Dr. Duke, working under the mentoring of Alan Culpepper, has written a concientous, thorough, and fascinating analysis of a key pattern in the John's Gospel: Irony. This popular literary device permeates the fourth gospel, and is fundamental to the dualistic themes found throughout the work. Dr. Duke's research provides an essential schematic whereby the novice or the scholar can navigate the complexities of this gospel. Dr. Duke looks at the book with the eye of a trained scholar and the heart of a lyrical poet.

Dr. Duke, working under the mentoring of Alan Culpepper, has written a concientous, thorough, and fascinating analysis of a key pattern in the John's Gospel: Irony. This popular literary device permeates the fourth gospel, and is fundamental to the dualistic themes found throughout the work. Dr. Duke's research provides an essential schematic whereby the novice or the scholar can navigate the complexities of this gospel. Dr. Duke looks at the book with the eye of a trained scholar and the heart of a lyrical poet.

I have read many children's books in my time; however, this is by far the most imaginative I have come across in a very long time. A cute picture book about an average kid with a not-so-average lunchbox is a "James Bond story" for kids. The added benefit of it being in rhyming couplets makes it a favorite for both me and my children.

This book is excerpted from Sir Paul Dukes's account of his spiritual search given in "The Unending Quest". Dukes describes his dramatic meeting with Gurdjieff('Prince Ozay') and his initiation into the mystical mysteries of the Lord's Prayer, the musical octave and Yoga. Dukes was probably the first western student of Gurdjieff and provides a rewarding account of this remarkable man.

I found My Other Life a wonderful but uneven book. Its premise is very original: It may or may not be the author, Paul Theroux, autobiography. He describes it as "the story of a life I could have lived had things been different". But the reader feels that the fictional memories are not that fictional after all. As you read it you might feel that Theroux would like some things to be different, but not even a writer can erase and change his past.

If I said that My Other life is a uneven book its because the first chapters are fascinating. I loved the young Paul as a young hopeful writer full of dreams that takes him to the most romantic and idealistic places. He was a writer who thought that to be able to write he must know pain. And a lot of pain. So he goes to live in a leper's colony in India.His life keeps changing as chapters pass. He becomes a a young husband and teacher in Singapore; a doting husband, loving father and young writer in London.But as he approaches middle age, his life and crisis become very boring. The reader misses the young dreamer who has turned in the last chapters into an obnoxious man who can't be faithfull to his wife or to his dreams. Well, thats life. Who is the lucky one who can fulfill the promise of his youth?. Paul Theroux sure is a wonderfull storyteller who can fulfill his readers expectations.

I happen to enjoy Paul Theroux a lot of the time, and this "fictional autobiography" delivers the goods. As usual, Theroux goes over familiar territory, Africa, Singapore, London and Massachussets, and makes one wonder which of his stories are real and which aren't. My favourite chapters in this book are his encounter with the royals at a posh function, (especially his Prince Phillip moment) and his pilgrimage to his hometown of Medford Massachussets, slumming with some locals who wouldn't know one of his books if it hit them on the head.

This is as good introduction to this author as any book, although one would do well to start off with one of his travel books, such as The Old Patagonian Express (which is where I discovered Theroux). I found My Other Life to be much more enjoyable and substantial than his somewhat self-pitying My Secret History, written a few years previously. In fact I should re-read My Other Life soon, each page has some gems.

Having lived in several of the countries Mr. Theroux has written about, including Malaysia, Singapore and U.K. and also being a great fan of his favorite authors like V.S. Naipaul and Graham Greene,I highly recommend "My Other Life" to anyone who is interested in the inner life of a writer. This book is certainly one of his best and mirrors his own growth in both his personal and professional lives. I was afraid that this book would bore me, having already read "My Secret History", but I have to say that this book only increased my appreciation for Mr. Theroux as a writer. His abilities in self analysis and in being able to weave a complex story in a thoroughly readable manner makes him one of the most interesting authors around. Whether Mr. Theroux is trying to coyly deceive us into believing that "My Other Life" is only fiction or whether he is only tantalizing us with semi truths is unimportant. This book will keep you wondering at his ever increasing skills as a writer and have you only begging for more.

Lurching from one great American university to another, spouting bile without any semblance of wit or craft, Finebaum here hits rock bottom by attacking the nation's grandest institution of higher learning. Message to the "alum" a few spaces below me: No Duke grad would ever commit such flagrant grammatical errors.

Yes, I am one of the many who would like nothing better than to punch most Duke graduates in the face. This book allow me to do something even better - laugh in their faces.

And to the... who commented that "no Duke alum would make grammatical errors", just because someone went to a school Duke doesn't automatically mean that they can write well (witnessing first-hand one of my colleagues who went to Harvard and can't spell to save his life...)

First of all kudos to the author. The research and leg work that was done for this novel was well worth the time. I went to Duke for 7 years, and I gotta tell you, i felt all 303 items. I later transferred to Coppin State in Baltimore and actually made worse grades. Thats life I guess. Once again kudos.

Amid the hoopla and (often forced) pagentry of the Hong Konghandover, Paul Theroux deserves some credit for this courageouscontemplation of the darker side of the historic change in rule. In this decided politically incorrect view of the handover, the British, particularly in the form of the very Thatcherlike character of Betty Mullard, are portrayed as bitterly turning their backs on the Hong Kong people. Worse still, Chinese officaldom is personified as a greedy, lecherous PLA thug. Such characterizations have earned Theroux the label of racist, but those accusations have to be put alongside the sight of Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, unelected leaders who ordered the tanks to roll in Tiananmen Square, accepting the mantle of Hong Kong sovereignty from the British.
It's clear from the start of the book that Theroux's story has a rather cynical point: That Hong Kong was little more than a commercial plaything for two governments, both with little regard for the people who live there. The novel presents the British as social elitists--looking down on the Chinese who really make Hong Kong the economic engine it is. The Communist Chinese, on the other hand, are political and economic elitists--coldly removing anyone or anything that stands in their path to power. Kowloon Tong is not a travelogue nor a story of personal journey. It's a commentary on the political attitudes that, if you watched the Handover ceremony, were all clearly on view. It is unfortunate that Theroux missed some of the factual and geographical detail that he is otherwise renowned for, because this dampens the affect of the novel. But for its sheer strength of conviction--that the Hong Kong people deserve better then they got from all parties--it deserves to be read.

I very much enjoyed "Kowloon Tong" but then I am a big fan of Paul Theroux's writing. This one of his better novels I think.

The characters in this novel are typical of Theroux, they are strong and evoke a strong reaction. The novel has been criticized for how it depicts the Chinese. Having visited Hong Kong a number of times and studied Mandarin in Bei Jing I found one side of the Chinese character well described and represented. I would say though that another side of the Chinese personality is perhaps not so well represented. Many of the Chinese people whom I know are also very warm and delightful people.

The British I don't now so well but they do seem to lend themselves to being made fun of. If you enjoyed this part of "Kowloon Tong" try Theroux's "Emerald Kingdom"!

The story in "Kowloon Tong" is exciting and difficult to put down. This is a novel well worth reading.

I first read Kowloon Tong while living in Stanley, Hong Kong, just a few months before the Hand-over. I have found its rendering of attitudes of expatriates and chinese by far the most accurate account of the Hong Kong I experienced on a day to day basis. Theroux is equally fair (and equally blunt) about British, Chinese and American residents in Hong Kong - I encountered the boorish behaviour described here everyday - that was Hong Kong, a place where people went to make money, or to escape from China (or both). Not everyone, of course, was like Bunt and Hung, but these are recognizable types.
The plot is that of Graham Greene thriller, with the sarcasm of Evelyn Waugh and Gore Vidal thrown in. I should add that I find many of the comments on this page highly evocative of the Hong Kong I knew, too - the novel was banned in China and was a painful read for some Hong Kong British, Chines and Americans I knew (especially the types well-described here -chiefly long-term residents). The detached reader should enjoy a good read that's also highly accurate in its description.
The Hong Kong I knew was about the most un-literary place on the planet. "Criticism" of Hong Kong was thought of as a pamphlet from the Tourist Bureau, an announcement from the Government Publicity Office, or the Website of a company wanting to do business in China. But that is not what novelists do.