Book Description
A pocket-format, affordable guide, concentrating on a mix of specifically gay-related topics and mainstream subjects together with areas where gay travelers have specific requirements or need extra advice.
Book Description
Out Around Barcelona/Sitges has been researched, written and photographed by gay authors and photographers, to give a fully integrated mix of gay specific information, such as gay life and the scene in the city of Barcelona and the resort of Sitges, as well as general recommendations to the best places to see and stay.
Book Description
The memoirs of the Ukrainian writer Vasyl Sokil, a long-time resident of Kharkiv who emigrated to the West in the late 1970s. The book details Ukrainian literary life in Kharkiv and Sokil's protracted conflict with the Soviet authorities.
Average customer rating:
- What A Load of Crap by a Mere Lunatic Sociopath!
- I loved this book
- Well Written
- Thought Provoking
- Humorous Book
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Memoirs of A Hi-Tech Hustler
Gregory D. Evan , and
Gregory D. Evans
Manufacturer: Global Technology Publishing Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Criminals
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ASIN: 0970084226 |
Book Description
What does AT&T, MCI, Sprint, PageNet, MobileCom, GTE, Celluar One, Skytel, Mototola, Compaq, and Dell Computers have in common? They were al victims of america's largest Hi-Tech criminal organization that call themselves Hi-Tech Hustlers. This organization that is responsible for over $500 million dollars in theft, corporate losses and damages in the 12 year span.
It was not until one of the founders of the organization, Gregory Evans was caught and indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for hacking and defrauding AT&T, MCI, Sprint and many others for more than $24 million in a 6 month Hi-Tech crime spree.
While behind bars, Gregory Evans had written some personal memoirs about his Hi-Tech organizations and the Hi-Tech capers that cost companies and consumers millions of dollars.
This exciting book reads like a blockbuster movie, even though names, dates and places have been changed to protect the guilty you will find yourself mesmerized, dazzled and entertained.
Customer Reviews:
What A Load of Crap by a Mere Lunatic Sociopath!.......2007-09-25
This book is a joke and so is the pathetic nitwit who wrote it! In a nutshell, what he describes in this book is tantamount to stalking, fraud, and identity theft. It gives me the creeps to think that this convicted criminal now has the mitigating gall to believe that he is a reformed authority on the subjects of breaching trust, security, and invading privacy. Moreover, the writing style indicates clearly that this buffoon has had no formal education much less penitentiary rehabilitation. Don't waste your time or your train of good thoughts on this adolescent nonsense!
I loved this book.......2006-02-28
If you remember when cell phones first came out and cloning was happening all over with cell phones you will love this book. It is really a fastinating read. And to think that it may be true.
Well Written.......2001-11-16
The way Evans wrote Memoirs of A Hi-Tech Hustler gets readers involved. While reading this book it felt like I was a fugitive trying to keep up with this author. The flow of this book makes this possible. If you're interested in fast paced books you should definitely read Memoirs of A Hi-Tech Hustler.
Thought Provoking.......2001-11-16
I found it interesting how once Evans was caught and indicted for his hacking crime that he didn't let being caught stop him. He instead spent time behind bars thinking and writing about his crime. I'm sure the days seemed to have went by quickly the closer he came to finishing his book.
Humorous Book.......2001-11-10
This book was very humorous it made me remember being a kid again and doing some of the same kinds of things that the author did. As a child I was very curious and was always getting into things that I wasn't supposed to. I was punished for these things and knew wrong from right but I still attempted to try things. As an adult It becomes our decision to do things based on our own judgment rather it be a good judgment or not. We still have to learn from our own mistakes. This authors' curiosity brought him where he is today. I can tell by reading this book that this author was determined to get somewhere with the knowledge that he had because he knew that what he was doing was a crime but at the time he was doing it for the wrong reasons-to make money. It's just ironic how a crime that was illegal now is legal if you're actually doing it for an actual company.
Average customer rating:
- Interesting but tries to be too many things
- Honest and Courageous
- Nice Try Though
- Nice Try Though
- definitely *not* the "best of the best"
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Suburban Hustler: Stories of a Hi-Tech Callboy
Aaron Lawrence
Manufacturer: Late Night Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Rent Boys: The World Of Male Sex Trade Workers
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The Male Escort's Handbook: Your Guide to Getting Rich the Hard Way
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Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stefano
ASIN: 0966769104 |
Book Description
A collection of twenty-four short stories tracing how (and why) young escort Aaron Lawrence works his way towards the top of the American sex industry. The book is designed to give people an honest look into the life of a gay male escort.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting but tries to be too many things.......2001-09-18
In this collection of essays Aaron Lawrence, one of the more infamous online hustlers writes about various encounters he has had in his line of work. I found the book interesting, however I am not sure who exactly it is aimed at. One would think someone writing their biography should be in posession of deep (or at least some...) personal insight. Mr Lawrence however presents a picture of a rather insecure, yet hopelessly narcissistic and selfish individual. He 'charmingly' devalues his relationship with his supportive yet unhappy boyfriend. He also goes into detail about how he 'fools' his customers with outward words and looks while revealing to the reader what he really thinks of his cutomers (usually derogatory). Mr Lawrence relates one encounter where he is left in tears when a client confronts him about why he prostitutes himself, and admits maybe he thinks he is psychologically disturbed. At other times Mr Lawrence claims to be prefectly at peace with his profession...even proud of his choices. I don't object to Mr Lawrences choices...but if you are going to write an autobiography shouldn't you at least be somewhat consistent, or at least be able to make a reasonable story of your internal dilemmas? Mr Lawrence just presents the picture of a confused and lonely person. I cannot imagine why anyone after reading his unkind thoughts on 90% of his customers would even consider hiring him. Parts of the stories seem to be trying to be semi-erotic, yet this is not a book of erotic tales and anyone buying it as such will be disappointed. In any case any eroticism is usually destroyed by Mr Lawrences reveries right in the middle of the encounter about how much money he is making and how much he dislikes this client.
In summary - it's not erotic, so don't buy it if you want that; It's not terribly insightful, so don't buy it for that; It's not politically savy about sexual rights, so don't buy it for that; It won't tell you either how to be or how to hire an escort, so don't buy it for that (try instead Mr Lawrences other book for this purpose). I found 40% of it boring, self- aggrandizing, navel-staring. However, the remaining 60% is interesting. There aren't a lot of books out there that do cover this subject, and seeing inside the mind of a hustler is in itself a valid purpose for the book.
Honest and Courageous.......2001-03-22
I loved this book! As a fellow sex worker, I found Aaron to be a wonderful story teller. I saw myself in so many of his stories, going through the same emotions and experiences. I really admire his honesty and forthrightness in discussing his sex work. I think this book is honest and courageous and helps to break down the myths and negative stereotypes people have about male sex workers. I highly recommend it!
Nice Try Though.......2000-11-04
Lawrence had a nice idea yet, his intention was obvious. Lawrence with his website and ego-driven ethics desires attention. The book was clearly a bragging tool and left out many important issues, points, comments, and other things more related to the issue of online escorts. Imagine if you will; a dorky boy in highschool who later finds attention, "love", and respect in prostitution. It all has gotten to the head and it shows. But hey it was a nice try, maybe he needed an author.
Nice Try Though.......2000-11-04
Lawrence had a nice idea yet, his intention was obvious. Lawrence with his website and ego-driven ethics desires attention. The book was clearly a bragging tool and left out many important issues, points, comments, and other things more related to the issue of online escorts. Imagine if you will; a dorky boy in highschool who later finds attention, "love", and respect in prostitution. It all has gotten to the head and it shows, he strays of track back to his great dick... etc etc etc..But hey it was a nice try, maybe he needed an author.
definitely *not* the "best of the best".......2000-08-18
Obviously this book appeals to many people; however, having read numerous accounts of male prostitution, I was highly disappointed in this one. This book is not really about the sex trade, it's about Lawrence's quest to gain self-esteem by being paid for sex. Sadly, there is no discussion of the social and political issues surrounding sex work; Lawrence seems unaware of any of the interesting issues related to the criminalization and stigmatization of prostitution/hustling. Lawrence comes across as shallow and insecure, bragging, in nearly every chapter, about the size of his penis and how hard it was for him to find a partner who could accommodate him (he charmingly mentions, more than once, that even his boyfriend is inadequate). I don't agree with another reviewer that he's a sex addict, nor that hustling will leave him permanently scarred. It's just that his account of hustling is more navel-gazing and ego-stroking than introspection and insider commentary.
Average customer rating:
- I fell in love with Woodworth's characters
- I couldn't put this one down!
- Woodworth's first is AMAZING!
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When Ratboy Lived Next Door
Chris Woodworth
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Wing Nut
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First Boy
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On Etruscan Time
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Defiance
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Do You Know The Monkey Man?
ASIN: 0374346771
Release Date: 2005-02-24 |
Book Description
From the spring day in 1962 when Willis Merrill and his pet raccoon arrive in Maywood, Indiana, they are nothing but trouble for Lydia Carson. Lydia nicknames Willis "Ratboy" and wonders why he can't be more like his handsome older brother, Elliot. Life gets more complicated when Lydia alienates Elliot by insulting Willis and comes to a standoff with her mother. In her struggle to make amends with all, Lydia finds an ally in Willis and discovers the good in herself.
In her sharp, fresh voice, the author captures the flavor of a small town in Middle America and the hearts of its populace as she tells a powerful story about the resiliency - and flexibility -of family.
Customer Reviews:
I fell in love with Woodworth's characters.......2007-03-19
I loved being a fly on the wall in Woodworth's town of Maywood, watching its delightful cast of characters go about their daily lives.
Although I'm an adult, I fell in love with the characters in the book, and wish Woodworth would write a sequel (hint! hint!)
This book takes place in a laid-back small town, but it is by no means slow-paced. The characters spring to life from the beginning. Lydia, the main character, is a spunky girl coming of age and really truly growing up (maturing). Actually, all of the characters are vivid, and I particularly loved the strong female characters, like Lydia's grandma (who is such a fireball!).
The ending was so satisfying--except that it ended.
I couldn't put this one down!.......2005-05-18
I originally bought this for my daughter and ended up hiding it from her until I was done - which wasn't long since I couldn't put it down! Woodworth's sharp wit and ability to transfer the reader into a 1962 small town in Indiana make it hard to believe this is the author's first published work. I look forward to her next book and highly recommend this one!
Woodworth's first is AMAZING!.......2005-04-23
Excellent book. I couldn't put it down. Lydia is a great character who I believe people can relate to in some shape or form.
I want more.
Woodworth's first? I hope it's not the last.
BANG! BANG!
Average customer rating:
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Raccoon family pets;
Leonore Brandt
Manufacturer: All-Pets Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Veterinary Medicine
| Medicine
| Subjects
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Mammals
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
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ASIN: B0006ATK9G |
Customer Reviews:
Raccoon Family Pets.......2002-01-06
Drawings are great. The information on formulas,when written, was probably the best available, however would now prove to be wrong and possibly life threatening to the neonate raccoon.
Information on diseases, both zoonotic (able to transfer to humans) and general, is extremely sketchy.
Over all, if someone has update information and was adding this book to their library for how it use to be, and what we then knew, it would be ok. Using this book as a guideline for raising one now, even for release back into the wild, would be horrible.
Product Description
Packed with color photos showing each step of working with metal clay.
Customer Reviews:
disappointed.......2007-01-18
The book has many pretty pictures, and if all you want to do is make metal jewelry without added stones, it is probably adequate. But the thing I wanted to know most was how to set gemstones in finished metal clay jewelry, and the one paragraph devoted to that topic was singularly uninformative.
For me, buying this book means having to buy another on the same topic - and hope for the best!
pleasant to read.......2007-01-17
This book did not only offer a 'plesant read' but I also found the illustrations stimulating and the text easy to follow. I enjoyed the paragraphs about playing with metal clay,glass and ceramics,the Hollow Bead Bracelet and the Origami chapter. But in the final pages I somehow lost interest as the 'Inspiration' pages were not very inspiring for me.
All in all, I am pleased I bought the book. It certainly inspired me to find my own inspiration!
LOVE IT!.......2007-01-05
Love this book. It goes into more detail about paper clay and shows more projects. I use this book as my main reference.
Newbies.......2006-11-08
This book has easy to follow directions and lots of ideas for a new-to-jewelry maker like myself. I am self-taught and books like this one are great! Thanks!
Inspiring!.......2006-03-11
If you love unique silver and gold jewelry but don't want to become a metalsmith, read Metal Clay Magic. With the development of metal clay, only your imagination limits what you can create in quality silver and gold.
Metal clay consists primarily of pure silver (or gold) in tiny particles smaller than 20 microns (less than half the diameter of a human hair). These particles are mixed in an organic binder and water formula. During firing, the binder burns away and the precious metal particles sinter leaving just the precious metal, which can be hallmarked as .999 silver or 24K gold.
The price for the clay may vary with gold and silver prices or suppliers however, the day I checked online, I found: Art Clay--gold was $149.56 per 5g pkg; Art Clay--silver, the standard was $26.88 per 20g pkg. (this amount will yield 10 or so, small, simple earrings)
You have minimal waste, because you recycle your mistakes, reducing the cost risk compared to the rewards.
If you enjoy working with polymer clay, this is probably your next step in the creative evolution. Make one-of-a-kind heirloom jewelry and more, with tools you probably already have in your home. (You will need either a small inexpensive butane kiln for small projects like earrings to a more expensive programmable electric kiln to fire certain projects needing longer firing times.)
The instructions are easy to follow and the large color pictures inspire. If you follow the step-by-step lessons, you should have a finished piece within the day. (I would agree as long as you have sculpted clay before.)
Good news: The metal clay is non-toxic (it conforms to ASTM D4236) and it doesn't go bad. Polymer clay has to be conditioned; metal clay does not.
With 25 easy projects, including beads, earrings, pendants, and unique origami items, it should be easy to find one for your skill level. There is also a handy guide for resources and suppliers, a
Armchair Interview says: Metal Clay Magic will inspire you to create your own signature pieces of gold and silver jewelry.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected.......2007-02-14
Although this book is not at all what I expected (it is what it says it is: "an account of the meaning and symbolism of Ikebana" which I somehow missed before I ordered the book), it is well written and offers excellent information. If you want a greater understanding of the art form, then this is an excellent book. If you're hoping for illustrations to go along with that understanding, then this is not it.
Customer Reviews:
A Book ALL FATHERS Need to READ............2007-05-26
A++++ from beginning to end......
This book re-lit the fire that was fading out of my hope for custody and visitation due to the walls of the legal system snuffing it out after every encounter with it. Both these authors (Husband and Wife) should be recognized for presenting this priceless knowledge, honesty, and fairness this country needs in family court. I learned a lot about myself and how to better the future for all fathers. I believe honestly I am on a winning path to my children's' rights and mine as a father to be recognized. Recently I won my first hearing and now feel better prepared for the trial. I am representing myself, with confidence. Win or lose I know this book helped me emotionally, mentally, and most of all gain the knowledge to raise and provide "our" children with the rights they deserve.
Michael Brennan is my attorney..........2006-09-01
While struggling to find a decent attorney, I happened upon Michael's book in a libary. I arranged a meeting with Michael and ended up switching attorneys. I have had NO contact with my 4-year old daughter for the past seven (7) months... even with court orders for visitation. My case seems to be so complex, and unbelievable, that even attorneys such as Michael who write books on the subject find it difficult to believe. After months of trying to involve the police, DA, Attorney General of CA, and the FBI - with no success; Michael now seems to believe me and has successfully obtained an OSC forcing my wife and her attorney to explain why my daughter has been concealed. Interestingly, my case has moved from the original judge to the supervising judge on the family law panel. As the police in California will tell any father, "your rights as a father ended when your wife left and took your child." As the Attorney General's office will tell any father asking for help, "we don't even have enough resources to look for runaways...you will not find any help." The laws on the books don't matter when it comes to a mother sheltered by the corrupt CA legal system. Despite the hell I have endured, I believe in Michael's book and believe, despite my struggle, that he and his staff have the true best interest of the children in mind. The Family Law system in California is one of the state's "dirty little secrets". The mom-bias is extreme and outweighs "the best interest of the child" without the slightest consideration by accountable authorities of the facts in the matter. Read this book. Write a book. Fight for the thousands of innocent children who suffer every year from state-supported separation anxiety in California.
Practical information.......2006-04-29
Very nice feel for a self published book but the scope is limited and definitely from an attorney's point of reference. The opposition in my case must have been using this book exclusively. Good to have on your divorce/child custody book shelf.
I am a woman and am going to use these tactics on my ex.......2005-12-06
I am mother of a 3-year old boy undergoing a contested custody battle in Santa Clara County, California. Santa Clara County Superior Court, and California courts in general, grow more and more biased in favor of so-called "father's rights" with each passing year. The custody evaluators who perform custody evaluations in this county (it is an exclusive club) all conspire together to promote their agenda. My son is the one who is suffering and paying the price. My intention has never been to alienate my son from having a relationship with his father, but to have Court-ordered and evaluator-approved twice-weekly overnight visitation with the father at 11 months of age, when my son had never spent a single night away from me and was still nursing, is simply put an atrocity and and abberation of justice to my son - all in the name of political correctness. My son now suffers from a speech delay which I believe has been caused or exacerbated by the stress he has been forced to endure since age 1 - all in the name of so-called 'father's rights'.
This book appears to have some excellent strategies - my ex-husband planned his moves far in advance, and was planning the divorce and strategizing with his attorney for months prior to putting his plan into action - and has been one step ahead of me for most of the game. But, now it's my turn. I am fighting not for myself, but for my son -- in whose best interest his father is sadly incapable of acting.
so far so good..........2005-09-01
I'VE BEEN MARRIED 11 YEARS, 2 KIDS UNDER 9 YEARS OF AGE. SHE IS A "WALKAWAY WIFE" AND TOOK THE KIDS. SHE HAS A BLOOD THIRSTY ATTORNEY THAT LIES CONSTANTLY AND GETS CAUGHT UP WITH MY WIFE'S EXTORTIONS OF THE TRUTH. I NEED SERIOUS HELP AND THIS BOOK AND OR REVIEW MIGHT BE THE KEY. PLEASE CONTACT ME. I HAVE SPENT 35K SO FAR TRYING TO DEFEND MYSELF AND SEEKING JOINT AND IT STILL ISN'T OVER AND THE CUSTODY EVALUATOR HASN'T STARTED YET. LETTING YOUR WIFE STAY HOME WITH THE KIDS WHILE YOU WORK, IN MY CASE HAS BEEN A BIG MISTAKE, SHE LEAVES, I HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE FOR THE NEXT 12 YEARS.
Book Description
Robert Johnson's story presents a fascinating paradox: Why did this genius of the Delta blues excite so little interest when his records were first released in the 1930s? And how did this brilliant but obscure musician come to be hailed long after his death as the most important artist in early blues and a founding father of rock 'n' roll?
Elijah Wald provides the first thorough examination of Johnson's work and makes it the centerpiece for a fresh look at the entire history of the blues. He traces the music's rural folk roots but focuses on its evolution as a hot, hip African-American pop style, placing the great blues stars in their proper place as innovative popular artists during one of the most exciting periods in American music. He then goes on to explore how the image of the blues was reshaped by a world of generally white fans, with very different standards and dreams.
The result is a view of the blues from the inside, based not only on recordings but also on the recollections of the musicians themselves, the African-American press, and original research. Wald presents previously unpublished studies of what people on Delta plantations were actually listening to during the blues era, showing the larger world in which Johnson's music was conceived. What emerges is a new respect and appreciation for the creators of what many consider to be America's deepest and most influential music.
Wald also discusses how later fans formed a new view of the blues as haunting Delta folklore. While trying to separate fantasy from reality, he accepts that neither the simple history nor the romantic legend is the whole story. Each has its own fascinating history, and it is these twin histories that inform this book.
Customer Reviews:
perhaps rating was a little too harsh.......2007-10-11
i was disappointed to find out that the book's only "new" evidence is some sales data of delta blues music and a few first hand accounts that once in a while these blues musicians played a tune that was not blues.
In addition his long description about music sales and the development of the blues, Wald uses these first hand accounts to prove his points, while at the same time he ignores stories that don't fit into his argument-which may makes his claims specious to say the least.
lets say Mr. Wald and I may not have have the same fundamentals views about the blues. I contacted Mr. Wald to mention important aspects which I believe he may have carelessly overlooked. To Mr. Wald's credit he took great time and care to explain to me (an amateur blues reader) what his points were and why they are important to blues history. These were facts that I may be missed when reading his book. so i must say this worth may be worth looking at .
Robert Johnson -- Still not the whole story.......2007-05-07
Escaping The Delta should be one of the first books a blues novice reads as it helps fill out the outline of the music, the role of the delta and the music of Robert Johnson who did escape the delta only to be drawn back to die in its mystery and danger. There was a lot more to say about Robert Johnson and the delta at the time this book was written: very little original oral history research has been done in recent years (with the exception of the recent Howlin' Wolf book), very little extensive research into European blues magazines (the only first person interviews of the classic blues musicians -- few were done in America) has been done because full collections are hard to find (if they exist), and the author failed to interview the only people alive who really knew Robert Johnson (Honeyboy Edwards,Robert Lockwood Jr., and Robert Townsend for example). Thus little new light is shed on Johnson's life, even where he is actually buried (in Little Zion church on the Money Mississippi road outside of Greenwood) and why he is there and not thrown into the river as most bluesmen would have been. With all respect to Mr. Ward who has written an excellent book, I did all of that research in the process of researching the lives of Alex "Rice" Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II) and Robert Lockwood Jr.. I did have the opportunity to communicate with Ward about his Josh White book (Sonny Boy Williamson II played on his last album). There is more to say on the history of the blues and the delta as well as Robert Johnson.
Not What It Says It Is.......2007-01-12
This volume is a book about something. But its not about Robert Johnson, its not about escaping the Delta, and its hardly about the blues. It is more a rambling chronology of popular music, and the ways in which Blues is nested into that overall context. It is as much or more about musicians other than blues musicians. And when it focuses on "blues musicians", it goes to great and repeated lengths to demonstrate they were not really "Blues" musicians at all. We understand them to be such today, the author labors, because Blues sold. In fact, the author repeats, the "Blues" musicians we have come to revere liked to play, and did play, other kinds of music as much or more than blues, including ragtime, tin pan alley, fife and drum and spirituals. See? They weren't really blues players at all. They were versatile musicians forced into this genre by the music business, many of them preferring to play something other than blues. Huh.
Further, the author posits that latter day (white?) blues musicians are not really playing the blues either. They are acting "as if", affecting musical styles and inflections that are not their own. Sort of make believe blues performing. Imitating the blues musicians of yore, and not authentically expressing themselves in their own right. Despite Fred McDowell's and John Lee Hooker's assertion that "the Blues is a feeling", the author would apparently have us believe that it was only THEIR feeling, not one available to others.
Suffice it to say, the author and I do not share a fundamental view of what the Blues is. Would I buy, read, or reccommend this book. No, no and no. It isn't what it says it is. And what it is is superficial in its depth of understanding of Blues expression, and how and where that happens.
Wonderful!.......2005-12-04
This was a great book and a must-have in any music biography library. It's more than a music biography though. Many of us in this day and age have a mythical idea of who Robert Johnson was, we've all heard the story of how he learned to play guitar by selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads and other such lore, but this book cuts through all that and gets down to the real brass tacks: Robert Johnson was anything but popular in his time, when bands like the Mississippi Sheiks were much more popular.
The historical information in the book is fascinating, it strips away all of our romantic notions about juke joints and mythological bluesmen and shows the real Delta of the early part of this century: gritty, unbelievably impoverished and depressed, dangerous and frightening. Truly the land that begat the blues.
This book is truly excellent.
A Refreshing Insight.......2005-08-24
Elijah Wald's book is outstanding in the sense that he not only gives an insight to the music, but also the the personalities of second-generation bluesmen, with a strong emphasis on Robert Johnson. Mr. Wald has speculated somewhat on what has not been recorded, but much of this is corroborated in one way or the other, mostly based on interviews. The opinions and memories conveyed might have been warped, twisted or recolletions embellished, nevertheless, I strongly believe that this shall stand the test of time and stay as one of the alternatives to the romantic and platonically idealized view of the "bluesman".
I did not read the book as an academic work, but as an in-depth story of Robert Johnson, his predecessors and successors. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Mr. Wald's approach was objective and far from the forced devotion that some hardcore fans of delta blues have shown. As art creates its heroes after they have lived, the concept of the delta bluesman is stereotypically formed in the minds of most people. This is especially emphasized in liner notes, booklets in box sets, and even in some books. Yes, they might have been hard-drinking, womanizing, dangerous people who have shown the delicate side to their personalities in their music and lyrics, but the fact that first and foremost they were entertainers of high calibre is frequently overlooked.
Robert Johnson has only one recorded solo, his lyrics do not have consistency, but John Hammond has selected Johnson for the famed concerts in 1938. The music had already changed by the time the British Blues Explosion took place, but the neo-bluesmen had to find some heroes to identify themselves with. Bluesmen who had died young, hoboed from town to town, drank and smoked excessively and played around with women fitted perfectly with their conception of life, which evolved into sex, drugs and rock'n roll.
I believe that Mr Wald's book is invaluable for uncovering this mystique about the bluesmen, and helping us blues lovers in accepting these people as "people" first.
Average customer rating:
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Black List / Section H (Crosscurrents/Modern Fiction)
Francis Stuart
Manufacturer: Southern Illinois University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
Action & Adventure
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0809305275 |
Book Description
Black List, Section H is Francis Stuart’s twentieth novel, the consummation of a lifetime devoted to writing, and perhaps the keystone through which all of his other works must be viewed. Almost totally autobiographical, described by the novelist himself as “an imaginative fiction in which only real people appear, and under their actual names where possible,” the novel encompasses the period from 1919,
when H, the hero, comes to Dublin and meets Maud Gonne and marries her adopted daughter, Iseult, through the period of the Second World War, when in 1939,
burdened by marital and financial difficulties he accepts a position as lecturer at Berlin University. Stuart’s depiction of wartime
Berlin, the Allied bombings, and the endless shuffling between refugee and prison camps after the war is one of the few accounts of these experiences in English. More than a mere record of one man’s life, the book is an experience deeply lived and set down in fine prose with an intensity that is contagious.
Customer Reviews:
My Cousin Francis Stuart.......1997-12-23
I am intrigued by the continuing controversy over Aosdana's election to the office of Saoi of my cousin Francis Stuart, author of Black List. Francis is the cousin I didn't know I had, at least until last year. The family black sheep, the skeleton in the cupboard, he has been the family member that everyone found so hard to deal with that it was easier to deny his existence completely and since the war he has been written out of the family history, both in Burke's 1958 Landed Gentry of Ireland and in their 1978 Irish Family Records. It was not until I found the rather obscure 1930 family history "Three Hundred Years in Inishowen" by our mutual cousin Amy Young (nee Stuart) that I started to fill in the gaps and realised who he was. Francis has said (Irish Times,November 14, 1996, "Nothing But Doubt") that "the Stuart family, however, never forgave Francis's mother and blamed her for Henry's death." That's probably only a partial truth; rather, Henry's suicide shattered the family in ways that have resonated down the generations. The collective failure of the Stuart family, including, but not only, Francis, to integrate the trauma were surely a factor in the 1993 suicide of his and my cousin, travel writer Miles Clark, and so it continues. I confess I read Black List Section H at least in part neither as a literary masterpiece nor as a justification for Francis' wartime actions, but as a family history. Where he writes of how "he'd imagined his cousin Stella coming to his room at night to initiate him into the sexual mystery" I read of my godmother, later Stella Greer, who used to send me 5 quid at Christmas, and was said to be a bit of an old dragon. I presume she was the cousin whose love-letters Francis kept in the pigeon-holes of his roll-top desk at Rugby (Things to Live For (1934) ,page 17) and mentions again on the first page of Black List. And I suspect that, despite two marriages and a divorce, her cousin Francis was in some ways the unrecognised love of her life. I didn't meet her until she was eighty, but as Francis confirms, she must have been young once!
The claims against Francis of anti-semitism are a malicious nonsense. Francis's biographer J.H.Natterstad (Irish Writers series, 1974) notes that "There is no evidence whatever that he saw the Jew as part of an international conspiracy or as the incarnation of evil. Although he was not sympathetic to what he saw as the Jewish obsession with money, the Jew was, as the archetypal outcast, a natural ally and was treated as such in "Julie" (written in 1938, a year before he went to Germany). Natterstad also notes that at Rugby, "There were others, he discovered, who felt themselves outsiders, and they formed their own clique, which insulated them to some extent against the life around them: 'Well, we Irish and a Jew and a Pole,' he recalled, 'we made a little group, and it was good.' " Francis has said that "I have spoken and written several million words in my life. No one could ever point to a sentence of mine that was or is anti-Semitic." In fact he could go further than merely denying any expression of anti-semitism; he has firmly nailed his colours to the mast and they contain nary a shred of racial or other prejudice. The only circumstance in which I could imagine Francis being anti-Jew is if he went to live in Israel, when he would no doubt quickly identify with the downtrodden Palestinians.
But it should be remembered that Francis was not the only member of his family to spend the war in Germany, the other being his cousin's son, my uncle Bob Stewart-Moore. Bob,brought up on the same Queensland sheep station where Francis Stuart was born, and traumatised not by the suicide of Henry Stuart but by the accidental death an elder brother Henry Stewart-Moore, was in bombers, shot down over Germany and,rather than being "passionately involved in my own living fiction", as Francis Stuart claims to have been, spent three and a half years as a prisoner of war at Lamsdorf, some fifty kilometres from Auschwitz. He then walked 500 miles in three months through Poland and Germany in the middle of winter to freedom at the end of the war, eventually being picked up by American troops near Muhlhausen. The group of Australians with whom he was imprisoned recently published a book on the experience, titled "The RAAF POWS of Lamsdorf", which is certainly anything but fiction, and in it Bob recounts the experience of being shot down, crashing in the Elbe canal, getting out of the plane underwater, and being imprisoned by the Germans. Certainly a different way of entering Germany to that chosen by his cousin Francis! One can only hope that the account in Black List of Francis's meeting with a POW at Frankfurt is not a (heavily disguised) description of a wartime meeting with his cousin. The age is wrong, as is the nationality and the rank. In fact the flying boots are about the only thing that is right. But the overtly and quite unnecessarily sexual references he ascribes to Captain Manville are something that this encounter has in common with Francis's descriptions of his cousins Maida and Stella: Are they a device he has used to distance himself from a connection uncomfortably intimate? Do I read too much into this encounter, or are there some subjects too tough even for Francis Stuart's brutal brand of honesty? The Aosdána award seems richly deserved, awarded as it is on literary merit, and I congratulate him on it. But now that he has done the easy bit and made his peace with Ireland and the world, perhaps it's time Francis tried something a little more challenging, and started to reintegrate with his family, starting with Bob Stewart-Moore in Sydney? I would have given Francis a ten for a book that I found to be quite enthralling (and not only for the family connections), but subtract one point for what appears to be his apparent failure to confront this most difficult of issues.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies, published by Irish University Review on September 22, 2004. The length of the article is 7270 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: A minority of one: Francis Stuart's Black List, Section H and the end of the Irish Bildungsroman.(Critical Essay)
Author: Richard T. Murphy
Publication:
Irish University Review: a journal of Irish Studies (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2004
Publisher: Irish University Review
Volume: 34
Issue: 2
Page: 261(16)
Article Type: Critical Essay
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