What makes Repairman Jack run? For a hero that is usually mercenary, Jack is enduringly colorful, entertaining and just plain fun. His background is murky, to say the least. His description is, umm, nondescript. In a world where everyone has a paper trail the size of your average phone directory, Jack does not exist. I like that. Maybe I'm a bit envious. When faced with adversity, Jack is not adverse to hiding and/or running away. But when he's backed into a corner, the sparks fly.

All the Rage is actually a departure from previous Jack novels as the monsters in this book are violence and greed, albeit with a cameo appearance by an old nonhuman adversary. What makes the book truly enjoyable is Wilson's portrayal of characters, multifaceted, and his concise, but not tedious expositions. Sprinkle some eclectic, screwball humor and you've got the makings of a wonderful read.

Ignore the cheesy cover. Get the book. Enjoy Jack. And, by the way, although this is a series, you can start anywhere. After all, do we really know Jack?

I have to agree with Susan's review above and add that I think this is the best Repairman Jack story yet. This limited edition is bound in red leather, signed by the author and Stan Wiater, a fine author in his own right, who wrote the afterword. There is an interesting and enlightening chart at the end of the story detailing how all of Mr. Wilson's stories intertwine around the Grand Unification Theory. Accompanying this fine book is a limited edition chapbook called Demonsong written by Mr. Wilson.

Unwillingly thrust into a world of a dangerous designer drug, Jack also finds himself confronting an old enemy from the recent past. Loaded with action, suspense, humor, and Jack's ever present dilemma of delicately maintaining a romantic relationship with a woman who disapproves of his "lifestyle", F. Paul Wilson has once again given us an excellent story loaded with thrills and serpentine plot lines. Rumor has it that there are at least two more Repairman Jack books coming in the near future. Hopefully, this is true. Highly recommended!

I've read all the Repairman Jack stories so far. All The Rage is loads of fun, with lots of action. I highly recommend it.

FPW expertly weaves this story into his Grand Unification Theory. Dialogue is funnier than ever and Jack gets himself into more trouble than he's ever been.

The scenes involving a helicopter are hilarious. They reveal Jack's twisted (and brilliant) sense of humor.

The climax practically gave me a heart attack. But one of my favorite things about this book is that we see the character of Jack developing even more. He literally and figuratively goes BERZERK. It's frightening and fascinating to read that particular plot twist. Makes you wonder...

Demonsong, which comes with this special edition, is a terrific short story. Written in a different style, but still very intriguing. Makes me want to see more of Glaeken and Rasalom.

Thanks again FPW for a great read! I'm already looking forward to the next one.

This book is interesting to read! It contains many insightful tips that can be useful not only to other managers. I would say that most of the contributing managers are well worth reading, but in a collection like this one some are of course better than others. All the business leaders have been choosen in a careful evaluation-process to find the best of the best. This process is also described in the book. After the recent developments in the US Economy, it can also be interesting to get the book from the bookshelf, like I did, and read what managers like Ken Lay (Enron), Bernie Ebbers (Worldcom) and Dennis Kozlowski (Tyco) have got to say.

Each chapter, somewhere between 10 and 20 pages, includes the managers career in short along with the key facts about the company they lead. I found it interesting to read about people who have made to the top, and these kind of publications normally includes information you won't find elsewhere. This book is no exception. It is also a book that you can read when you have a few minutes over since the chapters are so short, it is also easy to pick out the managers that find most interesting an concentrate on them.

Among the many books which examine "America's best business leaders", this is one of the best-written and most informative. Part I consists of three chapters: What Makes Business Leaders Great, Evaluating Today's Business Leaders, and Methodology: A Closer Look at the Numbers. The authors then proceed to 50 "Profiles" in Part II, beginning (in alphabetical order) with Mike Armstrong (AT&T) and concluding with Jack Welch (GE). Part III consists of three chapters: The 51st Business Leader: Peter Drucker, Doing the Right Things Right: A New Definition of Business Success, and Common Traits: A Prescription for Success in Business. The reader is then provided with three Appendices to supplement and enrich the material which precedes them. So much for the book's organization.

There are several reasons why I rate this book so highly. First, as previously indicated, it is exceptionally well-written. Also, each of the 50 "Profiles" probes deeply into the specific talents and skills of its subject. Biographical information and quotations supplement the authors' own analyses. Moreover, each "Profile" illustrates a key point. For example, the discussion of Bill Steere (Pfizer) illuminates the implications of his assertion that "Fads come. Fads go. We concentrate on what we do best." In the "Profile" of him, Jack Welch observes "I don't think anyone appreciates the value of informal." Obviously, Welch does. I also was very impressed by the quality of the content of Part III. The discussion of Peter Drucker is among the most insightful I have ever read. The authors redefine "business success in the next chapter and then review the "common traits" of the 50 great business leaders they have analyzed. For those who are eager to learn, the "lessons" identified and then discussed by Neff and Citrin are invaluable.

Unlike most business books, Lessons from the Top is fun to read AND offers practical, insightful, thoughts on great leadership. It draws powerful stories from great leaders but unlike many anecdotal business books, Neff and Citrin collect their stories from a group that they have not picked at random, but based on an analytical framework.

Each of the chapters is like sipping coffee with a business leader for a few hours- each page a glimpse of which paths these leaders have taken and the combination of personality skills that have contributed to their tremendous success.

After all of these great insights, Neff and Citrin then outline the lessons they learned (and the reader does too!) in a powerful way, delineating many of the traits these leaders have in common. Some of these findings be quite surprising!

In sum, this book is fantastic. You won't put it down until you have finished it and when you do, you will feel like you could call any of the leaders by their first name AND use the "lessons learned" to practically aspire to join this list!

Some good points and some derogatory ones in this book. Lets start with the bad . Kidd makes annoying analogies, such as " enough for a thirty years war " , too much. And the vocabulary and descriptive elements are certainly lacking. This is by no means a classic of any sort. Characterization is postage stamp quality. There is little depth, both to the characters and the world. HOWEVER. I did enjoy reading the story. The quips and jokes are excellent, and the combat language is first rate. Its a fast, enjoyable read which keeps the adrenalin flowing and the mystery active. Its worth the price, but the author does indeed have a long way to go.

Now this is AD&D at its finest! Magic, Melee, and mirth all rolled into one.

I throughly enjoyed this book, though I would have liked to see to dungeon adventure be a little longer and names given to the other adventurers in the group, but this book was a great, quick read; perfect for the person that longs for a good game of AD&D.

I won't give away any of the plot, but those of you that played White Plume Mountain many moons ago will enjoy the story line. The Justicar is the dogmatic dispenser of justice while Escalla provides the witty comic relief and Cinders provides the pyrotechnics.

I look forward to the continuing adventures of the Justicar, Escalla, and Cinders in "Descent to the Depths of the Earth".

If you are looking for a serious novel of dark, gritty deeds and a tome to study in scholarly fashion for additional Greyhawk lore - well, this isn't your book.

Not to say it's not quite enjoyable. The best word to describe White Plume Mountain is, well - funny.

I can hear your sharp intake of breath as visions of WG7 and Rose Estes flood your mind. But it's not like that, really - it actually is funny.

The first main character are a ranger called "the Justicar". He dresses all in black, shaves his head, has a big sword with the hilt carved like a wolf skull, and takes everything reeeeal seriously. He has with him another character, a sentient hell hound pelt named Cinders. It's intelligent and can breathe fire - in fact, it's pretty much like a hell hound but of better disposition and a lot more floppy. He meets up with a pixie wizardess named Escalla, who has attitude to burn, and their adventure takes them eventually to the fabled White Plume Mountain!

The book is well written. It's like a novelization of an actual AD&D character party. The author doesn't bother to change the names of spells or monsters, but treats them with a light hand. (At one point, Escalla lists out her spells to the Justicar, which are all fireballs and magic missiles and the like, and then asks "Do you think I'm too combat heavy?") The combat scenes are better done than any previous Greyhawk novel - for some reason, you can always count off the rounds in combat, especially in Gygax's novels and Against the Giants. These combat scenes are intese but still touched with the light humor throughout - for example, the Justicar is fighting an erinyes who exclaims "I'll get you and your little dog too!" (referring to Cinders of course).

My favorite part was when the Justicar and Escalla are saddled with a whole "party" of priests and wizards and so on when they are sent to White Plume Mountain. The group is travelling on foot and is burdened by their heavy loads - the Justicar makes them dump all their gear out, and they are all carrying iron spikes, silver mirrors, lanterns, 50' coils of rope, and 10' poles. "What in the world do you need with a ten foot pole?" asks Escalla. They make them leave the bulk of it behind.

The book manages to be engaging and fun without stepping over the line into parody or absurdity.

Take the book of Acts and then try to fill in all the details by painting a written portrait of what things might have been like. That is basically what Walter Wangerin does in this engaging novel. Staying true to Biblical sources, Mr. Wangerin shows us Paul in a way that many people may have never seen him before. The Paul we see here is one who is often disliked by his fellow believers, but always respected. We see Paul as a man of such strong convictions that people can't help but have strong reactions to him, either positive or negative. The only complaint I had about the book was that it slowed down in places. Otherwise, this is a very well-written fictional account of someone who we know about only in Scripture. This novel does a neat job of taking you back to those times when God was moving in his people and letting you play with the idea of "I wonder what it might have been like to be there." It is well worth the read.

Walter Wangerin's novel THE BOOK OF GOD was an excellent work of art, a filling-in of Biblical narrative that was at the same time daring and faithful to its roots. With PAUL: A NOVEL Wangerin tries his hand at a more in-depth look at one of the most influential people of Western Civilization, Paul/Saul of Tarsus.

Wangerin shows exacting scholarship and discipline in this novel. Paul's speech is sprinkled liberally with words pulled directly from his letters to the churches throughout the Mediterranean during the first century AD. Wangerin provides 'fictional' settings for these words, but as in THE BOOK OF GOD, one gets the feeling that Wangerin could have been there himself.

A truly effective and wonderful part of this novel is the description and illumination of minor characters from Paul's letters. Wangerin tells Paul's story through the eyes of Paul's contemporaries - Prisca, James, Peter, Timothy, Barnabas, and others all weave narratives throughout the book. They knew Paul, and their stories illustrate the complex person we believe Paul to be.

Two minor blemishes keep this from 5 stars, in my opinion. There are several letters from Seneca which, although they illustrate the political setting, seem unconnected the the rest of the story. The other problem is that of the ending. With Wangerin taking so many risks to novelize the story of Paul, one wishes he had been more definitive, more clear at the close of the book.

These are minor problems, however, and the bulk of the novel is a wonderful novelization of Paul's time as a missionary in the first century. Wangerin is one of the few contemporary authors who combines a solid Christian faith and desire to tell the Christian story with an ability to actually write stories. With so much dreck in the market being bought simply because it carries the label "Christian," it's good to see that Walter Wangerin can write books that are just good, period.

What an incredible book! Walter Wangerin brings his readers a fine story of the Apostle Paul, from his time as a pharisee and persecutor of those following "The Way" to a crusader for the Gentiles. Although the story itself is fiction, it is grounded in passages of Acts and Paul's letters, as well as in the larger Truth of Christ's love and sacrifice freeing us from the constrictive Laws of Moses to the freedom of living under love for God and for others.

Indeed, I'd recommend this book simply because it describes so vividly both sides of an argument that nearly tore the First Century believers apart -- whether Gentile converts must follow Jewish laws, most notably that of undergoing circumcism. As a Christian living nearly 2000 years after the birth of the Church, I barely understood why there was an argument argument, let alone both sides of it. It may also serve as a reminder for Christians today who bicker and argue over Biblical interpretation that the Church has survived many a disagreement before, and it will again.

The book also humanizes Paul, showing him as someone who could find joy -- I mean heart-felt, giggling joy -- in the salvation of Christ, as well as someone who felt immense sorrow and anger. Wangerin also gives us a plausible explanation for the "thorn" Paul obliquely describes in his writings. Of course, all those whippings and the stoning were bound to leave him a physically broken man, so while we can't take that explanation as gospel (no pun intended), we can at least take it as a reasonable explantion.

Finally, the book is well written, and each voice that tells its part of the story is unique. You will not, for example, confuse Prisca's narrative with Titus's! All in all, a wonderful book, well worth the time it takes to read such a long and involved narrative.

Anyone who appreciates fine industrial design will treasure this behind-the-scenes look at Apple's celebrated and award-winning Industrial Design Group. Paul Kunkel's detailed text chronicles Apple's numerous product innovations including every significant computer, printer, and peripheral from the original Apple II to the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. Of Rick English's more than 400 full-color photos, most fascinating are those depicting prototypes never before seen by the public. The only thing detracting from this pricy ($45), oversized paperback book (288 pages) is the unbelievable number of typos, which are particularly glaring considering Apple's dominance in desktop publishing. To find out what other books Owen Linzmayer recommends, please visit:

The introduction of the iMac in a variety of translucent colours, not just applied as an afterthought, but applied loving to every detail of the design, such as translucent cables, yeah and even a two colour mouse-ball...., all that sparked off a new movement in computer design. Suddenly megaherz and megabyte were no longer sexy, people wanted more. A computer had to fulfill design criteria to be admitted to the household. Numerous other companies have since jumped onto the bandwaggon. Although their orginiality is debateable, there is no doubt that Apple had set a new trend in computing, analagous to the revolution in automobile design in the 50ies and 60ies.

But before the iMac, Apple was already famed and loved for it's design. An Apple had always stood out from the other computers on the shop shelf. That is because for Apple, design was not a last minute cosmetic operation, but a part of design philosophy. This book traces the history of those designs from the very first Apple in a wooden box, discussing many projects that were never realised, or only realised in a greatly modified form. It discusses alternatives, preliminary and intermediate design studies and the road to the final products. The text is concise and informative and easy to read. The book is amply illustarted with sketches, black and white and colour photographs of Apples that were, that are and that never will be. Unfortunately, the book stops short of the most recent steps. But even so, this book is an enlightenment and enrichment for those who are interested in Apple, or computer history in general.

I'm an avide fan of Apple Computer and it's history. If you love Sony and other excellent industrial design, then you'll love this book. I've only read small portions, but the pictures and history are well worth the price alone . . . especially at this new lower price.

If one takes what the mass media says seriously the case for free trade is open and shut - so much so that they never explain why free trade is so advantageous nor why protectionist measures so harmful. Of course, there must be at least some intellectual underpinnings to the theory of free trade. Hoping to find a good exposition of them I read Pop Internationalism of Paul Krugman..

My first disappointment came from finding out that Pop Internationalism isn't a book at all but a collection of previously written essays. This is bad for two reasons. First, because each essay is self contained and only about 15 or so pages Krugman never gives much depth to any of his ideas. The result is that there just isn't much intellectual meat here..

Krugman, like many, make much of free trade being beneficial to all countries that participate in it. And that it is true as long as we take it as a given what countries produce. However, what a country has a relative advantage in isn't something preordained but is something that can change over time. The industries in which a country is more efficient can change over time either through market forces or some form of industrial policy. For example, in the early 1960s Japan did not have an auto industry; by 1980 it had a "created" advantage in that vital industry. It developed such an advantage that it the US had to resort to protectionist measures ("voluntary export restraints") to save its automobile industry. The bottom line is that countries do compete - they compete to dominate in high value added industries that can offer high wage jobs to their citizenry. Indeed, in one of his essays Krugman finally admits that "created" advantage may have passed "comparative" advantage in importance.

Later Krugman states: "Ricardo's 1817 discussion of comparative advantage showed, however, that trade between two nations ordinarily raises the standard of living of both nations, even if one must compete on the basis of low wages". Personally, I am not a big fan of competing on the basis of low wages. Yes, we will always have something to trade. The kind of analysis that Ricardo, and Krugman, engage in just show us that markets work but they never fully discuss the assumptions that are being made. For example, in a labor market there will never be unemployment (except "frictional" unemployment) if the markets are unencumbered by such things as minimum wages. If a person is willing to work for 50 cents and hour they will find employment in the U.S. - but I don't think any American worker who is worried about losing his/her job will take much comfort from that fact. Again, the question is not do markets work or not (they do), the question is what will our standard of living be.

Krugman also insists that all accounts balance (S - I = X - M) and so they do. But again, what are the consequences. Mr. Krugman's equation tells us, for example, that U.S. trade deficits are financed by foreign investment in the U.S.. This may seem benign but what it means is that other countries are buying American assets and the interest and profits accruing to those assets will go to other countries thereby reducing American income. Don't worry, Mr. Krugman says, U.S. net foreign debt is small. Now that U.S. trade deficits are over the $400 billion/year mark I suspect it won't remain small for long. Of course, the trade deficit WILL correct itself over time and the foreign debt will also be corrected. But they will be corrected with a lower standard of living. This is so for two reasons 1) because crucial high wage industries such as automobiles, airplanes, and machine tools may be irreparably harmed and 2) because debt, as people with credit card balances know, is always paid with interest. So what Mr. Krugman says is true but it does nothing to undermine the argument that free trade, such as it is, is more deleterious than helpful.

Another low point in this book is that Krugman [makes] what, to me, is one of the most pernicious theories of modern economics, that all sectors of the economy are equal with the manufacturing sector being no more important than the service sector. I'll believe that when I see a high-income country with a backward or non-existent manufacturing sector - to date none exist (and please, oil riches don't count). To use one of Krugman's examples, highly paid barbers only exist in industrialized countries.

So...Krugman's assertions come down to the following: adverse trade relations will not lead to economic collapse but may lead to lower wages and hence a lower standard of living; that comparative advantage may indeed have been superseded by "created advantage"; capital outflows and being a debtor country could be a problem depending on their scale. Well, no kidding Mr. Krugman. As if most of us didn't know those things all along.. Ironically... Mr. Krugman concedes, in one page, the correctness of Thurow's central arguments. Don't believe me? Re-read page 98.

By the end of this book I found myself not having learned much about the intellectual case for free trade; save that maybe it doesn't exist. And maybe that is why most pundits and academics assert that the case for free trade is so obvious as to not be worth discussing: once they have to actually make the case for free trade the case doesn't seem nearly so strong. I did, however, learn one thing from Pop Internationalism - economists can indeed writ

This is a very good book and I will buy copies for several friends who speak the most eggregious crap about economics. But for a trained economist much of it should not be a surprise. The first half of the book is a background in basic trade theory for non-economists. Being an economist by training I thought this was a touch repetitive but basically solid. The second half contained some startling essays applying the first half items to real world problems. In this part Krugman tears apart the current "orthodoxy" on "National Competitiveness". GOOD STUFF AND OVERDUE. The reveiw of Laura Tyson's "who is bashing whom" is particularly good. But if you understood your second year trade theory books then there should be nothing too much new here. And the repetition (aimed at non-economists) will bug you somewhat.

This is an excellent book in the sense that it helps non economists see the truth about the effects of trade on the Economy. Normally, people tend to overestimate the effects of trade treaties such as NAFTA on the U.S. economy and Krugman helps you understand why this isn't true. Common knowledge normally doesn't coincide with economic truth and people are mislead by such things as trade wars between mayor superpowers or trade wars between develop and developing nations. Krugman has the ability of explaing such glamorous issues in layman's terms and that's why this book is great.

Master Class is a good book but its potential is not realized. Clearly, John Paul has great Photoshop expertise and insight. He spends far too much time, however, discussing his own interesting but obscure art work. Another big problem is that the pictures in the book are very small and far too often the reader can't see the point the author says is illustrated in the pictures.... they could have done better. I would say that 25% of the book is useful. Spare us the endless philosophical waxing and tell us more about how to unleash the power of Photoshop!!!

John Paul Caponigro's books is a most refreshing addition to the vast array of Photoshop books available today. Crammed full with hands on, most competent technical advice (e.g. on how to get your whole computer setup properly calibrated) this books is full of creative and inspiring ideas for photographers who like to add some more digital "punch" to their work.
Today we are getting drowned in PhotoShop "How-To", "Magic" and all sorts of titles, but there are only very, very few books for those who are looking for new ways to solve problems and get more out of their photos using Adobe Photoshop.
This book is especially useful for landscape photographers, but Caponigro's ideas can be transferred to other subject areas as well. Many of John Paul Caponigro's images are outright Daliesque (surrealistic) and can start an avalanche of new ideas in one's brain.
A most profitable read for many photographers, but it definitely is no book for PhotoShop beginners. A definite 5-star...

is what this book is. For me personally I found it very inspiring and John Paul actually opens up a new realm of thinking when creating digital imagery. Each chapter is well thought out and easy to follow, although I don't think it's a book for beginners to learn from. That's not to say it couldn't be inspiring, but one must have a very good understanding of Photoshop to take his techniques and implement them. His approach to creating images is truly unique and particular chapters ending with a couple of techniques to create what has been talked about. i.e Color to Grayscale, Multitone image creations etc.

Who should buy this book? The real question is who shouldn't buy this book. For the Phd Quant this book is a tour de force in how to explain technical topics clearly and concisely. For the newbie, this is simply the lowest barrier to entry available.

Interestingly, QF does not "replace" a bookshelf of quant books -- rather it nicely compliments many that you're likely to have such as Taleb, Neftci etc. As sales of QF increase, it is likely that readers will be less likely to buy a derivatives book that is over their head.

Volume 1 covers 37 chapters of the equities/currency derivatives world, While Volume 2 covers the Fixed Income World, Risk Measurement , Miscellaneous Topics and Numerical Methods.

Chapter 10 has an excellent and all too rare discussion of Probability Density Functions and First Exit Times, whilst Chapter 14 has an outstanding Trading Game invented by one of Paul Wilmott's former students.

Chapters 16 through 21 cover the Path Dependent world while the balance of the chapters cover extensions to Black Scholes.

Its in these sections that Wilmott delivers some surprising thoughts and insights into Stochastic Volatility Surfaces that are currently the rage.

Throughout both volumes I continue to be astonished at how clear, concise and effective his explanations are. The icons are not annoying at all -- rather I found myself skimming the icons to find out what was required to be committed to memory in each section versus what was background.

As obvious as it sounds, a glaring weakness in Derivatives texts is the inability of authors to elucidate what must be memorized as rote for the student to make further progress. Paul's easy to follow icons lay out a precise plan of study.

I can't say enough about what a leap this is over competing texts.

In Volume 2, Chapters 38 through 50 cover models that Wilmott likes as well as ones that he doesn't [again, a rather novel approach]

Some surprises in Chapters 51 and 52 are an excellent overview of Portfolio Management and a survey of Robert Merton's Asset Allocation in Continuous Time.

Sprinkle in outstanding chapters on Derivatives Fiascos, Real Options, Energy Derivatives and 5 chapters on Numerical Methods and an astonishing survey of Quantitative Finance is complete.

Throughout the books Paul's practical use of Term Sheets and quick and dirty VB code and spreadsheet tricks [you just have to see his Excel shortcut for approximating the Normal distribution] leave the reader constantly wanting to rev ahead.

To round out a tremendous effort, Wilmott also pays homage to authors that he's found helpful and he's generous with suggestions on further reading. This builds sorely needed confidence when attempting new material.

The comparison with Richard Feynman is apt but misses an important detail...Feynman was not noted for turning out hordes of talented understudies. Paul Wilmott has turned out enough talented graduate students that maybe he will be a bona fide cult leader someday.

I have been an appreciative reader of the previous books by Paul Wilmott, and I eagerly bought this updated edition of Derivatives right away. There was no surprise: this is possibly the most comprehensive book on mathematical finance up to date. Several new chapters have been added, some of them addressing very interesting subjects such as stochastic control (one of my favourites), and many others have been expanded. For instance, American options are explained more thoroughly in this edition. You won't need a PhD in math to read the book: it takes little mathematical knowledge to understand the models to a good level of accuracy (strange as it may sound, the author succeeds in demonstrating it is so), and the derivation of more subtle quantitative subjects is straightforward. Wilmott as usual includes some funny lines throughout the text that make the reading light and enjoyable. The drawing boxes depicting the author himself providing concise advice on what issues to focus on may certainly look childish, yet I think they are of some help to the reader. Actually, I think it's impossible to conceive a topic in derivatives theory (and practice, as the author reminds) not covered in these volumes. Do not expect Paul Wilmott on quantitative finance to provide a useful quick reference for formulas and basic ideas, though. The thick and heavy two volumes are a nightmare to carry around (despite the stylish box that accomodates them) and you won't like to browse through the index jumping from one book to the other. Overall, I think this book is a must for all those interested in financial mathematics. Students and first-timers can not, in my humble opinion, find a better textbook for developing a wide knowledge of mathematical finance, and they will certainly read it cover to cover and will have hard time putting it down. More experienced readers might find the level of exposition, especially in the first chapters, quite introductory, but they certainly will appreciate the broad scope of the book and the unconventional yet very enjoyable style with which the subjects are explained. Moreover, Wilmott is available for answering questions and exchanging ideas and opinions, and I think that's a huge resource, considering how greatly knowledgeable he is. There are only two small drawbacks with this book: the price tag and the ugly suit worn by the author (who, surprisingly enough, seems proud of it) in a picture on the back cover of one of the volumes, but serious Wilmott enthusiasts will happily accept both. As a matter of fact, I'm already looking forward to hear about his next (4 volumes, 2K pages?) release.

It makes difficult material easy to understand.

I chose this to be the first book to read about the area I plan to visit by way of a cruise ship (not a Turkish one!) this year. I laughed when I checked out the chpater about the Seabourne Spirit to Istanbul and the passengers, but when I returned to the beginning and started, I was almost instantly depressed. I know there are ugly tourists everywhere, but Theroux seemed to delight in finding them and writing about them. Since this is my first book by him, I was in turn entertained, then appalled.

I did like the way he stayed in inexpensive places to get the feel for the place and I'm impressed with his language abilities. Maybe if the average tourist had those linguistic skills, he wouldn't have been able to find so many boorish ones.

I liked his pilgramages to literary haunts and his quotes of what other writers had said about his itinerary. His description of Albania was stunning.

Theroux minces no words and certainly tells it like it is. It left me disturbed and ready to look for a real tourist guide to pump me up before I leave for the region. But I won't forget his descriptions and may even read it again someday, when I'm not so emotionally involved. His descriptions of the coast of Spain were particularly upsetting, since I lived in the interior of that country many years ago. It sounded absolutely desolate and ugly! How sad!

If a good book leaves one with strong emotion, then this is a good book. But a travelogue, it is not!

Nobody ever accused Paul Theroux of looking at the world through rose colored glasses. His critically acclaimed travel books are replete with smelly natives, loud tourists, and scheming vendors. The Pillars of Hercules is no exception. From the ape-teasing tourists on Gibralter to the rude and heavily-armed Israelis, Theroux seems to have met every disagreeable character the Mediterranean has to offer. It is almost enough to make one swear off visiting the region forever.

Almost. For while Theroux liberally sprinkles his account of his year-long Mediterranean tour with all sorts of unsavory characters, he captures the region's terrific beauty and breathtaking history. He visits the old haunts of such literary giants as Hemingway, Gaddis, Greene, Joyce, Burroughs, and many others; these palces have as much significance for him as the Parthenon and the Pyramids have for the gawking tourists he detests so much. The book's final scene, in which Paul enjoys a conversation and marijuana cigarette with an aging Paul Bowles is particularly priceless. The Pillars of Hercules is a fantastic read- but if you're planning on making a trip to the area, stick with a travel guide.

Paul Theroux has produced a stunning book here, his recounting of an ambitious tour along the Mediterranean coastline, starting at Gibraltar and ending in Morocco across from "the Rock," along the way visiting just about every place in between, including Spain, France, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, mainland Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus (both sides), Israel, Malta, Syria, Egypt, and Tunisia. He tried to visit Lebanon but was unable to, and was warned off from visiting Algeria. He never seriously attempted to visit Libya. Vowing never to take a plane, he travels along the coast and to the various islands by train, bus, taxi, ferry and cruise ship (both luxurious such as the $1000 a day Seabourne to the more decrepit, workaday Turkish vessel Akdeniz).

Though Paul seems at time a romantic, quotting descriptions of places from epic poetry, the Illiad, or modern works of fiction, time and again he finds something different, and often that is a great deal more gritty, spent, or to use some of his massive vocabulary, enervated, melancholy, moribund, or lugubrious (I had to use a dictionary several times in reading it, but hey, I learned something). Though some of it comes off as depressing, some quite depressing, I wouldn't have it any other way; he tells it like it is, describing the places he really saw and the people he really met. Avoiding the tourist's Mediterranean, not wanting to just see ruins, castles, and pretty beaches, Paul shows us in this work how the people live, work, and play in the countries of this great "Inner Sea." Expressing "traveller's guilt" at times for being a "voyeur," Paul observed often times the sorrows, tragedies, and miseries, but also the joys and the friendliness, of the inhabitants of this part of the world.

Paul does not romantize any of the countries he sees. He describes in detail the desolate look of the Spanish seacoast in winter (Paul deliberately traveled in the toursit off season), of all the English-language signs, cheap hotels, billboards, shops selling cheap souvenirs, trailer parks, all waiting forlornly for the summer hordes of tourists, a vacation mecca that was more English than Spanish. He goes into considerable detail his efforts to understand the bloody spectacle that is the bullfight in Spain, talking to Spaniards everywhere and even attending a few (and watching some in smoky bars in Spain), but never develop a true comprehension (or liking) for it. He visits war-torn Slovenia and Croatia, sharing dirty hotels with desperate refugees, worried about snipers, harrassed by police at border checkpoints, looking at bullet and mortar holes in ancient structures. His time in Albania is surreal, a land of screaming and whining beggars, virtual starvation, a land that just recovered from one of the most xenophobic dicators in history, one that mandated everyone has his own bunker and not even own his own car - his description of Albania alone was worth the price of the book. Northern Cyprus he spent some time in, a ghost-town, a phantom nation, one that doesn't exist except in a legal limbo, cut-off from the rest of the island by the Green Line, forever a truncated failure of a country, in reality an expensive Turkish colony. He referred to Greece as "the ragged edge of Europe," a poor country that was basically a slightly better Albania as it were, a nation that was not really modern and an EC welfar state, and despite its rich cultural history, the people of that nation today - he writes - are not really truly aware of or part of the heritage of Aristotle, Pericles, and Archimedes. I could go on at length here, but suffice it to say his portraits of each country are fascinating. Some are a bit brief; he doesn't spend that much time in Slovenia for instance (not as much as he did in Croatia for example), and I got the impression in Morocco he was just glad his trip was finally ended.

The book is not perfect though. Some of the locations I thought he would spend more time on, specifically Jerusalem, Istanbul, and Venice, but perhaps if he did the book would be massive. At the very least in Istanbul there were political and terrorist problems, thus complicating his stay. All in all though I found this book quite worthwhile.

Train after train after train! A most fascinating, thorough narrative of travel through China in the mid-eighties, which, by the way, is the only reason I did not give this book five stars. It is old-more time has past since Paul Theroux took this trip than the time that had passed since the cultural revolution when Theroux wrote this book.

But I still recommend this book. There is really nothing else like it available, and it does give a wealth of information about the lay of the land. The physical geography of China has not changed that much since the mid-eighties. But I would not have you think that this books only value is its descriptions of scenery. There is plenty to learn about China, and the Chinese mindset, as long as you are able to transpose it a bit to the present time. For example, I don't think you would be followed around quite so much as Paul Theroux was on this trip.

Theroux is a novelist by profession, and a good storyteller. This book contains a lot of interesting anecdotes, such as a delightful description of the few days he spent in the city of Dalian with a travel guide who was obsessed with American idioms.

Kipling said, "East is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet." In the years since World War II, several countries in the Pacific Rim, starting with Japan, have seemed to defy this adage, and have really become western democracies. What is the future of China? Will this proud culture become more western? Will it become more democratic? Although this book is not a political tretise by any means, it is very useful as a post Cultural Revolution look at China. Nobody can predict what China will become, but surely the most casual observer would have to take note of the major paradigm shift represented by recent changes.

This book was written before Tiananmen, hence its weakness. However, I still think the book would be very useful for anyone who has at least a modicum of understanding of the events surrounding the Cultural Revolution. I found it to be a very useful addition to the body of literature I have been reading over the past few years to gain a better understanding of the tremendous changes that have taken place in China since I first saw the pictures of the Red Guards on the cover of my Weekly Reader when I was in elementary school. Get a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and enjoy.

This is a well-written literay account of Theroux's travels through the difficult land of modern China. I first read this while living in (British) Hong Kong and making trips to and through the mainland. I have never laughed so much at the crazy predicaments Theroux gets himself into or observes (many the same as I was experiencing), and was struck not only at the quality of his writing but how rare a writer he is for covering this difficult and insecure part of the world.

What shines through in the pages of this book is that Theroux the writer is beholden to no one; he delivers accuracy of description everytime, and while this is the essence of a good travel writer, it is not a trait relished by governments out east like China's, where in fact the culture demands "saving face" over telling the blunt truth (see Bo Yang's book The Ugly Chinaman for an in-depth account of this fascinating aspect of Chinese culture). Even some westerners who live out East (and might like us to think of the Third World as some kind of paradise posting) can get upset at this kind of sober truth-telling about "their" China. For the detached reader, Theroux's book is an honest, funny, non-spin-doctored account.

If you like this book, try Theroux's Kowloon Tong, his Hong Kong novel banned in China, a very accurate depiction of that small city and the people (both westerners and easterners) who lived in it at the time of the Handover (I read it while living there). Timothy Mo's The Monkey King is another classic China novel about an eccentric Chinese family - a witty, poignant tale, and a book so on the mark that, if anything, it was even more attacked by certain frumps out East than Kowloon Tong!

Paul Theroux has always had an extremely sharp eye for detail, and an even sharper pen with which to mold these observations into telling, sometimes ascerbic commentary. In "Riding The Iron Rooster", Theroux is at the top of his form in capturing the flavor and collective psyche of mainland China during the last quarter of the 20th Century.

One of the more revealing angles put forth in "Iron Rooster" is the face-saving that the Chinese government has engaged in with respect to The Cultural Revolution. Everyone knows that what Mao Tse Tung did was monstrous, but few in China appear willing to own up to the magnitude of the sin in any public way; so half-measures are taken to pay "proper respect" to Mao at just the appropriate place and just the appropriate time.

The author also nicely captures the first wave of pro-capitalist fervor that began engulfing China in the late 80's. But the core of Theroux's book, as always, are the vivid snapshots of the customs, foibles and mores that constitute a culture.

Reading "Iron Rooster" as I boarded a plane in Hong Kong in 1994, I discovered I was about to experience, first-hand, the aeronautical and social turbulence that the author ascribed to Chinese plane travel. By the time I landed in Guangxi Province, all of his observations had been confirmed.

"Riding The Iron Rooster" is vintage Theroux - insightful, droll, always pleasurable.