This book was the first one to explore Kennedy's role as Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces. It also described how foreign events such as the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the conflict in Vietnam were viewed by the Kremlin and the Pentagon. The book also talks about Kennedy's frequent disagreements with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on military issues and how these problems were handled and resolved. I think that this book is very interesting and worth reading.

Being so close to Pres. Kennedy, Pierre Salinger is well qualified to share his knowledge and experiences during his tenure as Press Secretary. I also found the photos very interesting and inviting; I enjoyed reading this book very much; enlightening to learn of JFK's harrowing experiences during WW2 and the suffering he experienced during that time. He certainly was a hero in the true sense of the word. It's sad that these years of his life were not more highlighted, rather than focusing on all his personal escapades. He truly, in my opinion, was a great President; it's tragic he wasn't with us longer. Thank you, Pierre, for a great job!

Ironweed by WIlliam Kennedy won an abundance of awards and is on the list of the best 100 books ever written. Many are most likely surprised of the excitement over this book because of the difficulty Kennedy had trying to publish it. Kennedy immortalized the life of Albany in the 1930's, bringing unusual attention to all.

In the novel it discusses survival on an ordinary man whose bad luck brings him to rock bottom causing him to discover in himself on things he can not understand. During Francis Phelan's life he killed a scab driver with a rock, his infant son by holding him by the diaper and accidentally dropping him, and killing an insane bum for self defense.

Throughout the book the people he killed and others are ghost interacting with Francis as in the novel Hamlet.

Overall I felt this was a very well written book and would recommend it for reading on the enjoyment level because of Kennedy's use of real life in the Big Apple during the 1930's.

This Pulitzer Prize Winning entry in Kennedy's Albany Cycle of novels tells the story of Francis Phelan, an ex-baseball player, now bum, who is haunted by ghosts in Albany, NY in 1938. Twenty two years earlier Phelan picked up his thirteen day old son by his diaper and the boy slipped to the ground and was killed. He also killed a scab driver during a strike when he beaned him with a rock. In the intervening years, he has taken to the bottle. Now the ghosts of these and other figures from his past are coming back & Francis must try to reconcile with their spirits and with the remaining members of his family.

I happen to have recently read Sophie's Choice & Beloved (see review) which also deal with parental guilt over culpability for a childs death. I found them both to be hopeless. This book, on the contrary, like Fearless by Rafael Yglesias, offers hope of redemption and the reader inevitably ends up rooting for Francis Phelan and hoping he can exorcise the demons that drive him.

GRADE: A

I had to read this novel for my AP english class and i wasn't exactly looking forward to reading it. But once i got down to reading it, the book took on a life of its own. William Kennedy's brilliant prose and selection of words defined the character of Francis Phelan. The reader can truly feel sorrow, joy, disgust with each action of Francis, all through the excellent writing of Mr. kennedy. The book is a sad look on a depressing era, but it is also a novel that demonstrates the love and bond of family and the tenacity of human nature to hold on. A great book...highly recommended.

I bought this book with Intermediate Flash skills and intermediate ActionScript skills. This book is far beyond me. That's good and bad. Every chapter can stand alone and the source files are included, but this book won't get me to the next level by itself.

If you are very well versed in ActionScript and the topics interest you as explained in the Editor's review, then this would be a good book for you. If you are an intermediate ActionScripter without the chance to look at this in the bookstore, be cautious, especially if you never return books.

The book does tailor to advanced users, it's just that I bit of more than I could chew. Good luck.

These days there aren't many books out that deal exclusively with ActionScript. There's one from Colin Mook which I like, and the couple others that are out there aren't that impressive. This one isn't worth it's weight in gold but I still find it quite valuable because each chapter is written by a different author, and each of them really seems to know what they're talking about. Assuming that you know your way around Flash, this one won't waste your time going over the usual basics. At times it's a bit difficult to find your way around the sample files, but I'm learning so much just from dissecting them, and the chapters in the book explain reasonably well what's going on. Book looks a bit cheap, but then again, it's not like I'm gonna be using it much once the next version of Flash hits the shelves...

After going through the chapters, I must say there are a few things that disappoint me about this book. The book's layout and design are poor. The information is not well laid out and even though the authors are very well versed, I believe some editorial help on their writing style would have improved the books content dramatically. Understanding that each chapter is written by a different developer, the reader will see that the quality of the explanations varies.

The book has some very interesting concepts and given time and effort an intermediate/advanced flash AS programmer will understand the concepts and theory behind some of the more interesting flash movies on the net.

The authors are true samurai, so if you want to join their clan you're going to need to understand the concepts in this book. If you have your advanced math books from school, you'll want to take them out so you can review some trig and calculus theories, your going to need them.

Novice Flash developers better wait to get this book, trust in my words, you will minimally understand the theories. But if you are adventures, and think you have what it takes. Go for it.

If someone set out to write a parody of Kennedy's works, it would read a lot like Quinn's Book. Hard to put down, yes; telling details, of course; but undermined by preposterous characters and an offensive kind of magical realism. Billy Phelan's Greatest Game and Legs were much better.

Fifteen-year-old Daniel Quinn doesn't know his life is about to change on a wintry day in 1849. An orphan, the result of a particularly bad cholera epidemic which wipes out his whole family, Daniel apprentices himself to the boatman, John the Brawn, as a helper in lieu of living in an orphanage. But when the boat containing the actress Magdelena Colon, her maid, and niece, Maud Fallon, is upset by a large block of ice, fate intervenes, causing Quinn's fortunes and fate to be interwoven with Magdelena, Maud, and John the Brawn.
This was a wondeful novel, full of rich language, and subtle humor, which portrays the life of the Irish in the mid-nineteenth century with startling realism. Daniel's family seems to have arrived in America well before the parade of famine Irish, so starkly portrayed by Kennedy in all their squalor. While not attempting to stereotype the Irish immigrants, we see them as the white, upper-class citizens of New York did, a scourge and pestilence bringing filth and disease with them. At one point in the novel they are herded on railroad cars and transported away from Albany as undesirables, dumped on some less fortunate area of the state.
Though the fate of the Irish immigrant is not the main theme in the novel, Quinn's background of being a penniless Irish orphan doesn't increase his chances of gaining the hand of Maud, though she declares her love for him upon their first meeting when she is but thirteen to his fifteen. Fate throws them together over the years, but it is not until he is a grown man that he finally seems worthy of the precocious Maud.
Besides the obvious love story the historical perspective works well. We are treated to a look at the anti-Catholic Know Nothing Pary, the forerunners of the modern Republican Pary, Abolitionists, the Underground Railroad, and the New York City Draft Riots. A very enjoyable story.

I came late to William Kennedy's work and may have to take other reviewers at their word that this is not his best. But it's certainly pretty good, and I'll find out if the rest is better. He captures a kind of crazed picaresque worldview which is something like E.L. Doctorow on drugs. His disasters are gigantic, larger than life, and so are most of the characters. It's hard to tell if it's magical realism or just totally unlikely, but it's funny as hell and a tremendously fun and quick reading experience--in spite of the mass violence and misfortune and desperate poverty it describes.

Conjure up the name William Heirens in 1950 for example, and most Chicagoans would turn away and shudder in horror at the mere mention of this child-killer. Flash forward to 2002 and be amazed by the interesting and unique ways in which Heirens has re-invented himself, thanks to the impassioned pleas of the author of this book and a collection of bleeding-heart do-gooders from the Northwestern University campus recruited into the cause, and you will come away believing that "Bill" as Ms. Kennedy lovingly refers to him throughout the text, should be anointed spiritual sainthood as the tragic "victim" of a corrupt and misspent judicial system. It is interesting to see however, in this era of political correctness, horrible things done by wicked people become safely sanitized, and in the case of Heirens, a fiend magically evolves into a fine fellow. Ms. Kennedy devoted considerable time to convincing us of Heirens' innocence, but despite her arguments in this book, subsequent press conferences demanding the release of fingerprint evidence from the Chicago P.D. that will allegedly clear the accused, and a plea to an outgoing Illinois Governor who pardoned nearly every killer on death row before his scandal-ridden term of office mercifully expired (but he STILL ignored Heirens curiously enough),the subject of this book is no closer to being released from custody than he was forty years ago when his case went to the Supreme Court. And with good reason. Heirens was no choir boy. He was a skilled breaking-and-entering thief who may or may not have killed at least two other women on the North Side of Chicago prior to the 1946 murder of 7-year-old Suzanne Degnan, conveniently forgotten by the weeping multitudes from N.U. The sheer horror of this child's abduction and the manner in which the remains were disposed of in the city sewers demonstrates the killer's sickness of mind. Heirens was not arrested on a whim. His capture was the result of a coordinated response between law enforcement and the community. And yes, Heirens probably was the victim of overly-aggressive police tactics in those days, but so what. So were many other convicted rapists, killers, dope dealers and sexual deviates preying on society. It doesn't mean however, that rough police actions made these individuals any LESS guilty, or deserving of exoneration. There is plenty of compelling evidence to prove Heirens was guilty, and the old-time cops who lived through those days have no doubt. Now that Governor George Ryan has left office it is a good bet that Heirens will remain incarcerated for many years to come, or as long as the surviving victims of the Degnan family step forward to mount a protest at parole board hearings. They have certainly earned the right to make their voices heard, and I hope they will continue to do so.

...I read Ms. Kennedy's book shortly after it was published in 1991 and have followed the case closely since that time. As Ms. Kennedy points out in her book, reevaluating the evidence used to force Heirens into a conviction brought shocking revelations. The "compelling evidence" of which the reader speaks consists of two samples of handwriting, neither of which belonged to Heirens according to more than a dozen experts, including an analyst from the FBI; fingerprints, one of which was clearly a rolled print from a fingerprint card, the other placed on the Degnan ransom note where no print was recorded immediately after the murder; a confession so tainted by error as to be ludicrous, and hidden indentation writing that, according to the FBI in 1946, did not exist. There was no need to ask the Chicago Police for fingerprint evidence. It is in the hands of Heirens' supporters...

Before reading William Heirens: His Day in Court, I thought I knew the facts of the Heirens case. What I read changed by thinking forever, and subsequent events have only reinforced what I learned from Ms. Kennedy's book. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Heirens case or the study of a wrongful conviction. ...

Dolores Kennedy has done a wonderful job researching the topic of William Heirens and the murders he (reluctantly) confessed to and was eventually charged and jailed for. Though it's been twelve years since its publication and newer evidence and experts have looked into Mr. Heirens case, their source for their findings began with the points Kennedy covers in this well written documentation. But more than the facts and fiction of this fascinating case the reader is introduced to a bright, caring, and brave man who grew from the frightened 17 year old charged with 3 notorious murders. After reading this book I immediately jumped at the chance to write the Governer of Illinois to lend my voice in the cry to free William Heirens after 56 years of inprisonment. This book is not your typical 'True Crime' book, instead it's a well crafted and powerful argument to give Mr. Heirens what he's never had...a fair trial. Buy this book, you won't be disappointed!

I feel William Kennedy is one the best novelists of this century and little has been written about him since his heralded Pulitzer Prize winner, Ironweed. The interviews put Kennedy's career into a broader perspective by giving readers a glimpse into the author's desires, his growth, and tools/insights for delving into his fascinating novels. After reading this, you may feel that the interviews become redundant at times, which they do. The interviews, though, give Kennedy fans, such as myself, the author's perspective on literature, Albany, the power of writing, movies, and many other things.

The Nazi scientists are moving quickly to create an atomic bomb,and the allies plant a nuclear scientist this man becomes odd man out... This is a spy novel, a historical novel and a great read..my only question is : Why isn't this one a movie??? The book reads fast and furious and is well worth the time for anyone who enjoys anything on World War II. It is only rated a 4 because America dropped the bomb..and the ending is too honestly depressing.

The life and work of William Sheppard should be better known. He was an African-American who escaped Jim Crow in the U.S. to become a missionary in Africa. He co-founded a Christian mission in Africa where they had been none before and for a time ran it single-handedly. He was also an amateur anthropologist/ethnologist and became the first foreigner to establish contact with the Kuba people of central Africa and to describe their culture to the outside world. On top of all that, he documented the cruelty of the King Leopold's Congo rule. Unfortunately, it is not clear that "Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo" by Pagan Kennedy is up to the job of elevating William Sheppard to his rightful place in history. The book is well written, worth reading, and might be valuable to anyone interested in Africa, the Congo, or Christian missionaries, but a lot of the story is missing and is filled in with generalities from Sheppard's time. It may be the case that original documents concerning Sheppard's life are lost, and this is the best that can be done, or perhaps another book can do better. Four stars, but barely.

I think that this book gives an excellent, detailed look back on a greatly unknown black American explorer, William Henry Sheppard. Pagan Kennedy opens our eyes to history that is left out of history books. The Presbyterian missionary attempts to convert African tribes into "civilized Christians", but in the end fails because of his mishaps and disliking by a white missionary. I recommend this book to anyone interested in studying black American explorers, or anyone looking for information on the Belgium Congo.

Pagan Kennedy told the story of a African American missonary who wanted to convert the uncharted parts of the Congo to christianity. William Sheppard, the missionary, was very determined to complete his goal of converting the Congo even if it took his whole life. I Could not put the book down. The book was basically a detailed sum up of what really went on in the Congo. At some points in the book it almost seemed fictional because it was so hard to believe what was happening to him amd the people who were with him. The book was a very good read, but at some points hard to understand but that added to the suspense of the book. Overall the book was a very fun an interesting book to read. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the Congo or who wants to find a good book to read.

When this book was published it was hot stuff. A decade later it seems rather tame. Why did Burke write it? He seems to have no rancor against Kennedy and admits that everything Teddy did, he tried to outdo so the question is never really answered. The portraits of Joan Kennedy and Rose Kennedy are gentle, almost tender ones. The best part of the book is when Burke gets out of Kennedy's bedroom and starts talking about the political goings on behind the scenes. The chapters on the failed 1980 campaign and Kennedy's relations with the Carters are fascinating.

Burke tells an exciting story in a book that is hard to put down. I was unaware of Teddy's sexual and otherwise illegal exploits, so if you were like me, this book will prove to be very informative. Burke reveals much about the character of the man for whom he worked and worshipped.

Richard Burke provides highly personal look into the life of Ted Kennedy during the years he spent as a staffer for him. He describes what it was like to work for Ted Kennedy in their professional and personal relationship. He also talks about the personal side of Kennedy's 1980 primary race against then President Jimmy Carter.

Kennedy was a hero to Burke and although he sees Kennedy for what he really is and at times, at his worse, he still doesn't try discredit the man or put him down for what he's done. Burke sometimes tells about how he tried to save Kennedy from himself in his overindulging in drugs, sex, and drinking.

Sometimes you might wonder if its all true though, but Burke admits that during his years with Kennedy, he was no angel either making it more plausible. Its not really a dirty little kiss and tell book. Its more of a personal look at Ted Kennedy by someone that was close to him and knew him well.

In the end, as Burke says, Kennedy for all his flaws cannot do a lot of harm as the respected Senator that he is now, so long as he doesn't become President, but his chance has already passed.

Roscoe is the seventh novel in Kennedy's "Albany" cycle, the most notable other book of which is the excellent Ironweed, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. It's the only other book by Kennedy I've read, but I liked it well enough to want to pick up the new one, and for the most part am glad I did.

Ironweed is one of those rare novels that translated well to the Big Screen--I thought the adaptation, with Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Tom Waits was terrific. Much of the reason why is perhaps that Kennedy is among the most "cinematic" of "literary" novelists, a quality in evidence with the present book, too--in a way that somehow reminds me of D.H. Lawrence, Kennedy is capable of vivid lyrical flights which never detract from an otherwise conventional narrative, and which evoke an overtly visual panoramic landscape. As in Ironweed, Kennedy weaves the surreal in with the realism of the prose, creating a convincing and often brilliant effect where the reader is able to step into the actual conciousness of a character--"hearing" dead people "speak", for example--without missing a beat of the forward motion of the plot.

But that is where the novel becomes a little weighty. Much of the motion of the book is slow and cumbersome, and at times a bit predictable, as we enter the lives of a post-WW II Albany small-time polititian and his world of other politicians, complete with the lack of character one might expect from such characters.

Not that we're supposed to especially like Roscoe, the man, but one never really gets a very clear sense of him or of any of the many other characters in this novel. It's easy to say that this is because Kennedy is suggesting that there's not much to them, but I don't buy the imitative fallacy. We're introduced, mid-stream, to such a plethora of people and their lineages in a mere 291 pages that all the characters, even the principals, are drawn far too thinly to sustain a narrative about events that are less disagreeable than rather tedious and boring. Perhaps I'm missing something because I haven't read all seven books of the cycle, but a novel should stand on its own.

Vivid, lyrical writers like Kennedy, and at times Lawrence, seem to often fall into this predicament. Kennedy is at times wryly funny in a way Lawrence never was, but he seems to want to create a microcosm of America a bit...obviously, a bit too much.

But the actual writing, save for some episodes of forgettable dialogue, soars. At his best, Kennedy is spectacular, a surreal prose-poem stylist who's worth reading simply for the tightness of the imagery and the energy that bursts out of his sentences like atoms splitting in the middle of a consonant. There is no American fiction writer alive who can come close to William Kennedy in this aspect of his prose.

Which is why Roscoe is finally a success. The prose itself creates a narrative of its own, and makes me wonder if conventional standards of character and narrative should even be held to apply to such a vigorous, fresh way of telling a story.

Roscoe is the seventh novel in Kennedy's "Albany" cycle, the most notable other book of which is the excellent Ironweed, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. It's the only other book by Kennedy I've read, but I liked it well enough to want to pick up the new one, and for the most part am glad I did.

Ironweed is one of those rare novels that translated well to the Big Screen--I thought the adaptation, with Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Tom Waits was terrific. Much of the reason why is perhaps that Kennedy is among the most "cinematic" of "literary" novelists, a quality in evidence with the present book, too--in a way that somehow reminds me of D.H. Lawrence, Kennedy is capable of vivid lyrical flights which never detract from an otherwise conventional narrative, and which evoke an overtly visual panoramic landscape. As in Ironweed, Kennedy weaves the surreal in with the realism of the prose, creating a convincing and often brilliant effect where the reader is able to step into the actual conciousness of a character--"hearing" dead people "speak", for example--without missing a beat of the forward motion of the plot.

But that is where the novel becomes a little weighty. Much of the motion of the book is slow and cumbersome, and at times a bit predictable, as we enter the lives of a post-WW II Albany small-time polititian and his world of other politicians, complete with the lack of character one might expect from such characters.

Not that we're supposed to especially like Roscoe, the man, but one never really gets a very clear sense of him or of any of the many other characters in this novel. It's easy to say that this is because Kennedy is suggesting that there's not much to them, but I don't buy the imitative fallacy. We're introduced, mid-stream, to such a plethora of people and their lineages in a mere 291 pages that all the characters, even the principals, are drawn far too thinly to sustain a narrative about events that are less disagreeable than rather tedious and boring. Perhaps I'm missing something because I haven't read all seven books of the cycle, but a novel should stand on its own.

Vivid, lyrical writers like Kennedy, and at times Lawrence, seem to often fall into this predicament. Kennedy is at times wryly funny in a way Lawrence never was, but he seems to want to create a microcosm of America a bit...obviously, a bit too much.

But the actual writing, save for some episodes of forgettable dialogue, soars. At his best, Kennedy is spectacular, a surreal prose-poem stylist who's worth reading simply for the tightness of the imagery and the energy that bursts out of his sentences like atoms splitting in the middle of a consonant. There is no American fiction writer alive who can come close to William Kennedy in this aspect of his prose.

Which is why Roscoe is finally a success. The prose itself creates a narrative of its own, and makes me wonder if conventional standards of character and narrative should even be held to apply to such a vigorous, fresh way of telling a story.

Roscoe Conway is a semi-honest lawyer-politician in 1940s Albany. He wants to get out of the whole political realm, but they keep pulling him back. When one of his closest friends and political allies dies under somewhat suspicious circumstances, Roscoe steps in to prevent further troubles to the friend's family when a custody battle ensues. The plot has some interesting twists and fun-to-read-about characters. The dialog is good, almost too good. I can't imagine that people would actually talk like that, but it is a delight to read. For some reason, while reading this novel, I kept seeing the characters from The Road to Perdition. The 1930s mob and the 1940s Albany political machine have many similarities, according to Kennedy at least. Roscoe is a very well-written novel by a talented novelist--perhaps not his strongest, but still quite good.