It's hard to believe that James's theatrical turn of the late 19th century ended with his audience "booing" him off the stage. This novelized play reads quickly and delightfully. I've read more than twenty of his novels, and this was the quickest of them all.

The plot is simple enough (at least for James): two houses, apparently back to back, in Wilverley, a small English village, set the scene. One contains a widow, the other a young married couple. The young wife widows the young husband, and he becomes Wilverley's "most eligible bachelor," except for the fact that he promised his dying wife that he would never marry again, at least not during the life of his child. So somebody has to kill the child, right?

Enter James's genius for character. There's Paul, the huge, infinitely imperturbable son of the wealthy Mrs. Beever; the diminutive and impetuous Dennis Vidal; Tony Bream himself, a remarkably good-natured but insensitive fool; and the powerful Mrs. Beever, whose awful determination cows every one else before her. Like James's best writing, his characters become interesting on their own; his fictions become an opportunity to satisfy curiosity. I think that's what makes this book a "page-turner"; the characters are interesting enough that I want to know what's going to happen.

In the end, I suppose, what makes this book succeed is what would have made the dramatic version fail: James's endless fascination with the workings of the human mind must have become either painfully boring or just incomprehensible to a theatrical audience. However it came about, I recommend it unequivocally.

This book is a novelization of the play by the same name. And you can see the stageplay - the characters are continually coming and going - and there's stage business - all of which I think shows some stiffness - yet about half way through the novel I was startled at how much the characters were real, rounded - I could just about see them - they ached with life - I was always aware of the stage during the novel - the story itself is rather shocking - it's a mystery novel! - it's all very well done - it's short - and it's very psychological

I am impressed with The New York Review's revival of this unexpectedly non-Jamesian title. A truly unique James choice to bring back to life--it's been done so with a cover so compelling (I'm not a tradional James fan) I opened the book which I found locally in a brick and mortar as they are now called, book shop. The internet cannot do justice to the thoughtful sophistication of this book's packaging. (But I can purchase another copy here more easily!) The publisher's comments about the work were also compelling and complimentary to the cover art. The Other House is a mystery, a detective story, a love triangle with more than three angles--a true page turner--with a timelessly human plot and "modern" characters. Anyone thriller fan would be enchanted with it. And turning every page, holding the book, is a sensory thrill. Paper, writing, art--all representative of what any literary rebirth deserves. If it's worth bringing back--do it with quality, I say! They did--along with a whole marvelous collection of equally intriguing books, with well written new introductions. Good choices--the pieces themselves, the introduction authors and the book artist designers. Truly timeless in all ways!

Reminiscent of The Great Gatsby yet 100% original at the same time, this novel has all the makings of a classic of American literature. This is a novel of epic proportions, packed into less than 150 pages. It spans three decades and traverses three continents. It is beautifully paced, at times flowing like a gentle stream, offering nuanced, elegant prose and character development, then switching purposefully and gracefully into much broader brush strokes to account for the passage of time. This is the book for which Begley will be remembered several generations from now.

As with the great first-person narrators in classics like Brideshead Revisited and Fifth Business, Max Strong is a keen yet passive observer, comfortable enough blending into the scenery so as not to obstruct the reader's view of the novels fascinating characters. Charlie, the brilliant, extravagant architect with an ego to match his talent, bobs in and out of Max's life, first appearing at an Italian villa where he and Max have been invited as guests, then in Beijing where Max has offered his legal expertise while on sabbatical from Harvard Law School, then again in Cambridge, MA and the Berkshires where Max works and vacations respectively. Their relationship is both antagonistic and co-dependent, as Max serves as conscience and confessor for Charlie in regard to the latter's romantic involvement with Toby, the young, attractive, and troubled youth that Charlie takes under his wing. And yet, while Max rarely asserts himself as anything more than an astute narrator, the book is just as much about him as it is about those that he observes.

It is a remarkable accomplishment that Begley has expressed so much beauty in so few pages. His settings and his characters sing with authenticity, and his prose offers the perfect current to carry his flawlessly-crafted story.

I enjoyed the old fashioned tone of this novel. The main character, Max, is a kind of "fifth business," telling the story and having things happen to him without his really being involved. His friendship with Charlie deepens over the course of the book, effecting him in ways he never would have imagined. The writing and langauge are exceptional in a modern author. The characters in this short but intense book (145 pages) have a lot in common with those that appear in the Schmidt books where they are further fleshed out. I recommend all of Begley's books: I've read four this year.

These are absolute gems, and whenever I see someone reading John Cheever or Raymond Carver I tell them to put those overrated hacks away and to check out John O'Hara.

In this book Arthur and his sister D.W. have a reading contest to see if she could really read. So D.W. could read after all and Arthur ended up taking back what he said about her. He said she couldn't read but he didn't know she could.

One of many books in the Arthur series, Arthur's Reading Race, is extremely well designed, using stickers to ecourage and assist in the reading and learning of new words. On almost every page there is a word writen in blue which the child must match with a sticker. The kinestic activity of tieing the visual cue to the word enhances the learning process. Thematically, Marc Brown, couldn't have been more apropo, using the much loved Arthur character to challenge his younger sister, D.W., to read ten words. New readers, identifying with D.W., are immediately invested in discovering whether the novice is successful in meeting her older brother's challenge. Marc Brown, does not dissappoint his young fans, as D.W. manages to read ten words and receives her reward (an ice-cream). Brown uses humor extremely well eliciting delighted giggles from young readers as they follow D.W. and Arthur on this immaginative and educational journey. Other bonuses include a review activity, an additional sticker page which allows the child to create their own story, as well as excellent ideas/advice in a "Note to Parents" page.Unfortunately, this is one of very few Arthur: Step into reading books which I have been able to locate which offer the stickers and all the asociated activities. -Victoria Romani

Louis Begley's Wartime Lies is stark description of one family's fight to survive in Nazi occupied Poland. It is told through the eyes of a young boy, Maciek. He is the youngest in his family and he tells with an innocent voice the story of his family and their struggle. His youthful perception of the Nazi occupation provides the reader with an innovative view of what life was really like. He describes the terror of a family slowly breaking apart, a life where death preferred over captivity, and a world where no one can be trusted.
Maciek and his aunt, Tania find themselves alone in a world at war, with only each other to depend on. The story traces their struggle to survive as the lies they tell in order to survive become more and more complex. Maciek learns that lying is sometimes a necessity to live but as a child he struggles with the idea of right lying and wrong lying. Maciek manages to escape from the war but not unscathed. He continues to struggle with the idea of who he is and where he belongs years after the war has ended.
The reader of this novel has the opportunity to learn from Maciek and Tania's lives. The most important lesson that this novel teaches is the risk a person takes when they hide their true selves. Through Maciek's example, the reader sees that the longer you pretend to be someone you're not, the harder it is to escape from the fantasy. When person pretending finds difficulty in distinguishing their true self from their pretend self is the point when they are lost to themselves. Maciek is lost by the end of the novel and Begley is trying to teach the reader to find who they are before that part of them is lost forever.

Louis Begley's Wartime Lies paints a vivid picture of the life of a nine-year-old boy, Maciek, and his aunt, Tania, during World War II. The novel snares the reader from the very first page. Maciek is representative of most pre-pubescent boys until the Germans begin to take control of his home. This novel unfolds like an adventure story, containing violence, suspense, and drama; however, the reader must remind himself that, although the characters are fictitious, the story remains similar to that of many victims of the Holocaust. The terror that plagues the hearts of the characters is almost palpable. Since Maciek narrates the story, the war is seen through the eyes of this young boy. He recounts the "wartime lies" he and his aunt had to fabricate in order to live and all the while confesses his guilt of being a liar and hypocrite. His innocence is both touching and heart-wrenching. "She and I had to get used to the idea that we were quite alone: Tania and Maciek against the world. This was not an easy lesson to learn, but probably the world would beat it into our heads." And the world did. The voice of an adult Maciek concludes the novel. This man bears no resemblance to the child he once was. He is unable to speak of his childhood; rather, he prefers to keep it buried amidst the rubble of a past that he no longer acknowledges. Upon reading this powerful conclusion, the reader can't help feeling a mix of emotions. Maciek has survived the war, but what has his survival brought him? Wartime Lies should be read to not only teach about the Holocaust, but also to allow the reader to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the Holocaust.

Louis Begley's novel, Wartime Lies, is set during the German invasion of Poland in World War II. After the Nazis take over their town and send them to a ghetto, Maciek-a young Jewish boy-and his family must to take on new identities in order to survive the German occupation. The family is forced to separate and only Maciek and his aunt Tania are left together, posing as a widowed mother and her son while they travel through Poland looking for refuge.

I don't tend to dwell much on my ethnic background. I'm an American. I was born in America, as were my parents and my parent's parents. Still, if you ask me what nationalities I am, I'll tell you. I'm half Polish, with the other half being mostly Irish, with some English, and Welsh. I don't look stereotypically Polish or Irish, and both my families come from Christian backgrounds, so I don't look Jewish. I've never been to any of these countries, I don't speak their languages, and I'm not particularly well versed in their histories. I'm just your average American, with a very Polish last name, Zakrzewski. My family simplified the pronunciation to "Za-crew-ski," though it sounds quite different in Polish. I'd like to know more about my family's background and what brought both branches here to America. I could ask my Grandmothers and I know they'd tell me, but it just isn't something that we seem to talk about in my family. Out of the two countries, I probably know the least about Poland. If my last named started with "Mc" or "Mac" maybe I wouldn't care as much, but since I'll always be identified first as Polish, I have some deep, unfulfilled interest in this nation.

It's not everyday I read about Poland. I've learned about World War II, and the atrocities of the Holocaust. I know about Germany's invasion of Poland and of Auschwitz, but it's all textbook knowledge and documentaries from the Discovery Channel. Most of the information I know is cold and sterile. As someone who wasn't born until 1981, the closest thing I can get to a first hand experience is usually from a survivor of a concentration camp. Rarely does myself-or anyone for that matter-get a fist hand look at what it was to live during these times, outside the nazi camps and Jewish ghettos. Bagley does a fine job in showing us what it meant to be a Jew in Poland during World War II from a perspective greatly different from those poor souls who ended up in Hitler's death camps.

Like Dante's pseudo-self in his Divine Comedy, Maciek-the hero of Bagley's tale-wanders around his own hell with his aunt Tania as a protector and guide. Just like Dante, Maciek is immune to the actual terrors of the German invasion, due to his forged documents stating he is of Aryan decent, and must travel through his ravished homeland as an outsider observing the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Since Maciek is only one person, the purpose of his journey isn't to change his homeland. His task is to inform the rest of his country, and the world, of what actually occurred in Poland, so that it can hopefully never happen again. He is merely a tool used to relate these horrors.

As I've already said, I know very little about Poland and its people. Most of what I do know centers around the county's tendency to be conquered by other nations, but probably the most widely known chapter in Poland's history occurred during the Nazi Holocaust. Bagley's novel is the first time I've every encountered these events related from an objective view. This book has given me a better understanding of what actually transpired during the German occupation then any other source I've ever encountered. Wartime Lies not only gives us a chronological history of events, but also an emotional history of a person who lived through them. This marriage of history and personal exploration paints a more vivid picture then any textbook or documentary could.

Even after the war, Maciek and the remains of his family still lived under false pretenses, fearing what still might occur if their Jewish heritage were discovered. While I have no fear of others knowing I'm Polish, in some ways I understand the feeling of not being true to ones background. While I don't attempt to hide my ethnic background, I make no strides in exposing it either. If anything, Bagley has not only kindled in me a desire to learn more about my own family and nationality, but his book has also given me a new perspective on events that I thought I knew all to well.

Although this book is about Ben, his story is told by his college friend, Jack. Why? I have no idea. Jack's life is orderly and traditional. Ben, a ..survivor, finds love and rejects it. Jack knows all through reading Ben's journal and because Ben tells him all at their occasional lunches.

I just didn't get this book. I've read three others by Begley. All were excellent, told believable stories, had interesting characters and satisfying conclusions. I finished this one only because I started it.

Also, there is way too much male fantasy [stuff]. How many scenes of anonymous or paid for intercourse must a reader witness to get the point? And I am certainly tired of "beautiful" but problematic women and the repetitive descriptions of ..[them]. Enough already!

Many sharp details do not a novel make. If you want to sample Begley, read "About Schmidt."

In prose beautiful for its sheer economy as well as its clarity, here is the story of the genteel life adopted by a survivor of the least genteel event of the century. There are hidden costs associated with the comforts of Ben's chosen path, not least of which is his self-image, as a man who is perpetually late to realize the existential significance of major choices, and late to act thereupon; a man who misses chances; a man out of sync with his own life.

This is simply an extraordinary story, told with a courtliness and understatement evocative of William Maxwell and Ford Madox Ford.

Schmidt is one of the more annoying literary characters I've recently come across: grey, pallid, 'civilized' to the point of being little more than an ageing wuss. His daughter is churlish, his lover sweet (or at least Schmidt thinks so, even when she gets pregnant by another man) but unfaithful, his next-door neighbor a lout. I kept yearning for Schmidt to get these people out of his life, or at the very least, tell them off--but no, he never seemed able to rise to the occassion. At its best, this is a dull book about a dull man. At its worst, it's an irritation.

What an odd little book! I never really connected with the characters, and the peculiar writing style and use of punctuation (or rather lack thereof) makes it difficult to discern whether a character is thinking or speaking out loud. For instance, here’s a passage that leaves you puzzled as to who is saying or thinking what:

______________________________________________________________

Jesus, Schmidtie, said Carrie, after he had given her, all during lunch, and even before, while they putting the cold chicken and the tomato salad on the table, the polite silent treatment that had been, while Mary lived, part of his ingrained behavior. What’s the matter with you? I get up early to be out here in time so we can eat and then take a nap, and you treat me like a piece of .... I don’t have to take this.

He wasn’t only sulking. He felt dead inside.

You’re right. You don’t. I don’t suppose you will.

Thanks a lot. I want to shower You can do the dishes by yourself. You’re so good at it.

______________________________________________________________

Schmidt is a recently widowed, successful lawyer who was forced to retire early when the firm no longer needed his specialty. He has taken up with a Puerto Rican former waitress 40 years younger than him who has moved into his home. He is paying her way through college. Although he thinks he is in love with her and asks her to marry him repeatedly, she refuses and actually starts seeing another man while still living with Schmidtie. His friend also tries to hit on her (some friend!). Schmidtie has a placid, rather empty and lonely existence with few friends, no productive work and no hobbies other than gardening.

Schmidtie also has a strained relationship with his daughter, Charlotte, who seems to only want his money and is critical of everything he does. Schmidtie finally sorts it out end as this peculiar, boring book grinds to an end. While I often regret that a good book has come to an end, I wasn’t sorry to turn the last page of this one, so I could pick up another book and look for something more interesting and engaging.

Begley claims quotation marks make his pages unsightly. He can use them or not, it's a free country, but there's a reason most of the civilized world uses the darn things. It's called clarity. Having dug my way through both Schmidt books without the benefit of adequate puncutation I'd highly recommend Begley give it up and bow to convention. However neat the pages appear, it just ain't worth it. And since when did anyone care about neat-looking pages? That said, Schmidt Delivered was a satisfying experience, mostly due to Begley's memorable characters. Hope the little guy has at least one more Schmidt book in his quiver and that he relents and uses those darn quotation marks to help us keep the musings and the speeches separate.

After reading "All about Schmidt" I was attracted to read another book by Louis Begley. This has to be a recommendation of the author. He must be doing something right to qualify for more hours of my discretionary time. Perhaps I was attracted by his grammatical English, which is sadly becoming rarer with an almost universal expectation of little more than bare communication on the lowest level. His legal background is evident in a few periodic sentences of tedious length. There are few and they give way to a simple and wonderfully direct prose for human reaction and emotion. If you were given a finite life expectancy, how would you react? This is the stuff of TV human interest programs. What does our legally trained author offer beyond the banal? Firstly, this is a truly positive book. Nothing morbid here. It is a litany of human passion, self-indulgence and self-gratification. And why not, if you have only a few months to live. The message is Horace's old maxim "carpe diem." Live life. Don't wait. Our hero, Thomas Mistler, in fact had to wait till he had a terminal report from his doctor. But his unexpected reaction is one of freedom from what had restricted his inner-most emotions before knowing that life was not to continue in its bourgeois continuum apparently foreever. So the reader is part of his late emotional and sexual emancipation. He enjoys what many secretly dream of without the burden of middle class values and narrow religious scruple.

Don't read this if you are concerned with the thoughts of an older man who is still sexually alive and well. Don't read it if you are bound by the rules of middle class restrictions of the "apropriate," whatever that may be.

This should be compulsory reading for those with a serious, or life-threatening condition. Forget the gloom. Just for once, let your real feelings come to the fore.

Not to forget Louis Begley's wonderfully succinct and irnonic style, let me assure you that this is a book for those who appreciate irony and grit. Older readers might even find it educational!

I enjoy reading Louis Begley, but I do get a bit tired of his all conquering male sex gods. Why do women fall for these over-the-hill guys? Don't know.

The writing is excellent and insightful, however, so well worth reading. If only I understood the last sentence I might know if Mistler's Exit was to be a good one or not.

After being told that you had only a limited time to live because you had a terminal cancer disease, why would you think of your life after death? Many reasons, my friend. Firstly, because many of your fellow human beings are so egotistical that they cannot imagine a world without their presence. OK, so that is the first answer. But the second, which is a bit more subtle and not the first to spring to mind: because they have a hell of a lot of living to do in the meantime. That is quite simply the situation of our hero who is diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer and not a lot of life to fill in. So what does our hero do? He gets going in the best way for him. He indulges an artistic side of his life by going back to Venice to salivate over some of the richest art treasures in Europe and co-incidentally let his libido run its natural course. Two women help him on his merry way and why not? His wife, whom he respects in his own eccentric way, is not of the physical persuasion. So he reaps where he can, with truly male enthousiam and self-indulgence. Don't read this if you actully believe in strictly monogomous protocols. This is for the honestly weak of flesh and the lustfully strong of mind. There is no pretence and no hypocricy. The writing is direct, but never simplistic. Keep your wits about you. The legalistic periodic structure of the sentences does not let the reader slacken his attention. You will be drawn into the humanity of the scenario and the basic sexual needs of a man that knows that life is soon to end. There is no misery here because there is too much to be lived in a finite time frame. Read this if you have ever lusted after something beyond the bourgeois definition of marital fidelity. Mistler is faithful to his wife in his own way and she would not expect anything more. What he craves knowing that the Grim Reaper is at the end of the tunnel, is a sense of having lived: no regrets and no self-recrimination. Read this book if you have a feeling of not having lived your dreams. Read it because you feel that you have not yet dared to think outside the square. But do not leave it too late. Are you sexually honest with yourself? If not, don't read this book. Otherwise you will be disappointed in yourself. Question: did Mistler die fulfilled? Were his sexual escapades only a metaphor for his attempt to escape the prison of his own shortcomings? Read it to find out. Louis Begley writes with an incomparible directness that the reader has to decide for himself and is inevitably drawn into the struggle of another's final zest for life. This book made me review my own as yet unfulfilled dreams. It might do the same for you. This is powerful writing within a contained framework of logical and direct prose. No superfluous frills here.

Begley's novel tells the story of a rather small-minded retired New York attorney, Albert Schmidt, as he copes with sudden widowerhood and retirement. Actually, most to the point is that Schmidt himself tells the story; in the case "about Schmidt," Albert's persistent, solipsistic whining serves to convict him as guilty as charged.

Another reader mentioned Ishiguro's "Remains of the Day" and that novel does indeed come to mind, not to the advantage of Begley's book, however. There is a certain interest in watching Schmidt's efforts to deal with his new life, but, unlike Ishiguro who never resorts to sensationalism in his exacting revelation of his narrator's faults, Begley introduces an implausible love affair and a malignant antagonist, a character who may work well on a symbolic level as a foil to Schmidt, but whose entrance into the novel introduces a highly implausible plot turn that is resolved in an even more implausible way.

Begley is terrific stylist, however, and the book is well worth reading. Subsidiary characters such as Schmidt's daughter and mother-in-law to be come to life in Begley's capable hands. Too bad he didn't trust his material and work out Schmidt's efforts to learn how to live an ever more constricting life in the same realistic vein in which he began the story.

Begley writes beautifully; his prose is seemingly effortless, although I'm sure it took many drafts to make it seem that way. Schmidt is a compelling protagonist, and his story is artfully told -- at least until the final fifty pages or so. The ending is far too abrupt, and the loose ends are tied up so neatly (and so much in Schmidt's favor) as to be unbelievable. It's not simply a compliment to Begley's writing style to say I wanted the book to go on longer; the story itself demanded to be longer. A more

About Schmidt is an absolutely mesmerizing read. I had previously read Mistler's Exit and eagerly looked forward to reading this book. It did not disappoint.

The character of Schmidt is not a likeable one but fascinating none the less. Still coming to terms with the death of his wife he doesn't know quite how to react to his daughters love for a partner in his old firm. The fact that the boyfriend is jewish does not help matters. He manages to maintain a distant relationship with her but realizes that she is repudiating her past in order to become part of his family and after marriage she will convert to Judaism.

The emotional turmoil that pervades this book is as heartrending as it is self inflicted. The moral if there is one is that one must come to terms with ones past. With the death of his wife and the loss of his daughter Schmidt's journey to self awareness and acceptance is compelling reading. If you seek a story about the soul of a man then this book is for you, warts and all.