I won't bother to review Dante's "Divine Comedy". The fact that it has withstood the test of time, and its depicitions of heaven and hell have become ingrained into our mythology, reveal far more than anything I could say.

This translation, however, was simply too difficult to read. It was too full of "thees" and "thous", and quite frankly did not flow at all. Reading it was a real struggle for me. The annotation and Canto introductions, however, were very helpful, and gave me a better picture of what Dante was saying than the actual text itself. The book also has the advantage of being compact (all three parts in one average-sized book), and reasonably priced.

However, I would recommend searching for a translation written in a more modern style, so that Dante's message isn't obscured in a linguistic haze. What he said was too important to be lost in a struggle with the langauge.

Whether you care to join the scholarly debate over whether Dante's soaring masterpiece is medieval or renaissance literature, this trilogy is well worth the time and effort anyone cares to invest. Make no mistake - this account of the journey of a soul through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven is very demanding reading, no matter how well translated and how many helpful notes are provided (I first "discovered" Dante in high school and remain faithful to the Ciardi translation). Dante can be read on so many levels that it constantly challenges the reader, yet the rewards are great. Dante the poet and the protagonist is a medieval Christian who is also embracing the masters of classical antiquity, such as his first guide, Virgil. He is a Florentine who bitterly resents the people who contributed to his exile from his beloved city-state. He is a political theorist who embraces a sort of world order far beyond the nations and petty principalities of his day. He is a devout believer who abhors the corruption of the late medieval Church. He is a writer who constructs a masterpeice of structure. He is a romantic who pines for his ultimate guide Beatrice. But ultimately, Dante is a passionate believer who chronicles the allegory of his soul's journey from sin (The Inferno) to repentance (Purgatory) to salvation (Paradise). Don't make the all-too-frequent mistake of reading only the most entertaining Inferno. A third of Dante is fascinating but the entire Divine Comedy is an inspiration.

This review is of the John Ciardi translation - apparently Amazon links it in to all versions? Different translations will suit different tastes.

This classic translation of Dante's trilogy remains one of the best. It nicely preserves the musicality of the original by retaining the "terza rima" rhyme scheme throughout. This may seem like a narrow point but it makes this a satisfying read for one who enjoys rhyme. Terza rima is an ABA, BCB, CDC... arrangement of triplets where the first and third lines rhyme and the middle line's rhyme becomes the first of the next triplet - simple but not sing-song. Over a poem of this length it helps to weave an amazing fabric of rhyme and story.

In the original Italian, a language with only a handful of primary word endings, such an approach was not the central challenge of a poetic work - Dante gets credit for the vision and scope. The challenge for translators is whether to preserve the content or the rhyme more closely; the English language is not comfortably suited for such relentless rhyming. Ciardi has, nevertheless, done a wonderful job of this. As to the other element, I've been told that the "story" is a tad "creative" at times. Perhaps Dante would object a few times if he reread this translation, but I found Ciardi's telling well crafted.

This edition combines all three parts of the "Comedy" in a nice, clothbound package. You might end up owning other translations of Dante (I have three), but you should certainly own this one.

Having recently purchased a Stratocaster with Marshall amp after years of not playing, I needed a refresher on my chosen instrument. What a wealth of information I found in this fabulously illustrated and organized book.

Once I picked this book up I couldn't put it down. It covers about everything you wanted to know that is related to guitar playing. The author gives you a concise bio of 20 different legendary guitar players, a complete background of guitar manufacturing and specs, guitar playing, maintenance and repair, soundstage and recording. You can jump around to whatever chapter interests you and read it in any order you desire. Every single page is filled with information and no paper is wasted in this book.

I challenge anyone to show me a guitar book that does a better job. I've looked at a lot of them and this one is in a class by itself.

When I first started playing the guitar 2 decades ago, a friend had a copy of an earlier edition of this guide and he gave me the book to use while I was getting started. Using the book, and I mean really reading the book thru thoroughly, I learned a whole lot about the instrument itself and the music that could be produced from the guitar and that really helped my performance as I developed on the instrument.

The book begins with guitar innovators, those guitar players who have had a serious impact on the way the instrument is played, etc. This section was actually fun to read and was quite informative about several guitar players who had influenced my own playing.

The following two sections of the book cover acoustic and electric guitars. These sections detail how each instrument (acoustic and electric) are put together, how to set the action, the various types of each style of guitar, how pick-ups are put together, etc. This is a helpful and technical section which instructs the reader on the ins and outs of the make-up of his instrument.

From here, the book moves into actually playing the instrument. It begins with the beginner, teaching good practicing habits, what to practice, improving fingering, chord progressions, reading tablature, tuning, action, right and left-handed techniques, etc. Then this section moves into chords (with photos), three-chord theory, flatpicking and strumming and other various fingerstyles, barre chords, and even how to transpose songs. Inside this section there is also a sub-section on rhythm guitar, setting tempo, time signatures, using chord charts, time values, etc. Essentially everything you would need to know to be a well rounded guitar player is included (including slide guitar).

The final section deals with the maintenance of the guitar. This section teaches the reader/player all the things that are needed to know about the most difficult maintenance aspects such as how to customize an instrument, to the easiest such as changing your strings. For the electric guitarist, there is a guide to guitar electronics which includes pictures and lists of all the tools you will need, instructions on reading wiring diagrams, actual charts and photos of how an electric guitar is wired, pick-up circuits, etc.

Finally, at the back of the book is a fairly extensive chord dictionary with pictures of how each chord is fingered. This dictionary is very helpful to the player when trying to find the same chord but to know where it is elsewhere on the fret board. Overall, what can I say but that no guitar player, regardless of your experience should be without this definitive guidebook.

This comprehensive book covers EVERYTHING you'd want to know--from famous guitarists to chord theory to amplifier electronics. A complete reference and fun reading as well. From beginner to accomplished, it has something for everyone.

Check out all the descriptions of milestone guitarists and guitar models. The step-by-step tutorial on learning the basics--or simply refer to the book when trying to work out that hard-to-remeber chord fingering. Although this book takes an "encyclopaedia" approach to cataloging everything you'd want to know, the reading is never dry.

With this book, you'll be able to discuss subjects such as your guitar's "action", the first solid-body electric, and alternate tunings like a real pro...

NT

I think Ralph Masiello is a greate illustrater, and I thought the boo we read was excellent. My favorite thing about the book was the hidden pictures. By the way, the book we read was THE EXTINCT ALPHABET BOOK. One of the hidden pictures was when the book had Jerry Pallota as a mountain. I would recomend that you read his books and look at all the hidden pictures. Some hidden pictures were hard to find. We also had trouble with hidden messages too. If you want to read a good alphabet book I think you should read the EXTINCT ALPHABET BOOK before it's extinct!!!!!

I like the way Ralph hides pictures in the books that he illustrates. His illustrations are extermely amazing. The book I read was The Extinct Alphabet Book. I would Recommend it to all grades. It will teach them how to say their alphabet and expose them to intersting extinct animals.

I think that the Extinct Alphabet book is a really good book. The book has good drawings and hidden meseges in the pictures. It's sad that only 1 Jamacin long-tonged bat is left on the earth and it's in a glass jar. that's sad that they killed the deer for dog food.

I never gave Watts his full due of respect back in the 60's and 70's, because at the time I (and others) saw him as a trendy popularizer perhaps cashing in on the interest of that segment of the western readership who are perennially eastern-obsessed and therefore too naive and uncritical of their philosophy. Back then, there were just too many young people, who, having rejected whatever western culture they were brought up in, simply accepted, lock, stock, and barrel, Tao, Vedanta, and/or Buddhism after having read one or two books and therefore having finally discovered "the truth."

Well, looking back, that's perhaps too harsh an assessment, and I will say that Watts's book is an extremely well-written, concise, and clear introduction to Vedantic thought that is as relevant today as it was 35 years ago. I recently picked up the book after 30 years, and found that in many ways I enjoyed it even more than I did back then.

As others have commented more completely on the usefulness and relevance of the philosophy in the book, I will just mention one thing. I really enjoyed his discussion about the fear of death. Watts points out that the way western culture deals practically and philosophically with death, isolating the individual from feeling a part of the universe as a whole on the one hand, and as basically a taboo subject, on the other, is unproductive and ultimately does nothing to resolve the issue. He points out that the denial process of sweeping it under the rug only makes it worse, and that ultimately the only solution is to just face one's fear. If death frightens you or makes you afraid, well then, be afraid. At least be honest about it, because that's the first step to realistically starting to deal with the problem.

The reality is, that no matter how certain one is of one's religion, no-one truly knows if there is an afterlife. It is possible that all these beliefs simply represent a wishful-thinking and wish-fulfillment response to a realistic fear--the fear of death. Until one admits that and confronts the issue head on, it will continue to haunt you despite your most cherished beliefs to the contrary.

...'The book' is a fantastic introduction to key tenets of the ancient Hindu philosophy of Vedanta. Alan Watts exposits with convincing arguments the problems with our perspective of the self(the same thought that 'Hermann Hesse illustrates in Steppenwolf), the correct interpretation of the Blakean vision of 'Good and Evil being parts of the same coin', the problems that we carry through the rest of our lives because of the conditioning of the senses and intellect and finally the answers and route to salvation that this great philosophy shows.

And to read this book, there is no need to know any history/ jargon of vedanta which are major deterrents to people who do not want to get into sanskrit terms, chronology etc.

Just read it..its pretty much a tripper kind of book in the lines of 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance'.

_The Book: on the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are_ is the quintessential 60's counter-culture book. It is a great place to start reading philosophy if you are an amateur, and used to reading only fiction. It is also a refreshing change of pace for the most grizzled veterans of old-school German philosophy. This is the kind of book that can renew your faith in the possibility of communicating profound ideas without having to use a dense and impenetrable style of prose. Granted, it is not exactly a monumental literary achievement, but this is only because it is so short. But page for page, it is just as potent and profound as any other book ever written. Because of its slim profile, it is not a very intimidating book, so I encourage readers of all skill levels to give this one a try.

If you're like me this book will only make you want to read more Alan Watts. I encourage you to also read: _Behold the Spirit_, _Psychotherapy East and West_, _The Two Hands of God_, and _Myth and Ritual in Christianity_, all by Alan Watts. This book is only the tip of the iceberg. Buy this book, realize how great an author Alan Watts is, and then get into the real meat of his works. Even if some of these are out of print, someway, somehow you must try to find them, and discover one of the greatest American writers ever to have lived.

"Notes" is a true classic, with Dostoevsky at his most psychologically insightful. In this book you will find the roots of many of the ideas that Freud would later make common knowledge, particularly that of the contradictory impulses and emotions which unconsciously fight to drive the actions of each individual. To Dostoevsky, a human being can never be governed by reason alone despite popular views of his day. Upon reading this book, you will fall victim to some of these contradictory emotions yourself, as you are torn between loving and hating Dostoevsky's antihero. This nameless narrator is a man who believes to be the victim of excessive consciousness, but in reality, although no doubt a possessor of extreme intelligence, is consumed by desires beyond his control. At times this narrator serves as a mouthpiece for some of Dostoevsky's own philosophical views, at times he is an object of satire, but no matter what his purpose, he always holds our attenti! on and never fails to interest. The ending of the novel is particularly shattering.

A seemingly in-depth look into the life of a depressive recluse. The main character gives us many views on everyday people and their actions that should cause us, the reader, to evaluate our own understanding of the people who surround us. (Example: Why people will moan for days before seeing a dentist.) The writing is absolutely brilliant. Dostoyevsky does not seem to have created this character but instead pulled him from the street. The character was not one dimensional, an attribute that I found personally refreshing . The thoughts and emotions are complex and real and were constantly understated, adding to the impression that the book was written by the character himself, who lacks writing experience needed to capture these feelings. The main character views himself cut off and removed from society, rejected by all in nearly every way. He has become so obsessed with this notion that he has created this exact situation as a result of searching for justification of this impression. He has in fact created most of his own misery, and only continues to propagate more. Yet he seem himself as miserable and rejected and finds pride in this image. He imagines himself to be pitiful and also to be strong and fiercely independent as a result of his social isolation. He feels he poses a strength of spirit for being able to endure the loneliness and envisions himself as a martyr. This fuels his ego and he plans heroic acts in order to show the proof of his worth or to win attention and love. He however lacks the courage to complete the monumental self serving tasks he set before himself. Through a strange twist of logic these failures are also seen as something to be admired. It only makes him more pitiful and thus a greater martyr. When these failures are personally humiliating he retreats within in himself. Hating everyone and again fortifying his independence, claiming that all who depend on others are weak. Only to re-emerge more hungry for the affections of a companion. An emotional ebbing between pride of independence and ability to bravely endure the suffering quickly switching to the opposite pole of resenting people in general. Sustaining himself on the imagined praises or pity that he thinks would be lavished upon him if he were to be seen by others as he sees himself. A terribly tragic tale that emphasis the importance of perspective and removing one's self from a problem in order to perhaps gain a helpful assessment of it. The ideas and emotions presented give a haunting impression. The book should be read slowly and turned over in ones mind again and again.

This short novel has relevance for any individual who chooses to grapple with the onslaught of information that pours forth from various institutions, including modern education and the media. I had read ~Notes from the Underground~ many years ago, and picking it up again proved to be a positive move, philosophically, politically and socially, on a very personal level. The narrator is a 19th century man who has chosen to withdraw from society and rant and rave in a kind of 'neurotic' protest against the ever-prevalent 'rational forces' or normalizing conditions that society is imposing. In brief, his protest is against the popular philosophical view of the time, deterministic materialism. He asks: Is man a free agent? Are his actions and desires his own; or conversely, is he endowed with some Universal nature, where his interests, desires and overall behaviour is predetermined? In his terms, are we "Piano keys", or merely "Organ stops" responding blindly to the 'rational forces' that continually bombard us on a daily basis?

This book is an argument supporting the view that irrationality has its merits. We are in danger of ignoring our own desires in favour of a popular or dominate view. What the underground man is proposing is to be aware of the danger of buying into the proposition that there is a collective 'common good', that all people are essentially the same and desire the same things. He goes on to warn that if the men of 'science' are correct, if our desires and interests are the same, if our behaviour can be recorded on some central data base, where all we have to do to understand how we should behave is by logging onto this data base, what hope does humankind have of experiencing individual needs, creativity, adventure and innovation? According to the underground man, absolutely no hope at all.

The American philosopher, William James, had grappled with the same argument around the same time that this novel was written. He recorded in his diary that his first act of free will was to believe he had free will, and began his new life on that simple but important premise.

Freedom for William James and the underground man is the highest most valuable aspect of our existence. The underground man believed that it was absolutely imperative that we at times go against our 'best interests' even if our free will is an illusion. When considering the barrage of information that continually comes our way, we should attempt to separate the 'wheat from the chaff' according to our desires, beliefs and will - a word of advice from a 19th century 'neurotic'.

It is impossible to illustrate the many facets of this important novel in the limited space provided. Therefore I urge you to open ~Notes from the Underground~ and submerge yourself into the ideas and arguments it proposes we consider.

Magical and moving... This book touched my heart. I wish I could have met Bram, Mosey, Gertie, etc.. Ralph Helfer did a terrific job making the reader "feel" the story. Best book I have read in years.

This is a wonderful book. I must say, I love to read, but most of my books I read are about horses, I usually don't like other books. But this book reached into my heart and I will not soon forget it. The touching relationship between Bram and Modoc was so cool, and what was more incredible was that it is a true story. This book will make you cry, laugh, and don't be surprised if your heart swells with emotion. I highly recommend this book!

Modoc is a wonderful, wonderful book and I am in the middle of reading it for the second time. Last weekend i had just finished my previous book and as I walked by my room i spotted Modoc on the bookshelves. I picked it up and as soon as I started to read I fell in love with it all over again. One of the best parts i think is that it is a true story and these things really did happen. I wish that i could have met modoc becuase I'm sure she was an amazing elephant. The intertwinded story of her and Bram's life is one that i'm sure everyone who reads it will love. This is deffenitly one of the best books i have ever read.

As a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I always appreciate the classics of the mystery genre. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works are among the best of the genre, and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES is Doyle's best novel. Those readers expecting to find in this book the famous Holmes line about the dog that didn't bark will be disappointed. That nonbarking dog isn't here. It's in one of the Holmes short stories. What we have here is a moody work set among the moors with a strong and obvious Gothic influence upon Doyle by the mystery genre's founder, Edgar Allan Poe. Holmes and his supporting cast are all in fine form. The plot works, as does the setting and the tone. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES has endured. It will continue to endure in the future. It is a classic that people actually read.

Familiar with his stories for years, I finally decided to buckle down and read one of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes, and "The Hound of the Baskervilles," the most famous of the novels, was the one I decided to pick up. To my surprise, I tore through it. It was a simple read, yet a complicated and satisfying mystery.

As with all the Holmes stories, his assistant Dr. Watson is charged with telling the tale of the bloody Baskerville curse. Sir Charles Baskerville, who was the charge of the family estate, has recently been gored to death by some sort of animal, and Sir Henry, the new heir to the household and the family fortune, fears that the mythic curse of a hellhound stalking the family grounds is true.

A strange twist occurs in this investigation, though, for it's not Holmes who goes to investigate the house. It's Watson, who studies the suspicious neighbors and staff, keeps close watch over Sir Henry and begins to notice that some very odd things are lurking about the moor.

Is the curse behind this killing, or is it a villain of flesh and blood?

The lead characters are defined well, and, though this is my first Holmes story, I understood the basics and the rhythm almost immediately. The narrative structure that Doyle is famous for is, as expected, charming, and the characters are well-defined. The mystery is properly twisted, and I didn't really guess the middle or the ending.

The best twist, to me, wasn't the reveal of any villain or method. It was the twist involving the shadowy figure on the moor. I didn't see it coming at all, and, when I read it, I realized that this old novel still had the narrative tools to surprise me.

It's a classic for a reason.

The Hound of the Baskervilles was an excellent book, and one of the best mysteries I have ever read. Holmes, the superhuman detective, is asked to investigate the death of Charles Baskerville, which many believe to be the work of the ferocious hound, a curse brought about by the misdeeds of Hugo Baskerville. When Sir Henry inherits the estate, Holmes must solve the mystery before another Baskerville meets his end!

This novel has one of the most complex plots of any mystery, with many unexpected twists, and is one that will keep you reading until its suspenseful, engrossing climax. The setting is also well put together, and the danger of the foggy moor only adds to the drama.

This story had huge appeal for me, largely because of the believability of the characters. Holmes, Watson, and Henry are very realistic - and people that I would want to know. Holmes was so real to many readers, that they actually wrote to 221 Baker Street, his fictional address!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was not only a great mystery writer, but a wonderful novelist as well. This novel is proof that he really deserved the title of knight!

As far as I can see, this book has given birth to all sort of favorable and unfavorable comments. From my point of view I think there are a couple of things it must be given credit for.

The first one is language. There is a major problem with the language used throughout the novel: it is extremely difficult to translate since it is a colloquial sort of speech. The taste the reader may find in this kind of literature relies too much on the original language it was written in. He may have the sensation that the author does not write: he directly speaks in the reader's ear. Celine succeeds in producing a rhythmic, almost musical flow of words and ideas that is hard to keep pure when translated. And this is one of the most appealing traits Journey possesses.

The other is the approach to subjects like war, capitalist exploitation, science, society and mankind disappointment. Although I don't agree with the general view of the world Celine depicts along this novel I must admit that his description of war scenes are really moving and the sarcasm he pours here and there regarding human nature is fairly placed.

In George Steiner's novella, The Portage to San Cristobel of A.H., Nazi hunters discover an aged Adolf Hitler living quietly in the Peruvian jungle. Their plan is to kill Hitler, however they offer him the chance to defend himself instead. He is defiant, reckless and taunts them. "I am an old man...You have made of me some kind of mad devil, the quintessence of evil, hell embodied. When I was, in truth, only a man of my time. Oh, inspired I grant you...with a nose for supreme political possibility. A master of human moods, perhaps, but a man of my time."

Louis-Ferdinand Destouches (Celine was a pseudonym) was, like Steiner's Hitler, certainly an inspired man of his time, perhaps terrifyingly so. Born in 1894 to a lowly Parisian family, he had a brutal childhood. Poor, dysfunctional, but recklessly ambitious, he longed to escape all that constrained him. He eventually found a release of sorts through the study of medicine and, after patriotically enlisting, in the trenches of the western front. He was seriously wounded and later decorated.

Celine's revulsion against his wartime experiences infused his debut, Journey to the End of Night (1934), perhaps the greatest work of nihilism, as well as one of the finest novels, of the century. The first hundred pages or so contain descriptions of the absurd carnage of war that few works, not even Erich Maria Remarque's, All Quiet on the Western Front, have matched. After the war, Celine qualified as a physician and traveled in French and Belgian colonial Africa before returning to work as a doctor among the urban poor of Paris.

Celine draws freely from his bank of experiences in Journey to the End of Night; the adventures of the hero-narrator, Fedinand Bardamu, mimic exactly those of the author himself. He travel from the "fiery furnace" of the western front to the screaming jungles of central Africa, and from New York to the slums of Paris. The engine of Celine's disgust is an irrational misanthropy. It is irrational because it is contradictory: those he scourges, he later pities; those he helps, he comes to despise.

In Ferdinand's despair at what industrialization and incipient democracy have done to the contemporary soul, we are reminded of the anguish of Nietzsche's raging free spirit, Zarathustra. Like Zarathustra, Fedinand rails against the instincts of mass man and of the "herd," then crowns himself with laughter. For without laughter he knows he is nothing. "Death is chasing you, you've always got to hurry, and while you're looking you've got to eat, and keep away from wars. That's a lot of things to do. It's no picnic."

In this astonishing book, Celine immerses the reader in a torrential flow of language--fragmented, coarse, street poetic, blackly comic and full of neologisms and ellipses. For this reason, one can only reap the full impact of Celine when he is read in the original French. He writes of suffering, debased lives and poverty with reckless abandon. His vision of humanity in thrall to its own weakness is utterly cynical. He leads his characters--Robinson, a romantic wanderer, conscripted soldiers, abused prostitutes--to the edge of the abyss, the pushes them over. As they fall we hear only the sad echo of their voices--and Celine's wild and raucous laughter.

As soon as I'd put down "Journey" for the first time twenty years ago, I made a vow to learn French for the single purpose of reading Celine in his own language. I never kept that vow, but I've returned to Manheim's translation of "Journey" twice since that time, and I haven't had my fill yet. Celine's hallucinatory masterpiece still shocks, still inspires that thrill that comes in the presence of a great and lasting work of literature. Celine was and still remains wholly original; it is as if the man conceived the idea of writing a novel without ever having read one. No book you have ever read will prepare you for "Journey", yet it is no mere exercise in literary experimentation; it is a riveting and tremendously readable picaresque novel for our century and the one to come. Celine rages and rants, but curmudgeon and nihilist he's not. Bardamu, Celine's antihero, is no more a true nihilist than Celine himself, the doctor who tended Paris' poor. Without the weight of Celine's conscience, this would have been nothing more than a prolongued tirade. Once you've devoured "Journey", there is Frederic Vitoux's recent biography of Celine, a powerful and completely non-apologetic insight into one of the century's great writers.

It can be convincingly argued that the world community today is not too much different from that which has been described in Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" or George Orwell's "1984". Ralph Nader makes this convincing argument in his latest book "Crashing the Party".

Whether it be the corporate influence of public policy, Republicans, Democrats, the overwhelming corruption of democracy, or woefully neglected social institutions and programs such as universal healthcare, Ralph Nader does not hesitate to detail the ways in which people are being royally 'done' over. This is an important, must-read book that people should utilize for the sake of understanding how things really work and what we can do to make things better in light of such rampant corruption.

Unfortunately, Mr. Nader's inclination to present things in a overwhelmingly negative way and (no doubt) his bitterness and anger towards those that have been blowing him off, shutting him out and downright insulting him for the past thirty-odd years have influenced his prose. Because of this, one can't help to believe that the only thing left to do is to find the closest beam from which to hang themselves from. As a result, Mr. Nader somewhat defeats his own purpose of trying to mobilize and arouse the general public which has settled for so much less than they deserve.

Regardless of its depressing content, I highly recommend this book to all.

In this thoughful, entertaining and highly readable book, Ralph Nader discusses his Green Party bid for the Presidency. The author very effectively answers the many critics who accused him of playing a "spoiler" role in the 2000 election.

With over 100 million non-voters in the U.S., Nader believes that there is ample opportunity for a third party to take root and grow. By aligning with the Green Party, Nader's vision is to nurture a movement that has not "surrendered" its values to corporate interests.

Nader is a grown-up who writes with insight and intelligence. He understands that some of his liberal friends were ultimately unwilling to support his campaign because of longstanding ties with the Democratic Party (and the attendant fear of tilting the election to George W. Bush). But Nader's counter argument sticks: a healthy democracy demands a citizenry that is willing to vote its conscience. He drives the point home by highlighting the fact that the Democrats have become increasingly pro-business and almost indistinguishable from the Republicans in recent years (Nader also included a section in the appendix on this subject), meaning that many progressive ideas have been stuck on the shelves for far too long. Nader compelling argues that the American people deserve better.

On the other hand, the personal pain is writ fairly large when Nader recalls how certain so-called friends -- many of whom collaborated with Nader on projects in the past -- actually went so far as to misrepresent his ideas in order to harm his campaign and get Al Gore elected. One would think that such behavior is uncalled for under any circumstances, but to knowingly slander a man who has arguably done more for the American people over the past 40 years than any other single person, and for whom principles mean a great deal, is disgraceful. I applaud Nader for using this book to set the record straight.

Yet despite what was obviously a very physically, financially and emotionally draining experience (Nader's futile attempts to get on the Presidential debates must have been very challenging), Nader emerges as a class act. He is proud of what the campaign was able to achieve, and he encourages others to participate in the democractic process too.

"Crashing the Party" is recommended reading for anyone with a keen interest in Ralph Nader, the Green Party or the 2000 election.

Unlike, I suspect, many of the negative reviewers, I actually read the book. Nader reveals what's behind the major parties rhetoric, sound bites and photo opts and its appalling. They are essentially owned by corporate donors, with many giving large sums to both parties. Enormous barriers are erected by the major parties to deny ballot access to third parties, thereby forcing voters to choose between bad and worse. Many enviromental, union and feminist organizations sell out their members interests for "access" to democratic politicians, while having little actual influence.
Nader is without a doubt the most honest individual in the political arena today . Nader and the GreenParty are inspiring because they remain determined and optimistic in their efforts to build a viable third party

Overall, The Tin Drum seemed to be a drawn-out, laborious journey for me. I read upwards of fifty carefully selected novels a year, and I've heard much here and there about the merits of The Drum. Perhaps I was expecting too much from it? The first three or four chapters had me thoroughly absorbed in Oskar's ancestry, and for the rest of the book I kept waiting for someone as interesting and human as his grandmother Anna to show up. Granted, Oskar's mother Agnes is another consistent and great character, but besides these two, I made no friends. Oskar was such an "unreal" personage that I found him impossible to trust as a narrator... with every beat of his drum he startled the cohesive theme of this book into a corner. I never found that corner. I am no stranger to authors diving in and out between the "fantastic" and the "real" (as for instance do Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Hermann Hesse, Charles Williams etc), but 570 pages of unending "fantastic" in the true dictionary sense (ie. of an odd appearance, or grotesque) left me truly bewildered. I will be less trusting of any future novel that begins with the disclaimer "I am an inmate of a mental hospital..."

Long, massive, exhaustive narrative of the life of Oscar Matzerath, an eccentric boy who at the age of 3 decides he will no longer grow and "drums" his feelings and passions by means of a drum. He is not a normal character, but rather a means through with G.Grass, using extensive obscure symbolism, repulsive fantasies, surrealism and metaphors, expresses the horrors of German/Polish society during the reign of nasism. O.Matzerath in fact is bizare, absurd, grotesque, and disturbing. G.Grass is a master of skilful prose revealing the poet writer as well, in a baroque/rococo style which intoxicates the reader. The book is not pleasant reading, with schoking passages. Deceptive in terms of expectations for a Nobel Prize winner. If you are willing to endure the challenge of reading "The Tin Drum," take your chance!

The Tin Drum is definitely not for everyone, a warning I've already seen repeated several times. It is exhausting, unconventional, and long, but if your willing to put the time into reading it, it is a rewarding experience, 600 pages of humanity in all it's beauty and horror.

Oskar is a strange character, but very intriguing. At times, I felt like I could completely relate to him, only to be completely shocked and disgusted by his actions.There were times when I was physically nauseated by this book: the children's stew, the horse head and eels, the mushroom smell of Maria and his grandmother, the pin and Matzerath. Any book that can have that sort of affect on it's reader is powerful.

You shouldn't read the Tin Drum if you're looking for a captivating plot, though at times the plot is captivating. What is really special about Grass' writing are his characterizations which said more about Eastern Europe before/during/after the Nazi era than any plot could've. Though some call this book too fantastic, I think it beautifully and honestly illustrates that period and those people who have been warped by WWII propaganda, the average people living under Nazi rule: grocers, artists, and families; Grass brings them to life. Oskar on the other hand does not seem average, but then again he's not meant to be. This is fiction afterall. If you want a book to dutifully relate Nazi-ruled Eastern Europe read an encyclopedia. If you want to meet people, read the Tin Drum.