I read this book with delight in the way the author explained the story of the fisherman. I found this book was much deeper than the waters off Maine. It deals with decisions in life. Everytime Lucky got the chance to make a decision he has a knack for making the wrong one. But there were exceptions such as when it came to his unborn child or his daughter needing help when ready to go to college. It also looks at how people operate in certain patterns in their decisions and how a family often falls apart as a result of a string of poor choices. There is much to be learned from the pages of this book plus it's just a wonderful story about how life in a harsh environment molds people over time.

Lucky Lunt, age 46, is the central figure of this tragedy. His wife Priscilla leaves him. His son Kyle is a kiffing hippie. His daughter is off to college. Enters Rhonda, called Ronette, who is leaving her husband Clyde Hannaford to take up life with Lucky. They all live in a small town on the coast of Maine and spend their days fishing for lobster.

Lucky's boat is The Wooden Nickel, the name his father and grandfather already gave their lobstering boats. Ronette, part-time waitress at the Blue Claw, is the stern lady helping Lucky, who is in bad shape. An angioplasty for $26'000 still has to be paid for. Priscilla takes away his house but leaves him with the mortgage yet to be paid. His boat needs new equipment and his pickup isn't too healthy, either.

From the beginning, a Greek tragedy develops unremittingly. Almost every step Lucky takes brings a new disaster. His fight with other lobstermen almost lands him in jail. Taking up with Ronette promptly gets her pregnant. A whale destroys his lobster pots. But the other lobstermen do not fare that much better.

What makes this book so outstanding is not just the telling of an alien way of life, but the way it is told with unlimited and surefooted humor. The characters come to life through their dialogs and actions. The language is awesome to behold. You will laugh with these people while wondering how such a hard and unrewarding life can be so funny.

Lucky's last stand is a modern reenactment of Moby Dick. He is now completely destroyed, yet there is still a shimmer of hope on the horizon.

Lucky Lunt, the lobsterman protagonist of this engaging novel, is not a particularly likeable character, but he is entirely lovable in all his fragile humanity. Author Carpenter knows well the indefatigably irascibility so central to the archetypal fishermale, a dying breed along the Atlantic shore. Ronette, his sternlady-cum-earthmother, is no less mythic and memorable in all her splendorous white-trashiness. This novel provides an alternative, yet valid portrait of Vacationland Maine, one this writer finds an entirely refreshing after too much outlet shopping, clear-cutting, and cutesy lobster kitsch. Comparisons have already been made to Richard Russo and Carolyn Chute and they are apt. Empire Falls and Egypt, Maine are absolutely just up the backroads from Orphan Point. There's some brilliant writing here and I suspect and hope to hear more from William Carpenter, whose job of teaching literature at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor must be awfully fun. And indeed there just seems to be something awfully fun about any English teacher who writes a book in language as blue as the Atlantic sky and as salty as the briny air on a chill day in October in Maine.

The only reason I even finished this book was to see what trendy PC issue William Carpenter would stick in next - feminism, daterape, saving the environment and AIDS; in the end it became quite laughable. As for Penguin Solstice(and what was he on when he conceived that name), the heroine? protagonist? loser who boringly drifts through this boring novel? - she doesn't strike me as a) particularly feminist b) particularly worldly and tolerant, despite all her supposedly heartfelt convictions c) particularly interesting. The only good things about this book were the fact that it was short and required no thought at all so that I didn't waste too much of my life on it

A friend of mine had read this book a few years back, so the title was always in the back of my mind. I finally found it at my local library and decided to give it a try. In my opinion, Penguin was one of the most refreshing characters I've ever encountered. The warped way with which she views the world around her was fascinating. Carpenter's attention to small details made the book that much more realistic and captivating. Maybe I only enjoyed this book so much because I'm a slightly off-beat female who can somehow relate to Penguin and all her eccentricities. I'll never know the true reason that I was so touched by this book, but I know I will never forget the profound impact that it had on the way I view the human race.

I chanced upon this book when I was at a bookstore here in Singapore, and I was deperately in need of a book. I do not know what made me buy it, maybe its the the cover, so soothing and beautiful. Penguin Soltice. What a name!! Penguin!! I had a feeling of being so calm when reading this book, not wanting to rush the words. And making sure that I know what is going on, and what Penguin think and feel.. Penguin had a lot to learn, and learn she did. From the day when she tried burning a School Dorm, to her sexual experiece. She's no cuddly little girl and she's definitely not an old woman trapped in a half purpled body. But she has compassion. This book is terrific because we are allowed to get into Penguin's mind, and every nuances of her feelings. Up till now, I do not know why I picked up this book, but I am definitely ever so grateful that I did. Penguin learned a lot in there, and I learned together with her

Some have likened the work in this book to all that poetry should be--retelling and presenting for the reader images and tales of the grand themes in human existence. Unfortunately, I want to say to this proverbial "Mr. Sir" or "Ms. Ma'am", you missed the boat. The poetry only obliquely touches on these themes, and when it does, tells them in only a manner that an ex-patriot could love. Won't you come home, Jimmy Dean? Jimmy Dean? With these simple words one can portray more than all the stanzas in this book put together. While the language is at times beautiful and haunting, the substance could use the real work. And so I urge other readers to leave the la-la land of "overseas" and ground themselves in the real and now.

This slim volume contains a sprawling, wondrous world. In his poems, William Carpenter uses simple yet powerful images to reveal truths about things we all understand: love and loss, sex and infidelity, loneliness and isolation, childhood and death, life and art, desire and longing. That's what good poetry has always done best, and always should do.

Dry and overly technical. As an aspiring lawyer and an armchair orator, I didn't find very much that I could readily apply to the nuts and bolts of my speech writing or delivery.

Great Wine makers provide pleasure to the palate, but my ears are in ecstasy thanks to Carpenter. If you are like me I did not understand antitheses, metaphors, point and counterpoint. I just enjoyed these techniques in a great speaker. Now I know how to add these great tools to my speeches and communications. This book opened up areas of speech writing I did not know existed. Having written thousands of pages of business reports I can't go back and do it over, but within hours I was applying these excellent new tools.

This is the worst java book I've ever read. The book is unorganized and the content is not suitable for the beginner at all.

The companion CD-ROM is useless.

If the authors would like to publish the new version for JDK 1.2, there will be a lot of works they need to get accomplished.

Simple words from me.... Don't buy this book.

Covers alot of fancy staff but has a great lack of contents. It seems like the author has rushed through the book just to fill it out with the Java 1.1 features and forgot to describe the import basics behind the language. There's now way you're gonna be a Java guru by reading this book!

It is very thorough. Almost everything important about java is in there including JDBC, JNI, Java Beans, Servlets, security management, even the specification of the virtual machine and most is explained well understandble. It is the best java book I ever saw!