Federico Garcia Lorca is one of the best poets in history of Spanish literature. In a country where is very difficult to find a tradition of investigations about our recently literature, Ian Gibson's book is a master piece.

One of the best biographies I've read. This book is a well written account based on much research that is finely pieced together.

Lorca's life, and fate, other than some superficial items, were for the most part hidden from public awareness for many decades. He was in many ways a victim, but mostly from politicians, because they killed him.

The excesses of the Reds were countered by the excesses of the Blues (phalangists, rightists, fascists) in a dictatorship that outdid the murders of all predecessors. Politicians sometimes destroy something in order to "save" it. His threat was his speech, and 1998, the year of his centennial, the centennial of Spain's great gift to us for producing so many super-writers ("the generation of 98"), was the year in which we were reminded that the struggle against oppression never ends.

Gibson tells us the story of Lorca but not only about him. If he mentions Granada, Andalucia, the Gypsies, the Moors, Falla, the Spanish Civil War, etc, he will ALSO tell you about that! In this book you will grasp the meaning of surrealism, its evolution, Lorca's surrealism, and particularly the surrealism of Dali and Buñuel.

This book is a must for the literary avid, the poetry fan, the history bum, the political student, and importantly, for those of us that will benefit from learning that what happened in Spain may also happen in our own countries.

This is no dried scholarly book. It seethes with humour and provides insight into an area little covered because of the immense amount of research it requires. One particularly fascinating aspect is Gibson's research into the correspondence columns in the periodicals of Victorian England. He uncovered a phemonemon of immense interest to social historians: the sub-pornographic letters which appeared in the genteel women's magazines. I agree with Dr. Ridding, I return again and again to Gibson's book because here are facts so difficult to find and so illuminating of a sub-culture.

The ongoing detection of the mysterious author of the huge erotic classic _My Secret Life_ has advanced a step further (although the sources of information are only slightly better) by Ian Gibson, in _The Erotomaniac: The Secret Life of Henry Spencer Ashbee_ (Da Capo Press). Ashbee had a Jekyll-and-Hyde existence as a successful London businessman, travel writer, and paterfamilias. He also tended his huge collection of pornography. It was so large a collection that he rented rooms in Gray's Inn especially to contain it (and perhaps to keep it from being a family concern). Ashbee was no supporter of the suffragettes, but he liked the idea that women took pleasure in sex and could actively participate in it, ideas that were unfashionable or obscene at the time. In his own writing, Ashbee railed that "the English nation possesses an ultra-squeamishness and hyper-prudery peculiar to itself." He was furious that missionaries were trying to intrude this morality into societies where sexuality was more open.

It is clear that Ashbee's books ridicule these notions, even when Ashbee made it seem that he was supporting them. He is the author of three books, magnificently produced private editions cataloging his own books and those he was interested in. The titles give away his game: _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_ ("Index of Books Worthy of Being Prohibited," mocking the Vatican's own catalogue, 1877), _Centuria Librorum Absconditorum_ ("A Hundred Books Worthy of Being Hidden Away," 1879) and _Catena Librorum Tacendorum_ ("String of Books Worthy of Being Silenced," 1885). Ashbee produced his volumes under his scatological penname Pisanus Fraxi; he seems to have enjoyed rebuses of his name, and Pisanus Fraxi is an anagram of the Latin words for "ash" and "bee."

When it is known that Gibson has produced this biography after being allowed the first glance at Ashbee's diary, one might expect that there would be many personal revelations. Sadly, with some exceptions which Gibson quotes, the diary is discontinuous, and mostly dull. Ashbee was too busy reading and buying books to spend much time on a diary. If Gibson is to be believed, he spent a good deal of time writing _My Secret Life_, too. The final third of _The Erotomaniac_ is an amusing list of correspondences of style, phraseology, and philosophy between the writings of Pisanus Fraxi and those of the "Walter" who wrote _My Secret Life_. Gibson allows that someday electronic scansion of the texts may make the identification more positive (and perhaps someone will pay literary sleuth Don Foster, of _Author Unknown_, to take the case). To me, the most compelling evidence is that Ashbee's volumes all have an obsessively inclusive index, just as "Walter's" book hilariously does. Under the gerund form of the most shocking verb in English, Walter has seven columns of entries, including: in masks / wheelbarrow fashion / modesty hinders complete pleasure / is the great humanizer / in a grotto / in cabs / in a church / in a calf shed / in a cow shed / against trees. On and on the list goes, a tribute to someone obsessed with sex, with lists, and with compilations. As Gibson says, if Ashbee didn't write it, who on Earth did? Gibson's own book, meticulously researched and genially entertaining, has just about as much of Ashbee as we will ever know, as well as genuine insights into Victorian times and morals.

Dataday, day-today. This is Swifty Frisco giving you welcome.
At this moment in time I am surrounded by screaming children. At this point in time, only the thought of Halo Jones books One, Two and Three are enough to keep me sane. The Ballad of Halo Jones (to give it it's full title) was not the first comic I ever read. It wasn't even the first in 2000AD, where it was first published, as it appeared after Judge Dredd, Slaine and Ace Trucking Company in the magazine that I first saw it in. In this particular episode (of Book Three), following the death of her best friend, Halo quits the army, is unable to get a job, buys a gun to strip and put back together and starts sizing up children through her sights. The episode ends with Halo rejoining the army with the realisation that she has nowhere else to go. This is the first comic that ever really made me think, and this particular episode has stuck with me for almost twenty years. For me, this was the moment when comics grew up.

Of course I could wax lyrical about little known writer Alan Moore, co-creator of Halo, about whom very little has been written. However, I think that the real star of the piece is Ian Gibson, who is probably one of the most underrated comic artists of all time. The art continues to improve, finally reaching the wonderful black and white, heavily inked line art of book three. Moore's abilities as a writer also widen and mature through the three books. The three books are filled with wonderful images and ideas (the future-speak and the idea of a matriachal society are just two great ones). The way that Moore's writing and Gibson's art grows over the three books and entwines together results in this book being one of the best writer/artist combinations, I, at least, have ever seen. This is definately the best thing to ever appear in the pages of 2000AD. And thats saying a lot. Now all we need is to try and persuade Moore to write the further six remaining books.
This is Swifty Frisco signing off.

Extremely likeable comics novel from the 1980s that could easily pass for one of the Robert Heinlein "young adult" science fiction novels from the 1950s (like the two mentioned above, or TIME FOR THE STARS, or HAVE SPACESUIT - WILL TRAVEL, etc.). In each of the Heinlein stories, an adolescent hero leaves home to struggle through a series of traumatic and otherwise character-building experiences that ultimately transforms him or her into an adult.

Such things happen in this story to young Halo, who trades in the futilities and disappointments of her childhood Welfare State environment for adventure in outer space -- which of course proves to have futilities and disappointments of its own.

The last third of the novel deals with Halo's experiences in the military --like Heinlein's STARSHIP TROOPERS or SPACE CADET -- although Alan Moore's take on space combat is decidedly less gung-ho than Heinlein's. Closer to Joe Haldeman's THE FOREVER WAR.

THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES is a wonderful story about an ordinary woman who rises from hazardous poverty in a slum on Earth to genuine - but quiet - heroism in and after an interstellar war. Like Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN series, it's a collection of short stories with an overarching plot, where seemingly minor incidents and characters turn out to be incredibly important later. The moral of the ballad seems to be that there *are* no minor or unimportant people (or even unimportant rats). And if you don't like comics, close your eyes and have someone read "I'll Never Forget Whatsisname" to you. Highly recommended.

The authors provide an excellent overview of what to expect when embarking upon the implementation of an enterprise resource planning system like SAP. They provide thoughtful insight on factors that should influence the decision to proceed with such a project as well as sufficient detail on the particulars of SAP.

An excellent introduction to SAP by people who live and breath it.

This book has excellent sections on Business Case, Functionality (showing the links between modules, not just functions)and Deployment Options. It really helped me understand what I was going into implementing SAP for my company.

The Book has only two dissappointing sections. The chapter on process reengineering could have been better structured and applied, Hammer has better material. The walk through of methodology in chapters 17 and 18 was dry, uninspiring and again unapplied. More could have been written on ASAP.

This book is designed for managers and deciders who are in an evaluation phase and compare different ERP solutions. R/3 is a world-class integrated ERP solution and the less risky possible choice. If there is any doubt left, this book will convince the reader. SAP is not just a piece of software, it's also a culture and a club. Belonging to it is a real asset in someone's career.

This is an incredibly fun romp through the Star Wars Universe from the viewpoint of C-3P0 and R2-D2 and other droids (as was originally intended anyway). Its very fun to see as the humans and aliens fade into the background bringing the mechanical beings to the forefront.

The art in this is beautiful: full of detail while keeping a slightly cartoony feel to emphasize the fun tone of the whole story. The comic writing matches equally well to bring you a story of the droids as you would never have imagined before.

C3-P0 as the charismatic leader of a revolution, reaching untold "delusions of grandeur" as he leads his fellow droids into battle! The "gonk" droid, tortured mercilessly by idiot humans, getting his eventual revenge. These and many others are great scenes that bring the world of the Droids of Star Wars into the light, onto the comic pages, and into our hearts.

The droids comics, are often times irreverant and funny, and i like this. i give this book 4 stars because, it is a little 2 silly, for most tastes. but the story does fit into star wars contiunity so far, so it is a good read if you wanted to know more about what the droids were doing between episode 3?, and episode 4.

I found this book interesting. One thing that most people don't know about the Irish Potato Famine is just how much the British Government is to blame for all those deaths. Any food that an Irish person had in their possession was seized and then shipped to England and other countries. This is the dirty little secret of the British Government.

If you like the droids in the movies, you'll like these comics! (I'm a Star Wars fan so I might be partial.) As a Dad to 2 boys, 5 and 9, I read alot of comics. These are not beyond my boys' comprehension, and the kids love Artoo and Threepio!

It's amazing how much of an aura of mystery the obscure Boba Fett has acquired in the Star Wars mythos. In the films, this character has about a half dozen lines tops, but the mysterious armor, demeanor and standing as one of the greatest bounty hunters in the galaxy piqued fans' interest.

In "Enemy of the Empire," we see Fett's first encounter with Darth Vader. Writer John Wagner takes a humorous look at some of the denizens of the Star Wars galaxy and we get to find out how Fett received that odd dent in his helmet that appears in both Episodes V and VI.

"Enemy" didn't win any Eisners (comics' highest award), but it had solid storytelling and art (even if the latter was somewhat cartoony). A nice, light read featuring that mysterious bounty hunter on an adventure that fits quite nicely in the Star Wars epic.

While working one's way through the arts of bartering for souls, a person has to be careful who they choose to align themselves with. This holds true for anyone wanting to make their way out of a deal alive, from the lowliest of traders to the mightiest of bounty hunters. In Enemy of the Empire, Boba Fett learns just that, finding out that perhaps Darth Vader isn't an individual to be bartered with and that something worthy of his attention has to be profitable as well as dangerous in order for him to thrive. He is sent to find a certain someone that has an item in their possession, one that can tell the future in ways that some species would find disturbing, and that can even bring a player like Vader himself hunting for your head.

The storyline that is presented in this TPB is really a good one, brimming with some odd species, a bit of intrigue, and the art of bounty hunting that makes people seek out Boba Fett. It touches on a little of the methods on how to track someone, how your armor can sometimes get an array of ugly reminders of why you should or shouldn't be wary of dealing with anyone, what to do if you are attacked by one of the most dangerous forces in the universe, and how truly messed up some people's abilities can be. The problem in the book is that its art doesn't hold a candle to the interesting worlds involved in the storyline and that, despite the attempts to seem somewhat humorous at times, it fails to evoke laughter from myself. Instead, it seems to take away from some of the faces involved, especially when you are dealing with Vader and his boss, not to mention the rank and file that happen to make up the universe's shady characters. It took me a long time to get past this little portion of the book and, were it not for the fact that Fett was involved, I would have perhaps skipped past it completely.

This isn't to say that the read is worthy, because it is. You simply have to be ready for something of a disappoint in the art department - which I was a little prepared for but not to the extent that it laid out here. Also included in this is "Boba Fett's Salvage (or Boba Fett 1/2), which isn't that bad of a story and that is not the most fun piece to find by itself, making it a better by and something that friends of the hunting class might want to look into. Just remember to bring an open mind to the table because, well, mixed results sometimes anger the viewing mind.

The world of 'Star Wars' comics has been able to achieve heights of drama in expeceptional works such as 'In the Empire's Service', 'Outlander', and 'Mandatory Retirement.' This is not anywhere near that list. Then again, its not supposed to be.
It's for entertainment value, plain and simple. The art and writing are somewhat silly while still having an elemnt of drama and reality to them. John Nadeau of the XWRS fame has a very different art style here, one far less dramatic and far more silly.
Then end is good, especially regarding the fight between Fett and Vader and the fate of the Pessimists. (I love irony.) Overall, while its by no means the best SW comics out there, its a fun, quick read and reccomended as such.

This is an author who decides to look at the life of Salvador Dali by concentrating in his faults and dark side. The story is written based on looking at the empty half of the glass, as Gibson's thesis proclaims that this was not a great painter with a negative side, but that the painter's negative side was primordial to his artistic evolution. Still, for anyone in search of understanding the brilliance of Dali, this is the ultimate book. The genius of this Spanish painter deserves such a comprehensive work, and Ian Gibson masterfully and in detail shows the reader the artist, in the context of his time and troubled life. In all books on Dali I have encountered, I have seldom seen such thorough research; the author is to be praised twofold, because the master himself did all in his power to publicly, and in writing, come across as someone he was not. In his biography, Mr. Gibson's does a phenomenal job in clarifying the artist's strange life by uncovering his mysteries, and by intellectually undoing much of his exhibitionist behavior. Dali's thought process, as well as the distortions about himself and others are analyzed and criticized, at times subliminally (as if Gibson would become surreal himself), but most of the time quite openly, and it is refreshing that such a meticulous biography can provide such reading pleasure. Gibson, who had the opportunity to briefly meet the master, interviewed dozens of people (many of them knew the painter first hand), and the scholarship found in this magnificent 800 page treatise is well documented with in depth notes and proof sources, dozens of black and white photographs of people, places and art works, and 16 pages of color art.
We must however ask what was the author's true intention when using the word 'Shameful' in the book's title? If the reader is attracted by such word in order to find shocking or censurable stories, he/she will be disappointed, as there are not many of those; the shameful life meant by Gibson was the one Dali had, full of painful emotions caused by consciousness of guilt. Shameful, as in pitiful could also be an appropriate meaning of the heading. Of the shameful statements and behaviors by the master, some, unfortunately, are not well scrutinized. How interesting would have been if Gibson, for example, had better researched if Salvador's sporadic fascist views where actually a product of the subconscious he could not control, as he claimed, or very much his real feelings. Those paradox moments of early fascination with Hitler and later on with racism, that prompted Breton and the Surrealists to cut with the painter are difficult to understand, even in such a confused and manipulative individual. Gibson only simplifies such complex enigmas by saying that Dali was a renegade, who continuously changed sides in order to attract attention, or guarantee his personal survival. We find however, that this is not always the case: The Maestro, in an entry in his diary in 1952, lauds Freud and Einstein and the entire 'genius of the Jewish people'; if true that he behaved according to convenience, why Salvador was so strongly anti-Semitic later in the 1960s remains a puzzle, since it only pushed the Jewish art dealers away.
Pertaining the book's content, other criticism is in order: The author attempts to cover every single aspect of Dali's life by providing amazing details which could at times even seem to be irrelevant, but then he inexplicably forgets to reveal many well known facts. A case in point, there is no reference of Dali's feelings towards the creation of the State of Israel, which he viewed as a historical development with surrealistic overtones (was he being opportunistic once again?); as to why this is significant, is because he created images in 1968 and 1972, respectively for the 20th and 25th anniversaries of the State of Israel, -works that are not even mentioned in the book. The author also neglects to mention other (albeit not so well known) data: that in 1944 the Maestro was commissioned to do 7 paintings to illustrate 'the seven lively arts' for the lobby of the Ziegfield Theater, that in 1965 the painter donated a work to the Rikers Island Prison in New York. Many other examples can be cited. In addition, most of the works mentioned in the book are not shown, some of them pivotal to the narrative. The novice art reader would have benefited from such graphics even if in black and white, achieving a better understanding of the items created by the painter, or by others that influenced him.
Some of the Surreal Objects mentioned should have also been portrayed; the only one represented in the book, is not Dali's. It is utmost frustrating to read the reference or even the description of paintings, objects or sculptures without having the opportunity to look at them, and this occurs repeatedly in the script. Granted, the effort in obtaining and publishing such materials would have been a great one, but it seems that Gibson's style had the purpose of thoroughness which is not achieved by the omission of these elements. Furthermore, some works mentioned in the text are depicted, but only elsewhere in the book without any indication by the author of their presence; then a picture of 1974 is placed in the narrative of Dali's life in the late eighties; it seems that the editing could have been improved. Lastly, Gibson brings up complex references regarding art styles (Dadaism, Pre-Raphaelitism), political parties, philosophical movements and art expert opinions without any clarification of what they mean. Why the author chooses to describe some personalities and not others is also perplexing; again, it is evident that the novice reader is not taken into account in this otherwise magnificent and enjoyable book. Gibson's conclusion is that Salvador Dali was not a 'total' genius but only a virtuoso painter; I think his immeasurable creativity is greatly downplayed by the author.

Most biographies I've read, the opening chapters are a bore of mundane details of the person's childhood that are uninterestnig and nearly always read the same. In contrast, Ian Gibson's writing style is so lush, that even the detailed history of the Dali family before Salvador was born are compelling. Gibson gives you the feel of the Spanish countryside and the era in which Dali and his forefathers lived. Gibson is a careful biographer as well. Instead of taking Dali's own autobiography, "The Secret Life Of Salvador Dali," at face value, Gibson researches Dali's life and points out discrepencies and exaggerations of Dali writings. It led me to reread Dali's own writings and gave me further insight into the mind of the artist. I enjoyed reading about Dali's relationships with other painters (Surreal and otherwise), writers and poets such as Lorca, and his love of jazz. Far from a dry outline of a famous person's life, this book makes Dali come alive.

If you want to be spoon fed Freudian explanations about what Dali's paintings mean, look for something else. But if you want a richly detailed, absolutely readable biography of Dali, this is it. I can't wait to read Gibson's biography of Lorca, but for now, I'm savoring this one and I only wish it were longer.