This book is published in association with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the National Gallery in London. It is accompanied by a small booklet that tells the story of his life and features some of his many pictures. This is not your typical pop-up book since "Van Gogh's House" opens up into a circular four-room house. The furniture from his pictures have been transformed into 3-D pop-ups ("Van Gogh's Chair" for example). In order to bring his house to life one can play with punch-out figures that depict Van Gogh and his friends ("Joseph Roulin" for example). It is also up to you to decorate the house with Van Gogh's flowers ("Vase of Irises" for example) and his pictures. The book is approx. 4"x5" and folded out it becomes twice the size. For older children it is a unique and playful introduction to this great painter. I like it because it brings together my love for pop-up books and Van Gogh.

This book is quite charming. As reported in a previous review, the little package one receives is approximately 4" by 5". A pocket on one side contains six punch-out characters, a few punch-out items (incl. vases of flowers, pictures and a pitcher) to be placed in the rooms, and a 32-page booklet about Van Gogh and his paintings. The other side contains the pop-up book, which one opens completely so that the covers touch each other, thus making a carousel of a four-room house -- kitchen, bedroom, study and living room. You can change the pictures that are hanging or place a new work on the easel, etc.

This is a lovely item, obviously assembled by and for those who share an affection for this complex painter.

I think that you have to be a fisherperson to enjoy this book. Hersey has written one of the best books I've ever read and one of the more boring ones. This was the boring one and HIROSHIMA was one of the best.

If you've ever caught a bluefish in The Race, this book will appeal to you. You can smell the bunkers and you feel the power of the fish. You also get a lesson on mankind's uncaring attitudes toward anything but our own selfish desires. He's a little long-winded sometimes, but still a good read.

Another title for this book could be "Zen and the Art of Blue Fish Fishing." Thoroughly enjoyable and is an easy read. A must for all people who fish.

The book Hiroshima, by John Hersey, follows the lives of six survivors of the Atomic Bomb, dropped on the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 at 8:15 AM. The book chronicles the lives of these six survivors up to forty years after the dropping of the bomb. On that day, more then 100,000 Japanese were killed, and these six were fortunate to live through it. The survivors had to continue their lives through their will to survive, overcoming all obstacles such as pain, poverty, disease, famine, and lack of humanity. The survivors of the bomb had to live the rest of their lives suffering with more then just their physical pain, but also with their social non-acceptance. People would not hire A-bomb victims, or Hibakusha (literally- explosion affected people) because Non-Hibakusha employers developed a prejudice against survivors, and their descendents. The employers were scared that victims would come down with a disease making them unreliable workers. This was the case for survivor Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura. Mrs. Nakamura, weak and poor, began a courageous struggle, which would last for many years, to keep herself and her children alive. She was forced to work many laborious jobs, such as delivering loaves of bread, selling fish, and cleaning houses for her neighbors, and still earned barely enough money to put food on the table. Because of her weakened condition due to radiation exposure, Mrs. Nakamura had to rest for two of three days for every week she worked. Help to her did not come until 1957, thirteen years after the bombing, when the Diet, the congress of Japan, passed the A-bomb Victims Medical Care law, which gave free medical care to survivors. Other survivors of the Atomic Bomb went through pain, both physically and socially, as a direct result of the explosion. Miss Toshinki Sasaki, at the time of the explosion, was at work talking to a co-worker. The force of the bomb knocked down bookcases, which landed on Miss Sasaki's left leg, crushing it instantly. When rescuers found her, they carried her into a field, under a tin roof, next to two dying people, whose skin was peeling off. Here she sat for two days without any food or water, with terrible pain. Three years before the explosion, Miss Sasaki was engaged to be married, by arrangements through her parents. The couple liked each other, and accepted the arrangements. The two started a life together, but her fiancé was drafted into the war. Upon his return, after the bombing, he did not come back to her. His family had had second thoughts on allowing their son to marry a Hibakusha and a cripple. Miss Sasaki eventually gave up hope on finding a husband, and decided to become a nun. Besides continuing difficulties with her leg, she endured liver dysfunction, night sweats and morning fevers, borderline angina, and blood spots. At a banquet celebrating her twenty-fifth anniversary of becoming a nun, Miss Sasaki made a speech. "...It is as if I had been given a spare life when I survived the A-bomb. But I prefer not to look back. I shall keep moving forward." Miss Sasaki had a forgiving heart and decided to keep moving foreword with her life. She was going to have the bomb affect her life in the smallest way possible. The survivors in this novel are great examples on how life goes on, even after the human spirit has endured all types of hardships. Miss Toshinki Sasaki and Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura continued living their lives, making it as best as possible. They overcame pain, poverty, disease and famine also getting through a time of discrimination. This book is definitely worth reading because it shows the human beings willingness to live, even after experiencing ones worst time in life.

The book Hiroshima, written by John Hersey, is a great book to read. The book gives a magnificent portrayal of the struggles that the people of Hiroshima went through after the bombing by the Americans during World War II. The constantly changing point of view, in each section of the five chapters, might be confusing, but it keeps the book moving at a steady pace and makes the reader want to find out what will happen next to each person. The different stories of each suvivor shows how ever person, no matteer if they were rich or poor, young or old, helped as many people as they could, no matter if they were friends or not. Also, the book gives a feeling of almost being there with the people and feeling their pain and suffering from burns, cuts, and anything else that happened to them. The book also shows the people's fear of another attack on the city by the Americans. The changing of characters adds depth to the story, by adding to the main plot. These additions help explain what happened to them during and after the dropping of the atomic bomb. The styles, way of life, and fears that people had during the late 1940's and early 1950's is also greatly displayed within the entire book. The main focus, in some cases, is not the dropping of the atomic bomb, but rather the people coming togther for one cause and dealing with the tragedy of losing loved ones and how they will rebuild there city. Each character also changesin different ways after the horrific events of World War II and the bombing. If I had to recommend a book to a person thats likes World War II history or someone that just likes to read it would definitely be this book. It would be this book cause of the time it took to write and the readability of the book.

this book lays it on the line - the horror of what the atomic bomb was like from the perspective of several different residents of hiroshima...who were there on august 6, 1945. it's a clear, well-written (though DRY) account of that horrible day, and if there's any book that's going to make you against nuclear weapons this is it.

what shocks me is that people (some who even read this book!) still think dropping this bomb (not to mention the one on nagasaki) was worth it. granted, there can be a million arguments justifying it, about how it saved lives, and how the japanese committed horrible atrocities too, etc., but just seeing the pure horror this bomb inflicted (through the eyes of these characters) is enough to make me say "no way - going to this degree of horror cannot be justified."

and to all you who still want to argue that dropping this bomb had its merits...and that creating even more destructive nuclear bombs has its merits...well...well...i feel sorry for you. because horror is horror, and when it comes to weapons of mass destruction we are all innocent. no one deserves that.

First of all, I was surprised to see this title on lists of recommended reading for high school students. I had read Hersey's A Bell for Adano and loved it; so I thought A Single Pebble would be about as good as it was. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. The novel is pretty good. It is about an engineer who is traveling down the Yangtze River looking for a place to build a dam. Along the way, the engineer faces a cultural shock especially when he discovers the people on the boat he is traveling on do not want a dam to be built. They don't want their lives to change. The author did a nice job conveying the clash of cultures and the need to try to bridge the gap between cultures. I think the problem I had with the novel was its style, and the fact that it isn't as good as A Bell for Adano. The prose the author uses consists of many simple sentences. Hersey was obviously influenced by Hemingway even though the tone was a little lighter than Hemingway's is. Unfortunately for me, I'm not a big fan of Hemingway's style; so the novel came across as pretty boring. The book isn't as good as A Bell for Adano. A Bell for Adano is also very much about a clash of cultures as it is set in Italy during World War II after the Americans' takeover. It explores the clash of cultures better, and it is a much better read. Overall, A Single Pebble is a pretty good novel, just not a great one.

I was required to read the book "A Single Pebble," for summer reading. I thought it would be terrible, but I loved it. The book is a symbolic novel, about a boy that goes to china looking for a place to build a dam. He went there thinking he would be superior to all the others on the boat, but shortly realized he was looked down upon. The engineer experiences a culture shock, and is upset to find out the trackers, owner, and old pebble are upset that he wants to build a dam, even if it will help them. He later decides whether to blame himself for the death of a crew member- believing he killed himself as fear for change in the ways of the river. As he rides the junk, he learns of chinese tradition, fear, and superstitions, and faces the mighty power of the great Yangzee River

Although published almost 50 years ago, this book deserves another look using a modern, critical lens. Overshadowed by Hersey's other works, specifically Hiroshima and A Bell for Adano, A Single Pebble offers a great deal to the reader. The book is far more than a fictionalized travelogue of a trip up the Yangtse River. It is a work that documents exposure to the acts and ideas of another culture by an American used to thinking of himself as representative of all that is modern and educated, and therefore all that is to be considered as desireable or superior. As a reader, I came away from the book with the idea that all that I think glitters may not be gold. It should be noted, however, that this is not an American-bashing book; both sides--the narrator and the Chinese people he meets--are guilty of a type of national myopia when viewing the "Other" in their midst. Those interested in Postcolonial and Cultural studies will find plenty to occupy them, whichever side of the debate they fall on.

John Hersey was a wonderful author and so I really expected more from Antonietta. What began as a whimsical flight into fantasy quickly goes downhill after the first section. Unfortunately, it continued its downhill slide, with each succeeding section being a little less magical than the first. Antonio Stradivari, upon seeing the woman he instantly falls in love with and must marry, begins to create a special violin in her honor. As he works, the violin becomes infused with his emotions and thereafter, its music has the power to affect all who hear it. While Stradivari's section of the book is magic, Mozart's is less so, and Berlioz's even less. By the time we finish, Antonietta has definitely taken backstage to a string of boring, insipid and lucklustre characters with the truly deplorable Spenser Ham being, by far, the worst. And other than the first section involving Stradivari, I didn't find anything sexy or romantic about this book. I fully expected to be charmed by Antonietta and was truly disappointed instead. When one considers what a tremendous novelist Hersey was, this book becomes all the more sad. If you're looking for the first-rate reading of other Hersey novels, such as A Bell For Adano, Hiroshoma, The Wall and The White Lotus, you won't find it here.

It is interesting, the volatility of the reviews on this book. I love music and also woodworking. I own a fully carved German contra-bass primarily as my portal to that world, of luthiers, composers and musicians. This book is magnificent within this context and i ravished in it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who can be seduced by such. The Red Violin is purportedly based upon this book, but if ever a screenplay was an abomination of its forefather, that was it. Without regard to Red Violin, this could be one of your favorite books. Highly recommended to those with similar loves !

John Hersey shines in Antonietta. He shows us he is both a creative genius and a skilled writer. Each section is poetic as he leads us through the life of a violin. It seems odd that the most romantic book I have ever read turns out to be a book about a violin. This violin is the epitomy of love and adoration. It is unique and sexual, and capable of inspiring a love so powerful that its fingers reach outstretched towards the souls of various generations. Hersey starts with the tale of a widowed man intent on making violins as best as he possibly can. The saga begins when he sees a widowed woman he must marry. He begins on a new violin, and carves a Cupid on it, which marks it in the coming years. When he hears that he has been refused her hand in marriage, he is angered and his hand slips, flawing the violin. Later, he beckons her, showing her the violin he has made from her inspiration although it is still unfinished. The violin is capable of a sound unlike any other, and in the years to come it changes hands and players, each with their own story, each with their own passion. This novel is worth reading, and tells a tale that will deepen one's love for love as well as deepen one's love for music. It appeals to any age, because the story is so universal. I truly recommend it. It brings with it the conciseness of Hersey's Hiroshima along with the undeniable eloquence of Mozart's pieces.

Pulitzer prize winner Hersey's TOO FAR TO WALK is an ambitious, but not altogether successful attempt to up-date the FAUST legend. John Fist (Faust) is Hersey's protagonist. A fellow-student, Chum Breed is Hersey's Mephistopheles who offers "illumination" and experience in exchange for Fist's soul. The promising premise never fulfills expectations as a story perhaps as such demonic BARGAINS inevitably fail. But in this instance, it's not the Devil's fault. Hersey's character's simply don't engage. John Fist is presented as a bright, middle-class student attending one of the bastions of the elite (Sheldon/Amherst college). The boy's problem is boredom... the Sophomore Slump. It's not radical angst; disillusionment with the then-raging war in Viet Nam( anger with its moral ambiguities; fear of the Draft); or even a predictably love-less love life. In turn, Breed is characterized as an indifferent Player-hater who has already learned "more and more...about less and less" until HE PROMISES the archyly cynical revelation of total illumination...about NOTHING. Unlike Goethe's Mephisto, he's neither clever nor amusing. Nor like any "good" Faustian demon, subtly menacing. Hersey is a good writer, however, and he tempts one to hope for THE PAY-OFF portented in THE WALPURGIS NIGHT episode, part III of the novel. THE LSD TRIP is an excellent device for Hersey to show his stuff and for both reader and Fist to probe the "heights and depths" of the expanded consciousness soring like a gnostic "eagle". It doesn't work. Much of this key moment (to which Goethe's Faust was tempted to say: STAY! THOU ART SO FAIR!)is either tedious or inchoherent. This may have been Hersey's message... such is the essence of THE DEVIL's glamour of evil...but it seems more a failure of Hersey's craft. WHITE LOTUS; THE CHILD BUYER; HIROSHIMA; THE CONSPIRACY were all fine pieces of writing. Hersey undoubltedly imagined much with his Faust re-Write. TOO FAR TOO WALK often seems like an unfinished work that many readers...despite its promise...will find TOO LITTLE/MUCH TO READ......

It was a very interesting book with, in my humble opinion, a many possible interpretations. If you like that sort of thing, this could be a good book for you. Now, one could say it was a metaphor for the turmoil of that period of time....or one could say some entirely different things about it.

I found this little treasure for a buck at an online auction and I love it! Go find it!

What the hell was this? I think this has got to be one of the most boring books on the planet. I was looking forward to some short stories so I could read quickly in my lunch break but after skimming through the first 3 pages and then trying to read about a dying AIDS patient and finally settling on a story about a girl who was so fat that she was shocked when someone wanted to marry her and then he took off when she decided to lose weight (sorry to spoil that ending, but that is as good as it gets!)..I knew that I could not continue reading such boring drivel. What was the point of these stories? I have no idea, except maybe to cure insommnia.

PLEASE do yourself a BIG favour and DO NOT get this book!

I was somewhat baffled and unimpressed by THE CHILD BUYER (1960) when it was assigned to me in high school and never bothered to read another thing by John Hersey. I bought KEY WEST TALES because (a) I had recently been to Key West, and (b) being a collection of short stories, I knew I could jump to another story if I didn't like the one I was reading.

This collection of stories, more than anything, reminded me of Sherwood Anderson's WINESBURG, OHIO. I have become distrustful of fiction writers who load up their characters with endearing (or annoying) idiosyncrasies in order to make them more memorable (as much as I enjoyed Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, I suspect he indulged in this vice a bit). Like the citizens of Winesburg, Ohio, Hersey's Key West natives are believable people experiencing a plausible share of dissonance with the world they seem trapped in. The result is often poignant, as in "The Two Lives of Consuela Castanon," the story of an obese young receptionist who resists, then acquiesces to the advances of a handsome young man not from Key West. In fact, Hersey comes close to replicating the eeriness and desperation of Shirley Jackson's "The Daemon Lover." The best crafted story in the collection is "Fantasy Fest," a story about a woman who has been contacted by the son she had put up for adoption when he was an infant. In his letter to her he suggests that they each dress up as "their own particular fantasy" about themselves and join in Key West's Halloween parade. He is confident that using this ploy they will both be naturally drawn to one another. Does it work? Do they meet? I wouldn't dream of spoiling the story for you. The longest story in the collection, "Get Up, Sweet Slug-a-bed," is the story of a gay man dying of AIDS and of the people in his life. This is no TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. The relationships are complex and unsentimental. Like Anderson, Hersey does not people his world with saintly or purely wicked folk. It's a fallen world, for sure, one peopled with sinners, many of whom act with the best intentions.

Intercut with the short stories are fictionalized glimpses of Key West's history and legends. Neither Hersey, his widow, nor his editor reveals the publication history of the pieces that make up this collection, but I suspect the "historical" pieces were items Hersey wrote for the local newspaper. Taken together, they give the reader a sense of place. Key West is more that the southernmost town in the United States, a tourist destination, or a gay haven. It's a place with a history, a place that has always honored independent thinking. The historical vignettes bring more than color to this collection, they provide its spine.

This collection is Hersey's swan song...and he sings it well.

Hersey's book is much like Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific." Of course the destiny of the world isn't on the line here, but the sense of wonder, so much a part of Michener's tales, permeates this book. Anyone who loves a place with a unique and special local history or stories of real people in an exotic locale, should relish this book. It may be a bit slow for a few, but for many the rewards will be great.