I've been a fan of Jim Heyden ever since a friend introduced me to his The Man Who Kept Cigars In His Cap not long after it was published. He is a master of the one or two page sketch that illuminates a sliver of human behavior.

In this collection, you feel as if you're listening to a keen observer, a quiet storyteller reminscing about childhood on a midwestern farm - corn, pigs, cows, chickens i.e. very diversified farming. The characters consistent primarily of the boys, the youngest boy, the men, with guest appearances of the preacher, town boys, and grandfather.

Whether you're reading about the preacher who passed gass, the gypsies at the old school yard, grandfather teaching the boys to make firefly flashlights, the youngest boy hiding in a dip until a dandelion seemed to breath, hunting June bugs with old ping-pong paddles, you'll enjoy the honesty, earthiness, innocence, and style of these stories.

Literature that will change the world? No. Literature that will be known in a century? Probably not. But for pure delight, especially if you were raised on a farm, this book is great fun.

Heynen has been writing about "the boys" for years; this is a collection of the many stories he has written. "The boys" are an indeterminate number of boys growing up in the rural Midwest. In the course of their days, they find insight into many aspects of life, death, love, friendship, and an amusing number of encounters with animals and small town bureaucrats (if there is a distinction). Humor ranges from a chuckle to laughing out loud, and poignancy ranges from a knowing nod to fighting back tears. This is lovely writing.

I discovered this book while rummaging around in my high school library and fell in love wiht it almost instantly. Most of these stories are short enough to fit on a postcard, and I don't think there's a proper noun anywhere in the book. These characters are merely "the boys"--but they wouldn't even have to be *boys*, as far as I'm concerned. The stories are about tiny events - electric lights, rat-tails, the coming of spring - but Heynen, with just a few deft words, gets you to see and feel them, and opens up all kinds of wellsprings. But I'm babbling; the stories speak for themselves.

Highly recommended. I have read all of Thomson's books, except "Soft", and found that his first 2 ("Dreams" and "5 Gates") are his best. What seems to work is the off-kilter realism of the characters combined with the surrealism of the setting (a coast town based on the funeral business in "5 Gates" and a town no one is allowed to leave in "Dreams") and stories. "5 Gates" is an eerie read where you always feel submerged in the dreamy water-world of Moon Beach or its surrounding deserts where things mostly move in slow motion until drawn to a quick conclusion.

Beauty and ugliness collide with such a tremendous impact, that there are points when we are not sure which is which. Thomson illustrates this; here are two central characters; Jed, the ugly one, and Nathan, the beautiful one. The story follows each, as he is swallowed by the endless decandence of Moon Beach, a city obsessed with death, and built on an industry of funeral parlours. Each witnesses beauty and ugliness in many forms, presented in wonderful prose. Thomson has a talent for describing things in unconventional forms, while somehow never moving away from the thing in question. He solidifies emotion, and liquifies solid objects, in language that bounces and cascades. Ther supporting characters fulfill their requirements - not only do they 'support', but they add depth to the two central characters. Vasco the gang leader, Creed the mysterious head of the corporation, Harriet the Au Pair - each has their own place in Thomson's magical city. This is a decidedly blue book; anyone longing for brighter colours should look elsewhere. However, if lue is your scene, then this might very well be the shade for which you've been searching.

At least read this book, even if you don't buy it. There are few novels able to capture the imagination with such magnificent force and effect. I felt like a butterfly lost in caverns of sulphur, walls that glitter in the noxious light, I had to stay, I wanted to fly further, deeper, I had to know . . .

The pictures are beautiful.

I was hoping for a bit more detailed history on all the instruments, but it does provide a good overview of the history.

The high quality pictures are a sight to behold. This is a great coffee table book.

I bought this book because I liked the first part of "The Complete Guitarist" book where the history and dissection of the guitar is shown.

This book is full of pictures and descriptions of a lot of guitars. The book is divided by guitar type, from acoustic, archtop, solid-body electics, semi-solid electrics and basses. The descrptions are short and give way to the pictures, but the guitars that demand, by respect, more description are given more pages.

The guitars shown are from all over the world and thus aren't limited to a specific market. Its cool to see how a russian guitar is made.

The only thing I would have liked is a timeline, but the book isn't formatted this way and its fine.

All in all a very fun book to have. No theory, nothing to tell you "practice damn it!", just enjoy.

If you were to never read one word of the text of Mr. Bacon's fine book, it would still be worth the cost. Encased between the two covers are some of the finest photos of guitars you'll ever lay your eyes on. Not only are there pictures of your "standard" American-made guitars (Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker), but also "axes" from around the world. Bacon has also included some interesting and unusual guitars as well. This is a book that you will go back to over-and-over; it's that interesting.

This book is the darkest painting of suburbia I've read in awhile. If your life stinks, replace it with Jernigan's. Here's what you get----alcoholism, self-abuse, teenage son on drugs, shacking with mother of teenage son's girlfriend, death of wife, death of rabbits for food, loss of job, plus did I mention drinking large quanities of gin. Now why does this character continue to shot himself in the foot (or in his case hand)? Seems like he just doesn't give two hoots. What makes the book work though, is Jernigan's wisecracking nature, basically condescending everything, as his life drops away by his own powers. This is brought on by the tight, descriptive naratives by David Gates, Jernigan's creator.

Not that Jernigan is alone in his life of horror. There's a cast of characters that are barely functioning. Of course, Jernigan cannot stand them. He's going to do things his way and it's a way so unimaginable yet possible, it leaves you riveted.

I can't believe this secret american masterpiece is out-of-print or something like that. "Jerningan" reads like a novel written a deux by John Cheever and J.P. Donleavy but, in the end, sounds a hundred per cent David Gates. I can't believe all I had to wait for "Preston Falls" (it was worth it: a novel that reads like "Jernigan Redux & Revisited", an apocalyptic end of milenium "Tender is the Night"); I read one of the best interviews to Bob Dylan ever (signed by Gates in Newsweek) and I hear that a short stories collection is coming out. Open the Gates, I'm first in line.

This book is a true killer. Like a suburban "Heart of Darkness," it suggests what evil lurks in the modern American male... and he continues to get away with it all...Peter Jernigan is a bizarre and somehow totally believable mix of charismatic intellectual and emotional bully. It's probably impossible to read Peter's story and then NOT make attempts to change your own evil ways. In the tradition of "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun, and the better works of John Fante, "Jernigan" has got to be one of the most brutally-honest and lovingly-crafted books one can read. Jernigan is a desperate character, who, sadly, all too many of us can relate to. Gates has a new book out, "Preston Falls," which, while remarkably similar to "Jernigan," is written with the same kind of astonishing clarity. In my opinion, it doesn't get any better than this book.

Which I think some of the best books have been. This is a book for everyone. While the politics may not be shared by everyone, even the most conservative among us will chuckle at Ellen's memories of the Deep South and it's moral ambiguities. This is a wonderful,hysterical book. It does finish,as some critics put, a bit hastily a the end,but the overall effect is more than compensated for. This is a vastly underated,hilarious and heartfelt book. Did you like "She's Come Undone"? This book will probably strike a similiar cord. Please buy this book,and not only will you bring home a fantastic and enjoyable read that may change your life,you will also be buying a book that will someday be a classic,whether cult or otherwise. Oh,and one final note. Don't let the title fool you. I have several male friends that adore this book because it spoke to parts of them(the revolution of little boys?),too.

This book is amazing...the ending is still in my mind two weeks after having read the story... If you want a typical story about Southern women feeling strong due to their alcoholism that developed as a result of too many nights sipping mimosas under weeping willows in Louisiana, then by all means, pick up 'The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' or anything by Kaye Gibbons. But if you want a story about a Southern woman with grace, hilarity, and moving depth, read this book. You WILL laugh, you WILL be made uncomfortable, you WILL wonder just what is going on, and you WILL adore the ending, and thus, you WILL enjoy the genius of the work as a whole.

I found this to be a great book, and a good balance of humour, articulate writing, and honesty that cuts to the core. Boyd never ceases to amaze me with her ability to describe the intangible, or hint at things without really using words to describe. She leads you on with the essence of true experience and a gorgeous play of words.

Jay McInerney made a name for himself with his 1987 blockbuster Bright Lights Big City. He should have called this book, the 1989 followup, Big Print Thick Paper.

Instead, he called it Story of My Life, which is just as well, since the protagonist, Alison, must utter that phrase 500 times. That in itself is a major factor in helping the fluff stretch out over 180 or 190 pages or so, but it doesn't help the narrative avoid sounding as if most of it appeared in word balloons over the heads of the main characters, like in a 1950s-style Real Life comic book.

It's easy to write this book off as a product of the tail end of the most decadent decade in the U.S. since the Jazz Age (though the 1920s did at least give us some extraordinary literature), and there may be something to that point of view. But I choose to see it as the swan song of a self-indulgent literary style whose time had come before it really began and a writer whose success would have been impossible at any other point in history. In that respect, Story of My Life has some value as a sort of literary time capsule, a curious reminder of a time we'd rather forget. But is it worth reading now? Ask yourself this: what did Jay McInerney write next? Where did his career rise to after this exercise? If you know the answer, you get my point.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but this "story" lacks a relevant plot and the climax, if it can be called that, is very, well, anticlimatic.

Ms. Poole, the protagonist, runs around town doing drugs and pursuing a romance with a Wall Street-type guy ... and that's about it, for 180 pages. There are some minor episodes here and there, but mainly, very little happens throughout the book. It's peppered with pop culture references Ã' mentions of Nell's, Mick Jagger, trendy 80s drugs and various songs Ã' but, as is typical of the 80s, there is little flash behind the substance.

The characters, who it's difficult to care about, fail to grow through Ellis' storytelling; one of them, Ms. Poole's love interest, grows only because, toward the end, the writer specifically tells the reader he did. The characters, furthermore, aren't very fleshed out, but hey, maybe that's the point.

All in all, very little happens, and what does happen is pretty insignificant. The style of the book isn't too bad, but pick up another modern work if you're looking for that sort of thing.

This novel inspired me to write (a similar) one of my own. I still can't believe it was written by a man and not by one of my girlfriends. I feel as if I've met the main character a million times on the LA club circuit. I can totally relate to this book-- for someone who can't, however, this book is still recommended, as it puts forth an extremely honest and accurate rendition of a young, beautiful and wild girl's life in the city. It is also very witty and HILARIOUS, as well as thought provoking (i.e. the "chain of pain" theory.) There are two other books by this author that are similar to this one, specifically "Bright lights Big City" and "Model behavior", however neither one is as compelling in my opinion--perhaps because their protagonists are male and I can't relate as well. The author does, however, have a wonderful talent for bringing his characters to life and making you symathize with them even though they all have incredibly prominent faults. This quality alone makes his novels worth the price and time.

This account of the first south-north crossing in Victorian times is incredible. A film of this story several years ago did little to change that situation. The story recounts the key attempts and the elaborate expeditions involved. The crux of the story really revolves around a series of many mishaps and oh so near misses. Tragedy was almost avoided numerous times but ultimately...well read the book. The fact that the story is known and accurately recorded is in itself an incredible sub-plot. It is hard to believe sometimes that this is a true story -- yet this is a case of real life being more amazing than one would dare write as fiction! The story is quite detailed but hang in there, the threads all come together in an incredible finale.

This story of a methodical and twisted man who kills with a flask of poisoned Southern Comfort is completely captivating, and done with amazing detachment. It makes you wonder about who's driving around town . . .

Martin Blom, victim of a random shooting, is rendered blind. As the story unwinds he finds he can see but only at night or in the dark. He begins to create a life around this odd existence. Moving slowly, narrating the story in 1st person, we are allowed to casually observe his meanderings and his eventual settling at a dingy hotel/brothel. Add to this neo-noir mix the beautiful mystery woman Nina, and her mildly twisted craving for Martin in his blindness. The later abrupt disappearance of Nina, coupled w/ suggested furtive movements by his ex-doctor, prompt Martin to head to remote locales in search of a family history which may explain Nina's whereabouts. The second part of the novel is the wistful recounting of Nina's grandmother's difficult life and how it eventually ties to Nina and threatens Blom himself. The style of narrative at the half-way point shifts to the grandmother, and it almost sounds like a different author. I found the story to be a similarly winding, round-about sort of mystery as Asylum by P. McGrath. The last hundred-plus pages were consumed in one sitting, as things began to rapidly unfold, I realized that Martin's story was now effectively secondary to the tragedy described by the grandmother. The tone and tragedy in this novel were subtle, and subdued. It did not produce a strong emotive response during the reading, one does not cheer for Martin, or feel for him in any way. He's a bit of an anti-hero, in the narrator vein of Poe's work. Every character here is broken in a way, which leads to a dulling moroseness in their interactions, which we watch in a detached clinical manner. Still, I found it an interesting work, to be read, if possible, on a rainy, grey day.

Martin Blom, victim of a random shooting, is rendered blind. As the story unwinds he finds he can see but only at night or in the dark. He begins to create a life around this odd existence. Moving slowly, narrating the story in 1st person, we are allowed to casually observe his meanderings and his eventual settling at a dingy hotel/brothel. Add to this neo-noir mix the beautiful mystery woman Nina, and her mildly twisted craving for Martin in his blindness. The later abrupt disappearance of Nina, coupled w/ suggested furtive movements by his ex-doctor, prompt Martin to head to remote locales in search of a family history which may explain Nina's whereabouts. The second part of the novel is the wistful recounting of Nina's grandmother's difficult life and how it eventually ties to Nina and threatens Blom himself. The style of narrative at the half-way point shifts to the grandmother, and it almost sounds like a different author. I found the story to be a similarly winding, round-about sort of mystery as Asylum by P. McGrath. The last hundred-plus pages were consumed in one sitting, as things began to rapidly unfold, I realized that Martin's story was now effectively secondary to the tragedy described by the grandmother. The tone and tragedy in this novel were subtle, and subdued. It did not produce a strong emotive response during the reading, one does not cheer for Martin, or feel for him in any way. He's a bit of an anti-hero, in the narrator vein of Poe's work. Every character here is broken in a way, which leads to a dulling moroseness in their interactions, which we watch in a detached clinical manner. Still, I found it an interesting work, to be read, if possible, on a rainy, grey day.

Martin Blom, victim of a random shooting, is rendered blind. As the story unwinds he finds he can see but only at night or in the dark. He begins to create a life around this odd existence. Moving slowly, narrating the story in 1st person, we are allowed to casually observe his meanderings and his eventual settling at a dingy hotel/brothel. Add to this neo-noir mix the beautiful mystery woman Nina, and her mildly twisted craving for Martin in his blindness. The later abrupt disappearance of Nina, coupled w/ suggested furtive movements by his ex-doctor, prompt Martin to head to remote locales in search of a family history which may explain Nina's whereabouts. The second part of the novel is the wistful recounting of Nina's grandmother's difficult life and how it eventually ties to Nina and threatens Blom himself. The style of narrative at the half-way point shifts to the grandmother, and it almost sounds like a different author. I found the story to be a similarly winding, round-about sort of mystery as Asylum by P. McGrath. The last hundred-plus pages were consumed in one sitting, as things began to rapidly unfold, I realized that Martin's story was now effectively secondary to the tragedy described by the grandmother. The tone and tragedy in this novel were subtle, and subdued. It did not produce a strong emotive response during the reading, one does not cheer for Martin, or feel for him in any way. He's a bit of an anti-hero, in the narrator vein of Poe's work. Every character here is broken in a way, which leads to a dulling moroseness in their interactions, which we watch in a detached clinical manner. Still, I found it an interesting work, to be read, if possible, on a rainy, grey day.

"Mohawk" was Richard Russo's first novel and although it showcases his emerging talent it often failed to sustain my interest, sometimes to the point where I dozed off. I think I only continued to read the book to the end because I thoroughly enjoyed "Straight Man" and I also enjoyed the movie "Nobody's Fool" based on Richard Russo's novel by the same name.

"Mohawk" does give a fairly good representation of a decaying one industry town, but the characters that live in the fictional town of Mohawk are somewhat two dimensional and didn't sufficiently engender my interest to enjoy their company. I seemed to know where their lives were heading and there never seemed to be any surprises in the story line.
One of the characters, "Billy Gaffney", a mentally troubled phantom- like young man seemed to be a cross between Boo Radley (To Kill A Mockingbird) and Danny Taylor (The Winter of Our Discontent). Two cousins, Anne and Diane sacrifice themselves in servitude to their aging mothers. Diane also cares for a wheelchairbound husband - the man who her cousin Anne has always loved. There are several inter-related characters in this story but they never seem to relate to each other in any kind of meaningful way for the story to progress and in the end I finally had to ask myself, "What was the story, anyway?"

One of my regrets was that the character of Harry, the man who owned the Mohawk Grill never emerged fully. To me he seemed to have so much potential as a character. I wanted to know about his past. I wanted to know if he was born in Mohawk, or if not, how he ended up there. He was introduced as a lone character at the very beginning of the book, and towards the end he's suddenly living with a woman without any explanation of how she got there.

A leading male in the story, Dallas Younger, is cast as a man with no social skills and a bad case of attention deficit disorder. His son, Randall Younger, who he somehow never seems to find the time to see, emerges as the unremarkable hero of this book, although he is basically a shallow figure with no definite personality in evidence.

As I write this it occurs to me that this book was very much like several episodes of "The Simpsons" strung together - without the wit or the humor. I really hate to say this after enjoying "Straight Man" so very much.

Richard Russo is one of America's funniest literary novelists. This novel is based in small-town New England, and all readers who have ever lived in a small town anywhere in America will feel like they're in on one of the wittiest jokes they've ever heard the entire time they read this book. Some characters want out of the town but seem never to succeed. Others never think of leaving. Others have thought of it and want to stay. All of which creates a very real and very humorous tale of small town life.

This story isn't small-minded in its small-town setting, nor is it simply humorous. Large personal issues that everyone, despite where he/she lives, must deal with are honestly and intelligently explored in this novel (e.g. a father's death, cancer, divorce, growing up, growing old, being poor, being rich then becoming poor).

The only reason I rank this novel with 4 stars instead of 5 is that it does seem to be slightly too long. It is still a great read, but if it were 20-25 pages shorter, it would have kept the energy it started with. I don't mean to suggest that it ever becomes boring, but it came out of the gates at a sprint and slowed down a bit toward the end.

In short, I advise reading this book. Despite any flaws it may have, it is better than most books I've read recently. It avoids being overly serious without becoming trite humor. I would also advise reading his novels Risk Pool and Straight Man which are also humorous and intelligent reads.

A wonderful work, exciting. A truly literary pageturner with fully realized loveable characters. Completely unpretentious. Even Wild Bill--Russo is totally forgiven for his creation, a patent Faulknerian manchild--is never doubted for a moment and plays a very pivotal part in the author's unfolding of this unforgettable town and the folks in it. I dream Mohawk (finding myself in the town) sometimes, even though I read this book two maybe three years ago. I can't believe that no one else visiting this site has reviewed this book at this time, besides the reprint of the published review. But Russo is not well known and this is his first novel. I recommend this book to anyone who breathes air and is thankful that they are a small part in the midst of this great ongoing tragicomedy (life). Didn't change my life, but if you want to read someone who is NOT a hack, read Richard Russo. Funny, too. --Jeremy