I was anticipating a book full of vivid descriptions of life and scenes in the Pioneer Valley during the 1800's. Instead, this book is a series of unimaginative and uneven dialogues between woodenly uninteresting child-characters. Too bad, given that there are few stories written in that setting. The story begins in an abandoned foreman's house along a minor canal system. The lead female character, Etta, is in the house eating the nuts she has found there when the lead male character, Walter, a boy who is living in the house, finds her. Written in Etta's voice, we hear the flat dull thoughts as they go through her mind, or as she expresses them to Walter. She is an orphan with siblings. She needs a place to live. Walter, who has his own problems, tells her she must leave, but changes his mind without reason. A third child character enters, but the dialogue goes on in the same dumbed-down way, sprinkled with the odd modern idiom, as they plow through the story trying to find employment and stability. I found it difficult to sympathize with the plight of the characters, and reading the story became a chore rather than a pleasure. The best part of the book comes at the end: A few historical notes give us some background. This brief afterward reinforced the disappointment I felt in the story; given the lush and interesting setting, it could have been a much better story.

Spunky Etta, 11, has had enough of the foster homes. She runs away from her last hoping to find a place that she and her brother and sister can be together. That dream of being a family once again keeps Etta's spirit going. She finds an old foreman's cabin that has been squatted by Walter, 12, who is hiding out from his father, the town drunk. Together, with their friend Jake, they make a home for themselves and Etta finds herself belonging to a different kind of family. Hurst drew me in from page one with Etta's humor and non-stop chatter. The dialogue was good, description great, and the plot interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. Although some parts were predictable and I thought there could be a bit more tension with her brother and sister and if they would be coming to live with her or not - it was an enjoyable read.

If you want a (slightly abridged) copy of Lynda Barry's play 'The Good Times Are Killing Me', this book has it, along with a review of the play and photos of scenes from the off-broadway production.

However, if you want the full version of the play, you will need to purchase 'The Good Times are Killing Me', published by Samuel French.

Much has been written of the feud yet in this book I found a "good read" along with a very historical study. Also inside the front and back covers you will find a family tree graphic to help you trace possible relations.

2/3/03 I purchased "A Sentence Of Life" by Julian Gloag more than 15 years ago from the Gimbels/Macy Department store chain (which then did special orders--it had received rave review in the book section of the Sunday Times...The inferences were that an altenate life style male had married a woman who had a severe look(who until closer up scrutiny) would appear to be a young male...its motives being that when she and he went to various pubs,etc she'd be mistaken for a "male friend" and thus send out the message to anyone who'd wish to approach him later..It was novel written in very polite language and was one of the many books in a box lost by me when moving eons ago..I remembered the book partly because the review gave no part of the plot away and partly because the rating on it was more than it merited.

This book seems like someting written by ninth graders for a "history day" project.The writing is awful, the political analysis seems like it came from military intelligence or the CIA, and the title is absurd; most of the people talked about in the book seem to be outcasts from society and oddballs, not "common men." And why is there nothing about women? Mitchell and his assistants never confront the Marxist analysis of Nazism, either because they don't know it or are afraid to tackle it. Why did the German capitalists and landowners finance Hitler? We won't find the answer to this question from Nazism and the Common Man. Skip this book; its analysis rarely rises above the comic book level or that of a 1950's television show.