I will never understand why this play tanked in New York. It is a simple, elegant tale about assimilation and familial dysfunction. David Henry Hwang is a masterful writer, and this is some of his best work. The only weakness is its ending, which falls a little flat as a character (who is clearly the author) explains the entire point, as if the audience missed it. Although this (like most of his work) is about Chinese, it should be read by people of all walks of life.

If you liked the segments of the film "The Joy Luck Club" which took place in China, you'll love David Henry Hwang's play "Golden Child." Although Hwang is probably better known for his play "M. Butterfly," "Golden Child" is a remarkable piece of writing which deserves attention. According to the production history included in the book version, an early version of "Golden Child" premiered in 1996, and a later version was presented at Broadway's Longacre Theatre in 1998. But "Golden Child" is also one of those plays which succeeds purely as a readers' text.

"Golden Child" opens with Andrew, a Westernized man of Chinese heritage, who is visited by the ghost of his Chinese-born mother. This brief prologue leads to the story of his mother's girlhood in China. We meet Andrews's grandfather, Tieng-Bin; Tieng-Bin's three wives; and the Western clergyman who seeks to convert them to Christianity.

"Golden Child" is a thought-provoking exploration of family life and cross-cultural contact. There is both humor and tragedy in the dialogue. The story addresses such topics as polygamy, foot-binding, ancestor worship, and opium use in traditional Chinese culture. Hwang's ironic portrayal of the politics of "conversion" may be a revelation to those Western Christians who harbor romantic, idealistic notions about bringing the "light" to non-European peoples. I was very impressed with Hwang's writing, and I highly recommend "Golden Child."

M. Butterfly is ment to be a deconstruction of the "classic" story of Western-man-meets-Asian-woman imortalized in the Italian opera, Madame Butterfly, and the American musical, Miss Saigon. M. Butterfly is a biting social critique of the inherent racial, cultural, and sexual dynamics at play in the West's story of the East. The play is truly interesting in the way in which it deconstructs the West's imperialistic attitued toward the East and its women. The power in this relationship between an French dilomat and the Chinese opera singer seems to belong, as traditionally is the case, to the Western man. However, it soon becomes clear that the real power in lies in the hands of Song, who is actually a Chinese spy. It is a convoluted story in which all of the traditional roles are confused. And while it does a wonderful job of confusing the simplistic dominant-submissive binary construction along which we traditionally judge West and East, it does little to reverse the similar assumptions we as a society make when evaluating the male-female dicotomy. Throughout the play, while the power shifts back and forth between Eastern and Western characters, the weak character is consistently depicted as feminine while the power resides in whichever character is the most traditionally masculine at any given moment. In this way, Whang does both a service to society in breaking down the West's stereotypes of the East without likewise deconstructing our patriarchal society's imperialistic attitueds towards women.

M. Butterfly takes place in the mind of Rene Gallimard. While the play begins with him in a French prison, we are taken far away from this prison into the depths of his mind. His fantasies of Song Liling are both reality and illusionary. He will ultimately face the most shocking truth about the "woman" he thought he loved for twenty years. M. Butterfly takes a bold move in rearranging common roles set by our society, whether speaking for the present or from fifty years ago. This play dives deep into the pool of stereotypes and makes every turn imaginable. While the Eastern/Western dichotomy is presented with stereotypes of both sides, roles are soon reversed which gives the dichotomy a whole new meaning. Gallimard, initially portrayed as the Western dominant male, and Song, initially portrayed as the compliant Asian woman, will both eventually reverse their sexual roles although their enthnic identities remain in tact. Gallimard evolves from the controller to the controlled, while Song proves his power and control as his masculinity is revealed. All of this role and sexual confusion causes us to re-examine the stereotypes. Are they socially constructed or are they inherent in the person? You must read and decide for yourself!

This is a pretty interesting play..but I strongly recommend that you should read it first..and if you want you can watch the film..(J.Irons is pretty good). David H.Hwang combines the gender confusion with themes from G. Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" which is briefly about an American man having a relationship with a Chinese woman. Hwang blends this with the facts in which he inspired by a 1986 newspaper story, where a French diplomat who was is trial for espionage had a relationship with a woman which turned out to be a man. This play is a gender complicated drama about clash between Western & Eastern cultures. Moreover, this may also be considered as a love story, which I think is a very sad one. Hwang creates stereotypes, and he makes these stereotypes vice versa. By changing the roles, Rene who is supposed to represent West & Song, East no longer represent those.Song becomes the masculine which is masked by the feminine disguise represents West & Rene who becomes submissive in the play represents East. In this play many of you may find Rene stupid and perverted but he is not. They were in love for a long time. Rene knew that Song was a man, but he is definitely not gay. Rene is in love with the idea that such a perfect woman exists. In reality, there is no perfect woman according to his standards. He is in love with a perfect fantasy. " it is true that only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act." By the word woman I am referring to the ideal woman of which every man dreams and Song fulfills this role so well that Rene does not want to discover that Song is a man, because he has a perfect relationship,and why should he ruin it ? He has the woman of is life, why lose it ? On the other, Song is a spy, an actress! and gay. He uses theater and wears woman dresses( In that time women were excluded from performing in a theater because of culturally constructed constaints.) Beyond this acting, under that disguise, Song gets what he wants. He gets a relationship in which he would never get if he was not an actor. There is so much to say about this play.. I think it is a great love story..I really felt sorry for Rene.. Having found his perfect woman, confronting with the reality, he realizes that his dream will never go on. I wont tell the end..but it made me cry..its a pathetic ending..

Spiritwalker caught me by pleasant surprise. I purchased it because the back cover sounded like it would involve shamanism and life mysteries. Wesselman provides an entertaining account of the uncharted personal awakening of his spirit to levels of reality and cross-dimensional connections that even he did not believe at first. The story comes across as autobiographical and it provides a map by which others could understand their personal insights and bizarre connections in life. If taken as truth, the story is amazing and mind-opening.

I rank the book 4/5 stars because it is, at points, long-winded and boring. Wesselman seems to be making meaning of the story as he writes it, which takes the reader through the process (good), but sometimes makes you wish he'd packaged it better (bad). Over-all, glad I read it, would recommend to anyone interested in ancestor-spirit connections and hawaiian shamanism. I couldn't wait for the sequel to be published.

All I can give is praise and deep thanks. Had it been written as a science fiction novel (as the author once considered doing), it would have been one of the best I ever read. But having the author's own thoughts and insights and feelings about it interspersed was breathtaking. It verified everything I have known "intuitively" about the meaning of life. And I am so happy about the picture given of this wonderful Earth's future. I look forward to reincarnation at that time; it sounds like heaven to me (the cheerful, peace-loving, nomadic hunter-gather tribes anyway ... not so sure about the Hawaiian chiefdoms). I look forward with great anticipation to reading the next two books in this trilogy.

At first I was really bored by Wesselman's description of his experiences. I've read a lot of New Age books and I was thinking this is just another guy telling about his 'weird experience'. However once he met Nainoa and started describing life in the future, I got interested. I was very surprised by his discussion of metals. We really take a lot for granted these days and this book will make you think about what life would be like without the conveniences we have today.

This book is a mixture of biography and collected works of Richard Bruce Nugent, the most openly gay writer of the Harlem Renaissance. His 1920s story, "Smoke, Lillies and Jade" has been called the first African-American fictional account regarding homosexuality. The book also includes many photos of Nugent and his gay peers as well as Nugent's artwork.

The book is divided into five sections, emphasizing Nugent's fictional and non-fictional work. However, the best part of the book is the historical introduction; it should have been highlighted somehow. This book is a veritable "Who's Who?" of the Gay Harlem Renaissance. Unfortunately, this excellent documentation of the numerous gay Black authors writing in the early 20th century leaves the impression that little is known about Nugent or little is worth saying. Still, I found myself wanting to read every footnote because they show how much material is out there that has yet to be reviewed scholastically. Heads up, gay studies graduate students!

Though the excerpts of Nugent's writings span a fifty-year period, the grand majority of it comes from the 1930s. Nugent, in "Smoke" and most other writings, was a blatant cheerleader for the Renaissance. I found his work challenging, though at times incredibly boring. It's admitted that his artwork is faux Erte, but it's implied homoeroticism must truly be relished. Be warned that it's very campy. I applaud Nugent in his continual inclusion of women in his artwork, non-fiction, and fiction. You would never have to worry about him saying some foolishness like "Hated it!" Besides, if I read this correctly, Nugent never went to college, yet his writing is quite sophisticated.

Surprisingly, this book reminds me of Little Richard's biography, even though that was written during one of Richard's homophobic stages. Both Richard and Nugent were/are frequently X-rated in order to get laughs and push the envelope on societal norms. Like Dennis Rodman, Nugent swears that because Blacks rejected him, he only pursued "Latins." This fetishization may really disturb gay Latino and Italian-American readers. But remember: gay whites of the era like E.M. Forster also celebrated "difference" in ways that we would now deem politically incorrect.

Skip Gates' forward is scant, but it does reprove his commitment to an anti-homophobic, African-American scholarship. The biographer is a white gay man "interested" in Black culture. Shockingly, he never cites Eric Garber, the non-Black scholar who was the first in gay studies to report on the gay underpinnings of the Harlem Renaissance. It's a shame too, because many of Garber's insights are still useful, yet they go unacknowledged. Wirth includes a section in which Nugent remembers Carl Van Vecten, the gay white celebrity-maker who promoted the Renaissance. This section is confusing and says little. It somewhat re-centers Van Vechten and feels slightly Eurocentric. Still, the biographer has a Ph.D. in chemistry from CalTech yet he writes like the most sophisticated gay studies Ph.D. I give him much credit.

Finally, this book has been categorized under "racially mixed persons." Though it is mentioned that Nugent had some Native American ancestors, interracial romantic liaisons and passing come up much more often than multiracial identity matters in this text.

All people who want to challenge the idea that gayness is a "white thing" or "recent phenomenon" need to read this book.

Exciting, thorough, and amazingly generous, Wirth brings to life a most beguiling participant in the Harlem Renaissance.

William Abrahams says in his introduction: "the twenty-three stories collected here are not offered as a further refining or pruining into a kond of 'best of the best'" and "it would not have been difficult to compile an alternative and equally impressive talbe of contents from among the 165 other O.Henry Award stores of the decade" and after reading the stories collected here, Abrahams is right. these stories are not the best of the best and it would have been easy to compile a better group of stories. Most of the twenty-three stories here are bad or mediocre, only eight of them were really good, and it isn't surprising to find out which eight. Joyce Carol Oates, "The Dead"; John Cheever "The Jewels of the Cabots"; James Alan McPherson, "The Faithful"; Raymond Carver "Are You a Doctor?" (though there are better Carver stories, this one seems to be a little ambiguous); Tim O'Brien, "Night March"; John Updike, "Separating"; Woody Allen, "The Kugelmass Episode"; and John Sayles "I-80 Nebraska, M.490-M.205", which was my favorite of the book. No, this wasn't a best of from the 70s, and I know the O. Henry Awards are better than this sampling.

This is a really first-rate collection, including outstanding experimental pieces by Donald Barthelme and Bernard Malamud.

Title: Very disappointed

...

I hoped the books would shed light, from Dr. Hank's perspective as well as from his descendant Nainoa's perspective(supposedly 5000 years in the future), on how human society got to where it is in Nainoa's time. Specifically, I wanted to know:
(1) How is Dr. Hank sure it's the year 7000 AD (or so)? Does Nainoa have some kind of written history? If so, why wasn't it shared with the reader?
(2) What happened to Earth (and when) that turned California into an equatorial tropical jungle, complete with tropical animals? Obviously some kind of pole shift/planetary displacement.
(3) What is happening in the rest of the world at 7000 AD? The California coastline is now an Hawaiian chiefdom (apparently deserted before they arrived in canoes) and the Nevada area is now sparsely populated by hunter-gatherer type tribes (the Ennu) of unknown descent, possibly Eskimo and/or French-Canadian. What about the rest of the world? And what happened to wipe out most of the population (assuming the rest of the Earth is as sparsely populated as these areas)?

Dr. Hank rants and raves about global warming and overpopulation leading to civilization's downfall ... but then he turns around and says that humans are reaching a critical mass of spiritual enlightenment (just look at all the shaman training centers, like his, after all), hinting that everything will be all right if we all just become enlightened like him. So, what happened then? It can't be both ways, can it? Or maybe there was something else that took the earth down (when?) ... a nuclear war, an asteroid hit, a near-miss by Planet X/Niburu?

I was also hoping that Dr. Hank, being the anthropologist he is and working where he is (African Rift Valley, the apparent "birthplace of intelligent humans"), with or without Nainoa, might shed some light on prehistoric human life. No such luck. All we get are brief glimpses into the far past ... a hairy arm at one point and some pre-human-type primates sleeping in a tree at another.

Then there were the parts of the books that just plain annoyed me:

Nainoa had married a woman in the Ennu tribe, then he travels back to his Hawaiian-culture land and marries another woman (and even thinks about someday marrying a third) ... I guess there isn't any commitments, faithfulness, or jealousy in the future. Polygamy and promiscuous sex is the natural deal ... after all, we are in "repopulate-the-earth-mode."

Dr. Hank, in all three books, includes many, many (many) sexual encounters, between him and wife Jill, as well as between Nainoa and his wives, in extensive, too-intimate, minute descriptive detail. What's the point? Titillate the reader some? Sell books? This isn't a steamy romance novel, is it? So what if you have a hot, randy sex life ... so what if the glories of your orgasms often lead to trance experiences ... it felt like exhibitionism and bragging. It disturbed me and I didn't think it was necessary to the subject matter of the books.

In summary, if Dr. Hank indeed has the powers he has, I wish he would tackle some of the important questions I have (above) for the benefit of all mankind, instead of just using his shamanic visions to eavesdrop on a man in the future, to create his own private paradise (secret garden), and to fly into the Source and poke the eye of God, living to tell about it. It felt like an advertisement: Look at all the cool stuff I can do and you can do it too ... just sign up for my next "Be a Shaman" class.

All other considerations aside, Visionseeker--like Spiritwalker and Medicinemaker--is a good story. By the way, if you haven't read any yet--READ THEM IN ORDER! It's interesting to consider what a possible future might look like. I like to hear about Wesselman's shamanic/visionary encounters and lessons with Nainoa. Unlike some other reviewers, I didn't read this with a particular agenda and specific questions I needed to have answered. If a pressing question came up, I think I'd just write to Dr. Wesselman and ask. I read on to book three because I enjoyed the other two and find the "characters" to be multi-dimensional, aware and very human. Their consciousness is expanding with each visit. Some of their epiphanies help to clarify my own thinking--things I've been turning over in my own mind. The author has a gift for articulating hard-to-define concepts, particularly regarding the nature of the soul. I have a stake now in knowing what happens to these characters, and how they continue to learn and make sense of their uncommon relationship.

Wesselman is not painting of picture of 21st century life, culture and morality when he visits Nainoa. It's a foreign point of view in most respects. Nor do I think the author is omniscient when it comes to life in that time and place. He is learning as he goes and gathering information and understanding. Readers have to be aware of these things. Personally, I read the books with a curiosity about the possibility of a spiritual connection across time. If you believe in the possibility of reincarnation, his narrative is intriguing. What if he and Nainoa share a portion of an enduring soul? I don't think he is asking us to believe what he is saying beyond a shadow of a doubt; we didn't experience what he did, so how can we? But I respect his experience/his beliefs about them--and I think they contain something of value for us.

One of the things I liked best about this particular text was that he goes into specifics about his shamanic practices. As he begins to develop some control over his visionary states, he is also able to share the knowledge he's gained more clearly. He discusses the energy/levels of soul and seems to be honing in on what connects him and his ancestor in these visionary states. I haven't had a conscious experience quite like his, but I've had enough powerful visions in dreaming and other moments to give me an open mind about it.

With regard to the sexuality that a few have taken issue with...if it's part of the overall experience and story, why should it be filtered out? Some might think it's overdone--I hear similar complaints about Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series--but sexuality and intimate partnerships are part of life. I found them to be tastefully and lovingly captured, though a few could make you blush.... For some who follow a more mystical path, I have heard that you CAN launch some journeying via sexual buildup and release. I can't confirm or deny it myself, though I have spoken to people who claim it happens and I've read about it more than once. You might think it's new age mumbo jumbo--that's your prerogative, but as far as I'm concerned Mr. Wesselman is the author and he gets to choose what goes in and what he feels is important or worthwhile to share. Seems rather courageous to me to lay bare the details of one's life so openly. It's also inspiring to read about couples who love and respect each other with passion and tenderness, though it might not always be comfortable to read coming from our cultural framework.

At any rate, author/mythologist Joseph Campbell cautions that when the hero comes back after his transformational journey with gifts for his/her community, a lot of times those gifts turn to ashes in his hands, because the the community is often not ready/able to understand and receive those gifts--yet.

Keep the stories coming, Dr. Wesselman! We'll embrace whatever gifts we are ready for.

Required reading for the hungry soul, consious mind, or curious being.Visionseeker is chalked full of mystic experiences, healing practices and advice of extraordinary importance. Hank's insight of our wordly concerns [political, economical, religious, and environmental]offers options and hope for the future of humanity.

The prose here sparkles. Purple, in the best sense of the world. Ideas are bandied about left and right like badminton birdies. Themes are covered copiously. Wit and wisdom are abundant, brought out whenever the author needs it, like a samurai does with his sword. The pieces are all triumphs of economy, setting up their propositions and then quickly cutting to the punchline(s) before the reader becomes bored. Writing of this magnitude, especially when collected from such a fine variety of sources in one collection, is to be treasured and preserved. The superlatives for this book are immeasurable... except that it's not funny.

Oh, it's funny, alright. Just not the right kind of funny. "That was clever," you might say to yourself, after a romp through one of Garrison Keillor's prose pieces. "I wonder if I should chortle now? I think I shall... Chortle!" Or: "Look, mum: alliteration! How ingenious. I marvel at the textbook examples of Comedy found herein." It's humour of the head, as you can see, but rarely humour from the gut. The kind that causes an unexpected snort, embarrassing you in a room full of stranger. Or, the kind that promises a swift trip up the nasal passages for the mouthful of milk you just gulped. This is the kind of visceral humour that I expected. Alas, I did not get it.

Let me show you what I mean, by giving some examples of Head-Funny (not Gut-Funny) pieces: Polly Frost's 'Notes on My Conversations', in which the author imagines herself as a professional conversationalist; Thomas Meehan's 'Yma Dream', in which the author must disastrously introduce a series of guests at a party he is throwing (example: "Ilya, Ira, here's Yma, Ava, Oona. Ilya, Ira -- Ona, Ida, Abba, Ugo, Aga." You get the idea); Roger Angell's 'Ainmosni', in which the author devises a simple plan for curing insomnia: playing with well-known palindromes! ("A woman, a plan, a canal: Panamowa"); Bill Franzen's 'Hearing From Wayne', in which Wayne sends a postcard to Bill... from the afterlife. Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed all these pieces. Immensely. But the promised laughs didn't materialize. Instead, I got pieces that made me think, that made me ponder, that made me contemplate. But laugh? No. Not out loud, anyway (and frankly, an out-loud laugh is the only kind that counts).

I will admit, though, that there were isolated moments of gut-busting. Chet Williamson's 'Gandhi at the Bat', in which the The Mahatma pinch-hits for Red Ruffing. "C'mon, Moe!" Babe Ruth pleads. "Show 'em the old pepper!" To which Gandhi replies: "I will try, Mr. Baby!" Jack Handey's 'Stunned' is a surreal account of a man and his telescope, through which he has discovered conclusive evidence of life outside our own solar system (or has he?). Noah Baumbach's 'Keith Richards' Desert-Island Disks' takes said list, published in Pulse magazine, and imagines what would happen if Keef actually ended up on the island with only these disks (hint: he gets sick of "Tutti Frutti" pretty quickly). Anthony Lane's 'Looking Back in Hunger' is a wonderfully vitriolic look at cookbooks, and how they mess with our minds. Martin Amis' 'Tennis Personalities' proves in two scant pages why I think he is the only perfect writer working today (regular readers of this space will already know I think this way). And in the book's final section we get some perfectly precise verse, most notably from E.B. White, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash.

In his introduction, David Remnick (or is it Henry Finder?) points out that "you might be ill-advised to read this book straight through" because, and here he quotes Russell Baker, "humour is funny when it sneaks up on you and takes you by surprise." Having come to the end of this anthology, I suspect they're right. Expectations can sometimes sap energy. Calling something "An Anthology of Humour Writing" might just wring the humour out of it. But I hope that the examples I've given above indicate that when the collection isn't funny, and it's rarely gut-bustingly funny, it is still highly worthwhile.

If I were teaching a course in 20th Century American Humor, "Fierce Pajamas" would be my textbook. It is simply the best collection of the best short pieces by the best humor writers of our times--Robert Benchley, James Thurber, E. B. White, Dorothy Parker, S. J. Perelman, Groucho Marks, Steve Martin, Veronica Geng, Woody Allen, Ogden Nash, Martin Amis, John Updike, Mike Nichols, Garrison Keillor, Clarence Day, Frank "The Cliche Expert" Sullivan, Leonard (alias Mr. K*A*P*L*A*N) Ross--what more could one want? (Since you ask, dozens of other fine writers are represented in this unique collection.) Okay,there's not a single Abbott and Costello or Martin and Lewis routine in the whole book. But you knew that. This is wit,satire,irony--humor with an edge--not goofball slapstick. But anyone who can't get a belly laugh out of Steve Martin's "Changes in the Memory After Fifty", Ian Frazer's "Dating Your Mom", or David Owen's timely "What Happened to My Money?" should have his pulse checked. I've been sipping this rare, bubbly vintage for a month or so and am about to go back for seconds. Not only am I recommending it to my friends, I'm impoverishing myself sending copies to everyone I care about! Have a sip yourself.

"Fierce Pajamas" is an incredible collection of piece by some of the century's most famous humorists -- from Groucho Marx himself to SJ Perlman, Garrison Keillor, Thomas Meehan (who wrote the book to the musical "The Producers), Marshall Brickman, Woody Allen, Roy Blount, Christopher Buckley, Steve Martin, and more. Some of the pieces bring a smile, others a chuckle, and quite a few made me laugh out loud. Trawling through seventy-five years of The New Yorker, the editors (who contribute a terrifically smart and funny introduction) have come up with some real winners--and even the also-rans are worth the time. The perfect book for your bedside table... or bathroom.

Reading this book is a good way to get to know Cambodia's turbulent history. Written by a man who met many of the "big players" in the story, I found it very interesting. My only criticism is that there are no photos of the characters represented in Mr. Kamm's book.

This book is very readable and gives an overview of the history of this small violent country in the last thirty years. The book details the main culprits as the the U.S., Soviet Union, Vietnam, Red China, and France as the intriquers who eventually pushed this country into the policies resulting in the genocide of its people. Unlike previous reviewers, I thought Kamm was trying to put his own personal view on what happened in Cambodia. He knew the players in this drama, so why not draw what he feels is an accurate portrait of them. I liked the book. The only negative is that Kamm has some problems with the English language and this showed in the reading. Kamm escaped Nazi Germany, not France as a previous reviewer has stated.

Henry Kamm's book provides a good overall view of events in Cambodia of the last thirty years. If you are looking for an in depth account of the Khmer Rouge genocide, look elsewhere. Kamm's book covers the events that led up to the Khmer Rouge takeover, covers their brief rule and their attempts to regain power and finally the downfall of Pol Pot. Along the way Kamm describes the tragedy of a poor country trying overcome the horrors inflicted upon it by its own people. A very well written and readable book by an author who knows his subject well.

There were only 2 paragraphs in this book that referenced the 1st Seige of Augusta in which my 6th great grandfather was murdered by the Cherokee. But, these 2 paragraphs were poignant and brutally honest and left me in tears.
This book is well-researched,well-documented, frank, honest,detailed,the author is a respected historian, and this book goes directly to the point...if you are seeking genuine information concerning the Revolutionary War, buy this book!!!!

I recommend this book for those interested in a clear ande concise narrative account of the American Revolution in the South. Although not as dramatic as Buchanan's THE ROAD TO GUILFORD COURTHOUSE (which I do not recommend) Lumpkin's book is well worth reading and generally accurate. His analysis is solid, a description I would not give to THE ROAD TO GUILFORD COURTHOUSE.

The southern campaigns of the Revolution, starting with the disastrous defeat at Camden in August 1780 and culminating in Greene's successful containment of the British in the seaports of Charleston and Savannah. Greene never won an engagement, but never lost a campaign. In many ways he was the American Turenne, relentlessly campaigning through the Carolinas, respected and feared by his enemies, diligently followed by his disciplined, intrepid, and indefatigable Continentals, and served by a talented, tough group of subordinates such as Robert Kirkwood, Otho Williams, William Washinton, John Howard, and Edward Carrington. It was there, in the humid south, that the Revolution was won. It was the mauling given the British at Guilford Couthouse in March 1781, so soon after Camden, that drove Cornwallis to the decision to go into Virginia and to Yorktown. In that alone, the campaign was decisive.

Lumpkin tells the story with wit, vigor, relentlessness, but not a few errors, which are minor. It is well-illustrated (I especially liked the picture of a member of Lee's Legion done by Clyde Risley-one of my favorite military artists), and the appendices are very helpful. In some areas of smaller detail, the book should be used with caution, but if used in conjunction with Wright's Continental Army and Ward's War of the Revolution, it is a reliable reference, a good story, and gives these long-forgotten campaigns a deserved look and the men who conducted the war in this theater long overdue recognition.

I normally thoroughly enjoy reading travelogues. I was looking forward to this book for a week before I found time to read it. I didn't feel it was worth my time. I was looking for more information about and feel about the places, and less self-exploration of the authors. Not bad, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

This was my first attempt at reading anything by and about women travelers. Some of the writings were very interesting while others seemed a little pointless. I did enjoy the different viewpoints from women of various countries and ethnic backgrounds. Having traveled on my own (and about to embark again), I was glad to delve into the experiences of other women. Most of the accounts are of foreign travel, but there was one (maybe more) about domestic experiences. The stories reminded me of my own travels and even inspired me to begin an essay about part of my experience in another country.

Fantastic book. My favorite story in the collection was Peabody's tremendous tale of her hike along a 1,000-mile Buddhist pilgrimage to 88 temples around the island of Shikoku in Japan. Truly the work of a lapidary stylist and soulful sister.