This is magical realism at its best. There's a dream-like quality to the novel, and yet it is very clear at the same time, in retelling the stories of sexual women blamed unjustly. What a twist the author puts on the story of Medea--a compassionate portrait--and even Adam and Eve--and even Mary Magdalene as she witnesses the lives of Jesus and Judas. It's so beautifully written you don't want to put it down. I don't know why I hadn't even heard about this novel until years after a friend of mine told me about it.

All I can say about this novel, which I hadn't heard about until someone told me it was written by the author of "The Sexual Outlaw" and "City of Night," is that it is brilliant, magical and tough as it goes about retelling famous stories about women who have been branded because of sexual encounters, and about their equally infamous men. I'll never forget the retelling of Medea--wonderful--and then there's the hilarious story of why the Trojan war was "really" fought. And all of it is told in terrific prose, magical.

What a find this novel was; I had associated the author with "City of Night" and "The Sexual Outlaw" and was surprised that he had dealt with such a range of subjects, like here and in "The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez" (a moving novel about a Mexican woman in L.A. today, discovering harsh truths about her children--I quickly read that one after I read this one). So I hadn't expected anything like this--about notorious women and men in legend and history. Rechy retells their stories (including the story of Adam and Eve, as they discover sex for the first time!!), and they're funny and sad, very sexy, prose beautifully written. It's also very mysterious as it moves from life to life; there's even a Peacock that's a character; and the story of Jesus, Judas, and Magdalene is unforgettable. How strange that hardly anyone I know had heard of this novel when I mention it. Was it too daring?

i'm about halfway through this collection, and it's not so bad. it does have that kinda corny 60s dialogue, but that's the way comics were back then. i am twenty years old, and i just started reading comics. when i was younger, i watched all the cartoons and collected the cards, but i never actually read the comics. now that i have started, i've realized how worth reading all of these comics are! anyway, if you want to start getting into Daredevil, this would be a good collection to read. once you get past it, i would read some of the issues that Frank Miller wrote. those are supposed to be some of the best. as a new comic-reader, i am open to reccomendations of good comics that i should read. if anyone has anything they think i should read, please let me know.

this has been Apollyon

It is so fascinating to compare the art styles of the three giants of comic art represented in this collection. After a so-so start with Bill Everett and Joe Orlando (inked by Vince Colletta), Wally Wood takes over with his eccentric, disciplined, almost scientific approach to illustrating castles, weird inventions and other gee-whiz stuff. Then John Romita brings his muscular, vibrant, dynamic and organic compositions to the title, and it really comes alive (his work looks exactly like the bright, catchy, somewhat "cartoony" classics Romita did for Spiderman as that character's best artist). Next comes Gene Colan, who's facile virtuosity, flowing figures, and unique camera angles became the definitive Daredevil "look" that originally caught my young eyes back in the '60s. Stan Lee's trademaked psuedo-hip wisecracking and underlying decency bring nostalgic warmth and amusement to my heart. Though the art has never been equaled and looks strong in black and white, this series of reprints should be in color! And not the phony computor color they're using nowadays with the little airbrushed-looking highlights, but just plain old ordinary flat comic book color like they had in the ones my mother threw out.

Once upon a time I bought every comic book that Marvel put out each month. Of course, that was back when comic books were about a quarter apiece. Then suddenly there was a giant proliferation of titles, the New Universe line, and everything else they could think of to throw our way. When "Conan the Barbarian" went down for the count I cut back big time and was reading only two Marvel title: Iron Man and Daredevil. I always thought there was some sort of significance to the combination, since there were relatively unique as Marvel superheroes without super-strength. I started reading "Iron Man" around the time Tony Stark starting hitting the bottle big time but "Daredevil" was the second Marvel comic I started reading after "Spider-Man." I liked the fact that Matt Murdock was a lawyer; actually I thought they should have played it up a lot more than they ever did in the comic.

I suspect "The Essential Daredevil, Volume 1" is going to receive a lot of attention once the movie version opens at the end of this week. Unfortunately, readers might be put off by the fact that they are not going to find Electra, Bullseye or the Kingpin of the Frank Miller glory years in these reprints of the first 25 issues of "Daredevil: The Man Without Fear!" They will find good ol' Franklin "Foggy "Nelson, as well as Karen Page, and even Mike Murdock, along with guest appearances by Spider-Man (#16), the Thing (#2), and Namor the Sub-Mariner (#7). Reading these issues again I was struck by how much trouble DD had finding really good villains. I think borrowing Electro from Spider-Man for issue #2 was a mistake, because that works against establishing the character on his own terms (ditto with the Ox in #15). The Owl (#3, #20) seems like a second rate Vulture, the Stilt-Man (#8) seems one of the most impractical villains ever, and it is a toss up as to who is sillier, the Matador (#5) or the Leap Frog (#25). Mr. Fear (#6) is the villain who should be pop up the most as DD's obvious counterpart, but it is the Gladiator (#18, #19, #23) who gets the most storylines. However, the best stories are those where Daredevil goes up against heroes like the Sub-Mariner, Ka-Zar (#12, #13, #24) and Spider-Man. No wonder it took a long time for Daredevil to find his own villains (the Jester was my favorite until the Kingpin became the major player in the series).

The front cover lists Stan Lee, Wallace Wood, John Romita, Gene Colan & Friends, which means a couple of significant artists get dumped in the "Friends" category, namely Bill Everett and Joe Orlando, who drew the first issues, along with Jack Kirby, who did layouts for Romita to ink on a couple of issues. With all due respect to the remarkable transformation Frank Miller in terms of writing and page layouts, Gene Colan was always by favorite Daredevil artist. I always liked the fluidity of his art, not only on DD but also "Dr. Strange" and "Dracula," not to mention the way he drew the ladies in general and the Black Widow in particular. The 25 stories represented in this collection are not the best Daredevil stories, but they are the groundwork for what was to come. Hopefully the fact that the movie has come out will get them to put out the next couple of volumes in this series (although we know they will stop long before they get to Miller's issues, which I believe are already available in full color reprints).

This book has a fantastic beginning! For me, there is nothing than a good novel from the American south, and this book starts out just that way! The characters are astounding! Juliet has it all! The things that drive us and the characters in the book to her and the same things that drive us away. What a powerful start! About midway, the book takes a turn towards a mundane murder mystery. As a police mystery, the book was not nearly as interesting as it was as a Southern novel. The ending was even weaker. I enjoyed it, but wished that Bradley had continued his write to his strengths to the end.

Normally, I am not really a fan of mysteries. I am however, a New Orleanean who loves to read books pertaining to the area and in that regard, this is one of the best I have ever come across. The story itself is more than decent, but the rich descriptions of the city are what more than held me captive. You want to feel sorry for the main character, Sonny due to his undying love for a crazed woman who keeps breaking his heart over and over again, but mid-way through the novel you want to scream at him "WAKE UP!!!" This is book I would highly recommend to other readers.

i read this one because i haven't been down south in three years and lately i've been reading southern books, just out of sentimentality....this story is ruthless. it's a bout a man's obsession with a woman who has him pegged; he knows she is bad for him, but he loves her anyway. every man has had at least one woman in his life who was that way( and probably yearns for another ) sonny is one of those artists who probably knows he bad, but he does it because he doesn't know how to do any thing else...he makes for an interesting psychological profile.

but the book is all about juliet....

man, this woman is the epitome of the psychowoman from hell...the things she says and does freaked me out totally...if the story was just about the realtionship between sonny and juliet, i would have given it five stars...but mr bradley, had to do a james m. cain, and give us a crime story... i wasn't that impressed...

still the book was cool, just to " see " new orleans again...sometimes, i do miss it......

This is, for anybody Catholic or non-Catholic who is interested in the Pope, a good read. But the book is flawed by a full jar of political intrigue. I would buy it, but for the story of the man, not the story of the CIA files on him.

Pope John Paul caught the world's attention with his work to end communism in Central Europe. I am not a Catholic, but I have the utmost regard for what this man has accomplished. The title of this book gives away the author's regard for him also. The Americans give credit for the fall of communism to former Presidents Reagan and Gorbachev, especially in the video series 'Biography of the Millennium' done by A&E, but without the Pope's knowledge of the Central Europeans it would have just been a dream of theirs. I read this book with a great deal of relief that it had been published during the Pope's lifetime. He would probably regard the historical oversight of his work with less frustration than many of his supporters.

This book, which uses the subject's life as a framework for reviewing events and political philosophies leading up to the millenium, has much to recommend it to the general reader..... One need not be intimidated by its size and scope; it's extremely readable and consistently fascinating. As a non-Catholic, I was surprised to learn how very complex and interesting this man Wojtyla is, and, like the movie "Titanic", the inside story of Poland's liberation is exciting, even though one pretty much already knows how it's going to turn out!.... I was also intrigued by the material in the book detailing the origins of the Pope's unpopular views on women and sex, and by the author's discussion of methods used by John Paul II in his struggle against Soviet tyranny as contrasted to those employed by our own government..... While I don't know whether I believe Kwitny's conclusions about the irresistible force of high moral courage -- will the Pope's methods work for the Dalai Lama against the Red Chinese without Star Wars waiting in the wings?? -- I certainly want to believe them, and the evidence marshalled in Man of the Century is both convincing and inspiring.

You will find yourself laughing out loud at the antics in this book numerous times. I almost fell out of my chair when the book detailed Lame Deer's crime spree of moonshine whiskey and stolen cars. ;-) This one story alone os worth twice the price of the book!

There is much wisdom in this book; but the ceremonies in this book are not entirely accurate.

Many American Indian Nations witheld accurate information, but now more and more of them are coming forward and releasing accurate information. Even some of the Hopi Elders came forward about two years ago and released some of their sacred prophecies. I hope it is not too late.

I am deeply disturbed by the Kettle dance, but I am not of that culture, and have no right to judge it.

I would like to give this book five stars but I can't because some of the ceremonies are wrong.

I say the ceremonies are wrong because I have read ceremonies in many other books, and I have several full blooded American Indian friends, and they confirmed what I read in these other sources.

I recommend these books regarding American Indian Spirituality in the order listed.

"The Sacred Pipe" Joseph Epes Brown

"Native Wisdom" Ed McGaa

"Mother Earth Spirituality" Ed McGaa

"Foolscrow: Wisdom And Power" Thomas E. Mails

"Black Elk: The Sacred ways of the Lakota" Wallace Black Elk & William S. Lyons.

I recommend "The Sacred Pipe" highest because Mr. Brown actualy lived with the famous holyman Nick Black Elk for a few months while gathering information for this book.

Then; there are some books written by Indians that are full of new age pap because it sells. ;-(

I am the proud carrier of a Catlinite (pipestone) pipe that my American Indian friends helped me obtain. I agree with the 1990 quote by Orval Looking Horse "No one should be denied a peace pipe.".

If you have questions or comments; E-mail me. Two Bears.

Wah doh Ogedoda (We give thanks Great Spirit)

People here are prasing this book for the insight it gives into the lives of Native Americans. Not that this book isn't important for its take on Amerindian culture: to say that John Lame Deer doesn't have a grasp on what is important to himself and his people would be improper and negligent.

People are missing two of the things that make this book so powerful: its humor and its take on the white world that exists outside of the reservation. Erdoes commentaries on his Indian visitors, Lame Deer's comments on EVERYTHING, and the voice and process of this book are FUNNY. This book is well-constructed and fun to read. On to the second point: Lame Deer is fairly sucessful in making Europeans often look like clowns-- stripping their culture and sophistication, making them more human....

This book should have a much wider audience than it has ever had (and that is actually fairly substantial, strangely enough....) Not that this is a book that could change a person's life: it could at least give direction to the perplexed. I highly recommend this book....

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Without a lot of unnecessary rhetoric it will have a powerful effect on you, if you only read the introduction.

Let me begin by saying that John Toland is my favorite historian. His book, "But Not In Shame" is my favorite work of history--I have read it several times. His other books are also favorites of mine. That said, his new book of remembrances is a rambling re-hash(with one or two exceptions)of what he has already done. The only time he really made the effort was in describing his youth--which frankly became tedious reading. Anyway, Mr. Toland does not hit the mark, as Ted White did in his "In Search of History." However, He has done so many wonderful works, that I did get through this one.

From his humble origins to his current status as an elder statesman of contemporary historians, any student of life and history has to stand in awe of John Toland's life and accomplishments. Here is the incredibly interesting story of a self-made man, someone who rose to the top based on native ability, sheer guts and talent, and who admits to having had the fates shine their collective everlasting lights on him. "Captured By History" is a very entertaining and quite fascinating book!

No one would have suspected that this quiet and unassuming boy would turn out to be one of the best-loved and widely read popular historians of the century; Toland has little or no formal training as a historian. In this autobiographical journey he evolves from being an amateur writer fortunate enough to graduate in the depths of the Depression from Williams College, a small but exclusive college in western Massachusetts to a vagabond lifestyle of riding the rails during the Depression and attempting to start a life as a professional playwright.

But the intervention of fate in the way of World War two and his experiences led to him to attempt to tell the stories of the men and women he had served with, and as a result he became one of several outstanding popular historians like William Shirer and Cornelius Ryan who enjoyed the wide readership and popular support for thirty or forty years after the war. Toland wrote about aspects of the war after painstaking research on each subject, spending years traveling, interviewing, and documenting before finally writing a particular book. And the books sold, from "Infamy" to "Rising Sun" to "The Last Hundred Days" to "battle" to his phenomenal best seller, "Adolph Hitler".

Toland's style was always unorthodox to most historians, since he did not attempt to make his own 'objectively based' judgments of what had happened in any particular set of historical circumstances, but rather would exhaustively interviewed eye-witnesses and actual participants of events and let them tell the story in their own words, with him acting brilliantly as an integrating narrator to string the story together as non-judgmentally as possible. He trusted the reader's native intelligence and ability to screen out the garbage from the flowers of the truth, and evidently the readers loved the approach, for he was phenomenally successful in his long and distinguished writing career.

This, therefore, is an unusual chronicle of a most singular life spent in fascinating obsession by a rather unorthodox and quite different sort of person. Yet the spellbinding stories revealed here about everyone from Adolph Hitler to the Emperor of Japan make this a spellbinding experience to read, and an objective lesson as to how a person with determination, some native talent and a lot of gumption can come to fashion and hew a life of his own making in his own terms. This is a great book for the lover of biographies and for anyone titillated by an endless scurry of inside stories about the people who made the history of the 20th century what it is.

Recently I found "The Rising Sun" in a used book store. After reading it, I was hooked on John Toland. So I started "In Mortal Combat" and found it so compelling I read it even while brushing my teeth.

As a John Toland fan, I was especially interested in "Captured by History," because he tells how he wrote the other books--how he found the close friends of Adolph Hitler, how he persuaded the key Japanese to tell, for the first time, the roles they played in World War Two.

John Toland's book is valuable for writers, because it contains lessons in interviewing and organizing.

It is an inspiration for anyone struggling to achieve a goal. Do you ever feel like a failure? Well, Toland, one of the greatest historic writers of this century, was a "failure" most of his life. It wasn't until his late 40's that he achieved success as a writer. Toshiko, his wife, reminded him that his years of failure were merely stepping stones toward later success.

John Toland spent a life-time interviewing historic figures of the 20th century. Yet as "Captured by History" reveals, the unobtrusive Toland is, himself, a figure of history.

What I see, and have always seen in Trek, is a basically clean series with noble and good characters. I'm fourteen, and I need influences like that. What I found in this book was that a favorite character of mine has an affair with an alien woman, who has a child, and THEN it turns out that other immoral stuff has happened. I won't spoil it for those of you who will read the book. But what I want to know about a book before reading it is this: Is it good, is it clean, will I enjoy it? While I enjoyed most of the book, (it IS well written) it wasn't very moral. I just want you to know that before you pick it up.

This book has great merit in that it gives you a look at a rather tender side of McCoy that you know is there but seldom see. This is especially apparent as he fights to save a daughter he didn't know he had. He is thrown on an emotional roller coaster in the first few chapters and it doesn't get any easier by the end of the book. My only problem was that the ending just left me hanging. I wanted to know what happens to Anna. Even so, this book is definitely worth reading. I would also highly recommend Weinstein's book Deep Domain.

If you love the trio, and wonder about McCoy's past, then this book is a must! Watch Spock and McCoy battle with the words they use so well, while Kirk is unusually confussed. See McCoy do as any father would to protect his little girl, who just happens not to be so little anymore. And see the dynamic trio come together in the face of danger with surprising skill as only they can, while supporting their valued friend.

This book is a must for those who love to see the trio in action within another secret that becomes news. I laughed throughout the whole book while getting insight into McCoy's past.

Generally speaking, these "four views" book are a very good resource the Christian struggling over controversial issues. However, this book falls short of truly presenting the possible options.

The problem is, the person presenting the Calvinism view is writing from a "high-Calvinism" or "supralapsarian" viewpoint. This was the viewpoint of John Calvin. And the main idea in this view is that before ("supra") the Fall ("lapse"), to glorify Himself, God decided to create humanity so that He could save some of them while damning others. The saved would then glorify God for their salvation when seeing the plight of the damned.

However, this viewpoint is NOT the viewpoint that most Calvinists subscribe to, nor is it the position of the Westminster Confession. The view of most Calvinists and the Confession is "low-Calvinism" or "sublapsarianism."

In this view, to glorify Himself and to extend His love, God created humanity. Then, AFTER ("sub") the Fall, God looked down the corridors of time and decided that out of the mass of sinful humanity He would, by His grace, save some while rightly damning the others for their sin. So this view does not have God creating people in order to damn them as the high-Calvinist view does. There are also other important differences between these two views.

Now in this book most of the arguments the non-Calvinists present against the Calvinist are actually directed towards the areas of Calvinism in which high-Calvinists and low-Calvinists disagree. IOW, the anti-Calvinists arguments would not apply to the version of Calvinism that most Calvinists subscribe to.

So when reading this book, one would not learn what the majority Calvinist viewpoint entails or proposed arguments against it. But my book "Scripture Workbook: For Personal Bible Study and Teaching the Bible" does present this majority view in three chapters on God's Sovereignty and the five points of Calvinism. And these chapters include hundreds of Scripture verses upholding the low-Calvinist viewpoint while refuting proposed arguments against it.

Given this omission of the predominate Calvinist view, I wouldn't particularly recommend "Predestination and Free Will." But if one does get it, then also get a book like mine that presents the low-Calvinist position.

Though I would tend to agree with Dr. Feinberg's view of divine sovereignty and human responsibility, the overall volume was written in too much of a philosophical fashion. The book reads like a university or college philosophy text, rather than a theological treatise. The authors write like philosophers and not like theologians (though Feinberg, Geisler, and Pinnock are theologians). Feinberg advocates the "mild" Calvinist perspective; Geisler advocates the traditional Arminian perspective; Reichenbach advocates a view where God limits His power for the allowance of human freedom; and Pinnock advocates the position where God does not know the future. All but Pinnock's essay are fairly well-written. Pinnock tends to get too emotional and basis his beliefs on human sentimentalities. Overall, though, a good place to start in understanding four views of divine sovereignty and human freedom in Christianity.

This book is one of the first attempts to commingle opposing views on one of the most acute issues in theology : how an Almighty God can control events and yet leave people 'free' enough to be responsible. Putting full weight on the sovereignity of God is John Feinberg, who proposes that God controls everything with nothing having been left out of His will. In this view, all of Man's actions have been ordained since eternity and nothing escapes His determining.

At the extreme opposite is Clark Pinnock coming in with his now very popular (and strong) thesis that God's project of creation involves bestowing humans with the power of agency and genuine creativity; the future is 'open' and God can be genuinely surprised and disappointed by His creatures. In between Feinberg and Pinnock, we have Norman Geisler proposing a model in which God's desires still cannot be disappointed in spite of the genuinely free - the technical word used throughout is 'contra-causal' - actions of people (in the sense that everything that ever happened and will happen falls within the plan of God) and Bruce Reichenbach defending probably the most popular view around: that God does not get everything He desired because His mode of governance does not consist of controlling every iota in existence, but rather involves delegation. Both uphold exhaustive foreknowledge.

I was impressed with Feinberg's introduction to the various possibilities involved with the word 'can'. Still I felt it wasn't necessary since the whole issue revolves around the fact that whatever we do has been 'fed into' and 'determined' for us since eternity and done so in an unconditional way. We can define freedom whatever way we care to, but the fact that God's determining hand has an UNCONDITIONAL role completely rules out whatever defense Feinberg's theology can have for our accountability towards evil.

The best portion in Geisler's writings was his exposition of self-determinism (with which I'm sure Pinnock and Reichenback would agree). I think he hit the hammer on the head by his assertion that it is meaningless to ask what 'caused' the actor to choose his actions. This is like asking how God created the world ex nihilo. And I think this adds damage to Feinberg's case, because he (Feinberg) fails to consider that there is an irreducible element of 'self' in any meaningful talk of personal choices - and that this element simply cannot be 'pointed to'. Feinberg's constant requests for what caused a choice shows some kind of 'metaphysical Newtonianism', IMO. Almost like asking, "What CAUSED him to fall in love with his wife?". However, Geisler seems to be reveling in the contradiction of taking the strong points of determinism and indeterminism, juxtaposing them together and leaving it at that (as Reichenbach carefully points out). Nevertheless he has a wonderful habit of first stating on what points he agreed with the author he's criticising. That's quite a gracious move, I must say.

Reichenbach presents a rather 'heavy-going' but clearly argued essay on how God has opted not for meticulous control but broad governance of His universe (something like the mayor of a city who delegates responsibility to his subordinates). Only the staunchest determinist would find problems with Reichenback's argument that God grants us freedom within limits to fulful our given role as stewards of the created order. Overall, I think many Arminian Christians would hold to Reichenbach's view which, except for his view on foreknowledge, could be easily added to Pinnock's essay without contradiction. Unfortunately, I felt his criticism of Pinnock's theory that God cannot 'know' free future actions, to have missed the point. Pinnock wasn't so much saying that God can't predict future actions, just that some future actions cannot be infallibly known (God's repentance documented so many times in Scripture should make this clear).

As for Pinnock, what can I say? He writes like a music-lover simultaneously enjoying and explaining a symphony to a friend. I think most open theists (like me) would've preferred a presentation more solidly grounded in Scripture but as a beautiful description of the creative project God has decided to embark on and of the 'flower of human freedom' He has blessed His people with, Pinnock's essay is quite second to none. He may not convince anyone not willing to let go of God's total foreknowledge but his work does have an emotional, and almost surreal, appeal to our hearts.

For the Calvinist, this book will be a good challenge to (and, hopefully, a source for modification of) your ideas. I think many will agree that Feinberg seems almost 'lost for words' throughout. Determinism is really a dead-end; the power of God may be upheld but it is a great cost to His love and our understanding of evil. For the Arminian, Reichenbach's work add sufficient intellectual support to your beliefs. Ironically, Geisler's explanation of 'self-determinism' can be fully integrated into your understanding of humanity without accepting his odes to determinism (just read what Reichenbach has to say). For the open theist, there are probably better places to look if you want more support for the non-actual ontological status of the future in the present. But Geisler and Reichenbach still provide necessary criticisms of the theory and implications that God may not know all the future, and it's always good to know the possible problems with our position. For the 'general reader', do get this book for a solid introduction to the issues involves and the arguments and assumptions employed by the various theological camps.

And no, we're not 'ordained from eternity' to read this book but let's put some of our human agency to good use and self-determine to dig in and think through the kind of world (and life) God has created for us.

Mr. Vornholt must be new to the Spider-Man story as this novel is poorly written and certain characters act out of character. Then again, the Lizard is the one Spider-Man villian that you can not do a lot of stories on, so it wasn;t all the fault of the author.

John Vornholt went all out when he wrote this great novel! It's a true page turner. The best spidey book I have read in a long time! Jam-Packed with action! You will not be able to put this book down, every page it keeps getting better and better. This is a good book everyone should read. The way spidey and the Lizard faced off was just great! This is a Slam-Bam action-packed book you'll love. If your looking for a good spider-man book to read well Valley of the Lizard is your answer!

This novel was one of the best spider-man novels I read this year. Dr. Conners' journal entries were interesting and quite detailed. The cultural aspects were great. The story of greed and corruption totally blew me away. The lizard acted even more savage in this novel than in previous ones. This is a story of true loyalty and allegiance. It took place mostly in various regions of Mexico but the involvement in New York still existed. Peter Parker showed a compassionate side toward his friend. This story will truly change your thoughts on the Lizard showing you how cruel it can be. All the pain and suffering Curt Conners must go through is unbelievable. This is a must read for all marvel comics/spider-man fans. I was a little skeptical at first but trust me, ya gotta read this. So check it out.

This is a complicated and mysterious book by a writer with an amazing command of his prose. The tragic story is doled out in tiny slivers along with a vivid description of the imagined Mediteraenan location where the events unfold. The narrator is a self-proclaimed "love singer" who is desperately proud of his marriage and of the many, many women he has loved during his marriage. It's hard at least for this reader to be sure how ironically we are to view the protagonists advocacy of totally free love. The narrator clearly blames the stories tragic outcome on the small-mindedness of his rival in love--I at least am left wondering whether the author means us to blame the victim or the protagonist. The story can be oppressive at times with its pervasive melancholy--but it certainly makes you think. Hawkes is a terrific writer and this is a challenging, difficult and definitely uncomfortable work of genius.

Hawkes' sensuality at its most accessible, a work whose difficultly may be off-putting to some readers, but whose rewards run deep. Sex and death repose in contented embrace from beginning to end; from fetid canals to crab-strewn plates.

John Hawkes has created some of the most beautiful prose ever penned; the word surface in this book is as memorable and enjoyable as any I've read, at turns surprising, sensual, poetic, and often all of this and more. As an extended flight of the imagination 'The Blood Oranges' explores regions of desire, fidelity, and repression that many have gestured towards or illuminated in passing, but that few have mapped extensively. For me, it stands as tremendously courageous writing, and writing elevated by a pervasive and exciting humour. It's very funny, in the way that Beckett's or Kafka's prose can be - and Hawkes' deserves to be considered as a writer of their stature. I only wish I'd been exposed to his writing sooner. He's a genius.