The detail used to describe each of Marvin's movies and television programs is excellent and the author deserves to be commended for his thorough research and love of the subject. In the fickle world of Hollywood stardom, it is refreshing to seem a tribute paid to some of the movie world's older names.
The film reviews have detailed information about the films' plot and theme; and information about the producers, directors and other actors in the film. The reviews are set in chronological order so the progress of Lee Marvin's career may be easily followed.
This book only minimally describe Lee Marvin's personal life outside the movies. It takes the view of a student and fan of Lee Marvin - a fan who has all the best photos and has compiled all the details about Lee Marvin's films and his acting career. This book will be a reference for movie buffs and film students and teachers.
The frequency-hop (FH) CDMA parts of this text contain much useful and detailed mathematical exposition that I cannot readily find elsewhere in one volume. Quite inconveniently, the FH-CDMA sections are inter-mingled with the DS-CDMA sections. While I find plenty of useful mathematical details on FH-CDMA, those details are presented with little cohesion and offer little qualitative insight. I find myself buried with an avalanche of details with limited perspective.
The technical exposition here is truly terrible. I have just been reading the following sentence for several minutes and am yet to figure out its meaning: "In particular assume the simple repeat m code where for each data bit, m identical BFSK tones are sent where each of these tones are hopped separately." In what sense are these tones "identical" but yet "separate"? A simple equation here would have helped. In fact, I get so irritated by this poor technical writing that I get on the web and write this review to vent my frustration. The authors' aversion to use rigorous mathematics in their exposition does not help. The exposition ends up with very wordy but vague verbal descriptions, in place of concise and exact elucidations.
List price: $12.95 (that's 20% off!)
If you do like poetry (for reasons other than that recommended by your financial advisor), then you're also in luck. Within these pages are 40 crisp, little works of art. Each one a microcosmic, exacting sculpture of words. Tiny chocolate treats cooked by a mad chef. (Quite mad). Yes, underneath the formal plasticine wrapping is nothing less then pure, chaotic screaming.
The result is addiction. Take for example, a golden nugget called "The Anniversary".
The poem begins with the Romantic-esque woe of "Disappointment with the lack of stars." And like the Romantic sing-song of Prufrock's opening, "Let us go then, you and I/When the evening is spread out against the sky" that quickly hinges from sweet to 20th Century rationalism-gone-wrong with the following line "Like a patient etherised upon a table;" Marvin too hinges her tone from Romantic to a part Plathian/part Verunica Salt nature, as she demands "where's the moon when I call it?/Perhaps it's not up to being the color/I want tonight: bloody orange, peeling light." That's only the beginning of a sharp poem filled with intense passion and lines like "I wear his eyes like rings/on my hands. I sew years into a dress."
I won't write an entire thesis for an amazon.com review, but bear in mind, this is one of those rare books whose poems can be read alone, when in a foul mood; or together, sprinkling rose petals on a lover's body. I look forward to a lifetime of reading her work.
List price: $16.99 (that's 30% off!)
The first writer is Kenneth Gentry, representing the Preterist view. His work is the best presented of the four positions, worthy of five stars. If anyone wants an very good explanation of the Preterist view in a nutshell, Gentry offers it here.
The second writer is Sam Hamstra, representing the Idealist view. He is a bit wordy in his presentation, and comes across as rather dull. I give him three stars.
The third writer is Marvin Pate, representing the Progressive Dispensationalist view. Ironically, his argument is the weakest and most difficult to understand of the four. He appears to be seeking an interpretation that will have something for everyone, but sacrifices substance and clarity in the process. What seems to be a combination of a preterist/futurist position is not appealing in the least. I give him two stars.
The fourth writer is Robert Thomas, representing the Classic Dispensationalist view. Thomas voices the usual mantra for this camp, claiming that his dispensational view is the only position that interprets Revelation literally. He then proceeds to explain the "actual meaning" of the various "symbols" described by the Apostle John! Still, he does a commendable job of presenting a very brief summary of this very complicated viewpoint. I give him four stars.
In summary, this book is more suitable for the college classroom than for the church congregation. I would recommend it to a fellow pastor or theologian, but not to a layman. Overall, it serves to refresh the memory of a person who has already determined his viewpoint, rather than to persuade the mind of a person who is still undecided.
I was disappointed that this volume did not incorporate the debate format. Each author presents his paper, and that is that. There is very little interaction with the other authors.
The strength of the individual papers varied. Gentry did a good job defending the preterist approach. Hamstra did a good job convincing me that the idealist view is less a hermeneutical approach than it is an application of the text. Pate needed to explain exactly what it is that makes the progressive dispensationalist view distinctive. Thomas didn't say anything new in his presentation of the classical dispensationalist view.
The book would have been far better if it had presented the four views that have been predominant historically: the Futurist, Preterist, Historicist and Idealist views. They ignored the historicist view altogether and instead presented two slightly different futurist views.
In my opinion the senior editor at Zoindervan needs to call for some kind of consistency in the Counterpoints series. Either include responses in all the volumes, or don't.