Any book containing the work of Lucian Freud, I feel, writes itself. Not as an insult to the author, but as a testiment to the painter himself.

The full page color photos do justice to this great man, as well as a book can.

The author does an acceptional job of sumarizing and analyzing the painter's Life and work.

Every great artist deserves a great biographer: Bacon had David Sylvester, Giocometti had Sylvester AND James Lord, and Lucien Freud has Robert Hughes. Hughes' generous text is richly detailed and captures the mood of Freud's heavily impastoed works with turns of phrase that become as important as the art. To see the change in Freud's technique and approach to the figure from his early works to his current larger than life theatrical style is jolting. Always commited to portraiture his paintings have grown from the tightly surfaced, tiny but well known head of his friend Francis Bacon, to his current full figures as viewed from bizarre vantage. His brush technique has become more coarse and in doing so he is creating figures that, while monumental, feel as thogh they pulsate on the canvas. Freud is one of the important painters of our time and this book justifies that position on every level. A scholarly - yet pulsatile - study of a modern genius.

Short essays, most of them published in Time magazine. Hughes'keen and witty look at several artists - from great masters to contemporary ones. We don't have to agree with everything he says, but he's always objective, concise and inteligent.

I don't know much about art and I'm not even sure I know what I like. But it's obvious that this book is intelligently - and honestly - written, and I'm writing this review mainly to recommend the book to other people who aren't terribly interested in the visual arts. Hughes has made me think more highly of painting in general and made me re-evaluate much of what I thought about the twentieth century. (Don't worry: he also confirmed much of it.) He isn't at all afraid to announce that the emperor has no clothes - so on those occasions when he confirms that the emperor is, in fact, fully dressed, I am much more inclined to believe him.

Wittily written, too.

This book is very wordy, the author tends to use French and Italian phrases without translation. The book's cryptic explanations and definitions must be tediously read and re-read, since they do not appear to follow any pattern. Hughes is a pretentious attention seeker. This book is not for anyone outside art students.

I have read some past reviews on this book, and i am shocked to find that college students have been using this book for learning. I am currently in high school and my teacher is making us read this book. I find this book very hard to understand. If anyone has any information or quick summaries of this book i would appreciate it. Thanks.

This is based on the script for a BBC program. To be a good TV program, it should have a clear and plain storyline which could fit into limited timetable. You can identify such a feature in the form of book, though substantially enlarged. The author did his best to make a clear impression of what was modernism in the visual art on reader (and audience). The author begin the book with what modernist artists perceived as ¡®the new¡¯ in their time. They thought they lived in thoroughly distinct time from the tradition. The new age demanded the new art. Modernism is the logical upshot of their zeitgeist. To understand it, we should pay attention to the interaction between artists and the time.
In this regard, Hughes organized the book not in time order or changing styles but with keywords which summarize the zeitgeist of modernists like machine, power, pleasure, utopia, freedom, popular culture, or future, to endow the reader with the tangible vision to see into the deep question of modernism.

This book is so ineptly written that I'm embarrassed for anyone to know I even read it, so I will ask that this review be anonymous. The plot (?), which incorporates an astonishing number of current conspiracy theories and myths, enlightens us about the infamous "Men in Black," the so-called "Roswell Incident," the lost-continent-of-Atlantis, and many other such elements... all wrapped up in a package which reveals UFO aliens as DEMONS! The protagonist, Frank, is abducted by these meanies (who have a number of supernatural abilities, but still require the help of humans to construct their UFOs and help them try to carry out their diabolical plans). Frank is then taken on a whirlwind tour of time and space. Part of what he "sees" turns out to be mere illusions whipped up by the aliens/demons (their tour-guide is Baal, it turns out, but Frank's nickname for him is "Gork") But just what, out of all Frank is shown, is and is not real is unclear to the reader, even at the end of the book because the wrting is *so* *incredibly* *horrible*. This book is just a mind-blowing mish-mash that absolutely defies description. Once I began reading it, I became fixated on its sheer AWFULNESS and plodded on to the last page, foolishly thinking that just maybe all the wildly flapping loose ends and non sequiturs would be wrapped up in the final chapter. But, noooooooooooo! Be kind to yourself: do not read this book.

I read this book because it was recommended to me by a friend who promised the writing was better than that in the popular "Left Behind" series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye (which I consider very poorly written). I really *wanted* to like "The Fallen," but it was hard to concentrate on the story line (which was a rather interesting concept) because of its author's lack of writing skills. Someone needs to buy Hughes a thesaurus! *Surely* he could some synonyms for "snarl" as a verb. I got so annoyed with the character Ben's words inevitably being followed by "the teenager snarled," or "snarled Ben", etc., etc. He never "replied" or "said" or "answered"....just "snarled." And the ho-hum way that the protaganist's wife dealt with his unexplained disappearance was just ludicrous! I find it very disheartening to see so many other Christians praising these shoddily written books simply because their premise is one the readers happen to agree with. For a look at well written fiction with a Christian perspective, I'd suggest they try some C.S. Lewis. His "The Screwtape Letters" certainly acknowledges that Good and Evil exist and that we are confronted daily with significant choices between the two. Not, perhaps, in as sensational a way as authors like Hughes, LaHaye, Jenkins et al would have us believe. But how can anyone who considers the Bible compelling and interesting enjoy embarrassingly poorly executed novels which claim to be based on scripture? It's amazing...and more than a little frightening.

This book is not just deep, but it's a ball to read! I kept wondering, where is he going with this - afraid that he was going to blow it, but it was a pure joy all the way to the last page. Memorable characters, and a spin on the Roswell incident that nobody has ever even come close to suggesting. I said to myself - "No he's NOT going there!" - but he did and it was masterfully executed. The book was suspenseful and maybe even a little scary, but also filled with some laughs and good food for thought. I read it in one l-o-n-n-g sitting - extremely well-done!

First, let me say I thoroughly enjoyed Hughes' "The Fatal Shore" and the now classic "Shock of the New" and it was because of his track record for both regional and art history that I opened "Barcelona" with anticipation. I should have stopped at the introduction, wherein Hughes explains that he'd originally intended to write a much smaller work focusing on Barcelona's modernistas at the turn-of-the-century. Instead, at his publisher's urging (undoubtedly timed to capitalize on the 1992 Olympics) he broadened the scope to include Barcelona's story from prehistory to about 1925. The result is a wordy book which reminds me of the times I had to puff up a term paper with accurate, but nonessential facts in order to get to the required twenty pages. I would agree with another reviewer that this work is missing Hughes' usual spark and I can't help but think his heart wasn't in this one. Hughes states early on his love for Barcelona but unfortunately this compassion doesn't come across in the book. I would have been much happier if he would have extended Barcelona's history in the other direction. That is, beginning with the modernistas and proceeding to the Surrealists, the Civil War and through to Barcelona's post-Franco revival as a cultural center of Europe.

Pundits might argue that Mr. Hughes published this book with a commercial-minded orientation in light of the 1992 Summer Olympics. However, if you read it and absorb its calculated research, astounding lexicon and well-balanced content, you will be rewarded with a generous dissertation about the sociological, political, religious, historical, mythological, and, above all, architectural aspects of Barcelona. For the average reader this work is downright overkill and increasingly sluggish; its style lacking a dynamic and artful flow. Mr. Hughes' trade is not particularly conciseness, so his book spits out a plethora of events, politicians, noblemen, artists, anarchists, "casas", churches, and annecdotes that will overwhelm the reader. "Barcelona" was written for both the scholar and world-trotter (not that one who will pop in for a brief layover, though.) The art history chapters, specially those depicting the excessively ornamented Modernistic architecture, teem with ornate descriptions, yet Mr. Hughes provides us with poor, small, and black and white photographs incapable of accompanying the writer's flow. I deem inexcusable the author's lack of grit and abuse of honesty in acknowledging his inability to write about the Civil War, Francoism and contemporary Barcelona; highly appetizing topics.

I read Hughes' Barcelona before I went to Barcelona for the first time, and it made all the difference in the world. I arrived not as a stranger, but as a student of Catalan culture and history. The book gave me the background to have an informed perspective on what I was seeing. It may be long, but it has tons of information. My only complaint is that Hughes assumes the reader has a knowledge of history that I, for one, don't have. So there were things I didn't understand.

I liked that Hughes sometimes talked about the big things -- big events, important people, and he sometimes talked about the little things that make a place distinctive. His love of the place came through to me, and I fell in love with it too.

I love business, the class I have is fun, the teacher is funny as hell, but the book just stinks. However, there is a study guide that you can buy to go with the book, I strongly recommend that. Helped me study tremendously

Very well written, easy to understand and a great format. I learned alot.

Yes, the book has many additions to the text. I found them very useful and insightful, and they assisted in offering a connection between the text and the real world in most cases. I am taking correspondance courses, so this book is all I have, and I think it's great. The authors speak in a way that's easy to read and understand. I don't like reading much, but this book made it easy.

Serling's book seems to be written mostly from interviews conducted during various TWA employee reunions. He calls it an "informal history", but it's more of a gossip fest. Don't plan on using this book for a term paper. However, anyone interested in TWA or Howard Hughes will find a wealth of anecdotal insights from within the operation, as recalled by people who were there. It is fun, although at times, labored reading.

In Howard Hughes' Airline, Serling captures the enduring spirit of Trans World Airlines. This book, resulting from numerous employee interviews, is able to give the reader excellent insight into why TWA is so special after 75 years in the air. From the eccentricities of Howard Robard Hughes to the genius of Jack Frye, this inside look at the world's greatest airline is sure to interest anyone from the casual historian to the aviation buff.

I purchased this book for my husband and at first I was shcoked to see the original price for this book was ($$$), well, this is very hard to find and my husband is really enjoying this. For someone who is or was a TWA employee, if you are one of the loyal ones, interested in the history of TWA you will enjoy this book.

Cooking the Swiss way is a simple book with basic Swiss recipes. It also gives a broad explanation of some of the Swiss customs. It is a fantastic book (5 stars) for the young cook in the kitchen trying new cultural recipes although for the more advanced it misses its mark.

This entire series is fantastic. I've been using it both with my Girl Scouts & 4H clubs for about 20 years now, but also for myself.

This is meant to be a children's cookbook, but unlike most on the market it doesn't talk down to them. A fantastic introduction to the regional cooking with lots of useful information regarding cooking in general & ethnic cooking as well.

Not for someone who is advanced in a particular cuisine, but it does what it sets out to do really, really well. Just wish they would put out regional American cooking books as well.

In American Visions, Robert Hughes takes on the rather daunting task of summing up the history of American art. While he does not entirely succeed it is a valiant effort. By using nine time periods, Hughes attempts to make the understanding of the art he believes is important easier to digest. The inherent problem lies with the concept of what Hughes deems important. Art is not easily criticized, one man's masterpiece is often someone else's waste of time, and although I admire Hughes' willingness to put himself on the line time after time, I often disagree with his emphasis. Artists like Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper get their due, but many others like Alexander Calder get a fleeting mention. Sculpture and photography are ignored and architecture is dealt with in huge sections and then forgotten until the next period Hughes feels is worth discussing. Hughes also has the annoying habit of referencing a painting and then not have it shown, an example being the Warhol "Electric Chair" pieces that are not presented although they are discussed in some detail. Hughes' vocabulary will have you reaching for a dictionary at some points and wincing at the use of crude descriptions at others ( "Charles Demuth was not a flaming queen" "Mabel Dodge Luhan ...an intolerable b----) Overall this book frustrates as it educates and the combination is irritating to say the least. It just appears that Hughes has just bitten off more than the reader can chew. While it is a starting point for those of us whose art history is sorely lacking it just doesn't satisfy as a reference work; it is more of a critical review of art in America, not the same thing as a history.

Using barrelling, passionate, reckless, witty and poetic prose, Robert Hughes as an author often comes off as drunken and macho new world pirate gleefully beholding a vast store of riches in his exploration of American Art History.

Because American Art is an Epic in the writing (as in fact is all forms of World Art), Hughes does betray an Euro-centric bias and, as a result, slightly overlooks the contribution of many other minority artists to the rich tapestry of American Culture.

That criticism aside, Hughes' passion and devotion to his subject rings true all throughout the entire book, making this a fast and consistently entertaining and educational read. His championing of Hopper, Benton and Pollock as world class visionaries is particularly enlightening (probably because I agree!). Hughes manages to sound scholarly without resorting to dry ivory tower musings. His rants and raves, while maintaining the informed and educated discourse required of a true scholar, also posses the wit and wisdom of skilled stage performer.

Although there are plenty of fine reproductions here, even more would have aided in creating a more complete book. But why quibble? This book is a fine starting out point for anyone interested in reading a fine author's exploration of a rich subject.

This book has all the usual verve of Robert Hughes insightful eye. As always, his wit goes where no one else dares lurk. His personal insight and vision is indelibly etched in the deep recesses making this a rich and rewarding reading experience. With none of the usual ethnocentric prejudices, his work analyzes the American psyche from a social context and reveals to us a side of ourselves that is not otherwise easily seen, least of all by us. The marvels of his occupation lay bare the foundations of American art in a form that will, no doubt, endure the test of time.

Robert Hughes managed to make clear what ails us as a culture and a people in this book, and it is simply ignorance, immaturity and mediocrity hiding behind the Constitution, in all its guises. There are times, when I didn't agree with him and his assessments, and times where I felt he knew little of what he was talking about in a given arena- he didn't "get it"; the real emotional/spiritual motivation behind the arguments and work of those he criticizes. That, laughingly, more than the "yes!", "exactly", and "that's what I've been trying to tell them"'s I cheered when I agreed with him, is what made me know, humbly, that he was essentially right on each and every point. Robert Hughes, tying it all into the end of the Cold War and the ennui and the emerging sociological addictive personality that is now a hallmark of American society under the surface of our achievements, cretaes a book that has lasting value as a prognosis as much as a polemic. As we all know, anyone can write a polemic- no talent needed there. Not everyone can chart the history and symptoms of a spiritual disease; a disease, like all others, that is not partial to any particular gender, race, ethnicity, social standing, or political leanings. Just look at his listing of those who suffer from it!

Robert Hughes is one of my favorite writers on history and art, and I also enjoyed his book, The Fatal Shore, a history of the Botany Bay colony in Australia. Hughes has always had an interest in modern art (many of you may recall his great TV series, "The Shock of the New," back in the 80's), and since much of modern art has come out of America, perhaps it's no surprise he wrote this book, which takes a broader look at American culture.

Hughes's devastating critique of the foibles of modern American politics, political correctness, racial and gender issues, pop culture, post-modern criticism, and graduate liberal arts education, to name a few of the things he takes aim at, is articulate, entertaining, and deadly accurate. Unlike the post-modern critics whose obscure and turgid prose he skewers, Hughes knows how to write, and he puts that to good effect in this book. Cultural ideas, icons, and events, both high- and lowbrow, don't fail to escape his purview and his petard. (He even has an entertaining discussion of religion and masturbation on pages 56-57).

Hughes's book reminds me of another important work, The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism, by sociologist Daniel Bell, in which he noted America is a country where seemingly paradoxical cultural traits often find happy marriages and perhaps even happier divorces. And as Hughes points out, our increasingly politically correct Zeitgeist threatens to underwhelm us all with the ever more blanched and bloodless cornucopia of American pop culture.

Overall, this is a fun romp through the cultural minefield of modern America, and I'd actually give it 4.5 stars if I could. If we listen to Hughes, perhaps it won't become the sterile, cultural necropolis full of the "stuffed and hollow" men that T.S. Elliot wrote about in his famous poem, "The Wasteland."

From the title of Hughes' book you might think this is a tale of woe; a malady of national discontent. Not so. It's too concise, humorous, and ultimately, optimistic, to be a Jeremiad. Nevertheless, Mr Hughes does spend a lot of time lamenting what's wrong with American culture, politics, and the society at large. His focus, and some of his wittiest criticisms are directed at the political ideologues; in academics, the arts and sciences, journalism, and of course party politics. He is dismissive of both extremes; the politically correct left and what he calls the patriotic correct right. He disabuses both sides of any idea that we are enthralled with their message. "One would rather swim than get in the same dinghy as the P.C. folk. But neither would one wish to don blazer and top-siders on the gin palace with it's twin 400-horsepower Buckleys, it's Buchanan squawk box, Falwell & Robertson compass, it's Quayle depth finder and it's broken bilge pump, that now sits listing on the Potomac..." Mr Hughes trains his critical spotlight on dogma, hypocrisy, biases, and bigotry; the opinion makers, spin-doctors, jargon generators and euphemists that have obfuscated the issues, and worse, have sacrificed consensus on the altar of ideology.

He is ultimately optimistic as the problem does not lie with citizenry, as we are 'America' The problem remains squarely with ideologues. "The fact remains that America is a collective work of the imagination whose making never ends, and once that sense of collectivity, and mutual respect is broken the possibilities of Americanness begin to unravel. If they are fraying now, it is because the politics of ideology has for the last 20 years weakened and in some cases broken the traditional American genius for consensus, for getting along by making up practical compromises to meet real social needs". In a word - balance! Exactly the approach we need, and precisely the type of analysis in this well written and incisive book.