Had Reznikov called this book something more like "Behind Orwell's Newspeak: the Societal Truth of 1984," he would have sold more copy and been more accurate.

This book reads like a short masters' thesis on a fascinating, but very narrow subject. ... Between the lines lies Reznikov's well-deserved worship of the man who foresaw (at least in lingual terms) the rise and fall of the Third Reich and the Soviet Union. Also, Reznikov suggests (again, between the lines) that, just as Tolkien originally conceived Middle Earth in order to create a separate reality where characters could speak Elvish, Orwell's greatest fictional work, 1984, probably grew out of his desire to display his theoretical language, Newspeak.

This book is a must for those who love Orwell and 1984; it will help you to understand both better. The book is dry in subject, and a bit repetitive, but wet in enthusiasm. Reznikov enjoys his concept and may well have a future in literary non-fiction beyond Orwell.

Andrei Reznikov has developed a truly original piece of research in this book. He has addressed a body of work that has been discussed and criticized in many publications over the years and explores a vein never before ventured. Reznikov asserts that Orwell has developed a bona fide theory of language, even if it does not employ the usual method of publication. The title itself asserts Orwell's work as a linguistic theory. According to some linguistic scholars mentioned in the introduction to Reznikov's book, 1984 contains no such thing.

"George Orwell's Theory of Language" takes bits and pieces of Orwell's published works that deal with language and presents them in a logical order to form a framework for the proposed theory. Orwell postulates from his experience with language, that because of dictatorship, the languages of Nazi German, Soviet Russian and Fascist Italian have deteriorated. In a well-illustrated chapter, Reznikov tests this hypothesis against two of the three languages mentioned, as well as modern English. The results are very interesting and at times disturbing. Reznikov presents examples that show how American political speech exhibits aspects of Newspeak. It is amazing to see how easy it is for politicians to use language as a means of controlling the public.

The representation of Orwell's views on language may be a bit confusing and may be hard to follow. I found that going back and rereading the appendix to 1984 concerning the principles of Newspeak helps relate this portion of the book to the main point. This book speaks to a reader who is familiar with the writings of George Orwell.

Any person who has respect for George Orwell as the crafter of 1984 will find it has an added sense of depth after reading Reznikov's book. When one reads 1984, one cannot help but recognize a strong undertone of significance on a passionate level. Reznikov recognizes in it significance on a critical level. The book gives the reader a new perspective on Orwell's work, one that presents a researcher with another tool to aid in the study of linguistics. Any further study concerning Newspeak or the language in 1984 would have to recognize Reznikov's recent publication.

Sakharov was the father of the Russian atomic program; he was Oppenheimer, Teller, and Feynman, all rolled into one. The book traces Russia from before his birth to his death, as it rises against Germany and sinks into the depths of Stalin's Terror and Kuruschev's reign. Sakharov, given immense importance under Stalin and Kuruschev, finds himself at odd with what he created. He wants so much to redeem himself that he devotes the remaining of his life to the Russian resistance. And he suffers for this - all the perks and medals he earned for his work on Russia's atomic program are summarily taken back by the state. He is exiled to Gorky and is spied on by KGB. His memoirs are stolen on two occassions by the KGB; depressed, almost suicidal, he rewrites them from memory. This was an excellent look into a very interesting country in the context of an equally interesting protagonist. It is said that mathematicians (and probably theoritical physicists) have a short career; their inventions and discoveries are made when they are young, and they whittle away in their middle- and old ages. Could be that Sakharov, having contributed to many such inventions and discoveries, figured that joining the resistance is a far better legacy. Being considered the father of the atomic program of a country is a big burden to bear; I am reminded of Oppenheimer's words when he witnessed what he had created. All he could think about was Lord Krishna's words in the Bhagavad Gita: "I am death, shatterer of worlds, annhilating all things." I would recommend this book for a great insight into Russia through the eyes of one of its best known (and loved) citizens.

I read this book slowly. The author has gathered a lot of details and his interest in Russia is the main context in which the subject is considered. With the emphasis in this book on how extraordinary the Communist regime of the Soviet Union had been in ruthlessness even before it had the opportunity to acquire atomic weapons, I was afraid that its approach to what I was really interested in would be too tame and toothless for my taste. More than most nuclear scientists, Andrei Sakharov has been recognized as a great dissident. Many thought that this was some kind of folly. "In a joke of the time a dog explains glasnost: `The chain is longer, the food is still far away, but you can bark all you want.'" (p. 373). Jokes were a major feature of the situation. There is a paragraph early in the book, about a mannerism of a great Russian poet, who announced his appreciation for the best of his own work with the words, "`O Pushkin, you . . . !' At moments of insight, rubbing his hands in delight, Sakharov would repeat those words aloud." (p. 48) The big joke about Pushkin was most appropriate a hundred years after his death, after the official Pushkin Year of 1937, when a few people still had the nerve to say: "If Pushkin had lived in our times, he still would have died in '37." (p. 46). Sakharov grew up in tough times, but his sense of reality grew in proportion to the responsibilities which he assumed. When he was picked on in a personal manner, and he felt that the Soviet system reacted in a way that seemed inappropriate to him personally, he was capable of exhibiting his own toughness. When Tatiana, Bonner's daughter, was expelled from Moscow University, he was capable of losing the restraint with which people are expected to submit to those who sit in positions of authority. Poor Ivan Petrovsky, rector of Moscow University. "Sakharov lost his temper and pounded the table twice with his fist. Later that day Petrovsky dropped dead from a heart attack, and in some quarters, including the Academy, Sakharov was considered complicit in Petrovsky's death." (p. 248). Joseph Shklovsky, author of FIVE BILLION VODKA BOTTLES TO THE MOON, considered himself a leader "because of his mastery of cursing, an art he had learned as a construction foreman." (p. 59). Reporting on a month which Sakharov and Shklovsky spent on a train fleeing Moscow as students during World War II, Shklovsky reported, "One day he asked me a preposterous favor: `Do you have anything I can read on physics?' . . . My first impulse was to send this mama's boy and his ridiculous request straight to hell." (p. 59). Years later, concerning Petrovsky, Shklovsky said, "I can't forgive Andrei Sakharov for the sharp rebuke he delivered to the poor rector." (p. 248).

Since Sakharov was seeking convergence with the rest of the world more than anything else, it made sense for him to go see everyone "From Margaret Thatcher to Daniel Ellsberg" (p. 360) when he had the chance. He even "had half an hour alone with Edward Teller before a formal banquet honoring Teller on his birthday." (p. 375) Later he convinced Solzhenitsyn's wife to call Solzhenitsyn to a phone in Cavendish, Vermont so that "there should be nothing left unsaid between us." (p. 376). With Elena, he met "both the head of the Italian Socialist Party and the pope. And, in an event that captures the flavor of that year of wonders, Sakharov and the pope discussed perestroika in the Vatican." (p. 379).

He finally met Gorbachev on January 15, 1988, (p. 366) and the two found themselves in an interesting political situation. After elections on March 26, 1989, Sakharov was to represent the Academy of Sciences in the First Congress of People's Deputies on May 25. "Yeltsin won Sakharov's admiration when he demanded live television coverage of the congress." (p. 381). Gorbachev had a committee to draft a new constitution approved "when someone noticed all its members were communists." (p. 384). Sakharov was added to the committee and became the major opponent of Article 6 of the constitution, which gave the Communist Party a monopoly on power. Open debate was new to those who had been involved in officially secret proceedings, and Sakharov found himself involved in arguments in which Gorbachev said, "I'm against running around like a chicken with its head cut off." (p. 385). When the fight turned to Afghanistan, Sakharov had said things which rankled the usual superpower thinking on the Soviet side, and continued to insist, "The real issue is that the war in Afghanistan was itself a crime, an illegal adventure, and we don't know who was responsible for it." (p. 386). There were shouts in opposition to his views, but polls for the best deputy "showed Sakharov number one, Yeltsin two, and Gorbachev seventeenth." (p. 386). When he died, a "crowd of fifty thousand" came to his funeral. (p. 401).

Siegelbaum has performed a valuable historical service by compiling these letters. Americans, and perhaps other Westerners, would do well to pay heed to what man wrought in that era, and its implications for our politically correct society of today. The outpourings of the hearts of Soviet citizens who were led to believe they were building the society of the future will, at times, make you want to cry. The responses from some of the Soviet leaders to their pleas make the blood run cold.

Stalinism as a Way of Life is collection of first hand accounts of the people who actually lived in Stalin's Russia. This book is wonderful if you are interested in the everyday life of the Russian people. Warning, if you get sick of everyone complaining because they have no shoes then this book is not for you. If you are more interested in the political aspects of the politburo then Getty's Road to Terror is better for you.

I recently reread this book which I had obtained and read years ago. The book was very close to the mark. I have read about the transitions in Poland. The Polish leaders went to Russia and were allowed to go back to Poland after giving only promises. I wondered why this happened, and Amalrik's book contains statements that show the situation and how it was changing at that time, 1970, before the later events.

Reading the book as US and Russian supply planes were crossing the Mediterannean Sea in the 1973 October war, it was difficult to see what was coming. Andrei should commended for seeing much more than most.

I read this book as a college sophomore in 1977. Although it seemed incredible that the U.S.S.R. might be on the brink of collapse, by the time I was finished, Amalrik had me convinced.

The book is not an easy read, but it is a worthwhile one, even today. Amalrik cited three reasons why the U.S.S.R. was doomed (the fact that it was surrounded by enemies, its simmering ethnic rivalries, especially between "blue eyes" [Russians] and "brown eyes" [the Turkic peoples of the Southern Republics], and the failure to build a society based on law). In the wake of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and its aftermath, his analysis has been proven to be dead on.

In particular, while I couldn't see it at the time, I now understand why crime became such a massive problem in the wake of the Soviet Union's fall. As Amalrik speaks of the dissolution of ethics, especially among the young, one can't help but think of Russia's new thuggish "elite". The book provides an excellent insight into where they came from, and why.

Of course, books that are classics have another aspect to them: they not only elucidate, but also influence. This book circulated in samizdat (Russ, "mimeo") for a couple of years before reaching the West; the publisher believed that over 50,000 copies were smuggled around the Soviet Union.

Thus, the irony of the title: 1984 was the year that the old guard passed from the scene, and Gorbachev's clique began its rise to power. Looking at Gorbachev's program ("glasnost", "perestroika", and the "New Thinking" in foreign policy, couple with his willingness to cut loose the Eastern European satellites and the Balts), one has to wonder: did the Gorbachevs read this book, and were the policies they enacted a last-ditch effort to stave off the inevitable?

I would not at all be surprised to learn that this was indeed the case.

Without a Map is a good place to start learning about Russian economic reform in the 1990's. It is concise and thorough, and covers a lot of ground. As a result, it tends to be somewhat general, when one might be interested in specific details of reforms, but it's a very solid overview. It is not a book for just anyone, but will fascinate anybody who has an interest in the Russian economy or in economics in general. It is a perfect complement to Privatizing Russia, also co-authored by Schleifer.

In a very readable book the authors provide an excellent account of fiscal federalism in Russia. They talk about the stagnation the Russian economy faces and provide a very valid hypothesis for its cause in Russia's taxation system - what many others have previously given scant attention to. This book will appeal to economists, political scientists, and anyone else interested in Russia today.

Andrei Makine, the author of the lyrically, poetically gorgeous book, Dreams of My Russian Summers has been compared to Nabokov, Chekhov and Proust. Although these comparisons are meant to be flattering, they are grossly unfair, for Makine is an extraordinarily talented writer; an original, comparable to none.

The Russian summers of the title are those the narrator and his sister spent visiting their grandmother, Charlotte, in the town of Saranza on the eastern edge of the steppes.

Charlotte was born in France in 1903 and was subsequently trapped in Russia in 1921 at the outbreak of the revolution. She has lived an outwardly harrowing life, surviving famine, civil war, a rape by a band of thieves in the desert as well as the seemingly endless cold and snows of the Siberian winter.

When she finally marries a Russian soldier, he is twice reported dead at the Front and Charlotte escapes the German air raid with her two children, working as a nurse in army field hospitals. She is a woman who embraces the vastness of Russia, yet manages to keep her Frenchness alive.

And it is this Frenchness, this essence of all things French, that she wishes to pass on to her grandchildren. Apparently she succeeds. Standing on Grandmother Charlotte's balcony, young Makine looks out over the steppes as he comes to believe that he has found the secret of "being French." He says, "The countless facets of this elusive identity had formed themselves into a living whole." He finds this elusive identity of the living whole in stark contrast to his native Russia and longs for France and its "well ordered mode of existence."

Grandmother Charlotte's tales of her years in France are triggered by a suitcase full of crumbling family photos and yellowed newspaper clippings. Miraculously, this suitcase has survived the Russian Civil War, famines and purges, Stalin's prison camps and Hitler's invasion.

These precious clippings and photos allow Charlotte's grandchildren to participate in the French joie de vivre and experience such things as the visit of Tsar Nicholas to France in 1896. As a child growing up under the regime of Leonid Brezhnev, Makine has trouble believing that the man described as the bloody butcher of the people actually shook hands with the President of the Republique Francais as the band played the Marseillaise. Grandmother Charlotte even remembers and can recite, the poem composed for the Tsar's visit, a poem that assured him he had earned "the love of a free people."

Even more unbelievable to young Makine is his grandmother's revelation that only a few years after the visit from Tsar Nicholas, this very same President of France died of a heart attack in the arms of his beautiful mistress.

His grandmother's childhood discovery of a plaque in a Paris alleyway proves to be prophetic. This plaque commemorates the spot where, in 1407, an assassin thrust his sword through the body of the Duke of Orleans after an amorous tryst with his sister-in-law, the Queen, the lovely Isabeau. Makine, himself, as an adult, will find himself, almost miraculously, in this very same alleyway.

In between his idyllic visits to Saranza and Grandmother Charlotte, Makine is growing up in grim shabbiness in his parents' home in Moscow. Large apartment blocks built in the grandiose Stalinist style stand out in stark contrast to the "mysterious French essence" of Grandmother Charlotte and her home on the steppes. Makine wants to literally absorb France's Belle Epoque, but he must contend with his socialist schoolmates instead.

Impressionable and in love with a land he can only dream about, Makine rebels against both the ordinariness of Soviet life and the grandmother he loves but fails to understand.

A true master of prose, Makine contrasts Russia and France beautifully. Several times in the novel, Russia is mentioned as breathing and alive; the world of harsh realities. France, on the other hand, is a dream world and its images are spun from the rich and elaborate Impressionistic language of fantasy.

Although Dreams of My Russian Summers was both written and translated by a man, the imagery evoked is decidedly feminine, especially that pertaining to France; the petite pomme of a smile in a photograph, the coupling hawkmoths with the death's head and the repeated image of the Verdun stone.

The entire book, however, is the story of a young boy's maturation into a sensitive and intelligent man. A man who loves the present, yet has come to revere the past. A man who is thankful for the contrast provided in his life, a contrast he calls "an optical illusion" offering the most luminous moments of his life.

Readers are offered nothing less than the beautiful fragility of a reverie, to be visited again and again.

Time alters all things. The resultant changes can be decay, or tedium/passe, or at the opposite end of the spectrum the changes can be enhancing as a patina on fine wood. Andrei Makine's DREAMS OF MY RUSSIAN SUMMERS has happily acquired a literary patina that makes this brief but crystalline memoir of childhood even more of a joy to read after a few years on the shelf. Makine has the rare ability to weave wholly credible stories with unforgetable characters while at the same time measuring his prose like poetry. We are to suppose this is an autobiography, but it is far more than the journey of a nascent writer becoming a man. This is the essence of the Russian mind embellished by the great fortune of having early exposure to the beauty of France by means of recalling summers with Charlotte, a French born grandmother who nourishes the imagination and history of the writer to the point of delirium. All that has happened to and in Russia from the time of the Tsars to the present is presented in such a way that the grisly realities are always balanced by the homage to love of fatherland. Makine is a stunning writer and is still adding to our contemporary literature in ways that secure him a place among the geniuses of the word. Read and indulge your mind and your senses!

If you love the prose of Turgenev, Herzen, Bunin, Pasternak, or Nabokov, then you will almost certainly love this work by Makine. This wonderful writer restored my faith in contemporary literature. While his novel touches upon concepts that will interest post-moderns as well as traditionalists, it is blessedly devoid of the tiresome ironic distanciation that plagues so many novels of our time. <> is unabashedly lyrical and extraordinarily moving. It engages themes that have remained interesting for more than a century: e.g. the nature of memory and time, the place of the individual in history, how upbringing and language condition our perceptions of other places, times, and cultures. Makine's descriptions of Tsarist and Soviet Russia and Paris of the Belle Époque are exquisitely rendered. The author's verbal eloquence, smooth phrasing, and attention to detail remind me of Bunin, while his penetrating portrayal of the sensitive protagonist brought Tolstoy's <> and Rousseau's <> to mind. I found this novel so intoxicating that I couldn't put it down. Without a doubt, it's one of the best prose works that I've read in a long time.

This book started saving me time the day it arrived. The little code snippets and examples apply to lots of common and odd tasks that many programmers will run into. The organization of the book also plays well with the on-line php documentation: it is grouped by function categories. I like consistency between documentation organization so multiple sources can function like a "super-manual". While I would not recommend this book as a reference it is a great adjunct to the php.net manual or a number of other books that are intended to be manuals.

Have any of you done Perl and worn the Perl Cookbook cover off? Then this is your book.

The layout and general concept of this book is very similar to that other beloved cookbook. Some entries are nearly identical. One feature I adore in particular is multiple recipes for one task, stating which is faster/more efficient, and then telling you why.

I have been scripting PHP for 2 years, mostly professionally, but many fun, personal projects as well. Not only do I wish I had this book, but I am gald that I have it now. I have been reading this thing randomly but voraciously, and I have found little gems even under the elementary topics.

I will be working on 2 major projects soon, the development stage of one has just begun. One is a massive intranet site, (authentication, sessions, customization, etc.) and the other is an ecommerce site/application. I will be using this book continuously as a: 1) code reminder 2) how-to resource 3) code-refiner 4) style-refiner.

I've already used it several times for custom classes - don't pass this one up!

UNLIKE ANY OTHER PHP BOOK. I write that in all caps because I can't emphasize this enough: this is NOT a typical "let's show you PHP" book. There is no walk-from-beginning-to-end introduction.

PHP Developer's Cookbook is for INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED users that have already had their introduction, already used PHP for a while, and find themselves, while working on a project, saying, "How do you validate an email address?" or "How do we save sessions in a database?"

This is a book of PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS, broken into little categories for easy reference. (Look at the table of contents.) Of course you could go through it from start to finish and learn quite a bit, even if you're not working on a big project yet.

All that being said, THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST VALUABLE PHP BOOKS I'VE EVER SEEN, and I've seen them all. It's the only one I'm going to keep on my desk now as I work. It's exactly what I was looking for. (I work on PHP projects all day, and am constantly searching the mailing lists to remember how to create drop-down-menus, how to process individual words in a text file, etc. This book has it all!)

Combine this with the new feature on www.php.net that lets you type "www.php.net/functionname" to immediately look up the manual page for every PHP function, and you're all set!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Vladimir Putin's "First Person" is a biography in question and answer format. It gives a great insight into the man who is the leader of the largest country in the world. There are questions and answers from not only Putin himself, but also his old school teachers, KGB collegues and his wife and two daughters. Even so, this biography does not give a 'full picture' of the president as a person and much of his past (for example KGB) is not mentioned in great detail (that's why I took off a star) and does not give a deep insight as the book implies. This aside, and all considered, this is a good read and a good introduction to Pres. Putin.

First Person is a transcription of a series of interviews conducted by three Russian journalists with Vladimir Putin, his wife and daughters, friends, teachers, and colleagues. The book is written in a question-answer format which is usually effective but occasionally leaves the reader in doubt as to who is answering a particular question: Putin or one of the other interviewees.

Don't read this book expecting deep insight into Putin's political philosophy or details of his experience in the KGB. With that said, First Person is a useful and interesting account of Putin's life, family, and experiences. An occasional bit of insight either slips or is inserted into the conversations. (It's hard to believe that someone as in-control as Putin would really let something slip. I don't mean to be suspicious or derogatory, I'm just recognizing that Putin is a successful politician who climbed one of the most difficult -and dangerous- ladders in the world.) One bit of possible insight is the fact that Putin was KGB station chief in Dresden, East Germany, at the time that the Berlin wall was pulled down. He shared a facility with the Stasi, his East German counterparts. When mobs approached the Stasi facility. Putin cabled Moscow for help and direction. He received neither and left active duty with the KGB soon after his (premature?) return from that assignment. I'm sure he was a bit disillusioned by this experience, but the degree and nature of the disillusionment is not developed. No surprise here; successful politicians don't intentionally walk into mine fields.

Overall, the book was an interesting and light read. Putin describes himself as a hooligan in his youth who mended his ways primarily to achieve his goal of going to law school in preparation for a career in the KGB. He chose that career path after seeing a movie entitled the Sword and the Shield (the KGB logo) which prompted him to walk uninvited into the local KGB office in Leningrad to seek employment. The officer who met him advised him that the KGB seldom considered walk-in applicants and that he should attend university and study law as a means of preparing himself. Rather amazingly, he did exactly that and was recruited immediately upon graduation.

The book also contains numerous details about Putin's early political life in the administration of Anatoly Sobchak, the reform-minded mayor of Leningrad, and his subsequent steady rise in the national government as well as numerous anecdotes from his family life.

Once upon a time, there was a belief in America that anyone could rise from the humblest of beginnings -- such as Abraham Lincoln, born in a cabin he built with his own hands -- to become President.

In Russia, without political opinion polls, focus groups or special interest funding, Vladimir Putin rose from a rat-infested cold water apartment to become President of his nation. This book is about a man who spent his professional life assessing people and situations, and thus is not afraid to make tough decisions. In Russia, for the immediate future, tough decisions are needed.

Putin's hero, Czar Peter the Great, used his regal power to make Russia a great, rich and powerful nation. Putin intends to provide similar dynamic leadership with democratic principles. An example may be Singapore, a mix of authority, discipline and prosperity.

The question-and-answer format of this book is based on six four-hour interviews by three journalists. Putin admits he was, ". . . a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education." He was smart, dedicated, hard-working and very good in his chosen career with the KGB. He wasn't a old cloak-and-dagger "sneak and peek" spy; he spent his time reading reports, assessing East German officials and skillfully pushing paper.

Trained as a lawyer, he was appalled at how Communist officials assumed they were the law simply because they were Party members. Putin was never a dissident, he was the ultimate Organization Man whose goal was a richer, happier, stronger and freer Russia. He worked hard to become an insider, and as such saw the total incompetence of the Party.

His wife says, "He always lived for the sake of something. There are some people who work hard for money, but he works hard for ideas." When first married, they had a 10-foot by 12-foot room in his parents' 275-square foot apartment. Try and think of any American president since Lincoln -- another idea man -- who lived in any similar conditions.

Like Lincoln, whose greatest idea was "to preserve the Union," the prime challenge for Putin is to preserve Russia. His practical experience taught him that a free market economy is far superior to the chaos, conniving and cronyism of communism. He says the Soviets failed because they ". . . had a terminal disease without a cure -- a paralysis of power."

Two things are clear; Putin is not afraid to act, and he will never betray Russia. He learned from his father's World War II experience, ". . . there are always a lot of mistakes made in war. That's inevitable. But when you are fighting, if you keep thinking that everybody around you is always making mistakes, you'll never win. You have to take a pragmatic attitude." He approaches life in that fashion.

His political heroes also rebuilt shattered nations. Charles DeGaulle saved France from itself; while in Germany, Ludwig Erhard succeeded because ". . . his entire conception for the reconstruction of the country began with the creation of new moral values for society." The Soviet collapse created a similar challenge for Putin. This book explains what his "effective authority" is all about. It's the best book available this year about a politician with new ideas.

This is a refreshingly candid portrait of the soul of the new President of Russia, a fascinating contrast to "personality politics" that mask any inner feelings of American politicians. Putin trusts the Russian people enough to be honest; our politicians hire spin doctors to create "centrist" or "moving to the right" or "compassionate conservative" images. The contrast is ominous.

Then, stop and think. Does America really need tough, effective authority? Or are we better off with superficial candidates and trivial issues? If Putin succeeds, he will outdo Peter the Great. In America, do we need a great crusade? or merely to be left alone? Another Lincoln? or a Shrub?

In which the reviewer pans a book that wasn't completely without merit.

Novel premise, interesting beginning, confused and out of character middle, sappy sitcom-like ending. How about some character development? The best books chronicle how their main character(s) learn from the experiences in the book, how they change to overcome obstacles. In Messiah, we see Felicity develop from two-dimensional to, well, two dimensional. Andrea learns that she can cause group climaxes -- gee whiz! She's been through hell on earth, been raped, had her family slaughtered, lost her home, and the best insight we get from Codrescu is that she thinks she might have whored it for four years. Well, at least it was titilating!

The best thing about this book is that it lets (no, it _forces_) readers to draw their own conclusions about every aspect of the story. But then, what part does the author play? Perhaps a mere conduit -- a medium through which the story is told without commentary. But who will channel Hermes once Major Notz dumps Carbon?

What a great book this could have been!

From the editor of "Exquisite Corpse" magazine Andrei Cordrescu, we are given several novels in one, unfortunately, in some cases, such as thi--one would have proved sufficient.

One novel here might be called "The Shades" another "Felicity" Another "Gal Gal Hamazal" (which, by the way had me rolling with laughter).

It seems that Codrescu couldn't sustain the gargantuan project he began, although he did a slapdash job of making it seem his best. The black comedy is not lost on me, I merely wish that very cool characters like the Sarajevan orphan Andrea who herself seemed to be messianic enough on her own, and of that species of women one finds it hard enough to find let alone to depict: to Codrescu's credit he appeared to do this, her connubial and compassionate nature the most corporeal and transcendental as well as comic element of the book.

It's unfortunate that this satire careens at such breakneak manic Tom Robbinsesque speeds for at a slower pace or woven together (the sequences) with a stronger sensibility, Messi@h could have delivered the promised land it instead buffaloed it's way through. I suppose it's possible that Codrescu, himself an editor, felt in no need of an editor. I find that unfortunate, even the book jacket design was astonishing, and it was with great enjoyment that I breezed through nearly half the book having Messi@h spike a flat tire and some false notes straining after comedy, in particular with the obvious absurdities of "fundamentalist Christians" and the ribaldry of the "spirits" of our dead "great ones" (according to whom?) such as Aristotle coming back into bodies and incarnating after being disturbed during the cyberplay of tomboyish "Tank Girly" Felicity.

Andrei, please, take this back and edit it and give up the real Messi@h. I'd love to add it to my shelf of great great reads rather than consigning this novel to the stacks of benign and merely amusing books littering so many shelves.

We needed a little more of the adage "less is more." Don't mistake me, Codrescu is a great writer, but...but...

this could have been a miracle (sigh). We readers could have been satisfied but as it stands I was left longing. And for the record as it is possible to be too thin (and I would say too rich) it is also possible to be too clever.

Still, all in all a really good read.

Whereas the Blood Countess was overcontrived and somewhat tedious in narrative structure, Messiah is a total blast. Codrescu creates a very singular voice in Felicity and the novel has an immediacy that marries well to its millenial subject matter. I finished in one plane ride, which says something not only for its story-telling ability but also for the dynamics of its subject matter. I highly recommend this book to anyone-for those more inclined to literary fiction and those simply looking for an original suspension of disbelief. It transcends the ordinary and takes refuge in the sublime.

Giacomo Casanova, 1725-1798, was a real person, an adventurer, a man-about-Europe, a celebrity, a sociopath, rarely worked, attached himself to famous people and institutions, spent time in prison, and had a number of notorious romantic affairs. If he had lived today he would undoubtedly be a frequent guest on talk shows. Now after many years of obscurity, Casanova has had a revival of sorts, and a following of scholars known as "casanovists."

Andrei Codrescu's book, based loosely on the facts of Casanova's life, details the declining years of Casanova, against the backdrop of European history. It is a time of spectacular decadence, the last days of a crumbling feudal aristocracy, the shock waves of the French revolution, and the personal decline of the once notorious Casanova, a man who has had many romantic escapades but has never formed a lasting relationship with a woman. Now he is lonely, disillusioned, desperately trying to achieve immortality through his writings. And in a way, as the author shows, he does.

I love listening to Andrei Codrescu on National Public Radio, but Casanova in Bohemia was something of a letdown. This book will be of interest to casanovists and also to codrescuites, but it is not for everyone. If you enjoy reading about the sexual preoccupations and embarrassing orgies of a lonely old man you might enjoy it.

Casanova in Bohemia is a brilliant and absorbing work, gifted with intellectual wit, historical facts, tenderness, humor, magic - a combine Codrescu's recipe of success. He has created from a legend a vivid character, from the cliché of libertine an intriguing destiny of a visionary intellectual. Conquer and victim, seducer and seduced, a strong temperament with deliberated weaknesses, Casanova appears in his complexity, as a fiction writer, play writer, philosopher, translator of Italian

classics into French, the collaborator with Mozart on Don
Giovanni.
Codrescu gives back to Giacomo Casanova the gift to be ahead his time, in thought and action. A remarkable book, wonderful written.

Carmen Firan
Writer and journalist, New York

Having followed Codrescu's career with abnormal attention over the last twenty five years I have wondered when he would get busy and write his classic. This book finally tips into the mythos. I liked his first two novels -- Blood Countess and Messiah, but here Codrescu opens a panorama of a zeitgeist that somehow still survives from the faded glamor of Venice. "I lived as a philosopher. I die a Christian!" Codrescu is the last of the Draculas -- but his confession that he believes in a Creator makes me ask whether his Dracula mask hides a deeper engagement with the one true God. It is this civil righteousness whose warmth permeates this book and implicitly creates an urban ecotheology based on vials of beautiful blood straight from the nubility of Lutheran Prague.

-- Kirby Olson