Average customer rating:
- Brick Lane: a journey and a destination
- Intelligent, subtle and broad.
- The short anwer
- Very enjoyable
- This was hard work
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Brick Lane: A Novel
Monica Ali
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0743243315 |
Amazon.com
Wildly embraced by critics, readers, and contest judges (who put it on the short-list for the 2003 Man Booker Prize), Brick Lane is indeed a rare find: a book that lives up to its hype. Monica Ali's debut novel chronicles the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi girl so sickly at birth that the midwife at first declares her stillborn. At 18 her parents arrange a marriage to Chanu, a Bengali immigrant living in England. Although Chanu--who's twice Nazneen's age--turns out to be a foolish blowhard who "had a face like a frog," Nazneen accepts her fate, which seems to be the main life lesson taught by the women in her family. "If God wanted us to ask questions," her mother tells her, "he would have made us men." Over the next decade-and-a-half Nazneen grows into a strong, confident woman who doesn't defy fate so much as bend it to her will. The great delight to be had in Brick Lane lies with Ali's characters, from Chanu the kindly fool to Mrs. Islam the elderly loan shark to Karim the political rabblerouser, all living in a hothouse of Bengali immigrants. Brick Lane combines the wide scope of a social novel about the struggles of Islamic immigrants in pre- and post-9/11 England with the intimate story of Nazneen, one of the more memorable heroines to come along in a long time. If Dickens or Trollope were loosed upon contemporary London, this is exactly the sort of novel they would cook up. --Claire Dederer
Book Description
After an arranged marriage to Chanu, a man twenty years older, Nazneen is taken to London, leaving her home and heart in the Bangladeshi village where she was born. Her new world is full of mysteries. How can she cross the road without being hit by a car (an operation akin to dodging raindrops in the monsoon)? What is the secret of her bullying neighbor Mrs. Islam? What is a Hell's Angel? And how must she comfort the na‹ve and disillusioned Chanu?
As a good Muslim girl, Nazneen struggles to not question why things happen. She submits, as she must, to Fate and devotes herself to her husband and daughters. Yet to her amazement, she begins an affair with a handsome young radical, and her erotic awakening throws her old certainties into chaos.
Monica Ali's splendid novel is about journeys both external and internal, where the marvellous and the terrifying spiral together.
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"Monica Ali's gorgeous first novel is the deeply moving story of one woman, Nazneen, born in a Bangladeshi village and transported to London at age eighteen to enter into an arranged marriage. Already hailed by the London Observer as ""one of the most significant British novelists of her generation,"" Ali has written a stunningly accomplished debut about one outsider's quest to find her voice. What could not be changed must be borne. And since nothing could be changed, everything had to be borne. This principle ruled her life. It was mantra, fettle, and challenge. Nazneen's inauspicious entry into the world, an apparent stillbirth on the hard mud floor of a village hut, imbues in her a sense of fatalism that she carries across continents when she is married off to Chanu, a man old enough to be her father. Nazneen moves to London and, for years, keeps house, cares for her husband, and bears children, just as a girl from the village is supposed to do. But gradually she is transformed by her experience, and begins to question whether fate controls her or whether she has a hand in her own destiny. Motherhood is a catalyst -- Nazneen's daughters chafe against their father's traditions and pride -- and to her own amazement, Nazneen falls in love with a young man in the community. She discovers both the complexity that comes with free choice and the depth of her attachment to her husband, her daughters, and her new world. While Nazneen journeys along her path of self-realization, her sister, Hasina, rushes headlong at her life, first making a ""love marriage,"" then fleeing her violent husband. Woven through the novel, Hasina's letters from Dhaka recount a world of overwhelming adversity. Shaped, yet not bound, by their landscapes and memories, both sisters struggle to dream -- and live -- beyond the rules prescribed for them.
Customer Reviews:
Brick Lane: a journey and a destination.......2007-10-05
This was Ms Ali's debut novel, and was shortlisted for the 2003 Man Booker Prize. While Brick Lane is about a particular set of experiences for a specific set of characters, it is also more broadly about the dislocation experienced by all migrants.
Brick Lane tells the story of Hazneen, who came to England from Bangladesh at the age of 18 for an arranged marriage to Chanu. When she arrives, she has very limited English, but falls into the role of a dutiful wife to a man who is also culturally dislocated and whose rigid adherence to remembered custom and practice renders him sadly ineffectual.
This novel explores cultural difference, family ties and associated impacts on individuals.
Highly recommended - not because it provides all of the answers or instant understanding but because it identifies so many of the questions.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
Intelligent, subtle and broad........2007-09-23
"Brick Lane" is an important and intelligent addition to immigrant British literature that deserves, and will amply reward, a thoughtful read. But it is a novel, not a text book about Bangladeshis in London, or about Bangladesh itself.
Unsubtly trailing the central concept of Fate over every chapter, it explores how the lead character, Nazneen, fights the Fate that is written for her, or at least appears to. From her refusal to accept her own birth as a still born to her passing comment in the closing pages of the book "But that was before I knew what I could do"; a comment which finally refutes her own mother's enduring words of suffering "we are women, what can we do".
For non-Muslim readers, it is important to note that Fate is a central part of Islam. Muslims believe that life is predetermined and individual choice (but not individual responsibility) is limited. This leads to complex theological and logical issues, which Brick Lane fudges. It is never clear whether Nazneen has followed her Fate, or changed it, although the book strongly suggests the latter. Ali takes this concept to its extreme in the sketch of the drug addict, Tariq. Addiction is not his Fate. His doctor says he will get better "if that's what he decides".
Ali contrasts Nazneen's "victories" over her Fate, against the series of disappointments of her husband, the heart-rendingly tragi-comic Chanu. Chanu is educated, full of potential. But Chanu's inaction leaves his promise unfulfilled. This is again contrasted with Nazneen's sister, Hasina. Left in Bangladesh, she sends letters about her two failed and violent marriages and her spell of prostitution; misfortunes suffered inspite of her best efforts to make life better for herself.
And then there's Karim. Nazneen's British born Bangladeshi lover, sometimes criticized as being "one-dimensional". But, their relationship is supposed to be one-dimensional. Nazneen herself comments that she "made him up". The relationship is a metaphor for the immigrant experience; from the point of view of the newly arrived "village girl" adjusting to the new country and from the point of view of the confused British born Bangladeshi. Through Nazneen, Karim "loves" the country he has never known. But through her pathetic father, Nazneen's own British born daughter, Shahana, "hates" it. Ali intelligently and subtly explores all these ideas in this broad work, which also has good background sketches of most of the issues that affect immigrant communities.
And for the benefit any non-immigrants reading this review, who have ever wondered what its like for us, I would point you to the most profound comment I have ever read about growing up in a second generation immigrant community; "Karim was born a foreigner. He did not have a place in this world. That was why he defended it."
The short anwer.......2007-09-09
This is a novel-reader's novel. Because this book covers half a life, it helps to have lived half a life, and to love good writing. Best also, though, not to know in advance what happens to the person "who was left to her fate," or how others have interpreted that fate, because "Brick Lane" is also a ripping good yarn. If you put it aside -- and most busy people will more than once -- wait until it calls. It will: you've been abandoned as a stranger in a strange land, and no one can finish that journey for you.
Very enjoyable.......2007-08-22
The core of this book revolves around the themes of submission, immigration and integration. It's the story of Nazneen, a quiet young girl whose life changes when the arranged marriage to a much older man takes them to London's East End. She leaves behind all she had ever known in her native Bangladesh. Whilst her husband Chanu's hopes and dreams of a "big life" are slowly shattered, Nazneen devotes herself to raising her family, trying to adjust and make sense of a world that she doesn't quite understand. A lot happens in London and new people enter their life, influencing their thoughts and actions. Nazneen has always thought of herself and the events in her life to belong to fate and fate only but, without quite realising it, a hidden strength and determination lead her to an unexpected path.
This book has a special depth, especially in connection with racial and social issues. The prose is flawless and make the characters come to life so vividly. I also very much appreciated the letters written in broken English by Nazneen's sister Hasina, which in themselves represent a different side of the story, directly from a member of the family left behind in Bangladesh.
Some parts of this book are very moving and dramatic, however there are some ironic and comical events/dialogues, sad in themselves given the often pathetic circumstances, but they made me smile nevertheless.
A lovely, gripping book, well done to Ms. Ali!
This was hard work.......2007-06-01
I bought all the books that had been nominated for the 2003 MAN Booker Prize, Brick Lane being one of them so I had reasonably high expectations. I'm a little relieved, judging by the other reviews around mine here, to find out that I'm not the only one who couldn't wait to finish it (some gave up). It was interesting at first, but it seemed interminably long and by the time I was crying out for it to end, I was barely halfway through! Perhaps people from that part of London will find it more appealing, or those from Bangladesh. But this was one of those rare occasions when I thought I could use my time more usefully than read a book. How on earth did it get nominated ahead of (for example) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time? Beats me. All I can say is that it must be aimed at a niche market, those in that group will doubtless sing its praises but for the mass-market....I'm not so sure. Sometimes, the best people to write observations of specific cultures are those who live outside of those cultures rather than those who live within them. Maybe an 'outsider' can do it in a way that a wider audience will understand and appreciate.
Customer Reviews:
Not another Better.......2006-03-16
I have read many books based on the south, including Gone with the Wind (3 times). On leaving Charleston (read twice) is one of the best books that I have read. Another is the prequel to this one called 'Charleson'; if you haven't read ON LEAVING CHARELSTON yet, you should definatey read the first one, well, first. The characters are so real that in some part I feel like they are real people. I would highly recommend this book to everyone.
Cinderella: The Day After.......2003-11-06
Charleston, beginning of the 20th century. Garden Tradd, grand-niece of Elizabeth Tradd (heroine of Alexandra Ripley's previous book "Charleston") and daughter of an once rich family that had become poor after the Civil War, marries the rich Yankee Schuyler Harris. After the splendid wedding ceremony, they sail away to live happily ever after. But Garden's mother-in-law (I won't post a spoiler here, readers of "Charleston" will be surprised who she is) who hated Garden's family, is determined to ruin her, and almost succeeds in it. It seems Garden can save her marriage, but due to the mother-in-law's manipulations, she loses everything again and has to return to Charleston. People of Charleston turn away from her, she lives as an outcast with only her aunt Elizabeth and her little daughter. Garden has to build her life again. Just like Ms Ripley's other books "New Orleans Legacy" and "Scarlett", this is a story of a woman growing up and finding her own identity. With Garden, you will leave Charleston and see New York and Europe, can glimpse into the life of rich in the 20s and 30s, and meet the famous persons of that age. Also you will find the answer to the question in the end of "Charleston".
A Dramatic Whirlwind!.......2000-12-28
If you've ever wondered what it would be like to have more money than you knew what to do with and you thought that the idea sounded incredibly satisfying, then you should read this fast-paced, eventful novel. You just might change your mind. This novel follows the life of a Charleston debutante who began her life in rags and eventually fell into riches by marrying one of America's most eligible bachelors. Travel with lovable, naive Garden Tradd from her dirt poor beginnings in a slave settlement, through her adolescence in Charleston when she becomes a true belle, and then onto to New York, London, and Paris for a wild, sometimes disturbing ride through the early twenty-first century. I guarantee you won't be able to put this book down!
Great sequeal to Charleston.......2000-04-09
This book takes place a few years after Charleston, it concerns an "ugly", unwanted girl named Garden Tradd and her life and times. This book incoporates real life history into the novel, Garden watches Chalres Lindbergh's transatlantic flight, see Isadora Duncan die, and weeps over the death of the LIndbergh baby. My only complaint is that Elizabeth Cooper who was a strong voice in the novel charleston is reduced to doing nothing but holding Garden's hand evrytime she cries.
Good description of metropolitan life in the Twenties........1998-07-16
There were some moments that reminded me of Little House on the Prairie - how could so much tragedy happen to one person? But it was fun to see the main character traced through the roaring twenties in Charleston, New York, and parts of Europe.
Average customer rating:
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On Leaving Charleston
Manufacturer: Doubleday and Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HZJTWS |
Book Description
M'chel Riss and the Star Risk, Ltd. team find themselves in the middle of a strange assignment: a staged bank robbery that involves putting money back. But the job soon takes an even stranger turn when they get caught up in a full-fledged war over an addictive new consumer product. The roguish mercenaries will need to rely on every resource possible to make a buck and make it out alive-in this fast-paced tale of hard-hitting action and a double-cross or three...
Book Description
This digital document is an article from San Diego Business Journal, published by CBJ, L.P. on April 5, 2004. The length of the article is 888 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Cross-border survey finds residents share concerns: California's truck traffic projected to double by 2020.(Trade)
Author: Julie Poucher Harbin
Publication:
San Diego Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 5, 2004
Publisher: CBJ, L.P.
Volume: 25
Issue: 14
Page: 8(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
"I was amazed to find that I had no idea how to unfold my spiritual life in a feminine way. I was surprised, and, in fact, a little terrified, when I found myself in the middle of a feminist spiritual reawakening." ––Sue Monk Kidd
For years, Sue Monk Kidd was a conventionally religious woman. Then, in the late 1980s, Kidd experienced an unexpected awakening, and began a journey toward a feminine spirituality. With the exceptional storytelling skills that have helped make her name, author of When the Heart Waits tells her very personal story of the fear, anger, healing, and freedom she experienced on the path toward the wholeness that many women have lost in the church. From a jarring encounter with sexism in a suburban drugstore, to monastery retreats and to rituals in the caves of Crete, she reveals a new level of feminine spiritual consciousness for all women– one that retains a meaningful connection with the "deep song of Christianity," embraces the sacredness of ordinary women's experience, and has the power to transform in the most positive ways every fundamental relationship in a woman's life– her marriage, her career, and her religion.
This Plus edition paperback includes a recent interview with the author conducted by the book's editor Michael Maudlin.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best books I have ever read.......2007-09-27
This is not THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES kind of book nor is it a recreational read. This is an account of Sue Monk Kidd's personal search for a spiritual place of belonging and peace. It resonanted with me at the point in my live when I read it, and it has many post-it note flags marking areas with special meaning.
Inspiring and important.......2007-09-08
This is a fabulous book. I recommend it to every woman struggling to find a place for herself spiritually. I grew up in one form of the Christian tradition only to find myself disenchanted in my young adulthood. Even though this book is written from the viewpoint of a woman raised in christianity, it is relevant and important for women of all faiths that have been steeped in patriarchy. I felt that my idea of finding my own way spiritually was somehow blasphemous (according to my conditioning at a young age) until I found this book. Sue Monk Kidd writes a truely amazing account of her own struggle and how she eventually came out the other side of it a stronger, fuller woman. When I read this book, I felt like I had come home. This book is very important not just for me personally, but for the whole of society. The world can benefit greatly by the return of a sacred feminine to the collective consciousness.
Great.......2007-08-26
Mrs. Kidd needs no review from the likes of me. She writes beautifully and her words are written with grace, dignity and integrity. This is the way my life long friend was raised in her Christian home in Sylvester, Georgia.
All of her wonderful works will be fine additions to anyone's home library.
Kind Regards,
George Ray Houston, Author, Southern Poetry
Sylvester, Georgia
More of an attack on males than anything........2007-08-05
This book was a required read for a class on the Sociology of Religion. I did not like it myself. It felt more like the author was attacking men than truly asking to be treated as an equal as she claimed. It sounds like the author is pretty much creating her own feminine religion (which I have no problem with). This book is about that process. She bashes most Christian churches when she leaves two or three (taking her family with her). She gets support from her husband (support from a spouse should have been a given!) and ends up with a conglomeration of practices and beliefs. The book came off as too whiny for me. She needed to put her arguments in a different tone. Maybe using more academic tones than accusatory. I would not recommend this book.
The final piece to the puzzle.......2007-05-30
I read this book in an attempt to find the last piece to the puzzle that is Sue Monk Kidd. My first experience with her writing was her well-received book "The Secret Life of Bees" which I enjoyed. I then read "The Mermaid Chair" and was surprised at the frequent mentions of the Sacred Feminine. Upon learning that she had been a Christian author before she began her career in fiction, I then read "God's Joyful Surprise" in which she explains a spiritual crisis in which she came to realize that she did not have to be a perfect person to earn God's love but could merely accept it and enjoy a close relationship with Him. Her second non-fiction book "When the Heart Waits" chronicles another crisis in her life when she realizes that God's timing is not her timing and that she sometimes has to wait for answers to her questions. "The Dance of the Dissident Daughter" recounts her third spiritual crisis in which she begins to question what she perceives as the "patriarchal" traditions of the church which glorify men and exclude or demean women. I carefully read this book about her spiritual journey, but I must respectfully disagree with her conclusions. Rather than seeking her wisdom from God, Kidd claims that all the wisdom she'll ever need is within herself. She also states that the earth is a sacred place and is our true home, rather than the heavenly home we have to look forward to after our death. She celebrates her "awakening to the Sacred Feminine" with rituals in the woods, on the beach, or in a circle of trees and has found joy and freedom in dancing and singing with her female friends.
Sue Monk Kidd is undoubtedly a sensitive, creative, and highly talented woman. It must be painful for her that each spiritual revelation that she goes through causes so much angst in her life. Her husband, Sandy, has been remarkably supportive of her, as has her mother and daughter. She carefully leaves out the reactions of her father and her son, but I wonder if they haven't suffered some fallout from her experiences.
I cannot identify with Kidd's anger or disappointment at what she considers her second-class citizenship as a woman. Being a child of God does not come with a gender bias and submitting to Him, not creating my own reality, is what has freed me. I deeply respect this very intelligent woman, but the disagreement I feel with her life choices will probably preclude my reading any more of her books.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2007. The length of the article is 3016 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: God & the second sex.(Book review)
Author: Colleen Carroll Campbell
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Issue: 176
Page: 51(5)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
One of the most influential writers on Italian cuisine celebrates the cooking of Italy’s northern regions—both rustic and sophisticated, ancient and modern—featuring 150 classic recipes.
Book Description
This complete guide to everything soft drink covers all ends of the industry, from its origins over a century ago to the rare collectibles of the most obscure soda pop manufacturers. Calendars, bottle displays, tin signs, and even ashtrays and whistles are listed by section and indexed for easy reference.
Customer Reviews:
NICELY EXPANDED.......2003-03-20
SODA POP COLLECTIBLES THIRD EDTION IS THE BEST YET!! NICELY EXPANDED IN MOST CATEGORIES, ALLAN TRIES TO COVER AS MANY BRANDS AND OBJECTS AS POSSIBLE IN ONE BOOK. A GREATLY EXPANDED COLOR PLATE SECTION THAT IS COLORFUL AND VERY CRISP AND CLEAR!! TEXT AND CONTENT ARE WELL COVERED. DEFINITELY NOT A DISAPOINTMENT. THIS IS A MUST HAVE REFERENCE GUIDE IN THE SODA ADVERTISING FIELD. IT GREATLY EXPANDS YOUR KNOWLEDGE IN THE FIELD.
NICELY EXPANDED.......2003-03-20
SODA POP COLLECTIBLES 3RD EDITION IS BEST YET!! TEXT AND CONTENT ARE EXCELLANT, COLOR AND QUALITY FOF PICTURES TERRIFIC. GREATLY EXPANDED VERSION, ESPECIALLY COLOR PLATES. VALUES ALL UPDATED. A MUST FOR THE SODA ADVERTISING COLLECTOR!!ALLAN HAS GIVEN US A REFERENCE GUIDE THAT COVERS A WIDE VARIETY OF BRANDS, THAT GREATLY INCREASES ARE ABILITY TO RESEARCH SODA ADVERTISING.
Not exactly an encylopedia of soda pop.......2003-01-08
I applaud the author for attempting to catalog the arcane world of old soda pop advertising, a difficult task when you're overshadowed by the 500-lb gorilla of Coca-Cola advertising. However, this book does not do enough to fill in the gaps of soda pop history. There is no attempt made to identify the years or bottlers of the soda pop brands illustrated. The collectibles pictured are organized by type of object rather than type of soda pop or region. A simple index of known soda pop manufacturers, their locations and years in business would have added so much more to this book. And why not a timeline to give the types of collectibles a little context in the history of bottling? Just a few extra pages would have added a lot of value to a thick book which is taking up more of my shelf space than its worth!
A MUST HAVE FOR SODA COLLECTORS.......2001-01-05
A SUPER BOOK FOR THE NON-COCA COLA INDIVIDUAL. AS AN ADVID MOXIE DRINKER AND COLLECTOR I'M ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR MOXIE ITEMS. THERE WERE MANY ITEMS IN PETRETTIS BOOK THAT I HAD NO IDEA EVEN EXISTED. IT REALLY ADDED TO MY EDUCATION OF VALUE, SCARCITY AND CONDITION REQUIREMENTS. MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF SODA ARE WELL DOCUMENTED--PEPSI,HIRES,DR. PEPPER,KIST,ETC. ETC.
Truly The Encyclopedia of Soda Pop Collectibles........1999-11-01
An outstanding guide to all forms of soda pop collectibles - every type imaginable. Covers signs, smalls, paper items, bottles, thermometers, fans, tin, clocks, radios, trays and coasters, mini-bottles, toys, mirrors, lighters, labels, music, and on and on. Superior black and white and full color photography. The collector won't be able to put this book down. Add it to your library. You'll refer to it often.
Book Description
Internationally respected textile artist Helen M. Stevens presents a new collection of over 80 embroidered masterpieces, inspired by each month of the year.
Taking as her theme such celebrations as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas or simply the changing of the seasons, Helen observes the details, colors and patterns of the natural world around her and translates them into sumptuous stitches.
Full color photographs show the detail of every stitch while clear diagrams and instructions explain all the techniques featured.
Book Description
One of the most innovative furniture and interior designers of the 20th century, Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) had a rich, diverse career that spanned nearly 75 years and included work in Africa, South America, and Asia as well as Europe. Today her designs, long admired by furniture historians, are eagerly sought by collectors. This handsome, lavishly illustrated volume is the first book in English on this pioneering figure, who created many pieces now seen as classics of modern design. With original texts by leading scholars covering many facets of her work and life, and scores of photographs and drawings, this book will appeal to a wide audience.
Book Description
Fresh Dialogue Four bring together the work of three young and innovative graphic designers who have been selected as participants in the Fresh Dialogue series by the New York Chapter of the AIGA. Taking the word "spine" as its theme, the book examines the worlds of publishing and self-publishing from the perspective of the graphic designer.
Fresh Dialogue Four coaxes the inner thoughts, struggles, and insights of these emerging leaders of the design world. Jason Fulford is a photographer, graphic designer, and publisher. He is the cofounder of the non-profit imprint J&L Books. Peter Buchanan-Smith is an art director, graphic designer, author, and publisher of The Ganzfeld magazine. He is the former art director of the New York Times Op-Ed page, and co-founded the design firm and publishing company Monday Morning. Leanne Shapton is an illustrator, art director, graphic designer, and publisher. She art-directed the Arts and Life section of the Canadian newspaper National Post, and is co-founder of J&L Books.
Book Description
"Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra, by former valet-aide George Jacobs with an oh-so-able assist by William Stadiem, has at least five quotable and shocking remarks about the famous on every page. The fifteen years Jacobs toiled for Frank produces a classic of its genre -- a gold-star gossip-lover's dream....
"The rest is showbiz history as it was, and only Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, and Betty Bacall are spared. Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Juliet Prowse, Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Mia Farrow, Elvis Presley, Swifty Lazar, Dean Martin, Peggy Lee, Sammy Davis Jr., Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Jimmy van Heusen, Edie Goetz, Peter Lawford, and all of the Kennedys come in for heaping portions of 'deep dish,' served hot. Sordid, trashy, funny, and so rat-a-tat with its smart inside info and hip instant analysis that some of it seems too good to be true....
Customer Reviews:
Absolutely Heartbreaking...........2007-03-12
"Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra," written by George Jacobs - Frank's valet/personal assistant; friend; confidante of 15 years, is a very candid and extremely engrossing book. In every page, it is clear that George Jacobs truly loved Frank Sinatra as a brother. Although I knew quite a bit about Frank Sinatra's life already, I was totally unprepared for how interesting and "can't-put-it-down" this book turned out to be. I loved it.
Frank Sinatra was the best of men and the absolute worst of men. He was the most generous of men and yet he was the most vindictive of men as well. He was a contradiction in human nature in extremes. If you even slightly offended him or were perceived as disloyal, you seldom got another chance.
George tells of his relationship with Frank and Frank's rise and fall and rise to fame. He writes of his adventures with Frank's family and how wonderful "Big Nancy" was to Frank - long after the divorce. After reading this, I truly thought Frank Sinatra's first wife was a saint!
I expected this book to touch on just the superficial, but it really delved into a part of our history. Like millions of baby boomers, I idolized John F. Kennedy. Yes - I knew that he had an affair with Marilyn Monroe, but I didn't know about the barrage of call girls and cocaine. When JFK was campaigning, he asked George, "What do colored people want?" Diplomatically, George responded that he didn't know and asked Jack what he wanted (for our country). JFK, with a big leering grin, responded," I want to f*ck every woman in Hollywood." Statements like this just amazed me.
As we all know, Joe Kennedy Sr. had many mob connection from his bootlegging days. This book relates how Illinois was virtually a present to JFK from the mob in the election.
I had heard about the helicopter pad that Frank Sinatra was reported to have destroyed when John Kennedy's visit was cancelled, but I wasn't aware of the extent of John's deception. Frank Sinatra spent over a year campaigning for JFK; having "High Hopes" written and performed; and spending a fortune in anticipation of JFK's visit. Without Joe's influence, John totally turned his back on Sinatra and decided to stay at Bing Crosby's (who had supported Nixon)! Moreover, it was highly likely that he set things in motion for Marilyn's death when she threatened to expose their affair. Bobby Kennedy (whom I had also admired) and Jackie were even more ungrateful than John.
No one deserved what Woody Allen did to Mia Farrow later in life, but I couldn't help thinking that Mia was so wrong in not setting the record straight with Frank about her dancing with George. George was "babysitting" Mia and trying to pacify her when she dragged him onto the dance floor. When the paparazzi went wild with these pictures, George's life was to change forever. As a result, he was literally fired overnight by Frank Sinatra. George had money saved, but it is clear that he never recovered from this blow dealt to him by Sinatra.
My heart absolutely broke for George Jacobs. I literally cried when he tells how he burst into tears upon seeing Frank after 10 years. Frank went over and touched his shoulder and said, "Forget about it kid. It ain't so bad." I do feel Frank Sinatra "forgave" George, but I believe that Barbara Marx would never have allowed him to rehire George because he knew too much about her past.
I had always believed Barbara Marx to be a charitable woman with a great deal of class. She was actually a Vegas showgirl from a poor background who married the much older Zeppo. Everyone knew that she was simply trying to marry money and that she regularly cheated on Zeppo - often with Sinatra. He had known her for years. George was not even allowed to attend Frank Sinatra's funeral - but instead had to watch from across the street.
In the end, one realizes that George Jacobs has found peace. He honestly didn't deserve the low blow that Sinatra dealt him. However, you also realize that through his own insecurities, Frank Sinatra lost one of his dearest friends who loved him most. In the end, Frank Sinatra was the one who lost the most. I truly pray that Sinatra came to know this.
Surpringly relevant.......2006-08-27
We all know Frank Sinatra did some interesting stuff. The author, George Jacobs, was his valet from 1953 to 1968, so he saw quite a bit of it. With honesty, brevity and wit, he tells us about it. Right out of the "truth is stranger than fiction" department. I saw a number of celebrities I recognized in here, and it was interesting to see them off camera. I saw a number of celebrities in here that I've never heard of, and they were interesting too. I think that latter point matters for readers who may perhaps be too young to remember when Frank was doing it his way. I also feel that I've stumbled onto a portrait of a time and place that I needed to see. It's a great book, not just a tell-all gossipfest. Oh, it has that too, but it's better somehow.
Chronicles What an Unrepetant Jackass Sinatra Really Was........2006-02-19
Don't get me wrong. I'm a Sinatra Fan. Of his music. I never did buy into the crock of b.s. that painted him as some sort of cultural hero. And I always figured it would just be a matter of time before someone who worked this close to Sinatra would spill the beans. And it's all here. His double standards shine like the Hope Diamond. Do as I say and not as I do seems to be the recurring theme in the Frank Sinatra mantra. He demanded fidelity from his wives, but kept hookers by the dozen at any given time and paid for their abortions like they were monthly Visa bills while everyone else painted him as the picture perfect father of Nancy, Tina and Frank, Jr. His mob ties are legendary and by now general knowledge. Here we find Jacobs giving us all the juicy details. For some reason, the pay was good enough for Jacobs to tolerate Sinatra's unending racial and ethnic slurs which he apparently tossed around freely, never fearing consequence. Yet, for his entire career Sinatra was championed as a great Civil Rights pioneer. Okay, but any Civil Rights pioneer shouldn't toss the N word around so freely. It's not until the late sixties that Sinatra becomes a philanthropist of sorts to untarnish his disgusting image. Jacobs paints an interesting portrait of Old Blue Eyes as the Ultimate Paradox. I found the writing tight, honest and overall it's a book I couldn't put down once I picked it up. Unfortunately, Jacobs himself was kicked out of the Sinatra fold eventually, which makes the story all that more credible. I walked away from the book with a bevy of emotions, angry mostly, that such a talent could be such a jerk for most of his life. There were consequences for the Chairman always wanting to have it his way in his personal and professional life, and now that he's gone we may never know how it might've played out. Today I imagine Frank Sinatra would've been diagnosed as some sort of bi-polar idiot. God knows half of our musicians use that condition as an excuse for their stupid behavior. There indeed is a fine line between genius and lunacy. You'll read Jacob's memoir and walk away satisfied yet ticked off. Guaranteed.
Amazing Document of Cultural History.......2005-11-19
I didn't have high expectations for this book. The British royal family has shown us that tell-alls by "valets" and the like leave much to be desired, but this book was a wonderful surprise. It serves not only as an unusual insight into an American icon -- Frank Sinatra -- but also a cultural history of a young black man, George Jacobs, coming of age in the 1950's and 1960's with a front row seat on some of the most important figures of our time from Joe Kennedy to Ava Gardner to Sammy Davis, Jr. I think this book gives provocative insight on our American history through the lens of race, gender and popular culture.
From Bedroom to Board Room, He Was Larger Than Life.......2005-02-02
"Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra," by his valet of 15 years George Jacobs (whom Sinatra fired for dancing with Mia Farrow), is filled with enough vanity, insecurity, envy, racism, drinking, smoking, womanizing and deal-making for three lifetimes. Jacobs takes the reader into the "board room" and the bedroom to reveal intimate portraits of the supremely talented larger-than-life Chairman himself, the woman he never stopped loving (Ava Gardner), mobster associates like one-time Al Capone "wheel man" Sam Giancana, that pitiful plaything of the rich and famous, Marilyn Monroe, and the utterly vile Kennedy father (who was even "crueler about Jews than he was about blacks") and his charismatic, whore-mongering son (drinking, drugs and round-the-clock sex that had even the insatiable Sinatra panting).
If Ronald Reagan's motto was "Win one for the Gipper," JFK's (and Sinatra's) surely had to be "Win one for the zipper."
Book Description
An odyssey of celebrity, extravagance, and genius, Mr. S provides the deepest understanding yet of one of our greatest entertainers
As the right hand of Frank Sinatra from 1953 to 1968, George Jacobs arguably had one of the coolest jobs in the world at the time when Sinatra was the undisputed master of the entertainment universe. Jacobs rose from his humble beginnings in New Orleans to join Sinatra in the mansions of Beverly Hills, the penthouses of Manhattan, the palaces of Europe, the pinnacles of world power. George Jacobs saw it all, did it all.
Sinatra took Jacobs with him on the ride of the century, from blacklist Hollywood to gangland Chicago to an emerging Vegas to Camelot, not to mention dolce vita Rome and swinging London. As a member of Sinatra's inner circle, Jacobs drank with Ava Gardner, danced with Marilyn Monroe, massaged John F. Kennedy, golfed with Sam Giancana, and played jazz with the Prince of Monaco while his boss secretly pursued Princess Grace. He also partied with Mia Farrow, but that one cost him his job of a lifetime.
Through the ring-a-ding-ding and the stars, royals, politicians, moguls, and mobsters emerged a warm and intimate relationship that reveals a complex Sinatra: vulnerable and arrogant, charismatic and violent, loving and disdainful, confident and painfully self-conscious. Jacobs is no sycophant, but rather a sharp-eyed observer of the highs and lows of his boss's turbulent life. And Mr. S is perhaps the most complete, honest, and intimate portrait of Sinatra ever written.
It is an unforgettable trip, and George Jacobs provides a front-and-center seat at the life of an American icon.
Customer Reviews:
A Very Good Book........2007-03-30
I found this book a very good read. It was funny, sad, and just a tad bit dirty. Mr. Jacobs does a great job of painting the scene and life of the Ring-A-Ding-Ding era and the man who helped defined it all.
Nothing really groundbreaking about Mr.S, but it does give fun & interesting insight. This is a great read if you want something light and fun to read about the great Mr. S, then this is the book!
Mr. S: My Life with Frank Sinatra.......2007-01-09
George Jacobs was "there" as Sinatra's Valet and tells the inside stories but with deep respect. This aint Kitty Kelly. He obviously loved the man even after he was fired from the gig. His kind of honesty is rare and his access to the very center of the Sinatra fears, vulnerabilities and victories is unparralleled.
I learned more Real Stuff about Frank in this quick reading book than in any of the other Great Volumes preceeding it.
Bittersweet and loving.......2006-03-17
One of a handful of truly worthwhile books on Sinatra (joining a short list of Will Friedwald's "The Song is You" and Pete Hamill's "Why Sinatra Matters"...and that's it!). Although one suspects many of the quips and witticisms that abound in this book are probably from the brain of Jacob's co-writer, the feel and insight is purely inside stuff. While there is plenty of dirt, it is served up with affection and sympathy. The important thing is that "Mr S" is a very readable book. You will not be bored.
Come fly with him.......2005-03-13
Reading George Jacobs' memoir of his years as Frank Sinatra's right-hand man, I am struck by the star's sense of failure, despite having almost everything. He never got over second wife Ava Gardner. He sought but failed to get a Best Acting Oscar. His career declined while third wife Mia Farrow, barely out of her teens, hit it big with "Rosemary's Baby." Sinatra was rejected by the Kennedys, as well as gangster Sam Giancana, whose loss in some ways he appears to have taken harder. And he severed various friends - including Jacobs - ultimately doing more damage to himself.
Sinatra did not age gracefully. Lucky enough to get a second youth after his 1953 comeback, he underwent a second midlife crisis in the mid-1960s. How hard must it must have been to enter one's fifties, while popular culture overnight became about teenagers - their rebellions, music, fashions, and most of all contempt for Frank Sinatra's generation.
As Jacobs leaves in 1968, fired for generating tabloid headlines one night when Farrow drags him onto a dance floor, Sinatra at 52 is getting lonelier and meaner, with hardly any boon companions from his heyday still in sight. Jacobs focuses on those earlier, happier, peak years, where Sinatra's star quirks were leavened by kindness and consideration, and tarnished with fewer tantrums and less vindictiveness; and he shows how the decline began.
The book exceeds my expectations, tribute to William Stadiem's great ghostwriting and Jacobs' three-dimensional Sinatra portrait. What seems remarkable is his determination not to trash a man who, at the end, treated him poorly. Neither does he take easy shots at the Rat Packers for the ubiquitous ethnic jokes and slurs; he sees it in the context of the time, as banter rather than hate. Sinatra named his own plane "El Dago."
No one else saw Sinatra close up with so many of the key people in his life. Jacobs babysat Ava Gardner at Sinatra's Palm Springs house. Jacobs found her mesmerizing for not only her beauty but her unaffected charm, and fully understands why Sinatra never got over her. Jacobs' own apartment was next to Marilyn Monroe's. Sinatra put him there to keep an eye on the troubled actress whom the singer feared was an overdose waiting to happen. Jacobs drove home the countless starlets, paid the countless hookers, bought the flowers and chocolates and gifts for the countless girlfriends. He tended bar at Sinatra's recording sessions with Nelson Riddle. He gave backrubs to JFK and had lengthy conversations with him, mostly about "pussy." (JFK was fascinated by shaved ones, which he called "naked lunch." Women deeply offended by all this should regard this book as "Sex and the City" for guys.) Jacobs' own friendship with Sinatra's mother Dolly survived his firing, showing what an insider he really was.
Your prurient interest will be fed on virtually every page. The kiss-and-tell rings true. Detractors may fault Jacobs for dishing on dead principals unable to defend themselves, but it may also be seen as a measure of his regard for their privacy, waiting for decades until they were gone before finally cashing in on his recollections. A taste:
--Marilyn Monroe often went naked at home, regardless of who was watching. She endlessly regarded herself in her wall-to-wall mirrors to see who was the fairest one of all - or if she was too fat. She pined for Sinatra, but her slovenly habits and lack of hygiene were inimical to a man fastidious nearly to the point of obsessive-compulsiveness. Monroe's ex Joe DiMaggio, like Sinatra, swung, shall we say, a pretty big bat.
--Jacobs walked in on JFK snorting coke with Peter Lawford, on the sly from Sinatra who hated narcotics. Jacobs describes his shock at seeing the presidential candidate with a coke straw up his nose. Kennedy eased the tension with a quip: " `For my back, George,' Kennedy said to me, with his bad-boy wink."
--Jacobs loved Jack but loathed his father as a racist and gangster. Sinatra lusted for Kennedy's sister and Lawford's wife Pat. Jacobs believes Joe Kennedy used Pat as sexual bait to put Lawford in Sinatra's circle, and the Sinatra circle thus in the Kennedys', in the 1950s.
--Major stars like Monroe and Judy Garland constantly demanded sex from Frank to shore up their own egos on tearful nights, which he usually delivered out of mercy. His own nightly search for amour he called "Dialing For Pussy."
--Jacobs watched, fascinated, from a window, as Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo frolicked naked in Sinatra's pool at Palm Springs. And he kept Prince Rainier occupied, delivering fancy gifts and listening to jazz albums, while Frank dallied secretly with Princess Grace.
There's plenty that's less trashy, of course, like Jacobs' recollection of Humphrey Bogart, whom Sinatra idolized and aped. (Sinatra's mesalliance with Farrow seems an unsuccessful imitation of Bogart's marriage across the decades to Lauren Bacall.) Of more substance are the complex business and personal relationships between the Chairman, the Mob and the Kennedys. Jacobs shrewdly sees the money and power interests beneath the camaraderie, the spats, the feuds and the girl-chasing. The Rat Pack? A three-year commercial for liquor, in Jacobs' opinion, benefitting mob liquor and nightclub interests. "Ocean's 11"? Free advertising for the JFK campaign: Nixon was a square but Kennedy hung in Vegas with these cool guys. Mob influence in Hollywood? The Mob had the capital, the labor and the daring to invest in entertainment when Wall Street thought it too risky and too Jewish. Sinatra regarded Giancana, more than anything else, as a business genius.
This book is interesting on almost every page. Standard bios of Sinatra may serve better for putting his whole life in perspective. For your best second read, though, come fly with Jacobs.
My Life with an Obsessed Man.......2005-03-03
Yeah, on the one hand, it's sleazy. On the other, it's nevertheless interesting to look into the shiny life of Frank and the decadent world of entertainment.
George Jacobs was Sinatra's personal valet during Frank's most popular phase until he was fired for dancing with his wife one night (Mia Farrow, who the author had to babysit while Frank got up to more of his antics).
No doubt there's a little bitterness, but the tone of the book is not negative. Jacobs deserved better than to be written off with a lawyer's note, as was Frank's habit with getting rid of 'friends', but we can still get a dirty look inside the Chairman of the Board's lifestyle.
The focus is Frank, so we have to forgive George as he glosses over his marriages, his various kids here and there, and his supposed restraint in the face of temptation when he hung with Frank and his crew.
Sinatra comes off as an obsessed man, and while there is probably not much in the way of surprises here, we get some dirty details and some insight into Frank's 'way'. While Sinatra could be a great guy, he was also an obsessed man, a guy who just couldn't be alone, and a man who never got over Ava Gardner. Read with gusto about Frank's 'detailed' files on all the new starlets in Tinseltown, about Frank's anatomical gifts, about his appetite for Jack Daniel's and cigarettes, his gangster pals, and his raging temper. 'One-take Frank' was also an accomplished actor who refused to do more than one take, making one wonder what a Sinatra/Kubrick film would look like.
Jacobs seems to love Frank, but he has a lot to tell, and I guess that means exposing some ugliness about his former boss. Of course, since Frank is dead, he can't sue, making the appearance of this book quite convenient. Still, it's an inside, if sleazy angle. And it serves as another reminder that Hollywood is a sleazy and amoral place where some of the lowest forms of life creep.
Everything from the childlike glee that Frank got from setting off cherry bombs in his friends' shoes (this is a 50 year old man, mind you) to his use of his personal valet as a babysitter for wives and girlfriends while Frank got up to, er, other assignments, is all here.
Jacobs should either be condemend or applauded or both. Either way, we get to pick through the sleaze of the great American vocalist in all his pinky ring glory.
Average customer rating:
- Mr. S.: My Life with Frank Sinatra
- MR.S.:MY LIFE WITH FRANK SINATRA
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Mr. S : My Life with Frank Sinatra
George Jacobs , and
William Stadiem
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
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ASIN: B000C4T29E |
Customer Reviews:
Mr. S.: My Life with Frank Sinatra.......2006-10-06
Some of Frank Sinatra's interactions with friends and foes, with which author George Jacobs purports him to have been involved, are quite outlandish, and can only be confirmed by the testimony of those characters themselves, most of whom are long deceased, e.g., all of Sinatra's Rat Pack cohorts, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, and Joe, John and Bobby Kennedy.
Whether fact or fiction, Jacobs is on the money with less controversial events in Sinatra's life, a few seldom reported before. The book is comprised of the perfect syntax of writer William Stadiem, Jacob's co-author, and clever plays on words and names which alone make the book worth the price.
One drawback, however, that makes the book difficult to read is the length of Stadiem's paragraphs. For some reason, most of them are nearly a page long and comprise several topics that should be separated. Perhaps that problem was generated in the publishing end of the project, because Bill Stadiem knows better than that.
For a Sinatraphile, this book is a must and rates 5 stars if only to air some new rumors. For someone who isn't familiar with the names of Sinatra's cronies and enemies of yesteryear, they are identified for the baby-boomer generation, and the book still rates 4 stars.
MR.S.:MY LIFE WITH FRANK SINATRA.......2006-04-19
FOUND BOOK BY ACCIDENT. HATED FOR IT TO END.
FELT THAT I HAD LIVED WITH FRANK FOR 20 YEARS
READ EVERY LINE - COULD NOT WAIT FOR THE NEXT
PAGE. IF YOU LIKED SINATRA - THERE IS NOTHING
BETTER THAN THIS BOOK.
Average customer rating:
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Mr.S. : My Life with Frank Sinatra
George Jacobs
Manufacturer: Pan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0330412299 |
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