Occasionally throughout the years I've enjoyed reading a good Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine mystery-thriller. Not so this time. I had to force myself to finish the last 120-plus pages. Whatever mild interest Rendell aroused at the beginning of the book evaporated when the story's lynchpin Jeff (Jock) was removed. After it became apparent to the reader how the characters and their lives intersected, the story line became a rather tasteless pudding indeed. The characters were truly one dimensional cardboard cutouts defined soley by their emotional and psychological aberrations. Minty, an OCD paranoid schizophrenic aroused not a ounce of sympathy. I found the parts about Michelle, the emotionally vulerable easily wounded binge eater and her equally off-putting saccharine, anorexic husband hard to take, even in small doses. Jeff(Jock) the womanizing sociopath at least ignited a small bit of fire before he burned out fairly early on. Creating the stereotype narcissistic gay MP was beneath the talent of Rendell. As were all the uncharming, off-putting characters in this inadequate "mystery". Psychological thriller? Not by any stretch of Rendell's imagination... or yours.

Ruth Rendell has always tackled madness with remarkable skill, and in Adam and Eve and Pinch Me she brings us in close to Minty, a young woman suffering from obsessive compulsive disorder and being pushed closer and closer to the edge by voices in her head and hallucinations which at times appear as real to her as the people around her.

Minty is not the only character in this book. There is also Jock, or Jeff, or Jerry Leach, depending on whom you ask, a rather charming young man who befriends women, only to disappear with their money. He has befriended Minty, only to desert her by pretending to get himself killed in a train wreck. Before that, he has befriended, and in one case married, a whole string of other women, several of whom find their way into this book, along with their own sets of problems. But the story belongs to Minty. It begins and ends with her, and with the horrible but inevitable acts she commits while battling her hallucinations. She knows Jeff is dead, but his ghost won't leave her alone and she's desperate. She knows she must get rid of him ... and she does.

Adam and Eve and Pinch Me did not blow me away. In fact, there were times when it did not seem like Rendell's writing. Many of her characters came across more like caricatures than real people, especially Matthew and his wife. I did not find myself growing especially attached to any of the bizarre parade marching through these pages. I did, however, read the book all the way through, something that doesn't happen so much now that I've gotten more fussy, and, even if I did find disbelief hard to suspend at times, I was never bored. Rendell is certainly a master at her craft, and while Adam and Eve and Pinch Me is not her best work, it is still an excellent read.

"Adam and Eve and Pinch Me" is another tour de force by the magnificent Ruth Rendell. It is the story of three very different women who have one thing in common. A handsome and charming rogue named Jeff Leach romances them and subsequently abandons them with no explanation. As his last name implies, Jeff is very much a leech. He takes advantage of women by living off them financially until he decides to move on to his next conquest.

In this novel, Rendell creates some extremely dysfunctional characters. Yet, no matter how strange or unlikable the characters are at first glance, the author manages to make the reader both understand and sympathize with them. Most dysfunctional of all is Minty Knox, a pathetic and lonely young woman who has a horrible case of obsessive-compulsive disorder. She is compelled by her illness to wash herself, her clothing and her home many times daily; her fear of dirt is pathological. Worse yet, Minty eventually starts to hallucinate, seeing and hearing ghosts of people whom she has known in the past. There is also a strange couple, Michelle and Matthew Jarvey, who suffer from extreme eating disorders and an ambitious Member of Parliament named Jims Melcombe-Smith, whose is willing to go to desperate lengths to keep his homosexuality a secret.

The lives of these people and others intersect when two bizarre murders are committed in London in close succession. The police cannot decide who had the means or the motive to commit these strange crimes, but the reader is in on the secret all along. Therefore, "Adam and Eve" is not so much a whodunit as it is an intricate, suspenseful and fascinating psychological study of the different ways that people behave under extreme duress. It would be fair to state that Rendell's view of human nature is generally a negative one, since she so often depicts selfish, petty and disturbed people in her novels. However, Rendell tempers her pessimism with delicious humor and deep compassion. Occasionally, as in the case of Michelle and Matthew Jarvey, Rendell creates characters who treat one other with genuine consideration and devotion. The whole spectrum of human nature is on display in Rendell's novels.

I highly recommend "Adam and Eve and Pinch Me." It is a wonderful book that will mesmerize, horrify and entertain you all at once.

Ellis' work focuses on the latter part of Adams' life. While it makes no claim to be a complete biography, the book serves as an excellent foundation for those seeking to learn more about our most underappreciated founding father. Through detailed comparisons with Jefferson - Adams' rival and close friend who has been treated more kindly by America's collective consciousness - Ellis begins to illuminate many levels of the New Englander's character. In doing so, he helps us understand why Adams was not, and probably never will be, adored by the nation he helped to create

I am like dspector -- I searched this book out after reading Ellis's "American Sphinx" on Jefferson. I am now a true John Adams fan. I have also read Ferling's biography of Adams, and agreed that it was more thorough, but not that it was as well written. Ellis has no equal in writing historical biography!

I'm now interested in knowing if anyone is working on a John Adams Memorial comparable to the Washington and Jefferson memorials in D.C. Why is he ignored? How about putting him on some of our money???

Written with wit, charm, and a keen eye for historical detail, this book restores John Adams to his rightful place as one of our most intelligent, prescient forefathers. Dealing primarily with his post-presidential life, the author creates a fascinating image of an aging, yet mentally sound patriarch attempting to rehabilitate his image and settle old scores with former foes. In addition to highlighting the legendary correspondence with Jefferson (where Adams doubled the epistolary output of Mr. Jefferson), the author also brings to light his lengthy disputes with Mary Wollstonecraft and Mercy Otis Warren. Fortunately, Adams is neither belittled nor attacked with the unfairness of hindsight. Instead, he is presented in the fullness of his complexity; often self-righteous, obsessive, and grouchy, yet always believing that the principles of the Revolution were best served by a national, rather than provincial, approach. Few have disputed Adams' eloquence or dignity and now, thanks to Mr. Ellis, we can finally see that Adams just might be one of the most relevant.

This book is for those who love bullfighting, those who loathe bullfighting and those who would like a few writing tips from a master.

I read this book while I was in Spain, but I did not see a fight until I had finished. Going to a bullfight without knowledge or someone to guide me would have been overwhelming. But seeing the details Hemingway descibes come to life made it that much more exciting.

For those who object to bullfighting you have that right. But don't object without knowing the how's or why's of what goes on. The most eye-opening thing you will see at a fight is the crowd getting upset at a fighter who takes liberties with a bull. Hemingway descibes in detail the purpose for every action taken in the ring, which gives clearity to what looks like cruelty.

And finally, Hemingway gives advice on writing no writer should ignore. "When you write, don't write characters...write people." If you are a writer, whether interested in bullfighting or not, you should read this book for the invaluable advice of a master.

I can hardly think of a better way to spend an afternoon than hanging out with Papa Hemingway.

I got this book for Christman two years ago. At that point in my life I was infatuated with everything Hemingway and assumed that this was a novel about bullfighting. Well, it's not. But, if you read it with an open mind, you just might want to see a bullfight for yourself. Good style, reminds me of Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi".

Hemingway loved bullfighting. And Spain. His affection for these comes across in this book. Death in the Afternoon is also infused with Hemingway's personality, which has been called his greatest artistic creation, and that makes this book especially personal and interesting.
This is a great book to read on a flight to Spain, particularly if you plan to see a bullfight. With your newly-minted expertise in bullfighting, you'll apreciate the pageant much more.
But Death in the afternoon is not just about bullfighting. Hemingway discusses such topics as death, often death, war, writing, art (a comparison of the painters Goya, Velasquez and El Greco), love and Faulkner. This book is more than a guide to bullfighting -- it is good literature.

DEVICES AND DESIRES is one of P.D. James' longer novels, and probably the most shameless example of the fine author's tendency to ramble unnecessarily. Though one wishes that James had exercised a bit more restraint, the fact that this is still head-and-shoulders above most detective fiction, and still an incredibly absorbing story, is a testament to her undeniable skill.

Scotland Yard Commander Adam Dalgliesh takes some time off and moves into the windmill cottage of his deceased aunt. And of course, there's something rotten in Norfolk; in addition to the usual Jamesian network of convoluted relationships, tense rivalries, and dangerous liasons (this book isn't titled DEVICES AND DESIRES for nothing), there's a mysterious strangler known as the Whistler murdering young women in the area. A serial killer may seem more appropriate for a thriller than a formal detective story, but the ingenious way in which the author uses the Whistler as a mere catalyst for a very

English murder is possibly one of the most original and clever twists ever conceived in the genre. James may waste words, but she still knows how to plot a good mystery.

Unfortunately, the execution (so to speak) doesn't work nearly as well; the main plot gets buried in a multitude of meandering subplots. James throws in an overcomplicated story thread dealing with espionage and political intrigue that might make a fine novel on its own, but feels out of place in this one. James has always made her setting as important to her novels as the characters, but the nuclear power station isn't one of her best (certainly not as effective as the publishing firm in ORIGINAL SIN, or the legal chambers in A CERTAIN JUSTICE). Rather than adding a subtle layer of meaning or metaphor to the narrative, the setting basically allows the characters to deliver heavy, ham-handed commentary on the virtues or evils of nuclear power that have almost no relevance to the story at hand. Ultimately, too much of DEVICES AND DESIRES is extraneous and contrived; too much of it is stagey and hokey to be convincing. Three-quarters of the way through, you may feel like taking a pair of scissors and cutting out all the unnecessary parts (it'd probably end up half as long and a much improved effort).

What saves DEVICES AND DESIRES, ultimately, are the gifts that the author has always brought to her work--a brilliantly realized sense of time and place, wonderfully vivid characters, and prose so well-written it comes close to poetry. P.D. James is one of those authors with such a natural flair for the English language, her writing is always a pleasure to read. Even when she rambles.

A different sort of mystery (and how often one can write that for a James!) in that the murderer one thinks is going to be the main problem suddenly isn't, and the real solution to the major crime is hidden in layers that are opened only by the omniscient author to the reader; none of her characters, not even Dalgliesh, knows all that we do by the end of the book. Dalgliesh is not actually the investigating officer in any of the mysteries here; truth be told he's more of a suspect ~ certainly a witness ~ in the major crime. Visiting his aunt's cottage, his since her death, in Norfolk, he becomes imbroiled in a mystery that could be part of the repetoire of a serial killer he has a slight interest in. The characters range around the headland which contains his cottage and mill, a nuclear power station, and several other habitations. Everyone has something to hide, including Dalgliesh and the investigating officer Rickards; some are more successful at concealment. The only thing i disliked about the plot was the sudden intrusion of MI5 in the last pages. Its appearance has something of the nature of a deus ex machina, and i am not too sure that the precense of the two men adds anything other than a mild explanation; nothing necessary, in other words. It reminds me of another James where the end comes only in the written confession of the murderer; there, as i recall, i did not object so strongly. The flurry of "fake" endings leads one to wonder if perhaps James doesn't write herself into a corner, concetrating so hard on the characters and their actions, that she loses track of the plot and cannot find a way out? The blessing is that those characters really do carry her books; i am not overly upset over a minor plot flaw.

Okay. So I'm in love with Ms. James. Read this book if for no other reason that the brief contact with Jonah the tramp. I'm not even going to bother with a review of the story (which is complex, described in language evoking colors, warmth on skin, odors pungent and delightful). An outing with Ms. James and Adam Dalgliesh is more than just a neat mystery story: It's a trip through the flavors, delights and pains of humanity. One can pick up the title of the book from time to time with various modifiers as the characters explore and experience the effects and power of our very human devices and desires.

Growing Up, is Russel Baker's autobiography that describes his atypical life. Starting from humble beginnings in the mountains of West Virginia, Baker weathered a childhood that spanned the entire Depression, and later found success as a big city newspaperman. What was most enjoyable about this book was its genuine authenticity. Baker rattles off no frightening or boring statistics about the Depression. Rather, he writes about life as he saw it, progressively maturing as the book flows along. This, one would argue, is this book's most appealing quality. Baker never comes out to draw attention to himself at any time during the book. He lets the reader know if there was any particular activity that he was adept at, and surprisingly, those passages were surprisingly rare throughout the book. An enthralling read, no, a good, solid read, yes. Go ahead, check it out.

Required reading for my English class, I thought I would have to drag my feet through another boring book about war, but I found "Growing Up" both funny and heart-warming.

What makes Russell Baker's autobiography unique is that he does not cover his entire life. He tells of his humble beginnings, his mother, life during the depression (not the sterile textbook version), his schooling, his humorous escape from service during World War II, his big break in writing, and--the most touching of all--his one true love, Miriam.

Russell Baker writes vividly and in a straightforward manner, avoiding esoteric passages that plague books like "The Jungle." He has the quality of a storyteller that mesmerizes listeners. The only lull in the book can be found when discussing his mother's letters written during the Great Depression. A sentence or so into the last chapter I wanted to cry, not because it was sad or depressing (on the contrary, it was upbeat), but because Russell's writing was so moving.

Russell Baker's charmingly written "Growing Up" takes us through the stages of his eventful life, from his early rural boyhood, through the hard times of the Depression when he lived with his widowed mother and a houseful of her relatives in New Jersey, to the World War II years and beyond. His tone throughout is modest and unassuming, and each stage is presented according to his maturity level as he grew up. His mother's high expectations set a high bar for Baker through his growing up years, and must have contributed to his successful eventual career at the New York Times.

"Growing Up" is carefully crafted by this experienced writer, yet reads as if he had effortlessly put together this a seamless memoir. The many characters come to vivid life with all their virtues and foibles, and Baker's narrative flows smoothly from beginning to end. A great read!

Rest assured, this riveting chronicle of the brief rise and ugly eclipse of Jan Paul Beahm, aka Darby Crash, will not make you dream how romantic your life would have been as a first generation punk rocker in the late 70s. By the time the average reader has traversed the nearly 300 pages of damaged life documented here, they'll want to take a shower to wash off all the dried blood.
Wrapped with a stunning color photo (by Ruby Ray) of Darby in a filthy San Francisco dressing room, this book captures all the mayhem, the confusion, the broken glass and the shattered brains that a film like "The Decline of Western Civilization" only offered a fleeting glimpse at. Lexicon Devil is pure oral history, with the spit, vinegar and vomit right there alongside the vitriol. In this case, a thousand words are worth a lot more than one picture (although the book contains a goodly number of the latter that have never been seen before).
It's no wonder the cesspit of HelL.A. played home to a tragic tale of this sort. It's the stuff California is made of-the slime behind the hippy new age façade. In their few years of existence, the Germs captured something almost profound, although they themselves might not have realized it at the time. This book captures the Germs and Darby Crash in a way that will not likely be surpassed.

Leave it to Feral House to offer one of the best books on punk rock ever printed. LA punk is terribly underrated and "We Got The Neutron Bomb" was alright, a glimpse into the LA scene. But after I finished that book, I couldn't help but want wonder, what else? There had to be more to it than that. Well, Brendan Mullen's second book on the subject (albeit focused on just one figure from the LA scene), is so completely dense with information, it's frightening! This visceral and engrossing book affected my subconscious to such an intense degree, my dreams were haunted by the presence of Darby Crash! It's that real, that deep and that provoking. With insight, observations and reporting from hundreds of people who were there, the people who were closest to Darby, from his family, his school friends, his band mates, to his musician peers, general acquaintances, on-lookers and hangers-on, supplemented with an extensively researched list of live performances, discography and lyrics, jam-packed with photos, "Lexicon Devil" will no doubt be the quintessential biography on one of the most misunderstood cultural icons of punk rock, as well as the 20th century. Darby and the Germs wrote the blueprint for Hard Core. And Brendan, Don and especially Adam Parfrey, who provided what no commercial publisher would even have the guts to suggest, should be applauded for doing what needed to be done: recognizing the legacy and significance of Darby Crash, the Germs and LA punk rock.

After reading Lexicon Devil, all the words and pictures fell away to reveal what I consider to be the important message of this book. This is a story about the far-reaching and long-term effects of suicide on the survivors.

It is the story of those who tried to save a troubled youth from himself but were unable. A story of the unwitting victims and the willing participants in one person's plan for imortality.

It is also a look at the very real phenomenon of suicide among Gay youth. The emotional conflicts they deal with, the inablity to merge their true identity with their personna.

I enjoyed the background information on recording the album and the progression of Punk Rock in Southern California, and it's association with the skater crowd. I was surprised at the number of people who crossed Darby's path during his brief time in the spotlight.

I found the book's format as an oral history interesting. The conflicting memories and feuds that continue decades later. The way the women in his life are still possesive of his memory. Again, the long-term effects of one brief life on the many.

Well Darby, you did it, you got your immortality and now people can see the real you.

I hope you will finally be able to rest.

This very well researched book dares to go into all the possible reasons and conspiracy theories concerning the Manson case.
It takes all the dozens of books written on the subject together with a huge library of (internet)articles and edit them together as this book, so if you only buy one book about Manson make sure it's this one; it doesn't take sides, just delivers the facts and theories.The only thing sadly missed is an index,but that's my only complaint. I don't understand the guy who complained about the lack of pictures (the book contains photo's of the entire innercircle of the family!), if you find pictures so important in a book stick with "The Manson Family Picnic"!

This is an excellent read for anyone interested in the Manson Family or for true crime, conspiracy and occult buffs. This book cuts through the time honored theory of Helter Skelter as well as the more arcane theories initiated by Sanders, Terry and others, and allows the reader to formulate an opinion. It includes new evidence and interviews gleaned in the last few years that bolster some theories and weaken others. Until we get a REAL tell all book by one of the main family members, this is the best out there.

** The Excluded Middle **
Greg Bishop, Editor
www.excludedmiddle.com

"There are so many Manson books, good, bad, and worse, but Adam Gorightly checks in with the most comprehensive, hip and well-written history of Charlie's Lonely Souls Club Band since Ed Sanders' "The Family.""

** Jaye C. Beldo aka The Lone Nutter **
Netnous@aol.com

"In the much welcome exposé, The Shadow Over Santa Susana, Adam Gorightly brings the wayward and colorful Manson gaggle back to vivid, hallucinatory life in an informative and entertaining way...The book follows the trail of a nightmare arabesque conjured by Manson and his bus load of drug addled, statutory nymphs, bringing to light conspiratorial information that has laid dormant for several years."

** Hypertonia World Enterprises **
http://home.online.no/~janbruun/
Jan Bruun, Proprietor

"After a year or two of anticipation, Adam Gorightly's book The Shadow Over Santa Susana -- Black Magic, Mind Control and the 'Manson Family' Mythos is finally out. It traces the story of Charles Manson and the "Family", covering some new, conspiratorial ground and tries to puzzle together theories earlier launched by the severely misguided and spelling-challenged Bill Nelson and in Maury Terry's Manson vs. Son of Sam epic novel-like The Ultimate Evil. Gorightly seems to have less of a moral axe to grind, and is willing to search for possible truths from any available source, thus bringing together one of the most comprehensive Manson books ever written..."

Jonathan Kellerman, Blood Test (Signet, 1986)

I spent most of this book waiting for that proverbial other shoe. Kellerman, in my mind, has always been one of those Andrew Vachss-style one-trick ponies who blames all of the world's problems on one narrow, and possibly specious, band of the psychotherapeutic spectrum. I hasten to add that I based that opinion on reviews and a cursory reading of Kellerman's first Alex Delaware novel, When the Bough Breaks, a few years back (I read it in tandem with one of Vachss' books, which may have further colored my thinking). Removed from both Vachss and the rather amateurish effort of Kellerman's first novel, I picked up Blood Test more as a way to pad the numbers for 2001-- skim fifty pages, dump it, chalk up another book in the it's-been-read pile. Blood Test, however, surprised me.

Alex Delaware returns, this time to try and hunt down a kidnapped cancer patient. The list of suspects isn't too long, but it's certainly juicy-- the kid's parents (who have also gone missing), an alternative-medicine-loving pot-smoking ex-hippie doctor, and an organically-minded SoCal cult founded by an ex-Beverly Hills lawyer who got shot in the head. Oh, yeah, and the everpresent "random crime" theory. Add to this Delaware's being stalked by the extremely angry husband in a recently-finished child custody case who lost and lost big (and blames Delaware, of course), and you get 400 pages of pretty-durn-good mystery.

The shoe does drop, of course. What makes Kellerman predictable isn't whodunit, but whytheydunit. In relation to many mystery writers, this is quite the handicap, because knowing the why before you open the cover will certainly narrow the playing field (and anyone with a passing acquaintance with Alex Delaware will know the why of it at that point). On the up side, though, Kellerman's one-man crusade isn't nearly the week-old scrod that Andrew Vachss' one-man crusade is, and that makes Kellerman a whole lot more readable. Standard mystery fare, but easy reading and compelling enough to keep the pages turning. ** 1/2

In this second novel by Jonathan Kellerman featuring Dr. Alex Delaware, the good doctor finds himself drawn into the midst of a mystery involving a horribly sick child, a strangely shut-off family, a reclusive religious cult, and a whole town that seems to have a pall cast over it. When five-year- old Woody Swope disappears from the hospital where he is being treated for life-threatening cancer, Dr. Alex Delaware does everything in his power to find the missing child. Can he dig up the truth behind the mysteries surrounding Woody before it's too late for the boy?

While Dr. Delaware and his LAPD Homicide detective friend Milo Sturgis continue to be interesting and compelling characters, I found that I didn't enjoy Blood Test as much as I did the first of Kellerman's Delaware novels, When the Bough Breaks. I didn't feel that the supporting characters were as well fleshed out as they could have been, and that many of them were in the story simply to fit an archetype or to neatly be a necessary foil for some aspect of the plot. This isn't to say that the book wasn't enjoy, but it simply didn't feel as natural as When the Bough Breaks. I will certainly continue reading the Kellerman series, and hope that this book's lack of polish is the exception to the rule.

Blood Test, while a quick read, was an interesting and well-developed book. The plot centers upon a young boy whose parents refuse cancer treatment. Dr. Delaware, the star of several of Kellerman's books, is called in by the treating physician to convince the parents to consent to treatment. Before he can meet with the parents, however, the boy is taken from the hospital. Dr. Delaware's concern with the young boy throws him into an adventure, focused on finding the boy, where he stumbles upon horticultural prowess and cultists that may be more than what they seem. There is less of a psychological twist in Blood test than in some of the other Kellerman books, but plot interest will keep you reading until the end.

I have read many of the McNally stories. I think that this is my favorite. Archy McNally reminds me of Tom Selleck in "Magnum, P.I" I just think that the beginning could have been improved. I just didn't like the opening act. The rest of the book was very well written. Sanders manages to put the right amount of romance and sex into each novel.

Lawrence Sanders has a unique ability to convey the lifestyles of the rich to paper in a believeable fashion. His vivid descriptions of meals and wines, with just a hint of snobbery, are superb and have me wishing I were partaking of the victuals along with the characters. The story itself is up to the usual outstanding plot that Sanders (and McNally) fans have come to expect. I've read every one of the McNally series books and always look forward to the next. (The included vocabulary lessons in the stories are a plus). Don't miss reading the series and include this one.

This is my favorite in the long line of Archy McNally books. While Sanders has given us more profound writing, the McNally series is fun and fast reading. Who doesn't envy Archy's cushy lifestyle, and relish in sharing it through Sanders's witty narrative. Sanders's use regular characters in the McNally series, for me, makes for a familiar and comfortable return to a juicy new mystery in West Palm Beach. I find comfort in and always depend on Archy's weak-kneed response to women, and his lack of willpower where hedonism in any form is concerned.

I was impressed with how Sanders was able to ignite some real feelings throughout the story, such as the guilt Archy felt with Sydney Smythe's death. For me, this lends some authenticity to the storyline. McNally's and Rogoff's collaboration was better developed in this effort, and the interesting twist concering the contents of Mrs. Westmore's Faberge Egg helped endear this story to me.

Though sometimes predictable, I would recommend McNally's Gamble to any Sanders fan, and highly recommend it as a first read for someone who has not read a McNally mystery.

Shakespeare in this play shows how love is not human but surrealistic. Love does not answer reasonable questions. It is a fundamentally unreasonable attitude that brings the lovers to absurd behaviours negating all logical, political and historical values. Love has no limits even if history will prove stronger and the lovers will be destroyed. Shakespeare beefs up this theme with a language that is so rich that we are fascinated by the words, the symbols, the symbolic value of words and acts. He is particularly rich in his style that is entirely, words, poetry, actions, and even feelings, organized following some simple symbols, particularly numerical symbols. In this play Cleopatra appears as being the core of the symbolism and she carries with her the number eleven that comes from the old English runes with the meaning of fate, of fatal defeat, of a flaw that cannot be corrected or escaped. It is her destiny to bring Antony to his defeat and death, just as it is Antony's fate to be governed by this woman and led to his own destruction because of his love for her. It also shows how the Emperor is able to use this fatal situation in order to capture all powers and to impose his absolute will on the Roman Empire. He seems to be the one who plays not well but with all the assets of the game up his sleeves, and he takes them out one at a time when the situation is ripe for these assts to become the key to is ascension to absolute power by defeating those who may oppose him.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Cleopatra may be a somewhat ambiguous female character, but I totally loved her, and Bill's portrayal of her. I don't know if he expected the reader to judge her, but I suspect not. The harshest criticism of her comes from Octavius Caesar, who himself doesn't do a single noble thing throughout the whole play. She is fully aware of the fact that she is a sensual, passionate woman- which has no negative effect on her ability to rule Egypt. Her biggest faults are her violent temper (which I suspect is just part of her passionate nature) and her tendency to lie when it suits her (either for sport or for serious politics). Antony (I feel) is actually kind of a loser compared to her. His insincerity runs deep- he marries Caesar's sister in a political move, although he had repeatedly pledged his undying love for Cleopatra. She forgives him, because she truly loves him, even though he doesn't do anything to deserve forgiveness. Antony never fully allows himself to love Cleopatra. He constantly is overreacting to the slightest indication that she might be betraying him or whatever. It is one of these overreactions (combined with an ill-timed lie on Cleo's part) that ends up destroying them both. Even in the end, Cleopatra's death is more dignified and better conceived than Antony's messy and fumbling suicide.

Anthony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare's difficult plays, and so I suspect the ratings on the play are low because it's a more mature play than Romeo and Juliet. Here we have two middle age lovers who part of the time are foolish with lust/love and the rest of the time are tough minded heads of state. The "tragedy" is that they can't be both and survive. This is not a play for the young folks, I'm afraid. But if you want some heavy drama where the characters are spared nothing and given no slack, read Anthony and Cleopatra (hint: Cleopatra's suicide is more political statement than a crazy wish to die with Antony). Better yet see it performed by some real actors some time.