This is essentially Jung's version of "Civilization and its Discontents," a broadly sketched overview of Who We Are and How We Got Here. Jung basically argues for the importance of the individual as opposed to the mob, the latter taking the form of totalitarianism. Despite many references to the Iron Curtain (this book first appeared in the 1950's), it is not really "dated," unless you want to argue that contemporary society has since become immune to the dangers of mindless group-think. Jung's point here has nothing specifically to do with Communism.

Still, I found some of Jung's thought tediously familiar. Let's face it, practically every intellectual from Rousseau to the Unabomber has believed that their contemporaries had somehow lost touch with their true nature, and has had their own ideas about reuniting us all with our Inner Whatever-you-call-it. In its general outline, "The Undiscovered Self" does not exactly represent an advance in human thought--at least not in my view. But Jung does have some compelling insights, particularly his notion (which I cannot help but think is the absolute truth) that human conflicts essentially boil down to the tendency to project our own weaknesses (our "shadow side") onto others. It will, if nothing else, give you something to think about.

Also, this book (in the R.F.C. Hull translation) taught me my favorite word of the day: "chiliastic."

This is a great introductory book to one of the best psychologist/philosophers of our time. It is a king of tough read, but not a like his other works. This one can be read (with dictionary of course) as opposed to studied, although I did read it twice. Simply a fascinating book to read. Do yourself a big favor and get to know Jung.

The only book by Carl Jung that I could read (as opposed to study), and easily understand and appreciate. Although written at the time of the cold war, his thoughts on the individual, religion and the state are as relevant today and truly timeless. I recommend The Undiscovered Self as the best introduction to one of the greatest psychologists and philosophers of the 20th century.

A very good book for those just beginning to study Gnostic Christianity ("Elements of Gnosticism" by Stuart Holroyd and "The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels are also very good).

I especially liked the chapter "The Secret Sayings of Jesus". In that chapter, the author provided a very helpful analysis of selected sayings from "The Gospel of Thomas". That analysis gave me a good basic understanding of the Gnostic Jesus.

The chapter "Means of Transformation", equally good, basically puts Gnostic Christians in a good light. It accomplishes that by refuting some of the negative stereotypes against Gnostic Christians (for example the erroneous ideas that they hate God and the physical world and have no regard for virtue).

The chapter "Redemption and Ecstasy" is also interesting to me, personally, because it drew some parallels between Gnostic Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism's Kabbalah. Students of comparative religion, I believe, would find that chapter of interest.

As for the Jungian content of the book, I unfortunately can't really comment on it. The reason is that I admit that I have never read any of Jung's works only Gnostic interpretations of it. Let's just say I'm learning about Jung little by little as a side benefit of reading Gnostic writings.

Jung And The Lost Gospels: Insights Into The Dead Sea Scrolls And The Nag Hammadi Library is an incredible and fascinating survey of the similarities between the traditions of the Essene authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic authors of the Apostolic Age. Thoughtful as well as thought-provoking, persuasively argued, meticulously researched, and superbly presented, Jung And The Lost Gospels draws unique parallels across the eras of Judeo-Christian history and highly recommended reading for students of Jungian psychology, Judaic Studies, and the evolution of first century Christian historian and doctrine.

Among the many scores of books on Gnosticism now available, there are two which I consider essential reading: "The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels and this book, "Jung and the Lost Gospels", by Stephan Hoeller. Pagels elucidates the nature and historical roots of Gnosticism while introducing the Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi. Hoeller carries the discussion forward to our own time and brings the immediacy of a modern psychological understanding to the ageless message of Gnosis.

Readers who delve directly into a reading of the Nag Hammadi Library often find themselves bewildered -- or simply overwhelmed -- by the complexity of the Gnostic worldview. Hoeller offers aid by clearly and systematically examining the central themes and myths of Gnosticism. His discussion of the Essene communities (whose writings we find in the Dead Sea Scrolls) helps further develop a basic understanding of the creative and heterogeneous visionary environment in which Christianity was born.

The name "Jung" (as in C. G. Jung, the Swiss psychologist) may attract some readers, while undoubtedly frightening many others. Hoeller is not overbearing in his use of Jung. This is a book about the birth and continuing life of Gnosticism. Those seeking a living understanding of "Gnosis" will find here wonderful new insights into both Gnosticism, Jung, and themselves.

Finally, somebody put a face on type! This is a wonderful book: a graphical guide to the 16 MBTI types. I feel like I have just switched over from DOS to Windows. Why hasn't anybody done this before? I have always found the 16 MBTI codes to be a little dry and lacking in "personality." For many years, I have failed to get my friends and family interested in the 16 MBTI codes. Now, when I show them the picture system and icons in this book, they light up, they finally start to get it. And, I am seeing the 16 types in a whole new light myself. It is so great to be able to talk to my loved ones in the same language now. I copied and put icons of the whole family up on the refrigerator. It works! We are very different people. Now, we argue a little less, and laugh a little more. Picture=1000 words. I am so happy to have found this book. Thank you.

I had the pleasure of attending Mr. Lopker's presentation on
personality types and parenting at the Sun Valley Mountain Wellness Festival in 2002. I then purchased his book "Pictures of Personalities" and I was amazed to say the least. My daughter and I had what you would call Personality differences. After reading this book I see my daughter in a whole new light. I understand "her" and myself better and we have had an open communication ever since.

Pictures of Personality illustrates everything very well including the four letter MBTI codes. Also, it covers the four temperaments and shows how they fit into the 16 types. It is certainly not bedtime reading. Parts of it are very challenging, but I found that it soon soaks in. It is very precisely written with clear definitions of all the different divisions that create the types. The color coded graphics (one set looks like the icons on international road signs) made it easy for me to get a mental picture of each personality type.

This is It. Great drawings, many useful photos, a wealth of measurements and wood machining advice. So far, only one measurement error has been discovered: the starting length for the board from which the arm pieces are cut for the Morris chair should be 42-1/2 inches, not 37 inches.

The nine projects are authentic Gustav Stickley Craftsman designs, and are not for the novice. Most are for the accomplished intermediate woodworker. If you can find the piece that you are looking to build from the list of nine, then you need look no further.

Here are the nine projects:

Mirror

Screen

Combination Bookcase and Table (Spindle Sides and dividers)

Rocker

Recliner (Drop-arm panel-side Morris Chair)

Settle (panel)

Dining Table (Open-frame, keyed-tenon single stretcher)

Bookcase (captured panel sides, small panes at the top of the doors)

Clock Case (lattice-front grandfather clock)

I purchased this book as a guide to building a version of a Stickley piece of furniture. I have found an error that quickly became very costly in the projects section on the book. The "Morris Chair" project materials list calls for lumber dimension of 37" by 5" by 1" for the arms. Next, the text of the project specifies "From the extra length of the arm provided by the oversize dimension given in the materials list, cut a piece 5 1/2" in length." Well, that is where the problem lies. The FINISHED arm should measure 37" long. We just cut 5 1/2" from that measure, leaving 31 1/2" arm. The materials list should read : 42 1/2" by 5" by 1" . At the prices for Quarter Sawn White Oak these days, you wont want to make the same mistake.

This book starts with a good history of Stickley furniture and the philosophy behind it. It also covers the materials and methods used to build arts & crafts furniture.

After that are plans for several pieces of arts & crafts furniture. The plans are very detailed. They refer back to the methods section for how to do certain parts. There are pictures and diagrams to help with the construction.

I first read this book (as a German translation) over 20 years ago and was impressed by Zen philosophy that from then on slowly crept into my life. At that time I did not understand very much about Zen--there was very little literature available. So this book was exactly what I was looking for after I got interested in the subject from reading Jack Kerouac's "Dharma Bums". The copy I had got lost over the years after borrowing it to a number of friends, so I finally bought a new copy.
Suzuki's "Introduction to Zen Buddhism" helped a lot to open the door to Zen Buddhism and philosophy and to wet my appetite to learn more about it. To a westerner eastern philosophy can be pretty tough to digest, so I was always a bit suspicious about western authors explaining eastern philosophy. After learning about Suzuki's life he was definitely credible to me. Another important aspect about his books is that he wrote them in English himself. All too often excellent books from far eastern sources got messed up by mediocre or pretty bad translations.
The only things I did not like about this book, something also found in a number of other books of this kind, is the too lengthy introduction. However written by a famous and very knowledgeable man (from the west) it did not contribute lot to the book's subject.
Something else I missed after re-reading the book after more than 20 years is the fact that there is no real practical advice on how to get started with Zazen the proper way.
"Introduction to Zen Buddhism" is not an easy read (like many Zen books), but it has definitely become one of the more important Zen books in my library.

Zen Buddhism was systemically introduced to the West by Zen master Suzuki. He wrote several books on Zen in plain English and those books are still counted as basic materials to understand Zen. This book cites numerous anecdotes of the heyday of Zen Buddhism, Tang dynasty. This is the typical style of Zen primer.
Buddha attacked the Hinduist concept of atman. Atman is similar to the Platonic forms, that is, all phenomenons have their substance. This way of thought is deeply ingrained in our language. For example, ¡®I¡¯ am always ¡®I¡¯. When I was 5 years old, when I was 20 years old, and when I will be 60 years. And that, we think, with no questioning, those ¡®I¡¯s should have the same identity. And our friends should be so. But those ¡®I¡¯ and she/he could not be the same ones. What always is there is only the name we give. You could know it with no being lost in thought. Buddha taught that the object that our attention is directed lacks the substance and what we really recognize is only the name. The enlightenment, the ultimate goal of Buddhism, is just breaking through the boundaries of that kind of mundane thought. But achieving such breaking is near-impossible. We could understand what Buddha said but knowing is not doing.
Mahayana Buddhism built up heady mountain of scriptures. By the 12 c., it amounted to 160 thousands pages in total. Zen suspected that the enlightenment couldn¡¯t be achieved with reading scripts and meditation. It is best reached not by the study of scripture, the practice of good deeds, rites and ceremonies, or worship of images, but by shaking up ordinary inertia. Zen Buddhism employed Koans to do it. Koan is a brief paradoxical statement or question used as a discipline in meditation. The effort to solve a koan is designed to exhaust the analytic intellect and the will, leaving the mind open for response on an intuitive level. There are about 1,700 traditional koans, which are based on anecdotes from ancient Zen masters. They include the well-known example "When both hands are clapped a sound is produced; listen to the sound of one hand clapping." This should sound the at best illogical at worst babble. But koan is the typical way to reach to the enlightenment in Zen Buddhism. And it is inevitable to write the history of Zen Buddhism is to write the list of koans. This book is no exception. But each koan had its own situation. So each koan should be introduced with its own locale. And this determines the writing style of the Zen primers: almost all Zen primers take the form of storytelling. And Zen master Suzuki is an excellent raconteur.
But Suzuki restrains himself to storyteller, not interpreter of each koan. So you should guess the meaning of koans by yourself. This is the very tradition of Zen-related books. Suzuki could put the meaning of koans in words. But such wording can¡¯t catch the very essence of koan. You should realize it by yourself. All the cues are in this book.

D.T. Suzuki (1870 - 1966) is usually credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to America, and in AN INTRODUCTION TO ZEN BUDDHISM he covers Zen in a scholastic and erudite fashion. Suzuki's use of English is extremely complex, but his style gets information across very well.

While expounding on the basics of Zen, Suzuki is always quick to respond to questions the reader might have. He dedicates an entire chapter to countering the oft-heard argument that Zen is nihilistic. The final chapter covers daily life for Zen monks, giving Westerners a glimpse of what is common knowledge for Japanese (or was several generations ago).

The book is not perfect, however. Suzuki covers only the Rinzai school of Japanese Buddhism, leaving the Soto school out in the cold. Also, like any Japanese Zen scholar, he tends to do a little Theravada bashing, claiming that it is "primitive" and unrefined.

D.T. Suzuki was a professor of Buddhist studies, and not a Zen adept himself, so it is important to also read an account of Zen from a personal and practical angle, to complement Suzuki's scholarly approach. For that, I recommend QUESTIONS TO A ZEN MASTER with Taisen Deshimaru.

I am not a psychologist. I am a curious reader who wanted to know more about Jung's psychology. I had not read any of Jung's work before, and now, having read the book, I feel I have a good grasp of Jung's major concepts.

Joseph Campbell edits this volume and writes a nice introduction, explaining briefly Jung's major achievements. At the end, he's included an outline of Jung's complete works, which catalogs the amazing fecundity of Jung's mind. I was hoping that Campbell, hero of mythology that he is, would have included some of Jung's mythological work in this book, like a clip from "Symbols of Transformation," but he didn't. What a pity.

After Campbell's intro, the book consists of three parts: one focusing on Jung's theory, one on Jung's application of his theory, and the third part contains some curiosities that demonstrate the range of Jung's thinking.

(Part I) Introduces Jung's Big Ideas. The collective unconscious; archetypes; the psychological types (introversion/extroversion and all that jazz). Most of this section is easy and stimulating to get through, until you hit the psychological types, which get very technical. If you think about how the types apply in real life to people you know, it makes plowing through Jung's dry descriptions a little easier.

(Part II) Jung in action. Campbell gives us a healthy serving of Jung's dream analyses, which I recommend skimming, unless you're really into alchemical symbology. The two essays on contemporary life are still fresh.

(Part III) The essay on synchronicity is a mind-bending read, and it makes you suddenly aware of all those little coincidences in life. "An Answer to Job" starts off as a playful, almost Nietzschean essay where Jung performs a psychological deconstruction on the god of the Old Testament. Then it degenerates into a discussion of the psychological development of the idea of god as traced through the Bible, which turns out to be not exciting as it sounds.

Even if Jung occasionally crosses the boundary of credibility, you get the sense that he's a true scholar, dedicated first and foremost to seeking the truth. This volume is a good peep into the mind of one of the twentieth century's most daring thinkers exploring the uncharted depths of the human psyche.

Another good intro to Jung that's easier to get through is "Man and his Symbols."

This concise little book was my initiation into the ideas of one of the founding fathers of psychiatry, Carl Jung. I found it to be as clear & complete as possible outside of actually going through Jungian therapy itself.

Any beginning psychology student wishing to understand Jung's emphasis on symbolism & archetypes would do well to pick this up (along with Man & His Symbols). The highlight of the book is the text On Synchronicity, with Jung, himself, detailing how we ascribe meaning to events we consider "signs", and the impact on our lives.

This book can also provide an understanding of Jung's infamous split with Freud, who had been his mentor. Jung's theories show themselves to be much more adaptable to the spiritual & individual conflicts of a person rather than the primitive bestiality of Freud's "id". Jung acknowledges a person's capacity to reflect & restore, therefore empowering a patient to find guidance & direction in harmony WITH his beliefs.

Edited by Joseph Campbell, this 650 page book does a phenomenal job of encapsulating the essence of Dr. Carl Gustav Jung's psychological concepts. The Introduction gives us an overview of Dr. Jung's life and published books which is no small task. The book starts out by describing the functions of the psyche and how it develops from childhood and throughout the lifespan. The role of instinct and the unconcsious are described next. The role of archetypes and the collective unconsious is given a thorough review. The psychological types: of extraversion and introversion are connected with the feeling, thinking, sensing, and intuitive functions as theorized by Jung. Dream symbolism and alchemy are analyzed in depth. The roles of transcendence, the anima, animus, shadow and synchronicity are examined in the development of the psyche, as man creates meaning in life. This is one of the best introductions to Jungian psychology on the market. It provides a great sampling of his works and simplifies the concepts for the average reader. Most readers will delve further into the vast universe of Jungian psychology immediately after reading just this one book. Erika B. (erikab93)

This was a good reference for those looking to restore their Arts & Crafts, or Craftsman style home. We utilized this book to assist our architect in the design and final detailed drawings. It was worth the price.

This book, aside from the introduction, is comprised of reprints of articles, with photos and blueprints, on bungalows originally featured in the magazine "The Craftsman" from 1903 through 1916. Although only a couple of the homes described therein were actually designed by Stickley, the whole book was a delight. In their day, the cost to build these homes ranged from $2000 to a whopping $4000! The homes are from a simpler time, when closets were tiny and bathrooms were few, but the woodwork and stonework are inspiring. Important features of these homes include use of materials indigenous to the area so the home harmonizes with its surroundings, living porches, sleeping porches, fireplaces, and open floorplans. Not only is this book a delightful trip through the history of this style of home, it is also quite educational and contains many timeless ideas which would could be incorporated beautifully into today's homes as well.

As a Professional Interior Designer enamoured with Craftsman style homes I use this book as a resource almost daily. It provides inspiration for details that give period charm yet are very practical in todays interiors. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to organize and unclutter their home and add charm and create value while doing so. Craftsman details have roots in Asian and Shaker periods when life was less cluttered. The built-in millwork allows us to conceal the electronics required in this day and age and provide us with a more peaceful view of life.

This book was a disappointment. While the subject matter was very intriguing--the life and loves of a famous woman in Europe at the beginning of the century, I found Phillip Max writing unbearable. He does not manage to give any depth to his characters. We learn about Alma and her inconsistences and caprices, but we do not understand what drives her. The reader is left to his/her own trying to figure out why Alma and the people around her act the way they do. At points tedious, the story rushes through Alma's life and does not leave the reader with a real idea of time.

The only plus to this novel that I found is that it sparked my interest to look for Alma's autobiography--I would never think to rely on Max for even a fictional perspective on her.

"The Artist's Wife" is based on the life of Viennese beauty, Alma Schindler, an incredible woman with hair of (seemingly) spun gold, who married, believe it or not, the composer Gustav Mahler, Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius and the writer Franz Werfel. All of them, including Gustav Klimt, the most important painter of fin-de-siecle Europe, loved her to distraction and swore that a part, at least, of his most profound and greatest work was inspired, both by her and by his passion for her.

Alma, while being quite successful as a muse, was less successful as a mistress and a wife, and she was certainly no "good girl." She sometimes had more than one lover at a time and felt no shame in the situation. Instead, she called herself "a collector of geniuses." She was, by turns, a seductress, a flirt, a romantic and a real delight. She was also dreadfully anti-Semitic despite the fact that she had, not one, but two, Jewish husbands, Mahler and Werfel.

This book is called "fiction" but it is really based on Alma's own memoirs. Phillips writes the story from Alma's point of view, however, from beyond the grave, and he tosses in carefully chosen bits of imagined conversation, etc., causing the book to be classified as "fiction" rather than "fact."

Alma is not a character we can admire, but she is certainly interesting. She is a restless spirit in death and in life she was often selfish and downright mean. More than anything, she is vain, but she is not vain about everything. She does realize that she, too, has her faults. As she says about her voice, "I screeched all the Wagner roles until I ruined a good mezzo-soprano voice." And, as she once wrote in her diary, "I'm utterly vulgar, superficial, sybaritic, domineering and egoistic!"

If Alma was hard on herself, she was even harder on her husbands and lovers and even her potential lovers. She was a notorious flirt who often brought men to their knees only to spurn them in the most ungracious manner. One sometimes wonders why she bothered marrying at all; her opinion of the men in her life seems so very low. Gropius, who seems like an Adonis to Alma at first, sours as well, leaving Alma bored and lonely at only thirty-two and ready for an encounter with the wild, possessive and jealous painter, Oskar Kokoschka, who is six years her junior. Kokoschka, in the end, loses out to Gropius who, despite his boring qualities is more of a genius than is Kokoschka. Kokoschka doesn't take his humiliation at all well and what he does is pitiful, a little shocking and even a little funny. And, to be sure, the humor of the situation isn't lost on Alma.

Sadly, in some ways, Alma Schlinder, whose life so depended on her good looks and her vibrant wit, oulived almost everyone around her and lost both her looks and her wit at about the same time.

Although some readers have complained about the rather staccato prose in this book, it is prose that fits exactly the way Alma wrote in her own memoirs, so I think it is very fitting that Phillips adopted this style. And while some readers will no doubt see Alma as simply vain and mean-spirited, she was fascinating...there can be no doubt about that. I think Phillips has done a marvelous job in capturing the qualities and the vibrancy of Alma that made her so irresistible to so many men, despite the fact that she never really respected them, and perhaps, never really loved them.

I loved this book. I thought it was interesting, well-written and vivacious...just as vivacious as was Alma Schindler in her youth. And that is really saying a lot.

I approached this book with some trepidation, not quite "fear and loathing" perhaps, but close enough. My reason? Simple enough. My fondness for Gustav Mahler's music - irrespective of what warts the man may or may not have had - made me think twice before reading a fictionalized version of "the wild brat's story" and how it might have distorted my own version of reality concerning my favorite composer. I shouldn't have worried.

Some thirty-odd years ago, I had the opportunity to read an English translation of Alma Mahler Werfel's "Ein Leben mit Gustav Mahler" ("My Life with Gustav Mahler"). The book was not mine, and I regret not having my own copy to this day, if for no other reason than that Alma edited these reminiscences with a rather heavy hand, lest the reader get the idea that she was less than devoted to Mahler. Of course, even then, her legend preceded her. Those of a certain age (and I am one of them) well remember Tom Lehrer's send-up of her, sung to the melody of "Alma Mater." A tune as trenchant commentary, deservedly so.

Well, if there's nothing new under the sun from Tom Lehrer (and others) from then till now, why in the world should one read this "autobiographical" novel? For the simple reason that Max Phillips has fashioned an excellent tale about a fascinating woman whose greatest adventures occurred during a time when her fin-de-siècle Vienna and Hapsburg world was simultaneously both filled with intriguing characters and at the brink of chaos and collapse.

Despite her own heavy hand at personal "damage control," there is plenty of historical corroborating information (including those parts of her diaries and memoirs that she did indeed approve for publication) to state that Alma was clearly all of these: Self-absorbed, wilful, modestly talented, unafraid of her own sexuality, a flame to the moths of creative genius of the times, a sometime muse to these geniuses, and self-appointed - or perhaps self-anointed - champion and guardian of the arts of her times, with her "Sundays" (salons at which all the rich and famous of the arts of the period grovelled for her invitations and attention). She was also beautiful by the day's standards, and suffered from both deafness and alcoholism. Nevertheless, she outlived all but one of her husbands and lovers, living to the ripe old age of 84, by that time a barely-subdued doyenne. (Of her paramours, only Oskar Kokoschka outlived her, finally expiring at the very ripe old age of 94 in 1980.)

In an endnote, Phillips begins by stating "To put it mildly, this is not a work of scholarship." While perhaps true - because Phillips does take minor liberties with the timings and juxtaposition of events and (probably) major liberties with words placed in the mouths of his panoply of characters - he is being entirely too modest (perhaps with tongue implanted firmly in cheek) regarding these liberties. For, at the end of it all, one does come away with a clear sense of "what Alma was all about," and of an epoch and its end. The latter is detailed better in "Wittgenstein's Vienna" by Allan Janik and Stephen Toulmin, a true work of scholarship available elsewhere at Amazon.com. But, where Janik and Toulmin are factual - almost, but not quite, to the point of pedanticism - Phillips is downright trenchant in his observations on the epoch and in the words he puts in his characters' mouths.

At the end, the tale turned out to be both a hoot and a valuable backward glance at an artistic period and place which we in America regrettably understand not well at all. As I said at the outset, "I shouldn't have worried."

The subject matter of this book deserves a 5, the writing deserves a 0. Jung should have taken a course on writing - he used typical psycho babble and unnecessarily complex wording to discuss the concept of synchronicity, which is an incredibly interesting topic. Unless you know latin, greek (yes he actually wrote some quotes in greek letters), and have a good understanding of astrology, I suggest you find one of the many contemporary books on the subject to read. If, like me, you feel you have to go to the source to get a better understanding of the topic, then I suggest that, at a minimum, you skip the chapter on astrology, or, better yet, skip the entire book, and read only the appendix. In the 10 or so pages of the appendix, he summarizes the entire book.

Bad writing on a great subject.

I read this book as a free-reading experience and although you may ask why it is becaue books like this are interesting to me at 16 years old. Although I thought it was a bit difficult and there were a lot of terms I didn't know, I still understood most of what C.G. Jung was trying to say. If you decide to read this book I suggest keeping a dictionary nearby or at least have some prior knowledge to many different pyschological terms. Not a lot of the things he said can be proven currently with our current technology but that doesn't mean this book won't provide interesting insight into the world of psychology.

This book will forever be linked in my mind with the Police album, just like Lolita links with "Don't Stand So Close To Me." One of the things I like most about this book is that it is easy to read and not intimidating. For starters, it's not very long and the language is not challenging. Jung uses a lot of interesting stories to explain his theories of synchronicity, when unrelated things seem to happen together at the same time with a purpose. The first time I read this book, I found that while I was reading it, I would experience synchronicity. For instance, I was reading it on my lunch break from work and I ran into one of my coworkers that I had a crush on. Maybe that's just a coincidence, but maybe there are greater forces at work. I would say that if you are intimidated by reading huge books by Jung, this is a good book to get started with, and it will definitely give you something about which to think.

The 1970's expanded version of this book is of questionable authenticity. The expanded edition purports to recall conversations from many decades earlier. The circumstances of the manuscript's discovery don't add up either. As for the original edition, it may be somewhat more reliable, but should be taken with a grain of salt too, especially when there are quotation marks. See ""Janouch's "Conversations With Kafka' Some Questions" in Modern Fiction Studies, Winter 1971-1972, 555-556. Peter F. Neumeyer

I'm surprised to see this book is in print. I stumbled on a copy of the 1971, revised second clothbound edition in a community college library and have never seen it anywhere else.

Kafka is a hard man to know, let alone to like, through his fiction. One feels respect, admiration, awe ... but perhaps not affection or warmth. This book, compiled by a youthful acquaintance from his memories of chats with Kafka, provides a wonderfully human, if dubiously accurate (how could he remember all these lengthy quotations?), image of the man.

At times he seems pragmatically direct, even patronising to his listener: "There is too much noise in your poems; it is a by-product of youth, which indicates an excess of vitality. So that the noise is itself beautiful, though it has nothing in common with art. On the contrary! The noise mars the expression...." Sometimes he can be sardonic, as when he refers to newspapers as the vice of civilization -- they offer the events of the world with no meaning, a "heap of earth and sand" -- and remarks, "It's like smoking; one has to pay the printer the price of poisoning oneself." (Good thing he didn't live to see TV!)

More often, Kafka comes across as some sort of Zen master: "Just be quiet and patient. Let evil and unpleasantness pass quietly over you. Do not try to avoid them. On the contrary, observe them carefully. Let active understanding take the place of reflex irritation, and you will grow out of your trouble. Men can achieve greatness only by surmounting their own littleness."

Janouch relates a story from his father that Kafka once paid a powerful lawyer-friend to help out an injured laborer with his application for a disability pension, get his rightful compensation, and beat Kafka's employer, the Accident Insurance Institution.

Give this book five stars for interest and readability, three stars for shaky accuracy, and average at four.

Have you ever met a man who is so very shy and humble, that unlike Christ, who would take disciples, he stood alone by himself, remained unknown to all of us, till after he died, his friends started deparately publishing/telling his stories? Yet he still remained in the mystery. Not because he is lack of charm and wisdom, but because almost 80 years passed and a time that such a great soul lived has vanished so completely, we know no one that ever came close, and we no longer can recognize him. If you read the morden text-book literature ciritic, you would be so completely lost in the noise of the scholars, that you never know the truth.

I also read the first edition a couple years ago, (knowing that it was out of print for years, I photocopied the book page to page) it was also to my great surprise to see the book in print now, without knowing that the new edition has added many more flesh to the great man it described. I also found every page of it fascintaing to read, I like to have it in my reach, and randomly open one page and read. I also doubted how a 17year old can record the long comment by Kafka that he could hardly understand - so I close my eyes and try to imagine a young man in love with poetry and music, with a memory and heart that is still untainted - and I believe he can write this book.

If you love Kafka's book, I can challenge you with 99% assurance that you don't understand what he is telling you. If you follow the morden text-book critic like a dog, then you are absolutely wrong. If you still have space for truth in your mind, I challenge you to read Kafka more carefully, closer to your heart and, if you still don't understand him well, read his letters, diaries, and try this book as well. To me, this book helps greatly! It is eye opening! It is a must for any one who likes Kafka's work.