by his skillful use of description. Ernest could have, however, changed the surroundings more often. A huge portion of the book stayed in the same setting. Often, Gaines used predictable routines of the characters. These minor flaws can make the reader bored from the lack of change. The characters were easily predictable at times, but sometimes Gaines would throw in a few surprises. Ernest did an excellent job of making up for his mistakes by making his readers anticipate what will happen next, but unexpectedly, he changes the story into a whole new direction. Despite the small imperfections, overall, the novel was interesting and unique.

The book, A Gathering of Old Men is a unique description of a story about a white man who gets shot by a colored man. If you are interested in the civil rights act and segregation this is truely the book for you. The author used a complex perspective of different characters on the same story to express the different views of the plot. This book can get boring at times yet is in the end very interesting with the ironic twist. Overall I would recomend reading this book.

A Gathering of Old Men is a beautiful portrait of a community that has quietly taken all that it can and will take no more. Men who have silently borne tragedy speak slowly, haltingly, solemnly that they will suffer no more. They will stand up for themselves, for their honor, for their people.

The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingRave reviews for this book! As a positive psychologist and a school psychologist for over 25 years, I know too well how girls can suffer and feel alone and misunderstood during early crushes. In fact, I consider this issue so important, that it is one of my major themes that the girl in my new book for girls, The Truth, I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything, has to deal with. She expresses her deepest feeling to her diary but her own mother and her best friend don't really understand. If only she had had this book! It might have helped. What I love about this book is that feelings are shared and explained as wholesome, and also examples of how to talk to your mom, etc. are given. This book is a great companion book to my book. I can see the author and myself giving a talk where we share the different ways we entered a serious problem, one book nonfiction, one fiction. But we are all trying to help girls feel comfortable with their feelings and feel good about who they are. Wait a minute. I have a radio show, Kids, Tweens and Teens, a Positive Psychologist Looks at all Three. I think I'll invite her to be my guest. Stay tuned!

This book is a must for the young lady getting ready to enter Junior High. Wisely answers many of those troublesome questions regarding boy-girl and girl-girl relationships that create angst for the young lady. Gives young girls a smoother transition to this world of expanded relationships.

I would not suggest this book for a Christian family. The premise is commendable, but the content contradicts how we are trying to raise our daughter. For example, the book offers tips for a first kiss to girls as young as ten, and insinuates that such behavior is normal and acceptable. I have worked with children in this age group, and I know it is possible to balance hormonal changes and desires without experimenting with romantic or physical relationships prematurely. This may work for some families, but Christian parents should use a more biblically sound text, as well as scripture and common sense, to address these issues with their children.

We all know that being a pre-teen girl is not easy. This book provides a matter of fact response and is at their age level so they can understand it. There isn't any lecturing but some common sense advice.
I wish this book were around when I was growing up.

My then 10 year old daughter wanted this book long before I felt she was old enough. I allowed my sister to purchase the book from the American Girl Chicago store since she was visiting the city and give it to my daughter for her 11th birthday. It has good information to keep my daughter happy without too much information. American Girl has a good way of addressing issues for girls without giving information that is best coming from parents. Another great AG publication. I think we have them all!

Read this when I was in High School, and wanted to pass it on to my neighbors daughter who loves to read...

I used this collection for a college class and it worked great. It was in great condition for a great price.

This set is a true classic that everyone should read once and again & again! Anyone who loves lierature & adventureshould have it in their library!

Saw the movies, loved them. Read the first book, hard to follow but good. Glad I saw the movies first.

There isn't much that I could say about Tolkien's masterpiece that hasn't already been said, and while the movie's pacing was much stronger, one can't deny the power that these books have had over readers for all these years. Tolkien's wit and intelligence comes through brilliantly and he paints a vivid picture of heroism and adventure that no one has yet topped. While the first 100 or so pages are a bit to drudge through and the plot just stews, once you get past those pages, the rest of the read is worth the time. I would say that this work could easily rank among the few books that I have read that could be considered good literature. Tolkien's expertise of languages and education really shine in this trilogy and he manages to delve into characters and situations that were alluded to in The Hobbit. The adventure of Frodo and Samwise is long and arduous and readers will be greatly rewarded for sticking through the book when they reach Mt. Doom. The writing is superb and some of the scenes seem to jump right out of the book and into your living room. For anyone looking for an epic adventure of high fantasy, this is the trilogy for you!

This book is LOVED by my 22 month old daughter. We read it several times a day. This is the 2nd Patricelli book I've purchased (We own Big Little...another favorite of hers) and the illustrations are precious and the content very relatable for a toddler.

Leslie Patricelli really knows how to read little kids' reactions to words and concepts. Her illustrations are simple but hilarious.

Everything about this book makes it a winner, and adults or older kids will LOVE sharing it with tots.

Definitely buy this one if there's a new baby in your circle!

I bought my 2yo daughter Yummy Yucky as well as Binky, and Blankie. This is our favorite. My 7yo son, my husband, and I all enjoy applying our yummy and yucky detection to other aspects of life. Although the part about Mommy's coffee being yucky is difficult for my daughter because she has acquired a taste for the "yucky" stuff. The others...sand, worms, smelly socks...we all seem to agree on. You will enjoy this book. It would make a great shower gift for new parents.

I love this author-- we have a few of her other books such as Big, Little and Quiet, Loud. My 16 month old daughter absolutely adores them. I was disappointed by the content of this particular book. Things such as chicken, fish sticks, hamburgers, cookies and chocolate sauce are illustrated as being "yummy". We happen to be vegetarian so I wish I had known about the animals listed as food items. But beyond that, listing chocolate sauce, cookies and ice cream for this age group is risky. I don't plan on introducing those things to her diet yet so I'm planning on returning the book to Amazon. I think the content should be a bit more baby/toddler friendly, and a bit more health conscious. How about listing apple sauce as yummy instead of chocolate sauce?

I really like the idea of this book, but with all the obesity in kids and in America today, ice cream and cupcakes should not be on the 'yummy' pages of this book. Not that they aren't yummy, but peas, spinach or fresh fruit should be listed as yummy. I was just disappointed that with so many weight issues, and I'm trying to raise my baby to love his veggies (which he does), it's a bummer books like this don't exemplify healthy nutritious eating.

If you every had any thoughts on what the South was like pre 1964, then this certainly is the book for you. Ms O'Connor packs us in and takes us for a long journey into the South. What do we see along the way? Greed, ignorance, hatred under the guise of religion, and even cold bloodied murder. None of the stories come off as preachy, nor are the characters people that we would be drawn to or run from. They are in fact versions of people that we have know in our lives and see every day.
What we see is a glimpse of their core what motivates them. The stories show us that we are a products of our enviornment and the risks of being consumed by it.

O'Connor is one of my three favorite Southern writers, along with Carson McCullers and William Faulkner. I just love all that gothy/dark humor, the grotesque characters with their own unique beauty twisted with the ugliness of pride, involved in complex and deformed situations, the bizarre and twisted obsession with Christianity into a warped sense of morality. O'Connor's stories mainly focus on female protagonists that lose a grip on their power over their world, fall from grace and pride, mostly due to shady male figures. She spins fascinating and tragic, yet beautiful tales with a poetic, real style with the third-person limited perspective. Besides Good Country People, my favorite story in this collection was A Temple of the Holy Ghost and A Late Encounter with the Enemy. Excellent short stories from an amazing author. Grade: A

This is probably one of the best collections of short stories out there. Nobody did short stories better. Written fifty years ago, sure, but reading and re-reading these stories over the years, I have to say that O'Connor was one of the best short story writers of the past century, hands down.

I don't care if it's southern gothic or grotesque or whatever O'Connor is labeled in Academia, or whatever her place in literary history may be, or if some readers disagree and find her stories boring or depressing (sigh); these stories are so effortlessly masterful, and when you read an O'Connor story, it's like hearing a unique singer's voice, Johnny Cash or Otis Redding: you know it's O'Connor the second you start the story. Each one begins at just the right moment, the dialogue and characters and situations are so REAL, despite the outward absurdity of them, she convinces you through her rendering, that these events happened.

Think of it her as the reality TV of the fiction world, as horrible as that may sound. Her characters don't "act" and aren't pawned into position, they are real, and they speak realistically, they behave realistically, and the stories are told in such a way that you feel you aren't reading a story at all, but imagining the same dream she had when she wrote them. She never betrays her characters, never condescends or makes fun of them, and her metaphors, BTW, are the best their were ("her face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage"); the way she dropped into a story, pieced out the characters, how she developed tension and situations that often yield tragic circumstances, her language...well, she does it so convincingly, and I am not one easily convinced.

O'Connor was the genuine article, and this book is the evidence of her indisputible greatness. It's been said that O'Connor claimed she wrote all these stories as parables, and I think when you read them you'll see (and what many people have trouble with) is that her stories do have a picaresque quality to them, and the characters at times do seem like stock southern characters. But its how well she knows these characters, how she protrays them that makes them so memorable. She rose to fame being one of the voices of the South - and perhaps some of the book is therefore dated and not as cutting edge as it was then. But it has endured, on the strength and appeal of the stories.

Is O'Connor for everyone? Heck no. But I guarantee you - guarantee you - if you read one of her stories, even if you don't like it, it'll haunt you for years, you'll remember all the little moments as if you'd dreamt them yourself. And you'll come back, whether by accident or purposefully, and you'll re-read the story, and it'll mess you up. She's THAT good.

Flannery O'Connor is one of great American writers of the 20th century, a Southern Gothic stylist of the first order. She won the National Book Award for the posthumous 1972 collection, 'The Complete Stories'.

O'Connor sets her stories in the rural South and populates them with flawed, grotesque, and twisted characters - this is not the imagined noble, glorious, and chivalric South, but rather the real South of the poor and middling whites of the 1950's(race is mostly in the background). She catches the nuances of human behavior. Her stories have powerful, unexpected and disturbing endings.

Pick up a story and read just one paragraph and you will be hooked.

"The old woman and her daughter were sitting on their porch when they saw Mr. Shiftlet come up their road for the first time. The old woman slid to the edge of her chair and leaned forward, shading her eyesfrom the piercing sunset with her hand. The daughter could not see far in front of her and continued to play with her fingers. Although the old woman lived in this desolate spot with only her daughter and she had never seen Mr. Shiftlet before, she could tell, even from a distance, that he was a tramp and no one to be afraid of..."

Absolutely the highest recommendation.

The ten short stories in this collection are definitely masterpieces. Neither too long or too short, the stories suggest whole worlds, entire lives (and deaths) with just the right number of verbal brushstrokes. Never preachy or self-righteous, they are yet infused with a deep, complex spirituality that seems to consist of an eccentric and compelling hybrid of Roman Catholicism's quiet mysticism and Southern Protestantism's revivalism and rigor. That said, this is not "chicken soup for the soul"...pretty much every story has a dark edge, and in most of them the author gets you with this impending sense of dread that things are going to go to heck in a hand basket, the only question is how (this makes the book awfully hard to put down, by the way). And she has an incredible talent of capturing the rhythms and characteristic expressions of Southern English without too much Mark Twain twang. In short, this is hands down a classic of American literature.