One of the best King Arthur stories. Definately the funniest. I don't know what else to say. Just read this book.

Most of the books on the Arthur legends are steeped in battle glory and mythical images, though Bergers imagery is good, what you'll take away from Arthur Rex is the emotions.Berger has a tremendous way of making you feel for characters while being able to see their funny side at the same time. They feel like real people who happened to live extraordinary lives nearly a thousand years ago. It's not all Arthur and Lancelot either, you'll get to know Gawaiyne and Gareth. the stor about Tristram and Isolde with melt the iciest of hearts. This book is a treat for anyone who loves Arthurian stories or satires. With vicious wit and strong characterization, how could you go wrong?

I loved this book! First of all, it describes a lot of crafts that I used to do with my mother. Second, it offers a variety of easil-to-follow descriptions and ideas for the holiday season with pictures and helpful drawings. I am sure I will come back to this book every year.

This book contains many fabulous ideas for different crafts and decorations to do in preparation for Christmas, and all can be done with children. What I loved most about this book was that all the crafts are beautiful and sophisticated (no construction paper chains here!), with detailed instructions and designs. The projects included are candles, calendars, wreaths and table decorations, lanterns, angels, transparencies, straw stars, transparent stars, Christmas stables, and geometric figures. There is something for every interest. I would say that all the projects would require adult supervision, and probably from 3rd to 4th grade up to adult. A small book, but a treasure book of ideas.

This out-of-print novel is almost impossible to read, with its academic style and endless German syntax. In fact, I had to listen to it (Books on Tape) because I frequently lost interest. Only the tape player kept it alive.

Nevertheless, little parts of this novel stand out as some of the most powerful images I've ever read. The setting of post-WW2 Berlin has always fascinated me, and Berger speaks with great authority. Seemingly anachronistic references ("famous German blonde pussy") ring true. They talked like that in the 40s. Trudchen is convinving and erotic as a whore. Schatzie's execution by firing squad is too real and too detailed to be imaginary; I reember it at odd times, like when I'm falling asleep, and it still disturbs me.

I think that this book accurately reports postt-WW2 Berlin, which is a lot more than you can say about most WW2 books. History is written by the victor. Berger's novel is history written from the conquered's point of view. It is depressing but I recomend it for its veracity and its occasional powereful writing, well worth the time.

CDS

I am amazed that "Crazy in Berlin", "Reinhart in Love" etc. are not in print even in a trade paperback edition. We need to show more respect for the works of our talented authors. As I remember "Crazy in Berlin", it was a comedic look at postwar Berlin and its denizens. "Reinhart in Love" and "Reinhart's Women" continue the life story of the main character in "Crazy in Berlin". Those who appreciate John Updike and John Irving owe it to themselves to read some of Thomas Berger.

As different from the author's best known work, The Little Big Man, as that novel is from another comic masterpiece of his, Reinhart in Love, which was completely different from Arthur Rex, Berger's gleeful subversion of the historical novel, which is .... If I were one of those vitamin-deficient, pellagra-ridden geeks who believe in conspiracy theories, I'd believe that there is one, and has been for 35 years, to keep this author down. If this author's books aren't forthwith reprinted, someone ought to die. The body of his work is so rich and varied, in style and subject matter, that he makes Updike seem like the schoolmarmish fuddy duddy he essentially is and Roth the sophomoric he would like to be. Killing Time (now, get this) is about a lovable killer, a man who kills certain people because he felt sorry for them. Yes, Joe Detweiler seems to be a mystic, but at the same time he seems very much a down to earth naif who only wants to become one with the universe (that's why he like to have his penis amputated). Along the way to the transcendent awakening he so devoutly seeks, Joe befriends and mystifies the detective who is trying to solve the murder case, Tierney, the woman who Tierney is having an affair with, who is the sister and daughter of the victims, and (not least) the attorney Melrose, who thinks he has it altogether and who wants to save the childlike Detweiler from himself and an world that just won't understand Detweiler, even though Detweiler thinks his reasons for what he did are so obvious they should go without saying (he himself had forgotten he had committed the murders). And that's just a glib from-the-hip abstract of this highly original novel.

The most serious crime involved in Thomas Berger's "Killing Time" is that the book is out of print. The author lets you know early on who committed the triple murder that's discovered in the opening pages. The joys of the book are the why, the personality of the killer, how it ends, and the kinky truths in the lives of the other characters, major and minor, who Berger creates with a reality, a wit and a way with words that are, simply, tops. Hunt down a copy, read it, and cajole the publisher to reissue this classic

This is, of course, the fourth Reinhart novel. That it is out of print is a travesty, an abomination, a devastating commentary on the sick state of humanity as a whole.

In this novel, Reinhart has become a cook. Writing a novel is like cooking with memes. It is done for much the same reasons; it is very difficult. But Thos. Berger make it looks easy. I don't know how he does it. It is genius.

Thomas Berger must feel that his characters are too interesting and entertaining to not return to, and he is right. Splendor Mainwaring's son is here, representing his father who is in cryogenic suspension, we hope. (It is my theory that *Robert Crews* is a sequel to *Regiment of Women* perhaps the funniest novel ever written, except for *Neighbors*.)

In a hundred years, surely it will be seen that Reinhart (not Rabbit) is the essential fictional human of the second half of the 20th Century.

I first read *Reinhart's Women* when I was about 34. Then I put it away, knowing--every week that passed in my life--that when I was in my early fifties, I would take it out again, and re-read it. It gave me something to look forward to. After waiting all these years, I have not been disappointed. I wish I could get amnesia so that I could read it again tonight.

Wrongly pigeon-holed by some as a "comic" novelist, or even "black humorist", Berger's themes are large, his fiction is true. He writes novels of imagination (*Changing the Past*, *Being Invisible*, *Regiment of Women*, of history (*Arthur Rex*) and of the human condition). That they are excrutiatingly funny does not mean that they are not excrutiatingly true.

I have read a lot of novels over the years. *Reinhart's Women* is my favorite novel. No one knows women better than Berger, except other women. If you want to know about women, read about Reinhart's.

On the chance that Mr. Berger might read these reviews, I would like to say to him:

Hey! How's Reinhart? Was his TV show a success? Did he marry Edie and give Blaine a kid half-brother or -sister? Did he revivify the restaurant? What about Mercer? What happened to her? Did Genevieve fare better in California than she did in Chicago, and did she ever raise her ugly head again in Southern Ohio (presuming that Reinhart remained there)? Or did everyone simply live happily ever after?

You brought back Jack Crabb. I love Reinhart more. I reallize that the out-of--print status of *Reinhart's Women* may not seem to be too encouraging, but how about this: Mr. Berger, if you write a fifth Reinhart, I will personally give you $100. I am not kidding. michaelbrown@mail.org

I understand from this book is now out of print, but I am enjoying the library audio version. Carl Reinhart is a middle-aged man who never seemed to make anything of his life. He is divorced, not gainfully employed and lives with (and frankly, off of) his 25-year-old daughter, Winona, who is a successful model. So why do I actually LIKE this guy? Reinhart is very intelligent, philosophical and has a passion for cooking. He is not a professional cook, or professional anything else, of course, but as a self taught amateur has become quite accomplished at the art. The beautiful Wimona eats exceedingly little, but Reinhart is tolerant of that - it IS her job to be slim and gorgeous. He also very much rolls with the flow when he discovers this lovely and beloved daughter is gay.

Actually, "Rolling with the flow" describes Reinhart very well - he just seems to philosophize about life's surprises and mishaps and goes on rolling. The other women in his life include Grace Greenwood, a dynamic executive for a food company (and Winona's "friend") who manages to get Reinhart gainfully employed, first as a food demonstrator at a grocery store, then as a TV chef. In the cooking demonstration job he works with the loose but sweet Helen, who bestows upon Reinhart the same comforting gifts she generously bestows on a few (more than a few?) men. Reinhart, accepting people for what they are is, of course, tolerant of that. Then we have Mercer, his wellborn daughter-in-law who seems to either be "on something" or maybe just not connecting on all cylinders. Being marriend to Reinhart's unfeeling jerk of a son may be the reason. I'm not sure where he's going with Edie Mulhouse (I have a cassette and a half to go), a very large neighbor, but Reinhart has befriended the painfully shy and awkward gal. Is she in love with Reinhart? She seems to worship him. Or maybe she's in love with Winona; such indications are also hinted at. Equally puzzling is Genevieve, Rehihart's ex wife, who appears out of the blue after a decade of no contact with her ex-husband. Why did SHE show up? It appears her purpose in contacting our hero is for the purpose of loudly, embarrassingly and publicly cracking up.

Written before september 11, I probably wouldn't have noticed that book, if I hadn't to do some pouring into concepts of political culture.
And then this book astonished me!

It explains the actual political cultures of Germany und Japan and offers ways of understanding the concept of political culture as such. And it is superb in its explanations - and it's thesis proves to be very good if one looks at actual German-American discussions!

As a German, I warmly encourage this book to all people who are interested to understand Germany and Japan in the present!

A great book. Hilarious. Offensive. Subversive. It is like "Mayberry on Acid". Coincedences and misunderstandings abound in Berger's best.

Carl Reinhart is a lovable, middle-aged loser whose hippy son hates him; his wife is leaving him for a younger man; and even his mother makes fun of his string of business failures, which leave him broke and homeless at 44. However, his simpleton daughter adores him almost as much as she loves food.

When a former high school classmate gives the overweight, crew cut Reinhart a chance to get in on the ground floor of the cryogenics fad, i.e. freezing corpses for future restoration, the WWII veteran crashes head-on into the 60's generation.

Berger's great talent for depicting life's absurdities through the eyes of a talented misfit, which he did so well in "Little Big Man," is used perfectly in "Vital Parts" to depict the plight of the middle-aged, suburban, white American male, whose post-WWII utopia was irrevocably altered by women's lib, free love, civil rights, and the youth movement.

Between his oustal by his wife for cutting his son's long hair off while sleeping and his affair with a 22-year-old nymphomaniac, who keeps her car doors unlocked because she "doesn't like to block any of her entrances," Reinhart has one hilarious adventure after another. The plot hums and it is hard to read "Vital Parts" in public without laughing hysterically.

If you liked "Confederacy of Dunces" or "Catch-22" with their wiseguy, lost-in-a-sea-of-madness protaganists then you will love "Vital Parts."

It is a shame that so many of Berger's books are no longer in print. He's one of the great observers of late 20th century American life.

Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, when written, was 20 years ahead of its time. What we now take for granted, i.e., US govt (read: white) anhilation of native Americans, Berger presented to us from another perspective: the Indians'. I was about 12 years old when the movie came out and can still remember how it was much discussed at the time. Make no mistake - for all the wit and humor in this story, it is a very serious subject and for its time was very powerful. Imagine the days not so long ago when George Armstrong Custer was a national hero. This book caused rethinking and revision of white treatment of Indians and Indian culture. Mr Berger's use of a fictional character inserted into historical events was a masterful tool. The humor that our narrator, Jack Crabb, uses to get his point across is infectious, his downhome wisdom sage, and his tender heart touching. For those who enjoyed Mr. Crabb's saga, do not miss his return (Return of Little Big Man), as well as another mockumentary character, Harry Flashman, and his historical adventures, courtesy of George McDonald Fraser.

A plodding first chapter by the fictional author of a fictional biography, is necessary because it prepares us for the story of Jack Crabb, Little Big Man. With the second chapter the hilarity begins (with some lapses in the regional speech). There is a minimum of a laugh per page. The tragedy is a man caught between two cultures. He admires the Cheyenne, his adoptive people, but is carrying so much baggage from his original upbringing that he feels shame and guilt. Consequently he belongs to neither. He is a man lost to both as circumstance moves him back and forth between them. The book is culturally, but not historically accurate. Still I believe it ranks with the best American fiction.

Long before Micheal Blake's politically correct tome "Dances With Wolves" gave voice to other side of the American West, Thomas Berger wrote the expertly crafted, humourous, tragic and down right entertaining "Little Big Man". Written in 1965, when it was still fashionable to portray the Native American as a "in the way savage", Berger deftly blended the genres of tall tale and history in a manner that really has yet to be matched.

The character of Jack Crabb is cut of classic cloth. His story may very well be pure hogwash, but it is filled with touching humanity that underpins all the comedy. Berger portrays The Cheyenne people, or the "Human Beings" as possessing many of the same foibles and warts as their European counterparts. They are not painted as noble savages as in Blake's new agey work, but rather as complex characters deserving of respect and honor.

Berger's General Custer is a wry study of madness that somehow avoids cynicism. One of this book's many virtues lies in its ability to lend the Western myth a critical eye, while avoiding the nihilistic pessimism that frequently goes hand in hand with such work (something the film version couldn't avoid).

"Little Big Man" is a must read to all who love good yarns spun with a big heart and a bigger mind.

It is wonderful to write that in his 22nd novel Thomas Berger maintains the high standard that readers have come to expect from him. Best Friends is one of his miniatures (unlike Arthur Rex or the Little Big Man books) in which he focuses on a few characters over a short span of time.

In this novel Berger examines the meaning of the term "best friend." Sam, fat and whiny, has been best friends with Roy, fit and aloof, since their childhood days. Over the course of a few days Roy comes to examine not only the nature of his friendship with Sam, but also the way he leads his life.

Berger's prose, always cool, achieves here a new level of refinement and precision. By the end of the book you know Roy and his world intimately without being overwhelmed with verbiosity. While Roy experiences a spectrum of events and emotions that could fill a lifetime, the reader never feels that any of what happens is implausible, such is the deftness of Berger's touch.

Hopefully, this work will bring critical attention back to Berger who has been for too long ignored. His clear-eyed view of people and their ways (as well as his incredible prose style) is ripe for rediscovery.

Only caveat: there is a huge editing error at the end of the novel. Someone should have caught the inconsistency.

A master of dissecting the human psyche, Berger posits a twenty-year friendship, begun in adolescence, and fillets it for his reader's edification. Probing beneath the surface of the niceties that go into the long-established patterns of a relationship, Best Friends is particularly interesting as it concerns two successful young men, Roy Courtwright, a bachelor, and Sam Grandy, married for three years.

Roy has studiously avoided any interference with the couple, respecting their marital integrity while protecting his own turf as best friend to Sam. Roy is a friend who knows his place, treats his lovers kadmirably and barely knows Sam's wife, Kristin on a personal level. Much like a long-term marriage, the friendship is predictable and never hurtful to either man. But when the overweight and over-indulgent Sam has a heart attack, everyone is caught off balance.

In the midst of unexpected personal trouble, Roy turns to Kristin as a substitute, unwilling to burden Sam or jeopardize his health. Roy suffers some trepidation about sharing his problems with Kristin, but is too distraught to keep his own counsel. During their conversation, Kristin inadvertently mentions some remarks Sam has made about his friend, words that sound like betrayal to Roy. In doing so, Kristin illuminates an unsuspected problem in the men's relationship. Reacting to the thinly veiled animosity in Sam's words, Roy questions the basis of their friendship, for loyalty and integrity are paramount to Roy's wellbeing, while Sam is ambivalent about such values. Roy is shocked to realize that he has harbored some resentment toward Sam, "Maybe he and I are friends just out of habit, though maybe the same can be said of everything else. Living may be just a habit."

The real beauty of Berger's intelligent and thought provoking novel is the simplicity of his protagonists, the commonality of experience, so remarkably familiar that the reader is privy to the thoughts and small disharmonies of these characters. As personal as a private conversation, Best Friends exposes the important relationships we take for granted. Luan Gaines/2003.

Exotic car dealer Roy Courtright, a bachelor with superficial tastes in women, has been best friends with Sam Grandy, a large-boned, passive-aggressive sort, for over twenty years. Sam has over the years asked Roy for loans of huge sums of money to compensate for his capricious consumer habits and Roy, the benificiary of a large inheritance, has happily obliged. But as the novel unfolds, we see that Roy begins to examine his friendship with more vigor. Sam Grandy is after all emotionally undeveloped (seems like a twelve-year-old) and seems more in love with his gadgets than he is with his wife, Kristin. Roy and Sam's wife Kristin bond when they both must nurse Sam, the sufferer of a heart-attack. Through this bonding, they see themselves, and the feelings they have for each other, with more clarity and also see, with equal clearness, the noxiousness of Sam. With these new revelations, they must test where their loyalties lay. The conflict is handled well as the novel, well paced, reaches a steady climax.

I've read much Berger over the years and argue that this must be one of his best novels in part because it relies on less slapstick than previous efforts and instead relies on complex characters and highly ambiguous situations so that the reader is constantly amazed by the novel's twists and turns.