Don't let the title put you off, there is very little in this book that would shock a modern audience. Times certainly ain't what they used to be. Brassai's photos and writings of a time now long gone however will slowly infuse in you a strange and somewhat uncomfortable nostalgia for a time long before you were born and places you wouldn't visit had you been born. Removed so far in time, it's all very safe - perhaps.

Fr. Miller gives a thorough explanation and demonstration showing St. Therese's spiritual growth based on the teachings of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. Only two things I would want a purchaser to be aware of.

One - From time to time it reads a little like a collage thesis. It isn't difficult to understand but you could feel like you are in a lecture.

Two - This turned out to be a big plus for me. About 1/3 into the book I realized that I needed to have a better understanding of the teachings of St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila. I had previously stayed away from their writing. What a mistake! I would recommend an introductory book on their teachings. For me this was Fr. DuBay's Fire Within. Fr. Miller quotes him late in his book so it's safe to say it has his recommendation too.

If you are a serious student of Carmelite spirituality or St. Therese, you want to read this book.

To commemorate the centennial of the Little Flower's death in 1997, Fr. Miller has given lectures on St. Theres's "Little Way of Spiritual Childhood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook where he teaches systematic theology and spirituality. His book is not a popularization but a scholarly work of spiritual theology, the result of his painstaking research into a controverted question about Therese's spiritual life.

Despite her exceptional training in faith and virtue at home and her precocious mastery of Carmelite spirituality, St. Therese underwent a terrifying trail of faith during the months of her terminal illness. She was tempted to doubt the existence of an afterlife, of heaven, the possibility of ever seeing her Lord, to whom she had consecrated her life. Several spiritual authors have interpreted her trial of faith as a "passive purgation" - as the suffering of an imperfect soul in the refiner's fire of God's love.

Fr. Miller however argues that Therese had passed through that stage of spiritual development earlier, possibly while she was waiting to enter the convent. His book defends the thesis that the Little Flower experienced the "Mystical Marriage" during her earthly life, and that her final trial was in fact an expression of her mystical union with Christ and a sharing in his sufferings for the sake of his body, the Church.

This book sheds a quiet light on the Christian mystery of salvific suffering.

(From Homiletic and Pastoral Review Reviewed by Michael J. Miller, Glenside, PA.)

In 17th century Europe monarchy was the norm, from the western kings of England and France to the tsars of all the Russias. They were the natural order of things -- and yet the English executed Charles I and abolished the monarchy and the Valois-Bourbon civil war threatened to overturn the monarchy in France. Miller examines and compares the monarchical institutions in both countries, concluding that their governmental crises led to ephemeral superficiality under France's Louis XIV but strengthened the government of William and Mary in England. A scholarly but not difficult work and quite rewarding to the student of monarchical history.

If you're rushing through meal preparation with one eye onthe clock, or if you're picking up greasy bags of fast foodon your way home, this book will give you, pun intended, foodfor thought. The astounding thing about Pierre Franey's account of growing up in rural France is the obssessive,hands-on, all-encompassing effort to make the best use ofavailable resources to produce wonderful meals. Don't missthe tale of rabbit hunting with a secret weapon -- a petferret, or the story about stealing the pear. This is sobittersweet, it's unforgettable. AND it has recipes!!!

William "Fishbait" Miller is one of those obscure figures who were lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to observe more of America's recent political history than the majority of us could ever hope to know. We could spend an entire lifetime learning what Miller observed firsthand. For several decades, he served as the doorkeeper for the U.S. House of Represenatives. During that time, he met and got to know some of the most prominent figures of recent American history -- Sam Rayburn, Adam Clayton Powell, Gerald Ford, Bella Abzug, Richard Nixon, and many others while remaining unknown to the general public.

When Miller finally left his position in the mid-70s, he produced this engaging memoir, a good-humored look at the men and the institution that he had previously devoted his life too. Though slight on any in-depth analysis, the book is a treasure trove of anecdotes that reveal the human side of our often impersonal Congress. If you want to know about Congressman Marion Zioncheck's notorious drinking escapades of the 1930s or which Congressman was the most sensually-minded this is the book to read. This is the book is you want to know what a Sam Rayburn or a Lyndon Johnson was really like before they became just more distinguished names in stuffy history books. As well, Miller's details of the 1950 attack on Congress by Puerto Rican terrorists (a terrifying moment that, now forgotten, carries some renewed weight following the recent terrorist atrocities in New York and Washington) is both harrowing and moving.

Though a proud Democrat, Miller's book is nicely nonpartisan, treating Republicans with the same affection as Miller's comrades. In fact, the only completely negative, unsympathetic portrait in the book is reserved for a Democrat, the notorious Rep. Wayne Hays who was known as the "meanest man in the House." Miller, who lost his job as a result of Hays, takes a sly delight in showing us why that reputation was deserved.

This is an enjoyable, engaging memoir that should be required reading to anyone interested in the human side of American political history.

I was happily surprised by the complex plotting in this insider's page turner all about what apparently really goes on in the perfume and fashion industry. Fascinating! I don't know how much was real and how much pure invention, but the novelist was the CEO of a big perfume company, so... The book has everything for a fascinating read - greed, sex, life in the fast lane, international intrigue, the mob - it has a feel of realism and lots of subplots that keep the action moving along. A great book for a long plane trip or the beach. The minor characters tend to be one-dimensional, but the major characters are satisfyingly complex and even go through some growth over the course of the book - not typical for this genre. A promising start for a new novelist.

A friend highly recommended the book, partly because - since I'm Hungarian - one of the characters is an aging Hungarian playwright in Paris who'd once fought in the '56 revolution.

Miller's writing style flows beautifully.

But it flows nowhere. There are two distinct stories - bridged by the the play Oxygene. In one story, the Valentine sons gather to be with their mother, Alice, who is dying of lung cancer (she was a smoker you see). One of the sons, Alec is also translating the play Oxygene (written by the aging Hungarian in Paris).

As Alice lies dying, Laszlo the Hungarian playwright is enjoying life in Paris with his young lover, rubbing facial cream into his skin to rejuvenate it, and mourning his lack of bravery during the revolution when he failed to save a dear friend.

Oxygen is presumably the symbolic bridge that connects the two parts of this book since there's absolutely no other connection between the Valentines' story and Laszlo's story. We breathe oxygen you see to live. Alice is dying because she can no longer breathe. And so forth. A somewhat strained metaphor.

The journey through a tale is made exciting and meaningful by an emerging character arc: there was next to none for the characters in this book.

Maybe I"m old fashioned. I like a story. And I think I'm tired of reading books about dysfunctional families, and the failed 'average man'. No matter how nice the writing style.

Let me preface by saying this was my first Andrew Miller novel. Based on the description and the reviews I'd read on Amazon, I was looking forward to an exhilarating reading experience. Well, I didn't get it. You probably know the threads of the story: several, unrelated plot lines where each character is challenged. If I cared to, I could discern the links between them all; however, I just did not care enough about the story or the characters to pull the threads together. All through the story, I felt that Miller was just on the edge of taking the plunge to explore these characters more fully, but it never happened. Some characters were well drawn, such as Laszlo and even Larry, but the others were not fully realized. Since the novel had "Finalist for the Booker Prize" emblazoned on its label, I expected more.

By the time I finished this book, I really wondered what the connection was between the two stories of the story: the story of the Valentine family grappling with the death of the family matriarch, Alice, and the story of Hungarian playwright Lazlo who's caught up in some sort of political intrigue. Then, as rarely happens, I understood that the connection is in Lazlo's play, where at the end the miners underground begin to try tunneling up while someone above ground begins trying to tunnel down to save them. In this case, I'd say the two sides tunneling towards each other are Alice's son Alec (who's also translating the play into English) and Lazlo, but I might be wrong. The play ends ambiguously and so does Miller's book.

Ordinarily I would have panned this book because when it ends, there is no resolution, but understanding the metaphor (or hoping I do), it makes sense to me. So I can understand why Miller ended the novel where he did. Still, as a reader I prefer concrete endings that resolve the issues being brought up in the book.

My problem, another rarity, is that the book is too short. I was just getting to understand the characters and then the book is over, I'd have liked more time to flesh them out better. The other problem is that not a lot of interesting stuff happens. There's no action, there's not even a lot of dialogue, it's more about people THINKING about things, which while it gives us insight into the characters, does not make for an interesting story. Give me some love scenes, some car chases, a barroom brawl, SOMETHING other than characters contemplating the sad state of the universe.

Anyway, what anyone reading this is wondering by now is: should I buy this book? I'd say yes, but only if you've nothing else to read. Miller's writing is good, the characters are decent, and all the contemplating does make you think.

This is a lovely book... and, brief though it is, helped me to understand more about Gauguin's reasons behind his actions. I read it at a perfect time - when the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY was holding one of their most important exhibits on Gauguin and featured his wood cuts. It's a colourful, passionate and painful journey.

This is a great book detailing a few pages from his journal. It has great wood-cut reprints and is a quick read. It puts you into the spirit of Tahiti.