The best Easter European cook book!

Subtitled "An Intimate Biography," NIETZSCHE IN TURIN by Lesley Chamberlain might be considered a new age treatment of a life dominated by the urge to write, as exhibited by someone torn by his appreciation of the power of music to make things clearer in a far more artistic fashion, driven by a personal rivalry with Wagner that assumed more importance than his personal relationships, and suffering from a disease which would deprive him of his ability to behave. Big philosophical issues are avoided as thoroughly as Nietzsche is pictured trying to avoid having contact with anyone who would want to discuss Hegel as he takes his daily walk in a city which "has a long reputation for magic and a disconcerting number of writers, from Tasso to Rousseau, J.M. Symonds to Primo Levi, have become depressed or gone mad there." (p. 211). The final chapter, "Collapse into the Beyond," is close to "The role syphilis played in heightening his pronouncements may be glimpsed through a comparison with his fellow sufferer, and ultimate madman, the French writer Guy de Maupassant." (p. 201).

I frequently wished that the book had an index. There is some discussion of Nietzsche's appreciation of the artists of his time, but the names show up as substitutes for some picture, as when Nietzsche, in his autobiography, ECCE HOMO, mentioned the autumn of 1888 as like "a Claude Lorrain thought of into infinity, each day of equal, unbounded perfection." (p. 187). This is so similar to a comment in his letters of October, 1888, about "the leaves on the trees are a glowing yellow, sky and great river a delicate blue, the air of supreme purity - a Claude Lorrain in a way I had never dreamed of seeing him" (p. 167), with a note that only specifies "18.10.88, 19.10.88, 30.10.88" (p. 244), that I wonder if searching the web might give me more information about this artist, and more quickly than looking through the rest of this book.

NIETZSCHE IN TURIN ends with a Bibliography, pp. 253-256, which provides the sources for much of the information in the book and its notes. An American professor has written a biography called YOUNG NIETZSCHE, but NIETZSCHE IN TURIN cites a book from 1912, THE YOUNG NIETZSCHE by Elisabeth Foerster-Nietzsche, which must have at least 330 pages, as the more recent book does not. Page 330 recorded that "Fritz knew only too well how characteristic it was of all three of us in the first flush of our indignation to say and write sharp and unpleasant things which a day or two later we scarcely remembered having thought or written." (p. 239, Chapter 8, note 18). THE SCIENCE OF JOY is also used as the title of a book by Nietzsche known by other translations into English, and THE SCIENCE OF JOY makes so much sense in a new wave understanding of the world that it might lead readers to the conclusion that all of Nietzsche could be understood best in that way.

Nietzsche originally moved to Turin in April, 1888, but this book provides a comparative chronology for philosophical breakthroughs from 1819 to 1930, when Sigmund Freud wrote CIVILISATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS. A far better translation of Freud's title is given somewhere in the text, but not in the Bibliography, and Freud appears offhandedly in the notes often enough that even an index might not clarify how much this book depends on how Freud is affecting new wave thinking recently. Names of people that Nietzsche wrote to in 1888 often appear without any explanation of who they were, and events in 1882 involving Lou frequently appear as explanations for the major forces driving Nietzsche's thoughts as he attempted to turn himself into the culmination of all history, drama, and the ultimate music critic. Even closer to perfection, Nietzsche is described as "delighted in 1888 when Carl Fuchs, well placed in Danzig to know Polish, told him that the name Nietzsche could mean `man of nothing.' " (p. 123). Trying to be Polish, in the April '88 outline of his life that he sent to Brandes, who had begun to lecture on Nietzsche's work, "gave him strength against the world which rejected him." (p. 123).

NIETZSCHE IN TURIN is so sympathetic that it is no surprise to find, "Here is the moral underside of life, in which the good are destroyed by their own goodness: an excess of sympathy." (p. 105). Self-reflection predominates so much that the author pictures herself writing in Turin in the autumn of 1994, hardly modernized by the 106 years which had passed since Nietzsche was putting himself into an autobiography with unusual glee. The world could hardly appear more sane to Nietzsche now, though I think he could have found much better examples of music now, if he was willing to look beyond operas, musical comedy, and what anyone considers classical music. Chamberlain seems more concerned about how "Psychotherapy has become incorporated into the Welfare State. How Nietzsche, with his sensitivity to language, would have baulked even at that name, which might be translated back into German as *der Mitleidsstaat,* and given a Nietzschean reading as the state that killed God." (pp. 105-106).

I read this book looking for things that could remind me of "Harold and Maude," a movie about age and youth in which the young man had an uncanny ability to fake death. What was not even suggested by the plot in that movie was a comic ability to fake the death of God, an accomplishment that Nietzsche might be given credit for, if anyone could figure out precisely how that could be done. This book did not apply itself to that problem, and most readers might not be surprised that such an attempt is missing, but something might still seem to be lacking.

Chamberlain lets us see Nietzsche with a personal side. As an immortal, I see a very inside depthness to Nietzsche, a mortal with dark sided problems. It is a very good glimpse at Nietzsche's latter life in Turin though some important wonderings are left out.

Lesley Chamberlain does an excellent job describing Nietzsche's discovery of Turin. I particularly enjoyed her approach to writing this biography: trying to become a friend of Nietzsche, going to the places he loved, describing how his surroundings and lifestyle influenced his thoughts and works. It makes me wonder why some other biographers don't go through the same exercise. This biography is fluent in style, easy to follow, yet substantial in information. Lesley Chamberlain does not just describe the professor's life, but offers interpretations of his writings that he completed in Turin. The author always makes it clear where she describes her own interpretations. The more inquisitive reader will find the supporting evidence included in the endnotes extremely helpful. Overall, this biography is well researched and nicely written.

I bought this book looking for a specific recipe that my Serbian grandmother used to make called "Civapcici", (ground meat with spices added, which must be grilled). Looking through the book I found a related recipe for "Mititei" from Romania which is identical... the only difference being that baking soda is added to the mixture.

I've seen recipes for civapcici before, but the spice mixture was not the same as what I was used to. The recipe Lesley Chamberlain listed was exactly what I was looking for.

There is a wealth of recipes from all over Eastern Europe in this book. Although not ever recipe my grandmother used to make is listed such as "Gibanica" (an hors d'oeuvre type of food made with a Serbian cream cheese baked in phyllo pastry), this book is very comprehensive. I gave this book a 4 only because I could not find one or two recipes that I thought should be listed. What recipes that are listed, are exactly as you would find them in Europe. If you ever traveled to Eastern Europe and you long to make some of the dishes you tasted while on your journey... this book is the one for you.

This is a good example of travel literature at it's best. Lesley Chamberlain says that she set out to record her impressions of the eastern bloc. Because she is highly educated and intelligent, we are presented with a series of sensitive portraits of ways of life behind the Iron Curtain in the 80's, and an attempt to discern the effects of living under an overly repressive police states. But she also tracks the different "personalities" of each Communist state, bringing out the fact that each adapted itself in a slightly different way to the political system imposed upon them by Moscow. What emerges is an interesting portrait of, in her own words, "a way of life that has passed overnight into history."

This book is a failure. While Chamberlain attempts to create both an authentic biograhpy and insightful literary criticism, she succeeds at neither. Her central premise relies upon the notion that Freud was really an artist at heart, who invented a new artistic practice to complement these repressed desires. While this idea on its own is not altogether flawed, the argument is marred by Chamberlain's constant cries to be heard as an intelligent and unconventional author. Chamberlain pretensiously reminds the reader of the apparent ingenuity and unorthodox nature of her claim every 7 pages; a claim mind you, that is as unprovable as it is unsupportable. There is no additional perspective gained from this reading. Shocking fact: their is no clear boundary between science and art! This book illustrates controversy for controversy's sake and is its own best example of "pen envy." Freud or Chamberlain: who really wishes to be The Secret Artist? Don't waste your time with this one.

The Secret Artist: A Close Reading Of Sigmund Freud by journalist and educator Lesley Chamberlain is a deep and perceptive study of the written works of Sigmund Freud, considered to be the founder of modern psychotherapy. In an effort to help readers better understand the mind of Freud, The Secret Artist closely dissects his writings with intense attention to detail. A thoughtful, scholarly, erudite, informative work, The Secret Artist is very highly recommended reading for students of Freud's pioneering work, as well as the non-specialist general reader with an interest in the history of psychotherapy.

Early in this terrific book the versatile British scholar Lesley Chamberlain writes of the young Sigmund Freud that what he "wanted and already expected was success," and that his writings "radiate the confidence and ambition and talent that would make it possible; but also the complexity that would not make it easy." This is a complex story and a scholarly work that presupposes the reader's positive regard for Freud (if not as a scientist, as an artist) and then aims to greatly enlarge upon it.

Freud the analyst is revealed as a "secret artist," not furtively artistic but, rather, unconsciously artistic. He was, she writes, a pioneer and an utterly original thinker and writer who contributed amply to our present-day notions of the forms and possibilities of literature. In her view Freud virtually "fathered the creative writing class" by legitimizing not only subject matter but writing forms that had hitherto been considered unsuitable for public consumption. From Freud we inherited new literary forms for self-revelation, self-discovery, and confession.

Chamberlain shows how Freud devised "the "double-well," an "artistic form with a moral component," a new way to tell a story in which "a dream sits on the divide." His stories about his patients have more in common with contemporary novellas than the medical case histories of their time, extending at times "a typical Freudian invitation to the reader, to pull the [...] thread and see where it leads."

Chamberlain examines Freud positively without minimizing his shortcomings. "Freud was not a model of tolerance by today's standards, " she writes, and cites his views on homosexuality, women's sexuality (on which she says he was "underinformed"). Nonetheless, Chamberlain writes that Freud "gave us a more relaxed attitude toward sex, freed from values of God and the soul, and gender, and divorced from insensitive stereotypes." This is, then, no small thing.

Chamberlain has accomplished an unusual and stimulating combination of biography, literary analysis, intelligent conjecture, and thrilling narrative. Her writing is crystal-clear, she tackles complicated things, and explains them wonderfully well. Freud's wide-ranging creative and personal relationships to philosophy, the visual arts, poetry, nature, music are explored. Along with a good index and bibliography, here are over a hundred pages of fluid and impossible-to-resist (because so interesting and energetic) "Notes, Arguments, and Explanations."

Well worth reading.

This book appears to contain a selection of recipes from an earlier book on Eastern European cooking by the same contributors.

It contains recipes for the better known dishes of the region with some introductory prose. An attractive gift as an introduction to the Polish/Russian kitchen but less useful as a reference work for the serious slavophile cook.

I have never prepared any of the recipes and cannot, therefore, comment on their workability.