This is one of those books that once you take the time to get familiar with, it will pull you along at a slow and sometimes painful pace. The honest and direct sensuality of the people, Kate's confusion between the love of life and the distaste for the common man, the marraige of religions, and the stuggle to become true men and women do offer the reader a wonderfly detailed story. I recommend this to anyone who feels they need a mental vacation for the social triviality of the modern day world. It is a book to help regain perspective.

I must agree with the other reviewers that this book has some wonderful writing. There are passages of description that simply dazzle. The scene in which heroine Kate first sees the gathering of the Men of Quetzalcoatl, where the beats of the drums seem to draw the soul from the earth, is absolutely mesmerizing.

Yet for every memorable scene there are pages and pages of wild romanticizing about native values, obscenely outdated musings about race, and odd sentiments about marriage and women. Unlike "Women in Love," this book doesn't present love in a very good light. Kate is seen as a woman torn between her need to be herself and her need to be subsumed by a man. And the answer is unclear at the end. I found her to be a sympathetic character despite her annoying quirks (if she hates Mexico so much, why doesn't she just leave?) and I felt the ending didn't show her growing or changing. I also felt that the other main characters (Ramon and Cipriano) became almost brutal by the book's end, and this development was not resolved in any satisfactory way.

I have to admit being profoundly disappointed by the ending, and by the bizarre theorizing about the soul of the "dark races." But, I had to keep remembering that this book was a product of the early twentieth century. And the writing is what still makes it masterful.

In the area of the poetic use and the beauty of the English language, this book is well-written and certainly worthy of one's time taken in reading it. The language and the imagery invoked is breath-taking. In the area of subject matter, it is rather unique. An Irish woman journeys to Mexico just after the Mexican Revolution and becomes involved with two men who have taken it upon themselves to return Mexico to the religion of Quetzalcoatl and Huitzilopochtli. She joins them to become the First Woman of Malintzi and wife of the First Man of Huitzilopochtli. However, in the area of social language, the book is a product of its time. The Mexican people -- and all "dark" people -- are the objects of particularly malignant language, which I found objectionable. As an historian, I can place the book in its proper perspective, however, and recommend it as a good read.

No other autobiography I have read has ever been this powerful. I was pulled into Gelsey's heart and felt her pain. She is probably the most beautiful and amazing dancer that ever was in America. Yet she did not feel beautiful. I could relate to all of Gelsey's struggles and emotional hardships. I recommend this book to all those who enjoy autobiographies, all who enjoy ballet, and especially to those who wish to become dancers. It gives a truly realistic view into the dance world. Will become a favourite. Other books to read; Holding Onto the Air by Suzanne Farrell, The Shape of Love (which is the continuing book to Dancing on My Grave) by Gelsey Kirkland and Greg Lawrence.

Gelsey Kirkland doesn't hold back in her tell all life story. She doesn't cover and hide her relationship with Balachine, Peter Martin and many others in the ballet world. She doesn't hold back either when she tells us of her drug and emotional problem. Despite all her misfortunes she is one the worlds greatest dancer, who deserves all that the world has to offer her. Her book is a page turner and a look into her fascinating life that is true and emotional. READ THE BOOK AND YOU'LL BE IN LOVE WITH GELSEY KIRKLAND AND WILL WANTED TO READ IT OVER AND OVER!!!!!

This book written brilliantly by Gelsey Kirkland and Greg Lawrence is positively a book that I would recommend to all dancers like myself as well as anyone that is intregued by the effects of the dance world. In this book Gelsey takes us through a journey of chaos and problems. When you read this book you travel through the abusive effects of drugs as well as more dancer prone problems like eating disorders and self-image. You also see the beutiful side of the ballet world and it helps you relize how much work ballet dancers put into their passion and how little they get out of it. Gelsey and Greg did a great job at showing the reader dancer or not how hard and sometimes impossible the dance world can be. Over all in my humble opinion I think that this one is a keeper.

The Rocking Horse Winner is a deliteful short story written by D.H. Lawrence. The story is about a young man named Paul struggling for the attention of his mother. He feels he can accomplish this by riding and riding his rocking horse. With under-lying sexual tones and a unique twist on the story of Edipius, this short story makes for good reading at the highschool and college level.

This story is entertaining, intelligent, and tinged with the supernatural. The plot is very simple, but Lawrence's imagery and style hooked me. Neurovisually, I was imagining the house from the movie "The Others" and a composite of the young boys from that movie and "The Shining." The character of Paul is likeable, and his interaction with the other main characters in the story is gripping. The story is a short read, but it's worth your time if you like spooky settings for allegorical tales of the supernatural.

This story is one of tragedy, and loss. A boy doing anything to gain his mothers approval in one way or another. As some would say it revolves around lust, but those are the few whom...nevermind. This would be a very complex story for almost everyone on a mature level. Though some score this story pretty low I give it a 5 out of 5. So if I were you (but i'm not) I would pick this story up and analyze it for all its worth I swear you will see everything in a new light and feel what so many others do.

I usually cringe at the thought of writers writing about how hard it is to write, but Dyer pulls it off with frequently hilarious results.

Quotes frequently help me to decide whether or not to read a book, so here's one of my favorites:

I asked why a red light on the dashboard was flashing.

'Is to tell me I am not wearing seat belt,' Ciccio said. An EU ruling meant that all new cars were fitted with this warning device. A stupid and dangerous idea, he thought. The flashing distracted and could make you crash. But there was someone he knew who going to disconnect the wires so that he could ride in comfort without his seat belt and without this flashing light. Wouldn't it be easier just to wear the seat belt? I asked, but that was beside the point. The point was that there was a way around this edict. Italians enjoy exercising their ingenuity to trivial ends. To use ingenuity for some loftier purpose is somehow to diminish it. The more pointless the end the more vividly the means of achieving it is displayed. The further south you travel, the more extreme this tendency becomes. The ingenuity of the romans, for example, is as nothing compared to that of the Neapolitans. Ciccio even knew someone who sold T-shirts with a diagonal black band printed across the chest so that the police would be deceived into thinking you were wearing your seat belt.

Dyer is at his best at moments like this. When he starts dishing out actual insights into literature, he can occasionally get pretentious and windy, and most of ideas seem ripped of other thinkers - Barthes, especially. Whining about how hard it is to write his book would be insufferable if Dyer didn't have a lovely comic touch, and wasn't such a good writer (I recommend his book on jazz highly). His digressions about Rilke, Camus, and Nietzsche were occasionally interesting, but more often seemed unnecessary and (as is perhaps inevitable in such a book) pretentious.

If the book was any longer, it wouldn't work; you can't sustain such an exercise for very long. But as it is, it's worth a lot of a laughs, a couple of insights, a wonderful portrait of the author and a passable portrait of D.H. Lawrence.

I suppose one could only write a really decent, insightfulreview of Geoff Dyers' genre-defying Out of Sheer Rage by followingthe same wonderfully tortuous path taken by the author himself:procrastinate, delay, evade and travel to the far-flung places as Mr. Dyer once did, while constantly examining and re-examining one's own unique array of neuroses. Perhaps, like Geoff Dyer, by failing to write a solid review, one succeeds by taking a circular route, never diving straight to the heart of the matter and recognizing the triumph inherent in such a futile enterprise. Having said all that, one must keep ones' day job after all and what follows will have to pass for a circular route. Geoff Dyer's Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence is a book within a book about trying, failing and succeeding at writing a biography of D.H. Lawrence (in a roundabout way) while simultaneously (quite by accident) employing one's personal and literary failures to gain access to one's own true self. Dyer leads the reader on a dizzying ride, we travel along with him and his long-suffering, multilingual girlfriend Laura in an effort to gain inspiration by way of the ritual of movement and a sense of place. We visit Italy,(Taormina, Rome)New Mexico, (Taos) Mexico (Oaxaca) and Oxford, all places where Lawrence once worked and lived. Nothing tangible realized there except some brilliant discoveries about the author's interior life. Observations usually unearthed by quoting Lawrence himself; "Freedom is a gift inside one's soul, Lawrence declared, you can't have it if it isn't in you." Dyer observes in a moment of self-awareness; "A gift it may be but it is not there for the taking. To realize this capacity in yourself is a struggle." And a further quote from Lawrence about getting to the core of one's own capabilities (or lack thereof) "Let a man fall to the bottom of himself, let him get to the bottom so that we can see who he really is." Dyer pulls us back into the past, then headlong into the present with beautifully written observations about the self, coping with depression, Nietzsche and the vagaries of his relationship with his girlfriend, Laura; " For Laura it is always 'together forever', for me it is always more like 'together whenever." (For arts' sake ? the reader can only guess). On falling in and getting out of depression; "All I felt was: I am depressed. I am depressed. And then, this depression generated its own flicker of recovery. I became interested in depression." And some Nietzschean philosopy to ameliorate despair; "Nietzshe wrote that the thought of suicide had got him through many a bad night, and thinking of giving up was probably the one thing that's kept me going." And inevitably, insights on the uselessness of giving up, of recognizing that what makes life so unbearable is that those things which seem so unbearable are in fact bearable; " The only way to give up totally is to kill yourself but that one act requires an assertion of will equal to the total amount that would be expanded in the rest of a normal lifetime. Killing yourself is not giving up, it's more like a catastrophic fast-forwarding." Out of Sheer Rage is an ultra-vivid mosaic whose parts can only be glimpsed whole from a distance; one could read, re-read and write endless reviews and still not quite grasp its' true essence on either an individual or general level (which may in fact be its' true essence). But a few stray thoughts may yet be relevant when considering Out of Sheer Rage; to paraphrase Dyer: "One is really one's true self when believing that one is not one's true self." And this final, uplifting endnote; "One way or another we all have to write our studies of D.H. Lawrence. Even if they will never be published, even if we will never complete them, even if all we are left with after years and years of effort is an unfinished, unfinishable record of how we failed to live up to our ambitions. The world over, from Taos to Taormina, from the places we have visited to countries we will never set foot in, the best we can do is to try to make some progress with our studies of D.H. Lawrence." Out of Sheer Rage is both a gift to the reader and a virus that needs to be spread; once read, it begs to be re-read and passed along to anyone with the ability for even momentary self-reflection. So please read this book, then give it to someone as a gift so that they too can spread what cannot or should not be cured. END

Dyer has written an entertaining, informative, imaginative, and philosophically-revealing view of his struggle to motivate himself to write a book about one of his idols, D. H. Lawrence.

I felt an immediate closeness with Dyer when he said on p. 16 that "The Complete Poems" was probably the single most important book of Lawrence's. I have always been drawn more to DHL's poems and essays than to his novels. And yet in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, DHL is referred to as a "British novelist," and not as a "British author."

As the work goes on, it becomes clear that Dyer's preferred source of material are DHL's Letter. The most positive aspect of the book is the nine-page index given at the end of the book, mostly to quotes from Lawrence's letters. Dyer's description of trying to pace himself through the seven volumes of letters is a minor masterpiece of hilarity. Also humerous are his descriptions of sitting across from a lady with a cold on the train, and his childhood health problems. I have never read a book when I burst out laughing as often as in reading this one.

Dyer likes to draw parallels between himself and DHL, physically as well as emotionally and spiritually, because DHL is one of his heroes. Or is he? How could he have made the statement on p.207 that "...once I have finished this book...Lawrence will become a closed book to me. That's what I look forward to: no longer having anything to do with Lawrence." Or is he, in the heat of his authorship, lost in one of his mazes of contradiction.

Dyer says his favorite photograph of DHL is one of him sitting under a tree "doing nothing." That is not the DHL of history; Lawrence was one of the most "do-something" authors in the history of the planet. His myriad works in his short lifetime attest to that.

This book is definitely a funny first read, especially to authors who have writer's block. Dyer's circuitous, contradictory analyses of the predicaments of life are amusingly original. But while I am grateful to Dyer for bringing the content of DHL's Letters to my attention, I grew weary of his constant wish to "do nothing." And I think Dyer is weary of it himself.

In " The Captain's Doll" the reader experiences a relationship that is not well-accepted by society. The Captain Hepburn and his mistress Hannele. The love in an affair is not a twosided love, usually one person ends up giving themselves more than the other person involved. Hannele questions herself throughout her relationship with the Captain and the intergery of their love. He does not want to love her and all she wants to do is love him. The story is very easy to read and short. It is a great book and I truly recommend it.

I had to read this book for a literature class, and it was chosen to be our favorite by far. The discussions deepened from lesbians, co-dependancy, and control. Of the three main characters we actually found five. Each lady has a different personality depending on what name she is called by. We may be reaching but it was interesting backing it up with the text. If you enjoy D.H. Lawrence you will love this novella.

I agree with the reviewer who says, "ADD and ADHD are real, spend time with someone who truly has it and you will know" I sincerely doubt Dr. Diller has spent much time, if any, with children or adults who truly have ADD. He makes many statements in his book that show a lack of knowledge in areas of ADD diagnosis and the use of Medication to treat this syndrome. For instance, he states that despite the fact that Methylphenidate (Ritalin) cannot "cure", or provide a long-term improvement in ADD, so many people still accept its use. This seems confusing to Dr. Diller. Well, do daily insulin doses "cure" Diabetes? Yet, without it, a diabetic would die. Do eyeglasses "cure" myopia? Yet, without them I couldn't (prescription of -13 dioptors) function very well in this world. Ritalin provides the necessary chemical neurotransmitters that some people's brain, for whatever reason, don't produce enough of, or are lost in a process of "re-uptake." My son has been on Ritalin for 4 years, is above the 50th percentile for height and weight for his age, has no tics, a HUGE appetite, gets lots of sleep, and is doing very well in school. Without Ritalin, his life and mine would be a sad disaster. I don't, in any way, advocate medicating every fidgety child you see. I also don't believe medication without ancillary treatments, (counseling, effective parenting and management, etc.) is safe or desirable. Yet, I strongly feel that medication is, for many, a necessary first step that allows other interventions to work effectively. There are many great books out there, find them and read them. But, beware, there are many more doctors and pediatricians out there that know next to nothing about ADD.

As an adult with ADD who never recieved treatment and the parant of a child who was diagnosed late in her childhood I know the tragedy of not providing treatment for this very treatable disorder. Ritalin is just one part, albiet an important one, of a large regimen of treatments. It is vital that all be explored, but a common theme is that none of the others are very effective until you can adjust the chemistry of the brain so that it is receptive to other forms of therapy. My daughter takes her medication when she needs to be able to concentrate and focus on a particular subject. She writes her best poetry unmedicated. That she has this feedom is because she has the benefit of the other therapies that the drug facilitated. Dr. Diller has touched on many of the concerns that face parents with children who are ADD. There are those who use both the diagnosis and the drug as an means of behavior modification and this must be guarded against. The goal should be to provide choices. Because there are problems with the system is no reason to toss out the baby (or the adult) with the bathwater. This is an important book to read over lightly and toss. If you are new to ADD, read Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D., and John J. Ratey, M.D. first. This will arm you with the facts.

This book tells it like it is. For parents not looking for a copout, but for support. As a parent of 2 ADD children (and stepparent of 2 ADHD children) this book makes a lot of sense. He brings up some good points about expecting too much out of our children and looking for ways to make them smarter, better, etc., without putting more time and effort into it. Parenting is a fulltime job, more difficult than any other job. I remember feeling the relief when Dr's told me it was "not their fault or my fault, it is all a medical problem." Well, through the years, I've learned there are things different I can do, and some things I cannot change. We have been able to keep 2 of our kids off Ritalin (it caused bad rebound affects on two, one was zombie-like and one turned into a holy-terror after the medicine wore off everyday). One of our kids may be on it his whole life though, he just cannot function. Unfortunately, the book doesn't come up with a cure, but it also tells you the truth about Ritalin, RITALIN IS NOT A CURE! It does have its place with some children, but in my opinion, it is a bandaid on a bleeding wound

I was tricked into reading this book due to it being a well known classic and from a desire to read a good romantic story which I thought it would be. Well, um, IT'S NOT.

I like to read books that draw me right into the story and then a couple of hours later you notice you are turning page 250 when the last you recall touching was page 97. This book was not like that at all. Unfortunately, I was always conscious that I was reading print from a page but kept reminding myself that a book this famous had to get good sooner or later. Far from not being able to put it down, I found myself often looking to see what page I was on and if I had read my quota for the night. It never did get good and when I had finished the last sentence I felt frustrated and cheated.

I worried that my lack of appreciation for this classic must be due to my inferior intellect and that I must after all be just some obtuse hill-billy. Thankfully I found that several people who had offered their reviews here shared my opinions for this book and I was quite relieved that I was not alone in my reaction.

For me, Lawrence's supremely descriptive, possibly brilliant (although I really wouldn't know) and flowery writing is all for not because of selfish, unlikeable and unbelieveable characters who don't really do anything. At the very end, the only care I had for anyone in the book was poor little Winifred. I hope she was alright.

In conclusion may I suggest that you pass on Women in Love and read instead Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy. It is so much more a wonderful book about believable, likeable, women in love.

Women In Love written by D.H. Lawrence is not as explicit as his other novels, and instead of concentrating on sexual content, Lawrence chose to depict the relationships between two sisters and their boyfriends. D.H. Lawrence goes deep into the minds of human beings and reveals the real secrets of emotions, feelings, and thoughts that people usually hide inside. Statements such as "The Dead Should Bury the Dead" illustrate the content of living and dying, which the book frequently discusses. The book is difficult and long to read, but it opens up the reader's mind and forces the reader to reavaluate the content of his or her relationship with other people.

First of all, I have to own you up that reading Women in Love was one of the best experiences on books that I ever had. I know it's not Lawurence's masterpiece, but I touched me very deep. Everthing seems to wok in this book, from the characters to their enviroment.

It seems to me that Lawrence took daily events and showed them the way they are: unglamourised. He showed me what love and support seem to be. It's not about being happy all the time or that kind of love that happens only in movies. The book deals with the ordinary love, the one that normal human beings have the chance to face.

Following the experience of both couples made me see how different love can be and it is the still the same. I could perfectly understand all the worries and anxiets Gudrun had. And I think Gerald and she made quite a couple! Yet Birkin and Ursula look very nice together since the begin. Their love is not as 'wild' as the other couple's, but it is very strong indeed.

When the book was over I got down because I had to let them go. Following the lives of such people for a few days made quite an impression on me. Even though they may not be XXI century people like us, they have the same essence we do.

All in all, I know this review may read very emotive and personal, but this is a book that I couldn't apart in other to write about

I RECENTLY TRIED TO 'GET THROUGH' VOLUME 1 OF LAWRENCES SHORT STORIES. I LOVE HIS WRITING. IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND FILLED WITH WILD SENSUAL IMAGES. HOWEVER, WHEN I FINISH EACH STORY, I WONDER: SO WHAT??? WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT??? EACH STORY SEEMS TO BE SIMPLY A SLICE OF LIFE, MANY DEALING WITH MAN/WOMAN RELATIONSHIPS. BUT AT THE END OF EACH, I DID NOT FEEL THAT I HAD LEARNED OR GAINED ANYTHING FROM THE READING. ALSO, MOST DID NOT HOLD MY ATTENTION - EXCEPT FOR THE BEAUTIFUL USE OF LANGUAGE AND SENSE IMAGERY.

Honestly, I've never been an avid reader of DH Lawrence. This is not to say, I dislike him as a writer. Not true. The literature that I have read by him, most I've found interesting and good. It had been a while since I read any DH, until I picked up SELECTED SHORT STORIES. I picked it up primarily for the story "The Prussian Officer." I wasn't disappointed with the short story at all. It's quite a homoerotic story about a Captain and his subordinate, telling of DH and his other work in many ways. The story is compelling, yet tragic, which I liked. The other stories that followed didn't quite compare. I found the other's dry and verbose (especially "Daughters of the Vicar"). I'd recommend this collection just for the "The Prussian Officer."

D.H. Lawrence was a superb short story writer, and The Rocking Horse Winner is perhaps one of the greatest short stories ever written. The only other short story that is its equal is The Bet by Anton Chekhov. I would say more but that would be spoiling it for you. Let it suffice to say that Lawrence is now a much overlooked writer, however, his message of how modern industry is destroying all that is vital and natural in mankind is as poignant today as when he first wrote about it almost 100 years ago! So what's new?