I read this collection of eleven short stories (all previously published in various periodicals) in preparation for an interview I was to do with the author, who is also a screenwriter, for Creative Screenwriting,magazine otherwise, I would not have picked it up. As it was, I found little to hold my attention, and I skipped past many a story after reading half. Not my cuppa tea... Boyd's novels, on the other hand, are extremely good, especially The Blue Afternoon.

These dense, finely etched stories are my introduction to William Boyd. Such an ordinary name for such a fancy writer! The title story is set in a place I know well near LAX; indeed I can almost see the exact setting of most of the scenes, where a French director, a black auteur, as it were, is composing his film. The setting is purposely banal in the extreme: a cheap pizzeria next to a nondescript motel within litter distance of the airport, chosen instinctively to comment on the low culture of America, I suppose, when all of Hollywood and Bel Air, West L.A. and Brentwood, avec filmdom execs, etc., beckons just beyond. This is explained by understanding that "He's an artist, he don't look back," to re-gender a Bob Dylan lyric, as Boyd does on page 11.

The second story, "Transfigured Night," set in Austria and Poland during the first world war, is somewhat Kafkaesque and not typical of this collection. The third story, "Hôtel des Voyageurs," begins in Paris and is rendered in a self-revelatory first person narrative that is the book's signature technique (although this is just a warm up to the near-perfection of "Alpes-Maritimes" and "The Persistence of Vision" in which Boyd's narrators give themselves away completely, much to the reader's amusement). One might call "Hôtel des Voyageurs," a one-night stand (actually afternoon) for sophisticates in which a euro trash girl plays a Comtesse that the narrator coyly, in the British manner, brags about bedding. This inadvertent self-revelation by the first person narrator is a technique that Boyd has worked to perfection.

The next story, "Never Saw Brazil" continues the cosmopolitan, polyglot exposition. Boyd seems to know several European languages and is not shy about sparkling his text with italicized dialogue in a number of tongues including Portuguese. He is also very big on food and presents a variable cookbook of dishes throughout. The story, "Lunch," is almost a toast to gastronomy.

"The Dream Lover" and the aforementioned "Alpes-Maritimes" are set in the south of France and concentrate on love and self-discovery among twenty-something expats expressed with irony, delicacy and a kind of ultra sophistication much envied, I understand, by assistant editors at Elle and The New Yorker. (Probably also at Granta, where four of these stories first appeared.)

In "Cork" Boyd presents a female narrator who has a love affair with a strange but touching man who was once in her employ in Portugal harvesting and selling cork. Here the narrator seems reliable and self-aware.

The final story, "Loose Continuity" begins in 1945 at the corner of Westwood and Wilshire near UCLA were I went to school while flashing back to Germany in the twenties as the female narrator, Gudrun, recalls a lost love as she watches the workmen finish her café design.

Boyd use of language is innovative and, at times, startling. Some examples:

The narrator in "The Dream Lover," as he ascends to the roof of an apartment building: "To my vague alarm there is a small swimming pool up here and a large glassed-in cabana....."

In "Alpes-Maritimes" Boyd's narrator (who wants the twin sisters for himself alone) reflects on the intrusion of Steve, now with them, "The trio becomes a banal foursome, or--even worse--two couples."

The dilettante artist in "The Persistence of Vision" reveals himself with this statement about his infant son: "I found it hard to paint in the house now that its routines revolved around Dominic's noisy needs rather than my own."

On the next page, after noticing somebody out of the corner of his eye, the narrator remarks, "...[Y]our instinctive apprehension is often more sure and certain than something studied and sought for: the glance is often more accurate than the stare."

In a bit of unconscious self-projection (and foreshadowed irony) on page 134, the narrator remarks on the man who will later, unbeknownst to him, abscond with his wife, "I felt sad for him, with his pointless wealth and the cheerless luxury of his life...."

Sometimes one is forced to turn to the dictionary to understand exactly what Boyd has in mind. In "Cork" Lily's lover has sent her an invitation for a rendezvous including these instructions: "...[P]lease do not depilate yourself--anywhere."

Boyd's style is precise, measured, polished, erudite, a trifle showy, and very sensitive. He has a sharp eye for fashionable detail and any sort of pretension. He stays off to the side himself, but maintains the sort of iron control over his characters, especially his leading narrators, that Nabokov insisted on. He delves into the human condition with tiny needles like an acupuncturist or a miniaturist with a magnifying glass. He is an extraordinary writer, original in technique, subtle in resolution with witty and ironic overtones. His control of voice and tone bespeaks a man who has mastered several languages and many of the nuances of human psychology. He is also a writer that other writers can learn from.

Can't say enough good about Wm. Boyd: he is hilarious, erudite, humane, urbane, witty, twisted, clever, poetic, "relatable"--everything you want in a novelist and storyteller. On a par with the great Kingsley Amis and V.S. Naipaul. Read him.

It should come as no surprise that the late Princess Diana had strong American connections through her Spencer heritage and Roberts skillfully outlines the most important and useful links among her estimated 20 million living American relatives. Di had ancestors in six of the thirteen colonies, so non-New Englanders need not despair. The principal author is well known for his work at the New England Historic Genealogical Society and this not-large volume is crammed with useful gateway ancestors in abbreviated and modified Register format.

For over half a century the name Hopalong Cassidy meant something to either readers,movie-goers, radio listeners or TV viewers.The fictional book hero, created by Clarence E.Mulford,first appeared in 1905 and lasted until 1941. By that time the red-thatched, hard-cussing cowpoke had been transformed by actor William Boyd into an urbane, polished knight-gallant. This is the Hoppy that Francis Nevins looks at and, as the name of his book implies,the author exhaustively details all 66 of these superior B grade western Cassidy films,between 1935-48.These films continued to be run into the 1960s such was the great popularity of Boyd's Hoppy, in the 1950's, via TV, radio and the actor's marketing genius in promoting a plethora of Hoppy goods, including food, toys, clothing etc.Nevins also catalogues the TV Cassidy series but does not engage in detailed information on these as many of the early TV Hoppy shows were cut-down versions of the earlier films. The book is extensively laced with large black and white photos, from all the movies and, together with a lively text, brings back some great memories to all the Hoppy fans the world over who were growing-up in the 1950s,or earlier. As Nevins notes, 'the best of the Hopalong Cassidy movies are among the finest westerns ever made.'However this book is not just a puff-job. Nevins is also critical of some of the films and dismisses the TV series as amongst the worst westerns (that view of course was not shared by 1950's children who couldn't get enough of their hero-and of course the TV series was pitched at a juvenile audience). Although forgotten today, Bill Boyd was a huge-star for over 20 years as Hopalong, completely fusing his persona with that of the cowboy.The role seemed to change the man. From a frivolous silent-era heart-throb(with 4 failed marriages) whose career seemed over, until he accepted the Cassidy role in 1935, Boyd became the epitome of everything wholesome and decent.In 1937 he started two enduring partnerships,one with his fifth wife,the actress Grace Bradley,the other with Topper, his four-legged ghostly grey co-star. These partnerships were severed only by death-Topper's in 1961 and Boyd's in 1972 (Grace is still alive).Boyd's acts of kindness to children, particularly the sick, are legendary and in films and life Boyd represented the best of American values. Thus, whilst making a store-appearance in the Deep-South, Boyd refused to allow the segregation of children waiting to see him. Hoppy, as always, continued to 'ride-tall'. The Cassidy films too showed great sensitivity in portraying Indians and Afro-Americans in an era not particularly known for such portrayals.A minor criticism of this detailed book relates to Boyd's birth and death. Nevins, like a majority of writers on William Boyd, states the actor was born in 1898. In fact, Boyd was born in 1895. Likewise, Nevins states that Boyd died on 13 September 1972 whereas all other references I have read state he died on 12 September. Nevertheless, Nevins has written an interesting book on a great western star analysing the films in the context of the times.

A nice book featuring the detailed account from human zygote formation to the full term foetus. It also gives concise and clear to understand descriptions on the possibilities of malformations due to various conditions.

Author Harry Rinker does a great job in bringing back the images of a forgotten hero, Hopalong Cassidy as portrayed by actor William Boyd. His book recaptures, vividly, the massive Hoppy merchandise of the 1950's when Boyd-a marketing genius- was a superstar to children the world over, including this Australian who, as a six year old during Boyd's Australian tour of 1954, was absolutely devastated that Hoppy didn't come west to WA. We got the Queen instead! This book, complete with lavish colour plates of the thousands of Hoppy items is not just a book for collectors of Cassidy memorabilia.Rinker's early chapters include the effect of Hoppy on him as a child, the evolution of Cassidy in novels films and television, the history of Boyd's visionary marketing skills and an interview with his widow, Grace, who is still alive some 28 years after her husband's death. The durability of the film and TV Hoppy (vastly different from novelist Clarence E Mulford's original character) lasted for 20 years thanks to Boyd fusing his own persona with that of the character. Boyd commenced in the Cassidy role in 1935, as a middle aged actor of 40( making 66 films as Cassidy over the next 13 years) and retired in 1954 as a TV and radio hero, internationally renowned. The transformation of Boyd into a hero of children is well captured by Rinker- albeit briefly- although a more detailed biography of William Boyd is long overdue. Boyd's morals,responsiblity,concern and many acts of kindness towards his youthful supporters, as Hoppy, was an example of the very best America had to offer-and America's best is very good indeed. That is why people who grew up in the middle of the 20th century will always recall with affection the black-garbed knight gallant of their childhood - Bill Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy.

The idea behind "Nat Tate" is an excellent one-- the life of an obscure (and fictional) American artist set against the backdrop of the triumph that was American (and specifically, New York) painting after World War II. The problem, however, is that this particular treatment of a Zelig-like character, as published, reveals only a kind of abstraction, and little that suggests a living, breathing individual. Tate's obscurity notwithstanding, the testimonies of those who brought to life the "facts" of this artist's life belie their relationship with the man as less than we might have imagined them to be. The book is filled with interesting photos documenting Tate's life and his relationships with the famous and notso-famous, at times blurred to suggest a kind of off-handedness, or that the photos had no particular importance when they were taken. Troubling, however, is that an error (even if only a typo) which captions a photo as being that of Frank O'Hara, circa 1935, is troubling since, in 1935, Frank O'Hara, a famous American poet and art critic, was only 9 years old. In a book full of deliberately fictional assertions meant to be taken as truth, one needs to accurately depict those historical truths surrounding the fiction to maintain this sort of story's credibility.

William Boyd demonstrates his versatility with this wonderful satire on modern biographies of arty types. Nat Tate is a fictional artist drawn by Boyd to possess every possible cliche-ridden characteristic, and whose life never deviated from that expected of him by the gullible art consuming public.In fact, so cleverly is the book presented that where I bought it in the Sydney (Australia) Art Gallery, there is a sign that directs purchasers to see the sales clerk before buying it- presumably to let you into the secret that the book's a joke, before you embarrass yourself before friends! The shallowness and predictability of the artist's (guess what) short life will bring a chuckle to the reader on every silly page. William Boyd's reputation as a great modern comic writer is firmly reinforced by "Nat Tate".

"the prophet who prophesies will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord ONLY IF HIS PREDICTION COMES TRUE."(Jer.28:9)

This is the inerrant litmus test of Bible prophecy: 100% Definitive Factuality in ADVANCE of freely chosen agent decisions, 0% error rate. Openism is DOA,AWOL,Mene-Mene-Tekel-Uparsin at this point! The handwriting is on the wall!

"Hear the Word of the Lord all you exiles in Babylon. This is what the Lord Almighty says about Ahab and Zedekiah who are prophesying lies to you in My Name. 'I will hand them over to King Neb. and he will put them to death before your very eyes. Because of them, all the exiles from Judah in Babylon will use this curse: The Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.'"

An irrefutable case of EXHAUSTIVE DEFINITIVE DIVINE FOREKNOWN FACTUALITY about the future free decisions of Ahab; Zedekiah; King of Babylon specifically using fire for execution; and all exiles using the exact, precisely predicted curse based on the free decisions of Ahab, Zedekiah, King (all inextricably interlinked) in the OMNI-Mind of God, freely played out in time

Openism's 'extensive indefinite forecasting' cannot account for such prophecies. (Too many to list here - see separate reviews for 'Beyond the Bounds'; 'God Under Fire'; 'Bound Only Once'.)

Why must Gregory Boyd set up a hyper-Calvinist view as straw antagonist, then make his 'case' for why his Open Theory is the 'most Biblical' (compared to what??)? Ajarism (Free Futures are seen by God as through an ajar door darkly) can't help but seem more palatable by comparison with the ultra-Calvinist
'Closed door known but to God' or Liberal Process 'Wide-Open door unknown to God'.

The nebulous argument for 'Infinite Intelligence' to compensate for 'Non-infinite knowledge of free futures' (known as Divine Nescience,i.e Ignorance) is verbal legerdemain for denial of genuine, meaningful OMNI-science as the Bible teaches.

God is, according to Boydian theory, MULTI-scient or MAXIMI-scient (God knows a lot, more than anyone, the maximum logically knowable, but not quite EVERYTHING as the Bible says).

Instead, Gregory makes God out to be of such great intellect to work around His deemed lack of Infinite Foreknowledge of all future mortal free Shalls and Shall nots, Wills and Will nots. Boyd invents a new sub-Attribute to compensate for eviscerating another Attribute to allow God to come out O.K. in the end.

But it backfires. It only creates a deity in a limited human's intellectual image. In exchange for the Biblical Jesus of Infinite awareness, foresight, prescience and precise knowledge of all Space-Time events/decisions from Eternity Past to Eternity Future and all in between, we are left with a supreme weather forecaster or chess grandmaster. However as we all know, weathermen are often surprised, wrong, erroneous and mistaken. Garry Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue have both lost against each other. Is this the sort of Jesus that Gregory Boyd sincerely believes in, trying to persuade others to accept,too?

'Infinite Intelligence' is woeful consolation for 'knowing' free agent futures as predominantly possibles, maybes, contingents, risky what-ifs, potentials, probables, likelihoods,
projections, indeterminates, variables, random chance, unpredictabilities, uncertainties that may after all not materialize to divine expectations/forecasts.

It is here that the equally nebulous Boydian concept of 'Theo-Repentism' must be triggered to explain how Jesus handles free futures that don't work out as anticipated. When confronted with new information, or in relating to free decision makers, the Eternal Lord Jesus then changes the divine mind, repents (of wrong-doing, wrong-guessing,wrong-imagining, wrong-thinking,wrong-prognosticating, wrong-speaking,wrong-predicting, wrong-prophesying, etc.) or regrets, rues prior decisions based on incomplete data, wishing they could be do-overs or in need of retraction or repair. Infinite Intelligence kicks in at this stage for 'divine damage control' to salvage a draw and prevent checkmate from all the free-ranging opponents who act/decide contrary to the limits of divine predictability in the chaotic chessgame/meteorology of life.

Sound puzzling? It is. Especially when you read the seminal book by Gregory Boyd that started it all: 'Trinity & Process' (see separate review), based on Hartshorne's 'Omnipotence & Other Theological Mistakes' (see review where you discover that Boyd's Omnipotence is no less limited than his Omniscience).

It seems OMNI (Latin for All) cannot mean OMNI anymore, at least for Open Theorists. What then becomes of OMNI-presence? Infiniteness? Eternality?
Transcendence? OMNI-sapience (ALL-Wise)? What happens to all the Historic-Evangelically understood Trinitarian Attributes? How are they Openistly redefined/updated for modern consumption? Only God knows (or, maybe He doesn't? Stay tuned!)

Most unfortunate that books like this which incorporate non-evangelical 'theology' alongside historic Christianity are distributed for uncritical consumption by a non-discerning readership. Seeking wider respectability, Openism/Ajar Theory merely shows with every published page how far Boyd-Pinnock-Sanders have headed AWAY from the Bible and TOWARD a vivid, free agent imagination a la borrowed elements of Hartshorne's Processistic, non-Scriptural philosophic fabrications.

The LORD said it best in Job 42:7 "I am angry with you..because you have not spoken of Me what is right."

This book rates 3 stars for including 3 Biblical/Evangelical views, but subtract stars for Gregory's use of contemporary philosophic presuppositions applied to selective misinterpreted Bible texts to provide a marginal audience the latest heterodox option to counter the straw antagonist of hyper-Calvinism.

Ultimately can't persuade in any cogent, balanced, unbiased way.

The OMNITrue One Who has Eternal Exhaustively Divine Definitive Foreknown Factuality of ALL Free Futures, Infinitely Uninformable ,Unrepentable,Inerrant, Incorrectible, Infallible, OMNI-Present (Ever-Present I AM in ALL point-moments of space-time: Length-Width-Height-Past-Present-Future), Eternal, Limitlessly Aware,OMNI-Relational,Interactive LORD Jesus said,

"Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?"

Just one Scripture from Jesus settles the Foreknowledge Issue once for all:

"I AM TELLING YOU NOW BEFORE IT HAPPENS SO THAT WHEN IT DOES HAPPEN YOU WILL BELIEVE THAT I AM HE." (John 13:19)
Not forecasting, possibilizing, but TELLING. Not if, but WHEN.
Not may,might,could,perhaps should, but DOES happen. 0% Uncertain. 100% definite. That's genuine Omniscience. Amen.

Interesting that this book would present as one of the "evangelical" options of what God knows and when He can know it:
the curious notion that God possesses EXTENSIVE INDEFINITE FORECASTING (a la weather prognosticator or chess grandmaster) subject to all the iffiness and unknowable randomness of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Chaos Theory working themselves out in a fallen world unbeknownst in advance to the Creator! Boyd's presupposition is THE FUTURE DOES NOT EXIST YET, EVEN FOR THE OMNISCIENT/ETERNAL CREATOR GOD, except as mere possibilities yet to be freely actualized.
Therefore He is the deity of what is humanly,logically possible.

Boyd's Neo-Processistic philosophical theorizing becomes more incoherent with each book. How can God know how He will definitely act in the future if He doesn't know how sinners and demons will definitely behave? If our decisions don't exist until we freely make them, how can God's decisions exist until He freely makes His in response to ours in response to others in response to the devil's in response to... ad infinitum?? If all God can know are ultimately possibles (not actuals, definites), then ALL He can know about future agency is INDEFINITE (MAYBE). Thus Boyd teaches EXTENSIVE INDEFINITE FORECASTING - which he calls Omniscience! Talk about verbal legerdemain! God can only know what is humanly,finitely knowable

A careful study of the Bible shows rather the truth that there is NO LIMIT to the extent (past,present,future) of God's knowledge. It is ETERNALLY EXHAUSTIVE DIVINE DEFINITIVE FOREKNOWN FACTUALITY OF ALL FREE FUTURES-OMNIPRESCIENCE
His understanding is INFINITE. That God definitely knows in advance precisely what sinners and demons WILL/WILL NOT do doesn't mean therefore that they are thus forced to, or thereby lose their agency/moral responsibility. Neither is God to blame for the foreknown exercise of their agency. He retains full final say, ultimate control and awareness as definite in advance of ALL they will choose to do. Because some mortal minds can't reconcile this profundity, Open Theory (Ajarism) is the misbegotten result. With all due respect to sincere but sincerely wrong Gregory Boyd, there is little about Neo-processism or EIF (EXTENSIVE INDEFINITE FORECASTING) that can be understood in any sense as Biblical or Orthodox Truth about God's Attributes such as OMNISCIENCE/OMNIPRESENCE. God is ever PRESENT at every point/moment of space/time, including ALL the FUTURE. The I AM is ALREADY THERE/THEN waiting for us just as He IS with us HERE/NOW.

Otherwise well-written. 1 star for attempting to resurrect the long-discredited 'Nescience' pseudo-theology of the late 19th Century (with some elements of 16th Cent. Socinianism) via a self-refuting misunderstanding of how God interacts with ALL FUTURE MORTAL AGENCY: Comprehensively, and for Open Theorists, Incomprehendible.

Most of the reviews on this page miss the boat entirely. Rather than actually reviewing or recommending DF the reviewers are merely venting their anger because their particular view is challenged.

Pay them no mind. DF is an excellent book. Buy it and read all the views with as much of an open humble mind as you can. It's better than the alternative spoon feeding that is rampant in many circles of Evangelicalism today.

The glossary is a great idea more publishers should follow.

Keep em coming Eddy, Beilby, Gannsle ....etc.

This book, originally printed in 1921, shows its age in its biases. Ancient Greece was the most prominent influence on Western culture? I guess the Torah/Bible, which originated in the Middle East, isn't something secular scholars know of or concern themselves with;many would refer to it as the basis for "Western" thought. They also rely on long-refuted racial categories, talking about how "Aryan" invaders molded Greece into something important. The book obviously has not been updated enough through the years in order to keep up with science. It also makes little attempt to study modern education, as current issues like vouchers and charters get overlooked. Not recommended in the least - there has to be a better discussion of the topic out there.