Book Description

This funny and charming memoir tells about a bigger-than-life New York family that owned fourteen restaurants, including Morgen’s in the garment district. Sharing life and good food for three generations, the family exhibited a voracious appetite for life. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

Wit, wisdom, familial weirdness, and a great, great read.
The earlier reviewers have one thing about right--this book is a lot more than a semi-food-based memoir about growing up Jewish in Manhattan in the middle of the last century. It's really about nearly everybody's family: the terrific characters, the loonies, the distinguished, the pathetic--you name it, they're in the book. Volk's style is an amazing balancing act, dancing between opposites. Sometimes when you're expecting a laugh you get a tear, or vice versa, or both at once: her farewell to her dying beloved father is so absurd and so moving that you'll never forget it. (Or his ashes, which of course get caught in an ocean gust and blow all over his children.) For my part I was often laughing at the parade of eccentricities when I remembered again how every family I know is like that: outsized in a way, outlandish in a way. Among Volk's other virtues, I don't know another writer who has so subtly and ruthlessly and hysterically exposed the small casual meannesses we tend to visit on the people we love. And still the book is full of love, running over with it.

A wonderful book
As a deli owner's daughter with a big quirky family of my own I was predisposed to love this book before I even turned the first page. Patricia Volk shows us that life is really in the details as she paints vivid, strikingly honest, funny and always loving portraits of her immediate and extended family. She also captures and preserves for us a time and culture in New York City that is fading into memory. Her stories about her family's elders makes you want you want to reach back into the past and pull forward all the grandmothers and grandfathers, and aunts and uncles and mothers and fathers who've left us already, so that they can walk through our lives and down the streets of NYC
one more time. Her chapter about her father's illness and death will resonate deeply with anyone who has accompanied someone they loved through the process of dying. My mother always said "As long as you can laugh and cry at the same time you know you're OK". This book strikes that balance beautifully.

What a Waste of My Money!
This is the first time I have ever regretted spending money on a book. Someone in my book club chose this book so I tried to read it for the upcoming review. I can't imagine why anyone would enjoy this book except the author because it would be of interest to no one else except her! This is also the first time I ever reviewed a book online; but I am hoping that I might let people know that not everyone thought this book was wonderful!

Need a sorbet to cleanse my palate
If you are into self-indulgent narcissism, this is the book for you. I'm only half way through, and I already feel nauseous from being force-fed one family's over the top ego. There isn't a chapter where I didn't say to myself "yuck". I'm only finishing the book to try to better understand the person who recommended this book as a wonderful read.

Reality Novel of a classic American Immigrant Family
Patricia Volk's memoir, 'Stuffed' is much less a culinary memory than it is a recollection of what, to some readers, may seem like a simultaneously wise and dysfunctional Jewish-American family which happened to be instrumental in the shaping of the Jewish delicatessen in America.

When I picked this book out to read, with it's title and photograph of the giant Morgan's restaurant dining room on the back cover, I was expecting something like Ruth Reichl's two memoirs. This book is different in many regards, although it has its own charm making it equally worthy as a light read.

The first difference is that there is very little in the book about food itself. The blurb by Eli Zabar, who may have known the family business better than he knew the inside of the book, reinforces the impression that the book is about food. The book is simply about people whose business happened to be food. The fact that the author is a writer of fiction rather than a culinary journalist should have been the clue that gives away the game. The chapter titles, named after major foodstuffs (including bacon, of all things for a Jewish family) maintains the ambiguity long into the middle of the book. I kept looking for the recipes (not really).

The second difference is that the book is much less about the author (and her parents) than it is about the entire Volk / Morgan / Sussman / Lieban vereinshaft (extended family in Yiddish).

Three themes permeate the book. The first is the success at various endeavors, primarily the building demolition business and the restaurant business of various male family members. The second theme is the great beauty of the women in the family. One look at the photo of the author is enough to get the sense of the quality of the Volk / Lieban genes. The third theme is lack of logic in some of the family members' life choices.

If you love reading about people who simply had a very full life with the intensity one may find in fiction but with the added cachet that this was all real, this is a book for you.

By the way, there are two recipes on pages 80 and 81 for chocolate cake and icing. ... Read more

Book Description

Acclaimed historian Stephen Ambrose begins his examination with a glance inward -- he starts this book with his brothers, his first and forever friends, and the shared experiences that join them for a lifetime, overcoming distance and misunderstandings.

He next tells of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had a golden gift for friendship and who shared a perfect trust with his younger brother, Milton, in spite of their apparently unequal stations. With great emotion, Ambrose describes the relationships of the young soldiers of Easy Company who fought and died together from Normandy to Germany, and he recalls with admiration three unlikely friends who fought in different armies in that war. He recounts the friendships of Lewis and Clark and of Crazy Horse and He Dog. Ambrose remembers and celebrates the friends he has made and kept throughout his life.

Comrades concludes with the author's recollection of his own friendship with his father. He was my first and always most important friend, Ambrose writes. I didn't learn that until the end, when he taught me the most important thing, that the love of father-son-father-son is a continuum, just as love and friendship are expansive. ... Read more

Reviews (27)

A GREAT, EASY, INSPIRING READ
I'm not a historian, but I am a son, and I have a father and many friends. This book, using his own life and his influential father as well as the lives of the Eisenhower boys, the Custer boys, Crazy Horse and He Dog, Eisenhower and Patton, and Nixon, poignantly and emotionally demonstrates the immense joy, satisfaction, and power that is to be had in the relationships that can only be shared between father and son and between two best friends. Reading Ambrose's heartfelt musings, I was often reminded of my own relationship with my father. I bought him one and he had the same reaction, thinking of both his father and me.

Having read the majority of Ambrose's works from which he pulled the short chapters for Comrades, I was perhaps even that much more moved by the essays. Using quick summaries and then providing insight gained from his years of research and life experience, Ambrose shows how the intimacy among friends and family drive can help drive us to much greater heights than would have been possible alone.

I strongly recommend this book.

Tender book about friendships
Head the taped version of COMRADES: BROTHERS,
FATHERS, HEROES, SONS, PALS, a tender book by
the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose that examines the bond
formed between men as a result of both family and
circumstances . . . he looks at the lasting friendships of
various men, from Sioux Indians to his own brothers, and
analyzes the special relationship between Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark . . . in addition, he pays special tribute
to brothers, including such famous pairs as Dwight and
Milton Eisenhower, and George and Tom Customer . . . Richard
Nixon rates a special chapter and in listening to it, you begin
to understand why he was impeached (in large part because
he had very few friends).

I was particularly moved by the author's last chapter,
describing his own friendship with his father--with whom he
only got close toward the end of the latter's life . . . "He was my first and always most important friend," Ambrose writes. "I didn't learn that until the end, when he taught me the most important thing,that the love of father-son-father-son is a continuum, just as love and friendship are expansive."

Short, touching account of unheralded male friendships
Author Stephen E. Ambrose has made quite a career out of his historical writings. Viewed to be one of the most, if the most, pre-eminent World War II historians, Ambrose has written many captivating accounts of the brave men who have taken up arms in defense of this country and freedom. He has also chronicled some of lesser-detailed, though quite famous, events in U.S. history, such as the building of the transcontinental railroad, the journey of Lewis and Clark, and the parallel lives of General Custer and Crazy Horse until their fateful meeting at Little Big Horn. What is common in Ambrose' writing, and what makes the stories so compelling and accessible to average reader, is that he understands the importance of the human emotions and common bonds produced by the strong friendships of the men whose lives are immortalized in history. His seminal work, "Band of Brothers" is THE classic example of this.

Ambrose has chronicled these male friendships in many of his books, but has felt the need to extract some of these stories and have them stand alone in a separate volume on the strength and importance of male friendships. The result is "Comrades", a sometimes slow, but mostly compelling anthology of the power of male friendships that took place in form of fathers, sons, brothers, and colleagues for famous historical figures. "Comrades" is a relatively short book, with each chapter dedicating just a brief synopsis of these friendships. However, they serve as a primer that makes the reader want to dive deeper in the stories behind these men. One can read the short about the relationship between General Dwight Eisenhower and his brother Milton, an academic man who was his closest confidante, advisor, champion, and friend and be compelled to flesh out the relationship further by reading the Eisenhower biography. The stories about the Custer Brothers and of Crazy Horse and He Dog merely whet the appetite for the stories that permeate "Crazy Horse and Custer". The same can be said for Meriweather Clark and William Clark and "Undaunted Courage".

It could be argued that a book like "Comrades" is nothing more than a marketing gimmick to get people to buy other Stephen Ambrose books. That is a shortsighted and cynical interpretation. "Comrades" is a wonderful primer that makes these stories accessible to the common reader and if it spurs them to seek out other books about these same subjects, then that is just a testament to the power of these stories and skill of Ambrose' writing.

Sometimes moving essay too expansive
The late historian Steven Ambrose wrote definitive accounts of the American West, Lewis and Clark, Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon, and the World War II generation. Each topic emerges in some form or another in Comrades, Professor Ambrose's essay indirectly devoted to his father and directly dedicated to friendships among men.

At times quite moving, and at others nauseatingly maudlin, Professor Ambrose ruminates about a largely ignored area that may be the most important aspect of history. Ambrose opens with a chapter dedicated to the friendships he had with his brothers. This bodes poorly for the rest of the book (think Dr. Phil and/or Oprah) although that initial reaction proves deceptive. Professor Ambrose ends with a powerful chapter devoted to his friendship with his father. Despite its eloquence, though, the final chapter seems disingenuous at times as the author lauds a man whom he has subtly and not so subtly accused of mental, verbal and physical abuse. This is hard to square with blind praise even if the poetry is beautiful.

The book also is weak because of its brevity. The short format does not lend itself to adequate examinations of Ambrose's personal friendships as well as the relationships historical figures such as Crazy Horse and He Dog enjoyed. This brief book required the author to focus exclusively on either the personal or the historical, and he attempted both.

Nonetheless, passages of shining prose and heartfelt joy about friendships with other men ultimately save Comrades. Male relationships need further and much deeper exploration, and Ambrose's courageous attempt to tackle the subject, however cursory, is commendable.

True Teaching of the History of Friendship
Stephen Ambrose extracts Famous and Not-So-Famous friendships from the archives of time, and uses History to teach a valuable lesson. Ambrose demonstrates that great people in History have overcome great obstacles, bolstered sometimes only by the loyalty of close friends. His chapter on Veterans was particularly inspiring, especially in his description of how two former Allied Soldiers -- one of whom was Richard Winters of Easy Company -- verbally defended a lecturing former German World War II officer from the ignorant accusations of a self-righteous student years after the war. Also inspiring was the chapter on the friendship of Lewis and Clark, as well as that of the lasting effects of the bonding of the men of Easy Company. This is a wonderful work. ... Read more

Book Description

George Allen was a top-ranked NFL coach throughout the sixties and seventies, coaching in turn the Chicago Bears, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Washington Redskins. Raised in a home dominated by her three football-obsessed older brothers and her father's relentless schedule, Jennifer Allen came of age in a cauldron of testosterone and win-at-all-costs mentality.

Buffeted by the coach's tumultuous firings and hirings, the Allen family was periodically propelled to new teams in new cities. And while her French-Tunisian mother attempted to teach Jennifer proper feminine etiquette, the author dreamed of being the first female quarterback in the NFL. But as she grew up, she yearned mostly to be someone her father would notice. In a macho world where only foot-ball mattered, what could she strive for? Who could she become?

Allen has written a poignant memoir of the father she tried so hard to know, about a family life that was willfully sacrificed to his endless fanatical pursuit of the Super Bowl. What emerges is a fascinating and singular behind-the-scenes look at professional football, and a memorable, bittersweet portrait of a father and his daughter, written in a fresh and perceptive voice. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

The Personal Football Book
As an avid football fan, George Allen is one of the greatest NFL Coaches of all time. Throughout the book, Jennifer Allen describes they storybook life of an NFL coach from a footbal and personal perspective. George's rough-and-tough attitude made two winningless teams, the Los Angeles Rams and Washington Redskins, into champions. However, his personality as a coach effected his role as a father, which created tension between him and his children. As the his only daughter, Jennifer tries to win her father's affection as she struggles of being a product of an NFL coach and well-known celebrity.

Not what I was expecting.
As a lifelong football fan I was hoping that "Fifth Quarter" would include more about football than Allen puts into her memoir. However, the book is well-written and engaging. If you're looking for a book about George Allen, this isn't really the book to read. However, if you're looking for an interesting book detailing the childhood of a coach's daughter, "Fifth Quarter" might be the book for you.

What a depressing Whine-fest
This entire story could have been written on the cover of a matchbook and saved me the time I wasted reading it. Endless complaining about her parents and siblings, If the peoples identities had been with held until the end, one might have expected to find out this was the childhood of a serial killer or some one else you might have expected to have a miserable childhood. Why would anyone even bother to write a book about people she seemed to care for as little as her family is beyond me except to possibly capitalize on her Dad's famous name and make a few bucks. A depressing read.

This is a chick book, not a sports book
I was misled by a review in SI that said this was a great book. If you're an Oprah fan, then it's a great book. If you want to learn about the life of an NFL coach, the Washington Redskins or football in general, you're better off buying a subsciption to Sports Illustrated or reading the sports page.

About 80 percent of this book is about the struggle of the writer to get her father's attention and approval. Another 10 percent has to do with her mother, her brothers and the writer's life away from her house. Maybe 10 percent has to do with football. It is a maddening experience to put up with the "I was a girl, girls weren't important to my dad, someone please pay attention to me" anecdotes and thoughts in the hope of getting to, say, the Washington Redskins' 1972 season where the team finally made it to the Super Bowl, and then when you get there have Jennifer Allen say in almost these exact words, "I don't remember much about that the season the Redskins went to the Super Bowl." I almost hurled the book across the room.

It is unfortunate that George Allen essentially ignored his family in his obsessive quest to do what he believed he was born to do: coach. No kid should have to grow up with that kind of home life, and it's obvious that her father's inattention has left its mark on Ms. Allen. But darn it, this is an Oprah book of the month selection, not a sports book. Someone should be clear on that!

A few words about George Allen ... I am about Jennifer Allen's age. I am a lifelong Redskins fan and grew up in D.C. When Mr. Allen took the team to the Super Bowl, it was a highlight of my young life. I remember him licking his fingers, tugging his hat and mentioning milk as his drink of choice. I had no idea that he ignored his family. I'm sorry he did that, but I am also grateful that the man came to my hometown and coached my favorite team and finally made it a winner. I wish the book had a little more about what made George Allen such a successful coach and a lot less about the struggle of a little girl to get close to her daddy.

Your dad would be proud
Yes, I'm an old Redskin fan and was mildly curious about the George Allen era. I was not prepared for this powerful story of George Allen the father and his arms length relationship with his daughter, Jennifer. Yes, the mother Etty and the sons, George, Bruce, and Gregory, are in here too, but Jennifer you finally have the starring role in the George Allen Story. This is a sometimes gripping and often humorous story of a daughter's search for self. My only criticism is of the title which suggests a sports book. It is not worthy of this well-told story about a daughter's search for meaning in her life and, coincidentally, her dad's struggle to make sense of his own life too. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Love, Laughs and Tears
Carman Agra Deedy is outstanding. My granddaughters can't get enough of this tape. We all love to listen as we travel in the car. I've about worn it out.I've been a fan of hers since she first published agatha's Featherbed and used that book all over the country doing teacher workshops.
As the principal of an elementary school in SC, I'd loved to find out how to get a hold of Mrs. Agra Deedy to cotract for her to come to my school.

Growing Up Cuban in Decatur GA
This book on tape was the best one that I have ever listened to! The content, stories of the author's childhood, were emotionally captivating. There are areas that every single person can relate to - funny, sad, inspiring and enlightening. Ms Deedy's tales brought me back to my childhood (growing up in a large Italian family in a small town).

This is a great car tape, because the stories are all individual and relatively brief, making it easy to 'pop' the tape in for great entertainment! ... Read more

Book Description

This is a densely detailed, compelling account of the infamous Kennedy dynasty - with a new understanding of how the Irish Catholic immigrant experience shaped every aspect of their lives. Meticulously researched both in the U.S. and abroad, the book examines the Kennedys as exemplars of the Irish Catholic experience. Author Thomas Maier begins with Patrick Kennedy's arrival in Boston in 1848, then delves into the deeper currents of the Kennedy story and the ways in which their immigrant background shaped their values - and, in turn, 20th-century America - for over five generations. As the first and only Roman Catholic ever elected to a high national office in America, John F. Kennedy ran for president in keeping with the family's tradition of navigating the cultural divide that began in Boston's Irish ward and ended in a tragedy from which the country continues to suffer. Reader Alan Sklar brings his seasoned skills to this moving story of America's first dynasty. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings
Just when you thought there was no way to write about theennedys from a new angle, Maier comes up with one. His take is to view the family through the green prism of Ireland and, by extension, to examine their relationship to the Roman Catholic Church. This makes for surprisingly fresh reading. Although many of the stories related here are familiar--Joeennedy's attempts to break into Brahmin society, the impact on the family of daughterathleen's penchant for Protestant men--Maier deepens the account by also bringing up less discussed incidents, such as Congressmanohnennedy's trip to Ireland (andackie's, four years after the assassination) and how both the Catholic faith andFK's Irish heritage played integral parts at the president's funeral. Nor does the story end with the Camelot days.eanennedy Smith, the eighth child in the family, served as ambassador to Ireland, and Bobbyennedy's daughter, Courtney, married Paul Hill, wrongly imprisoned by the police for terrorism. This extremely readable biography not only examines one particular immigrant family but also sheds light on the larger story of Irish Americans from the early twentieth century onward.

Another Side of This Family
Professor Maier has documented a side of the Kennedys that many readers are quite unfamiliar with: their ongoing commitment to their religious heritage. As Maier writes, Americans are more comfortable with Kennedy's as power operators and libertines. The essential Catholic nature of these men and women, however, either bores us or makes us uncomfortable. Some liberals don't appreciate the Kennedys as Catholics because they dislike Catholicism itself. Many conservatives deny that the Kennedy's are Catholic because, for such critics, morality means sexual prudery. Maier is able to strike the proper balance in portraying Joseph, Sr., John F. Kennedy and Edward as committed, believing albeit flawed Catholics. Robert is correctly drawn as the most conventionally devout of the Kennedy males. This should not be a revelation to readers, but in a sense, it is. And the author makes one more very important and routinely ignored point: It is very significant that Americans have been unwilling to nominate (let alone elect) a Roman Catholic to the Presidency since John F. Kennedy, over 40 years ago. This work ranks as one of the best, most carefully-documented and readable of the hundreds of books published about this family.

Entertaining, Informative and Not a Rehash
While this is an excellent history of the Kennedy family, tracing its roots like few histories have done, this book is far more. The author neither shows a bias to adore this large, well-known clan nor does he show a disdain for them. He simply tells the story as it is and leaves the reader to his own conclusions.

The main thrust of the book is the family's dealings with the Catholic church. We learn what many have suspected, that the Kennedy family paid off the churches leaders, providing them with much personal and institutional wealth, for the benefit of various Kennedy family members --- for special treatment and services.

The book covers just about all family members who were helped by the Catholic hierarchy but, of course, it spends more time on JFK who benefited from payments made by his father on his behalf. But it goes on to the more recent affairs including marriage annulments of lesser family members.

While this clan is of much less importance than it once was --- indeed it is of little importance --- this history and the new revelations add a good deal of knowledge for the student of politics and religion and leaves us with a distaste and distrust of both.

Susanna K. Hutcheson
Owner & Executive Copy Director
Powerwriting.com LLC

very interesting!
this new kennedy's book is very great.
there are a lot of picture and the texts are very complete.
you can learn a lot about the kennedys.
it's never boring.
So read it! ... Read more

Book Description

From A Child Called "It" to The Lost Boy, from A Man Named Dave toHelp Yourself, Dave Pelzer’s inspirational books have helped countless others triumphover hardship and misfortune.In The Privilege of Youth, he shares the missing chapter ofhis life: as a boy on the threshold of adulthood.With sensitivity and insight, he recounts therelentless taunting he endured from bullies; but he also describes the thrill of making his first realfriends—some of whom he still shares close relationships with today.He writes about the simplepleasures of exploring his neighborhood, while trying to forget the hell waiting for him at home.

From high school to a world beyond the four walls that were his prison for so many years, ThePrivilege of Youth bravely and compassionately charts this crucial turning point in DavePelzer’s life and will inspire a whole new generation of readers. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Highly Entertaining!
This book should silence those who claim that Pelzer is only successful because of the shock value to be had in reading about his sadistic mother.
This book proves that he really can write.
The reviewer Lori Wasson states that she expected to read more details about the foster system. Well Pelzer has already written that great book and it is called
"The Lost Boy"
This book is very funny though tragic in the beginning. Pelzer for the first time stays away from repeating scenes of horror from his early life and tells some tales of happiness and mischief in his teenage years.
This is not dull but highly entertaining and it is also wonderful for loyal former readers of his books to read about David having some fun.
It is inspiring and thought provoking to see how much joy he takes in simple things, especially when we know the reason why and it makes a person want to follow his example and be more grateful for the simple pleasures most of us experience daily.
But maybe that sounds boring? This book isn't boring, it's funny and a great read. I would especially recommend it to mothers of sons, who want to know what it is like to be a preteen/teen boy. It gives an insight into what they are thinking about and what excites them. I have a four year old boy who is already obsessed by things with wheels so this book warned me about what I may be in for in the future.

Not the best book
This book is about Dave's late high school years, while he was in the foster care system. This book talks about some friends that have helped him through some tough times.

I thought this book would talk more about his experiences and feelings about the foster care system, which we were initially led to believe. But the book turned out to be more of a "guy" book, talking about his adventures and mishaps with his friends. This might be interesting to teenage boys, but for a broader audience, this book didn't seem as interesting. The experiences in foster care didn't really seem to come through as much.

The book seemed to ramble on and on about certain points and seemed to go off in a tangent at times. As a result, the book became a little boring. I also didn't care for some of the foul language in the book, which to me, often detracts from the point that the book is trying to get across.

Compelling
This is by far simply one of the most compelling books I have read to date. As are all of the David pelzer series of stories he has written that deals with abuse. I also want to mention a couple of other must read books along with Mr. Pelzers books. BEAUTY FOR ASHES and NIGHTMARES ECHO. Not only will you gain and understand of what the child/teen goes through, but it will make you more aware of what is going on around us. ... Read more

Book Description

When Cokie and Steve Roberts got married, some "friends" said it wouldn't last because she's Catholic and he's Jewish. In this book, Cokie and Steve discuss issues of their own marriage frankly, examining the idea of marriage through the lens of their own relationship.From the early days of courtship, the minefield of an inter-faith wedding, newlywed adjustments, and the demands of careers and family, Cokie and Steve give listeners a rare glimpse into the private lives of two very public people. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

It takes a narcissist
It takes a narcissist of tremendous proportions to foist this scrapbook off on an unsuspecting public.On the plus side, Cokie Roberts does more than her usual cut and paste from the work of others in From This Day Forward.When not pulling from the work of others, Cokie (and the compliant Steve) offer up tidbits that are supposed to inform the reader how s/he too can have a great marriage.
Apparently the basic rule for a successful marriage is to live in your own little world the way kooky Cokie does.I doubt she realizes how racist she comes off in parts of the book.(Yes, Cokie, condescension is a form of racism.)Or how laughable most will find her book.Reading of the great "trauma" of her life, you realize this is someone who hasn't experienced many character building moments in her life.The great "trauma"?Learning that her new employer wouldn't provide a limo and that Cokie would have to take taxis around NYC.Oh, the horror!Oh, the shame!How did Cokie ever survive?
(Had she been told to take the subway, one gets the impression Roberts would have called it quits right then.)
A vapid celebration of what appears to be a vapid marriage isn't necessarily shocking -- what's shocking is that Cokie (and husband Steve) put their names to it.Had a child offered this slight volume as a souvenir to a wedding anniversary, we all would have "oooh"ed and "aaaawe"d over it.But for grownups to write such a book about themselves is the height of narcissism.
The book works best as anthropological study of When Gigantic Egos Mate.

A Wonderful Read
I always loved Cokie Roberts on TV and when I saw this book, I figured it would be fun to read about her marriage to Steve Roberts.I recommend this book highly to everyone thinking of marriage especially.

From the beginning I was drawn into this couple's world and liked the way they each expressed themselves in separate chapters.I found the entire book exciting, informative, inspiring, and so thankful that they took time to write about their unique marriage and how they make it work.

This is a refreshing book. A rare book about how a marriage can work.I've been married for fifty years and I know this couple will celebrate gold as well.Lots of love and best wishes to Cokie and Steve and thanks for sharing your busy happy loving life with us.

You'll be glad you read this book too.

Fun, light, cheery...
I picked up this book for $5 at Borders, mainly because I enjoy listening to Cokie Roberts on NPR.I was curious to get to know her a little better.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book.She and Steve take turns writing, as if they're dialoguing back and forth.I appreciated their commitment to their marriage in a day when it's not all that popular to stay married to the same person.

I also enjoyed the glimpses into slave marriages and Old West marriages.I'm glad I picked up this book.It was a pleasant read for sure.

A boring book
A boring book filled with narratives, possibly copied from an encyclopedia, about historical figures.Apparently, stories from their own lives could only fill a few chapters of this book.

Good Autobiography,Dull History
Read this book if you are interested in what it is like to,for instance,be a foreign correspondent for the New York Times in Greece.The biographical sections are interesting,but unfortunately didn't make a full book---so they decided to add some filler.The section about John and Abigail Adams in mildly interesting but the remainder of the filler material is dull,dull, snoringly dull.

Now,about the Roberts.They spend a lot of time talking about her being a Catholic and he being a non-practicing Jew.The impression that I got was that she would have been in bigger trouble with her parents bringing home a Republican than a Jew. Since he is somewhat casual about his religion,she picks up the slack by adopting some Jewish rituals like a passover seder,a Hannakuh celebration and the like.When you consider that Jesus celebrated both those holidays himself,its not such a long stretch for Cokie.

What irked me,and really bothered me to the core,was their chutzpah.They have been in the rarified air of Washington and the national media for so long,they don't even realize how distant they are from the rest of us.It is never said,but the implication is clear---we don't count.

The world is controlled by the Roberts who are friends with the Brokaws,who are buddies with the Wertheimers,who are close to the Totenbergs,who hang out with the Hedrick Smiths etc., etc. etc. until it makes one feel rather insignificant.This close knit cult has shared pizza and McGovern,cocktails and Cuomos,pork rinds and Clintons,and thinks of the remainder of us as residents of "flyover country"----the places you fly over on your way from Washington to the Coast.

I actually liked Cokie a lot more before I read this book than I did afterwards.Her "Q" rating took a big drop in my mind.As for Steve,I now know who he is (you've seen him if you watch Washington Week in Review).

My overall impression:they fit a mold---they are "the media elite."Skip it. ... Read more

Book Description

Fifty people never came home to Middletown, New Jersey after September 11th. Wall Street fathers, young Port Authority police, single working moms, the beloved coach of the championship girls traveling basketball team. Three toddlers in one church pre-school lost their daddies. Dozens of widows, young and beautiful girls in their 20s and 30s, some still nursing newborns, watched their dreams literally go up in smoke in that amphitheater of death across the river.

Gail Sheehy traveled to Middletown shortly after the disaster and began in-depth interviews with many of the bereaved.

Middletown, America was written as the year progressed, following parallel and intertwining stories of selected individuals and their families. A mother who was doubly bereft when she lost her only son as he tried to fill the shoes of her absentee husband; the sole survivor in an office of 67 people who escaped the 88th floor of Tower 2 seconds before the floor was decimated.

Here are the fire-fighters, rescue workers and front-line public health volunteers, now training to be soldiers in this new war.

Of equal importance, however, is the way these very real individuals dealt with this disaster and the trauma that followed. Middletown, America is also a story of recovery and of the ways people finally learn to deal with seemingly insurmountable grief and an incomprehensible physical and financial disaster.

... Read more

Reviews (15)

Dismayed by the nit-pickers
I finished reading this book around the same time the 9/11 Commission Report came out and am in awe of these women who, while still grieving and once considered "just housewives" to make the sure our country had ALL the facts and not just what the government or press wanted us to hear. That report is a result their preserverance and determination.

Tasteless, Misleading, A Waste of Time
With family and friends in NYC, as frequent visitors to the WTC, and most of all just as Americans, we too were devastated by 9/11. We had spent 3 hours with British friends there in August,on a beautiful clear day, perfect for countless photos. We recall they commented on how safe they felt because of the security procedures!!! Later, paying our respects at Ground Zero was necessary but painful beyond words. I thought Gail Sheehy's book would bring solace and comfort. But I soon found myself struggling to finish thinking it might get better. Don't bother. It doesn't. I was disgusted at her prying into (and psycho-analyzing!) private grief, early-on clearly from an elite-left perspective. It was disconnected, biased and just plain horrid.How unconscionable to publish this before the 9/11 report was done.The book deserves a minus star rating. I will never attempt to read Gail Sheehy again.

Creepy
A blatant partisan account by a creepy psychobabbler who injected herself into the lives of mourning 9/11 families for her personal gain. A societal parasite who should stop meddling in other people's lives.

Were there any "unmourned" spouses...?
I read Ms Sheehy's book and basically enjoyed her reporting.
Of course, I don't live in Northern New Jersey and so I didn't know about incorrect names of places and people that a reviewer from Rumson pointed out in another review of the book in this section.But, like her, the moment I find inconsistancies of fact in a non-fiction work, I begin to wonder about other facts, too...

However, what I was left with after reading Ms Sheehy's book was the reminder of arather tasteless joke by Joan Rivers about the men and women killed in the attacks of September 11th who were NOT mourned by their spouses as much as the those seemed to be in Ms Sheehy's reporting. Did Ms Sheehy not meet ANY one with a bad marriage who was secretly relieved when their spouse was killed?Did she meet them and not include any in her story?

I realize this is a niggling question, and probably in as bad taste as was Rivers' joke, but I'd like to have read about any ambivilance on the surviving spouses. Where ALL the marriages in this suburb as perfect as she portrays?

Just a small question. Other than that, the book was good reading.

Altogether terrible.
What a waste of time! This book is poorly written, redundant in the extreme, badly (if at all) edited, and replete with Sheehy's liberal bias. For example, all the Moslema/Arabs in Middletown are portrayed as victims of American bias--even when one of them repeats the canard about "2900 Jews staying home from work at WTC on 9/11." ... Read more

Book Description

In her bestselling Motherless Daughters, Hope Edelman articulated with stunning courage and honesty the effects of the early loss of a mother.In doing so, she helped hundreds of thousands of women heal.Now, in her new book-part memoir, part reportage-she brilliantly explores the three-generational triangle from which women develop their female identifies: the grandmother-mother-granddaughter relationship.

Drawing from her own experience and the recollections of more than seventy other granddaughters, Edelman constructs an eloquent, insightful narrative filled with stories of women who were each other's nurturers, confidants, nemeses, and day-to-day supporters, among other roles.At the center of all these stories stands the maternal grandmother. In Mother of My Mother, listeners will meet the "Gentle Giant," the matriarch who exercises behind-the-scenes power in her family; the "Autocrat," who rules her extended clan like a despot; and the "Kinkeeper," the grandmother who acts as the family's social, cultural, or religious center.Then, of course, there is Edelman's own maternal grandmother, the "Benevolent Manipulator," whose love for her family is rivaled only by her desire for control. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Little Too Much Of A Good Thing, A Book Review of Mother o
A Little Too Much Of A Good Thing, A Book Review of Mother of My Mother, the Intricate Bond Between Generations by Hope Edelman, Publisher, The Dial Press, Random House, Inc. 1999, pages 268.

The personal narrative launches the book, as Ms. Edelman recounts her relationships with her grandmother and her mother. Though the topic sounded intriguing, I opened this pop psychology book as a skeptic. I was immediately impressed with the author's ability to write. Her tight, well- honed and descriptive use of language lent ease and interest to me, as a reader.

Throughout the book, Ms. Edelman uses her "story" as an anchor. This device breaks up the monotony of the soft clinical research and conversely the facts reduce any tedium from the repetitive return to the author's recounting of her experience and that of her "examples". In doing it acts as a catalyst to trigger the memory of one's childhood, one's grandmother(s) and mother(s).

Once meandering with the author refreshed my memory, I was given insight, tools for self-awareness and self-help by the author. These were offered in an effort to assist the reader in sense of one's past, present and future; great clarity gained through understanding of core familial relationships.

She pinpointed four specific types of grandmother/matriarchs: Benevolent Manipulator "whose love for her family is matched only by her desire for control"; Gentle Giant "who possesses a quiet, behind-the-scenes power, the kind of elder whose very presence elicits awe and respect"; Autocrat, "who rules her extended family like a despot.... which members acting out of fear of her anger or loss of her affection": Kinkeeper "the hub of the family wheel, acting as its social, cultural, or religious center and offering a sense of cohesion to the extended clan". All of these examples included specific family histories to illustrate this character type and her impact upon her granddaughter.

The concept of "health" is outlined as "a system characterized mainly by co-operation, honesty, respect, and appropriate boundaries. Whether or not a triangle includes these elements depends in large part on the type of relationship the grandmother and mother share. When their relationship is balanced-meaning it's neither overly enmeshed nor emotionally disengaged and remains relatively free of competition, conflict, and resentment-the triangle is stable enough to absorb adversity in other bonds."

Unfortunately, in spite of the interesting topic, and Ms. Edelman's skill as a writer and raconteur, the numerous exemplary stories and remembrances after remembrance finally became too much; the excess bogged Mother of My Mother, the Intricate Bond Between Generations down. By the end, everything melded together. Though the book had many interesting points, and I was glad to have gained acquaintance with this author, I was also happy to part company with Hope Edelman and legions of exemplary characters.

A must read for every daughter
I could not put this book down! I am the eldest daughter of an only daughter and a maternal granddaughter to a grandma who helped my mother raise me from the day I was born until I was 11 1/2. This book offered me a great deal of insight into our triangle. Now that my mother is a grandmother herself, I have recommended it to her so she can take an objective look at her part in our triangle and those with her grandchildren. This book is very informative and the writing is super-engaging. I think any daughter will benefit from reading this book, especially if she's planning to have children.

As a mother of 4 sons (& 1 daughter), I disagree. . .
Hope is a good writer--she's observant; reflective. I loved her book "Motherless Daughters" and she effectively uses her own experience to make her point. However. . . She lost me on this book because in one sentence (one sentence, mind you! ) she dismisses the relationship between a paternal grandmother and her granddaughter as never being as close as the maternal grandmother. That may be true in some cases--indeed, in many, and surely in her own. However, Hope's research is limited and biased. How can she effectively dismiss half of the population? Look at examples down through history of grandmothers & granddaughters (via their sons). . Their influence was great and I maintain ALL family relationships take investment and time. You get out of it what you put into it. The "mother of my mother" book a catchy idea, but the bias really bothers me. And what about adopted daughters? I have an adopted daughter, 4 sons, 1 grandson, & 1 granddaughter whom I love with all my heart (she's crazy about me, too). Each of my children and grandchildren are unique and each relationship is unique. This book depressed me for days until I was able to babysit my Kendsy (4 mos. old) for 5 days straight and re-fill my emotional cup. I gave this book 3 stars for the writing but the concept is weak! Sorry.

just ordered
I ordered this book because I just became a grandmother of a baby girl last week and saw the author in the Today show--I was dismayed at her use of negative words and negative appproach to the different "types" of grandmothers and wanted to find out just what she was talking about. Words like "manipulative" and "meddling" are so distructive. I consider my new role as one of support and teaching and love of my daughter and her family and being there for her after her c-section as a privilege--I am saddened that this could be called meddling and rather insulted by these terms. So I want to read the book to find out if the impression given by the interview was correct.

A "must read" if you have a grandmother!
As I've gotten older, I've come to realize the important role my grandmother had in who I am today. I was lucky enough to be able to tell my grandmother, the "Kinkeeper" how important she was to me before she died. Hope's book can teach all of us that has a grandmother not to overlook this special bond. You'll want to call your grandmother after reading Hope's book. If I could recommend another great grandmother book, it would be "Something to Remember Me By" by Susan V. Bosak. I sent it to my grandmother as a way to tell her how important she was to me, and it meant so much to her! Horray for grandmothers! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Amy Tan begins The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, a collection of essays that spans her literary career, on a humorous note; she is troubled that her life and novels have become the subject of a "Cliff’s Notes" abridgement. Reading the little yellow booklet, she discovers that her work is seen as complex and rich with symbolism. However, Tan assures her readers that she has no lofty, literary intentions in writing her novels--she writes for herself, and insists that the recurring patterns and themes that critics find in them are entirely their own making. This self-deprecating stance, coupled with Tan’s own clarification of her intentions, makes The Opposite of Fate feel like an extended, private conversation with the author.

Tan manages to find grace and frequent comedy in her sometimes painful life, and she takes great pleasure in being a celebrity. "Midlife Confidential" brings readers on tour with Tan and the rest of the leather-clad writers’ rock band, the Rock-Bottom Remainders. And "Angst and the Second Book" is a brutally honest, frequently hysterical reflection on Tan’s self-conscious attempts to follow the success of The Joy Luck Club.

In a collection so diverse and spanning such a long period of time, inevitably some of the pieces feel dated or repetitious. Yet, Tan comes off as a remarkably humble and sane woman, and the book works well both to fill in her biography and to clarify the boundaries between her life and her fiction. In her final, title essay, Tan juxtaposes her personal struggles against a persistent disease with the nation’s struggles against terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. She declares her transformative, artistic power over tragedy, reflecting: "As a storyteller, I know that if I don’t like the ending, I can write a better one."--Patrick O’Kelley ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Witty, Engaging and Well-Written Gems
Amy Tan is without question a gifted writer.In this book of essays/musings as diverse as the erroneous interpretation of "The Joy Luck Club" by Cliff Notes or Tan's debilitating and horrifying bout with Lyme disease, the author writes with zest, humor and insight, and she engages the reader from the first page.In some ways, writing essays about one's craft is more difficult than writing a novel because essays are generally less creative and inspiring than fiction, and the reader usually suffers as a result.But Tan's "The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings" is like O'Connor's "Mystery and Manners" and "The Habit of Being" in that both authors are able to inform their essays with clever and profound insights that are contained in their works of fiction.Above all, this book is about the relationship of mother and daughter that is at the core of Tan's works.A must read.

The good stuff is good, and the rest is...
As a few others have indicated, there are some really moving pieces here about family and memory, as well as some good looks at the life of a writer in many arenas (at the keyboard, on tour, etc.). Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to have been enough of that stuff to fill a book, and so we get a lot of filler, including e-mails that are not that riveting and the essay she wrote about the library when she was 8 (no, I'm not kidding). There is a LOT of repetition; many of these pieces were written and published previously, and that's fine, but when you sit down to edit them into a collection that hangs together, you really need to go through and make sure that things like her father's and brother's deaths, moving to Switzerland, first boyfriend, etc. are not repeated 15 times.

I still love this book for the good parts, but would have been just as happy checking it out from the library.

Really nice
I enjoyed reading Amy Tan's essays, the same enjoyable style of writing, although I think her essays are a little more complex than her fiction and this is not a criticism.Observations, some personal history, although this is her thoughts and experiences, it is not "all about her."She isn't full of herself at all.Her experience with Lyme Disease is horrific.And informative!Amy Tan seems to be a very nice person and I am glad she wrote this book.It is one that I will keep on my book shelf and re-read.

Many enjoyable essays
I've read and enjoyed all Amy Tan's fiction and was very excited when Opposite of Fate showed up at my local bookstore.I love reading autobiographical pieces from my favorite writers.It's so intriguing to find out where their magic comes from and how they go about tackling the writing process.Amy Tan truly invites us into her life with the essays in this book, with subjects ranging from her thoughts on writing, her upbringing, her favorite author, battling Lyme Disease, hanging out with Steven King and Dave Barry, and (my favorite) turning the Joy Luck Club into a movie.She also gives us background information on some of her novels, which any fan of hers will find interesting.

This book appeals to the side of me that enjoys the candid celebrity photos in People Magazine--the side of me that likes to see personal, private glimpes of how the most wealthy, famous, and successful people live.But this book is guilt-free.No paparazzi stalked Amy Tan to give us this intimate portrait--she voluntarily offers it to us.I recommend.

Setting the Record Straight on Amy Tan
I would highly recommend this book to anyone, and not just  writers, women, North Americans with Asian heritage or people with any such specific demographics. A charming and well-written book that is true to the memoir genre where you get to know the author rather than the events of his/her life. There are enough interesting stories from Ms Tan's past, especially the cultural and cross-cultural ones - the former involving her Chinese ancestry and the latter involving her American and Chinese heritage. The reader knows plenty about the events of her life, but only the ones which matter to her, which, ultimately, are the ones that really matter in getting to know someone. However, Ms Tan's goal and focus was to set the record straight on Amy Tan, what she's like and where she stands on many issues, and that she did. There are many enlightening essays with Ms Tan's views and questions on a variety of interesting topics, with notes on how they've impacted her life. The writing style, vocabulary and organization of stories are very typical and symbolic of Ms Tan's ways. I feel like I partly know her now, as in having a feel of the gist of what she is like, how she thinks and sees the world, and that I would find her very amiable if I met her. I only wish every memoir could tell me as much about the writer. PS If you are writing essays on Ms Tan's books and/or her, take her advice and avoid using Cliff's Notes. Cliff never met her. Net sources are even worse! ... Read more

Book Description

Both an extraordinary narrative and an honest exploration of the heart of the real American South, Power in the Blood&nbsp is the account of one man's rediscovery of his Southern roots and heritage, forgotten during decades of self-exile from his homeland.

The death of John Bentley Mays' Aunt Vandalia summons him back to the South, and Mays experiences an awakening of feelings and attitudes linked to his early life and family heritage, as he begins an internal exploration of the past.The secrets he uncovers in Vandalia's home motivate him to set out for answers, through the Virginia tidewater forests his ancestors cleared, the Colonial plantations of his distant ante-bellum relatives and the towns in which they dwelt throughout almost 400 years of American history.Along the routes of his quest, there are remnants of Faulkner, echoes of civil war and the spirits of colonial-era roads (now laden with stripmalls).

Power in the Blood&nbsp is about memory, and about the land that defines the blood and soul of a family over time.Above all, it is the poignant tale of an encounter with the American past as it emerges during a search for the truth of one family. ... Read more

Book Description

In an American story of enduring importance, Jimmy Carter re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm, before the civil rights movement that changed the country.

The bestselling author of Living Faith and Sources of Strength writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a a sharecropping economy. He renders an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and strict segregationist who treated black workers with his own brand of "separate" respect and fairness, and his strong-willed and well-read mother, a nurse who cared for all in need -- regardless of their position in the community.

Caner describes the other people who shaped his early life, only two of them white, the boyhood friends who could not attend the same school, and the eminent black bishop who refused to come to the Carters' back door but who would stand in the front yard discussing crops and politics with Jimmy's father.

Carter evoke a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple while the rules were heartbreaking and complex.

An Hour Before Daylight is a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation. ... Read more

Reviews (56)

Worth Reading
I was 5 years old when Jimmy Carter left office. As a child I remember hearing that he was just a peanut farmer. I didn't realize until later that going from peanut farmer to president was part of the American Dream. As an adult I have come to appreciate and admire Jimmy Carter for his character, I wanted to know more about his life, and was anxious to read An Hour Before Daylight.

An Hour Before Daylight is a charming book. What struck me most was the humility with which the autobiography was written. At times it seems the book is more about Jimmy Carters childhood friends and his family, than himself. Most of the direct references to his behavior are times he had to be punished or when he made mistakes. Really it is not a book about one man, but about a farm, its owners and workers, in the segregated South.

Aside from being about a past US president, this book provides an intimate window into life in the South. It will be warm and typical to those raised in the South. To me, being raised and schooled in the Midwest, it was a peak at a culture I never totally understood. The book is written with unusual frankness, and provides details, which others certainly would have left out, rather than embarrasses themselves or their families.

Defiantly a worthwhile read.

A President Comes of Age.
Using a journalist's eye, and introspect's heart, Jimmy Carter tells a warm and compelling tale of the times, places and people who shaped his life.

Humbly examining the elements of his youth, Jimmy Carter recounts his earliest impressions of segregation, politics, and life and death.

Jimmy Carters style is natural and compelling, and his honest appraisal of his families past is both frank and welcoming.

Clearly a man of great humilty, Jimmy Carter appraises his actions in the face of racism, expressing both pride and regret, he never blames his failings on anyone, or anything, but his own lack of understanding.

In the latter chapters of this book, Jimmy Carter closes in on his incompleted relationship with his stern but loyal father - a relationship that both shaped and confounded him.

This book is a wonderfully paced read, with the selfeffacing warmth of a Jean Shepherd tale wrapped around the sepia toned history of one of America's greatest living leaders. This is a great read.

My grandma loved this book
My grandma sure seemed to like this book a hell of alot. She mentions it everytime we see her. I figres it must be worth 3 stars at least.

The sepia toned boyhood of Jimmy Carter
Reading this book, it's easy to understand why the ex-president insisted, "It's Jimmy. Just call me Jimmy." I wasn't much of a Carter fan during the man's presidency but have since come to appreciate him greatly, mostly for his honesty, sincerity, and humanity. An Hour Before Daylight makes it easy to understand how he became the person he still in.
Born on a Georgia farm during the Depression, Carter grew up in the days of rigid segregation, but at the same time all his friends were black children. He writes lucidly, sometimes lyrically and with strong nostalgia for an era of American history long past.
It's definitely worth a read.

Needs a colorful cover
My mother gave me a copy for Christmas. We live just a stone's throw from Plains and she grew up very similarly. This reminds me of John Boy musing on the Walton's TV show or Mark Twain's colorful characters. Carter is a master farmer and gives a wealth of agriculture and outdoor information. As a librarian I put a copy in our library and think it belongs in every library! This is one of the best rural Depression era Americana. The cover is much too drab for the colorful characters inside. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Arguably one of the most profoundly important essays ever written on the nature and significance of "quality" and definitely a necessary anodyne to the consequences of a modern worldpathologically obsessed with quantity.Although set as a story of a cross-country trip on a motorcycle by a father and son, it is more nearly a journey through 2,000 years of Western philosophy. For some people, this has been a trulylife-changing book. ... Read more

Book Description

Labeled deaf, retarded, disturbed and insane, Donna Williams lived in a world of her own.Alternating between rigid hostility and extroversion, she waged what she termed her "war against the world."She existed in a dreamlike state, parroting the voices of those around her in the hope that they would leave her alone.Few people understood her, least of all Donna helself.

It was not until the age of twenty-five that Donna discovered the word- autism- that would at last give her the opportunity to understand herself and begin to build a bridge to join the world as most know it.

Nobody Nowhere, Donna Williams' extraordinary autobiography, is her heroic attempt to come to terms with autism.This eloquent memoir reveals a fierce intelligence, great creativity and much humour.It will shatter many myths and misconceptions.

The poetic sensibility and extraordinary insights of Nobody Nowhere make it inspiring reading for everyone. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

amazing
This is my favorite book. I read it in less than a day wich is rare for me. Some other books I love are Catcher and the Rye, and The Sound and the Furry. Donna Williams is amazing. This book is amazing.

The book is excellent because it relates to my disability!
I think Donna Williams is one of the world's greatest authors. Although she suffers from pervasive developmental disorder, (autism related), she has shown great courage and will be of great benefit in the future for other people with disabilities.

I suffer, myself, from Asperger's Syndrome (I am 23 years old) and I have benefited from Donna's three autobiographies written.

I am trying hard to find information and correspondence with other autistic people like myself; but the process has not been a walover. I recommend reading of the books, from "Nobody Nowhere"(first) to "Like Color to the Blind" (third) because all three books run in sequence.

I have rated Nobody Nowhere a perfect 10!

Adrian Pooley ... Read more

Book Description

"I was born in southern China in 1962,
in the tiny town of Yellow Stone. They called it the Year of Great Starvation."


In 1962, as millions of Chinese citizens were gripped by Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution and the Red Guards enforced a brutal regime of communism, a boy was born to a poor family in southern China. This family--the Chens--had once been respected landlords in the village of Yellow Stone, but now they were among the least fortunate families in the country, despised for their "capitalist" past. Grandpa Chen couldn't leave the house for fear of being beaten to death; the children were spit upon in the street; and their father was regularly hauled off to labor camps, leaving the family of eight without a breadwinner. Da Chen, the youngest child, seemed destined for a life of poverty, shame, and hunger.

But winning humor and an indomitable spirit can be found in the most unexpected places. Colors of the Mountain is a story of triumph, a memoir of a boyhood full of spunk, mischief, and love.The young Da Chen is part Horatio Alger, part Holden Caul-field; he befriends a gang of young hoodlums as well as the elegant, elderly Chinese Baptist woman who teaches him English and opens the door to a new life. Chen's remarkable story is full of unforgettable scenes of rural Chinese life: feasting on oysters and fried peanuts on New Year's Day, studying alongside classmates who wear red armbands and quote Mao, and playing and working in the peaceful rice fields near his village.

Da Chen's story is both captivating and endearing, filled with the universal human quality that distinguishes the very best memoirs. It proves once again that the concerns of childhood transcend time and place.


... Read more

Reviews (57)

A Memoir or a Fiction
I was very impressed by the overwhelmingly positive reviews about Da Chen's memoirs (Colors of Mountain) in the national media (especially the article on News Week). I thought that finally, here comes a fresh writer from China with such passion and humility and was writing about the time our generation care deeply about. Well, I have to check it out. Indeed, his use of humor and earthy style is very effective and touching. One could not but to resonate with him at various points of his struggle and triumph. The book would be good if he did not pass it along as a memoir but as a first person fiction. My rough assessment on the contents of the memoir is as followings. There is about 20% of real-life experience that can be easily dissociated and are commendable. The rest can be divided as about 70% second hand exaggerated fantasies for the situation effects and about 10% deliberated fabrication for the sole propose of self-indulgence.

Let's set a few records straight as an illustrative example. First, Da Chen is not a son of a landlord (his father is). There is only one sentence that talked about that because his grandpa is a landlord, so that his father was dismissed from his teaching job. This is hardly a true statement. I have not encounter a single instance that a teacher was dismissed solely because his/her father is a landlord. Indeed, my study of China of the same period shown that about 40 to 60% (dependent on the specific geographic location) of school teachers' fathers are landlords or worse according to the standards of the day. There must be something else he was hiding.

His vivid description of his first day of schooling (the trouble with tuition) is hardly credible either. He might, indeed, hold 50 fens (equivalent of 50 cents) in his hand and that the teacher gave him the extension on tuition. But the tuition was only 3 Yuan (equivalent of 3 dollars). The education was essentially free at the time and 3 Yuan was mostly for the books etc. For example, any one of his piglets (when fatting up by the end of the year) would easily sell for 60 to 100 Yuan at the time (a princely sum, indeed), not to mention the mother pig they had all along (if only one knows the truth, all that sympathy for him would evaporate). The recollection of his association with the gang-activities is equally laughable. Without getting into the details, I just want to remind the readers that at the high of his gang association, he was only 9-10 years old (I had the sense of dislocation of time when reading his description). There must be other ways to generate the same sensation.

His distaste for the Red Guards is also very strange. True, he might be turn down the first time when he applied to join the little red guards (and I don't believe that the whole class was little red guards except him, perhaps only 30% was in little red guard at first. I personally, have to apply eight times in order to join). But strangely, he did not have any memory of his second and third attempts. I'm sure he was admitted into the little Red Guard eventually. What about his joining of the real Red Guard in middle school (he probably was the first few that was admitted into that organization)? Furthermore, there is no description of his joining the Communist Young League. One might wonder what kind of selective memory he has. Then, there are many instances of bizarre alteration of historical facts that make this reviewer wonder just what he is try to present. For instance, on page 77, he quoted the lyric of a popular song at the time, but inserted the "Russian" there himself, but why?

In all, this memoir should be labeled as a fiction. Even so, one should think twice before been foiled into his semi-genuine sentiment. I do not recommend this book for serious reading.

Heartwarming, inspirational, memorable.
Colors of the Mountain is the story of Da Chen's coming of age in post revolutionary, rural China. The son of a family of "landlords", a despised class in China at this time, the book is semi autobiographical and is an inspirational tale of prevailing against long odds. It is also a wonderful window into life in rural China--the nature of the countryside, the characters all small towns seem to produce in doves all over the planet, the struggles that everyone must endure off in the "boonies". (One suspects that these elements of the story probably aren't far from what life is currently, China being the place it is.)

On the whole I found the narrative to be compelling, the characters memorable and the story quite well structured. If there is a major flaw in the novel it's that the language is someti