This book transcends my expectation. Its is lyrical, unique and possesses a raw honesty which imprisons me from the very beginning. The main characters, "BOY", "O", "Mother" and even "Father" are absolutely fascinating. The love between "BOY" and "O" is conveyed lucidly without any barrier or qualm. I will always remember "Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall" because it is so stunningly unique. It is disappointing that this book is out of print and could not be enjoyed by all of us who appreciate a real gay romance.

There is not much left to say after Mr. Clark's exhaustive and thoughtful review. I concur whole-heartedly. This is one of the best contemporary novels that I have read. I was amazed at the evolution of the plot and characters. There is a depth here that deserves respect and reading. You do not have to be gay to be touched by this book. It probably would have worked with totally straight characters. Its message and appeal are universal. Look past the drag and the leather and you will find a gripping account of the search for love, a need that we all share. Even more touchingly, you will see how and where that search proceeds and ends.

Neil Bartlett, already well-known for his play "A Vision of Love Revealed in Sleep," wrote a gorgeous novel here, about a gay bar, its clients, its owner, and the lovers who meet there.

The novel is framed by the narration of an unnamed bar client, as he tells the story of O (which stands for "Older Man") and Boy, two men who first meet in a gay bar, chock full of interesting personalities, from the elegant bar owner, Madame, to the passive/aggressive dress maker, Miss Public House. The bar, which seems to be set in a city not unlike London (although it is never explicitly named), is a neighborhood fixture, and the first gay bar Boy ever sets foot in.

As the story continues through Boy and O's courtship and marriage, Bartlett builds incredible tension by throwing in dream sequences, and subplots involving a series of hate attacks on local gays and the strange relationship between Boy and his 'father.' The book also contains literary allusion after literary allusion, from "The Picture of Dorian Gray" to "Lady into Fox," and evokes strong female images through the use of the mysterious character of Madame, and the influence on the plot of the Billie Holiday song "All of Me."

This book is meant to be pulled back layer by layer, until all the diverse strands are threaded together. Boy's coming of age through his relationships and interactions with bar patrons is elegantly wrought. Particularly effective scenes include a long car-ride/sexual encounter with one unnamed bar patron, and a dream-like sequence involving O on the subway.

"Ready to Catch Him Should He Fall" really reaches its full peak, though, in a scene during which one of the bar patrons is wounded by an attacker, and stumbles into the bar in shock. Madame gets up on stage and delivers a speech which sums up much of gay life and love. It is just an incredible scene, and the narrator's commentary on the action is both enlightening and heart-breaking.

Although "Ready..." can sometimes become almost too theatrical and lush for its own good, it's an extraordinary read, maybe the best book featuring gay characters published in the 1990s. It easily outstrips Bartlett's earlier "Who's That Man?" and later "The House on Brooke Street" as his best piece.

So many unworthy books have been made into movies. Does anyone own the rights to this one?

An excellent, exhaustive, tome on infectious disease. The authors provide detailed information in small, manageable bits. The down sides are the cost and the size.

A gay Londoner of the 80s goes searching for his roots and finds Oscar Wilde, a complex figure early on in the history of the cultural and social construction of twentieth-century homosexuality. If you're interested in Wilde, this is a very good book to read along with Richard Ellman's more standard biography.

Marivaux's comedy, The Dispute, is one of those wonderful classics which somehow got lost over time. It is as witty as any Oscar Wilde play and is fertile ground for duologues, perfect for scene auditions. Because of its relatively unknown status, The Dispute makes for a even better choice for a classical piece to present as it is a refreshing break away from overdone Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde plays.

On the strength of his first novel, Ready To Cath Him Should He Fall, I was excited to read Brooke Street. In the end, I was not disappointed. However, the narrative is so jumbled that it takes quite some time to become comfortable with the time period in which each chapter occurs and who the characters are. Just suffer through. It does become clear and it does have merit. Ostensibly the story of a 30 year "relationship" between two men, it is more correctly described as an extended coming-of-age novel in a time very different than today -- London in the 1950s. The furtive nature of courtship, the deeply closeted gay society, the constant fear of exposure at first seem quite distant. But the toll that they take on the characters are easy for many who grew up in the 70s, 80s and even 90s to relate to. Brooke Street brings to mind the kinds of insights and understanding delivered in Alan Hollinghurst's "The Swimming-Pool Library." Bartlett has written a book of basic truths, wrapping them around a fascinating love story, plus, for those who are intigued by grand turn-of-the-century homes, a tour of the Brooke Street House that makes it come alive every bit as much as the emotions of the characters passing through it.

Rarely in a book does a narrator thoroughly inhabit the prose as does Mr. Page in The House on Brooke Street. The language is sharply written, whimsical and witty at times, chatty but always laced with a bittersweet tinge that ultimately renders this novel profound, sad, and sorrowful. In a way the story of Mr. Page and Mr. Clive, doppelhanger young gay men in 1920s London, is a classic love story- boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy reminisces about boy thirty years later. But to Mr. Page, and because of the brutal harshness of being gay in those eras of British history, it's more than a love story, it's a mystery which he obsessively mines until he is left as hollow and shaken as ever, and even more haunted. The excessive charm of Mr. Page's honesty- about love, fear, and regret- at times hides the severity of the times he speaks of, but not always. The lifespan of a novel's hold on the imagination of the reader is usually its length, but this one is different. For most readers, I think the image of a young man standing naked on the terrace of Brooke Street will remain in their minds as indelibly it does in Mr. Page's memory.

Bartlett has made huge literary leaps and bounds since "Ready to Catch Him." "The House on Brooke Street" (called "Mr. Clive & Mr. Page" in the UK) is a psychologically realistic first-person account of a homosexual man in early 20th century London trying to exist with English dignity while fulfilling his "unspeakably" real-human desires.

A compelling psychological profile emerges starting with an obscure (factual) description of a late Victorian home in central London, which Bartlett cleverly weaves into journal entries (Mr. Page has a huge rhetorical palette), recounted dialogue, and a host of pertinent "real-life" historical tidbits. As the narrator uncovers bits of truth about himself, the reader uncovers the truth about the mysterious and often bizarre events of the story. For Bartlett, the truth is evasive and only partially attainable: the facts don't always add up, the narrator's judgements often conflict, the lines between fantasy and reality are constantly blurred, both in our world and in the world of the book.

This book means a lot to me personally because it is one of the first fictional works I've read with a "homosexual theme" that simultaneously avoids gratuitous fantasy and delusion while breaking new ground in terms of form and style. I love it because it is absolutely unlike anything I've ever read: you won't find a character like Mr. Page anywhere. Mr. Page is a real homosexual person, not an archetype. I must say, though, that I wasn't really thinking about politics as I was reading, (and Bartlett probably wasn't concerned with such a simple "message" when he wrote it). Any reader, gay or straight, can understand and feel the emotional (or psychological) "action"; anyone can appreciate Bartlett's often ingenious writing.

Zach Victor

I had to buy this book for a Java course in college. That is the only reason I have it! I breezed through this book at the checkout and knew it was a mistake. The index is horrible. If you want to read a lot about Java then get this (personally, I'd rather read a Stephen King novel). If you want to learn Java buy another book. This book is not concise enough for me.

The nice thing about this book is the examples are much closer to real-world problems you might tackle than the contrived examples you find in other texts. This is a very PRACTICAL book.

The main problem with it is its age. It needs to be re-released to cover JDK 1.1 and 1.2

Works great as an introductory lesson to Java. Each section must be followed through to get a grasp of its concept. The index is very sparse, so it makes a bad reference book

This book was a good starting point for developing Java games, but the code is very sloppy and unprofessional. It is obvious that they didn't test it at all (don't believe the nonsense that they've fixed things since the first printing, I bought it in 12/98). If you don't mind spending hours and hours (and hours) fixing their bugs, I would recommend the book.

This book is now old - originally published in 96. Java has
changed significantly since then. The major impact to the
usefulness of this book is the Java3D API.

Positives: The book does a good job of starting with simpler
games and then adding additional features such as networking
later. It also mixes in useful material on theory such
as BSPs, ray casting, and texture mapping.

On the whole, I would not recommend buying this book now.

The first half of the book concentrated on single player Java games. Provided with the book is a Java Framework within which games can easily be constructed. The first half started off great, however too much time was spent on explaining how the framework was built rather than on how to utilize the framework fully. There were some nice explanations of how games are constructed and some of the practicalities of playability and fast graphics. The second half of the book dealt with networked multi-player games and was much more difficult to follow, due to a very technical writing style. It would still be quite a climb to construct a multi-user game in Java.