This book is undoubtedly a good reference, but you should not consider it a comprehensive one.

With a decidedly American slant, the book ignores the rich photography cultures of Japan, Russian constructivists and even of Europeans after 1945. Even on the topics which the book does cover, there are a few glaring ommissions. But I'm still glad to see this book come out and the author certainly makes no claims that the books list is a comprehensive one, just a seminal one.

This is an extraordinary book, both for its content and design. The book provides a wonderful view of 20th-century photography and photographic books, reproducing several double-page spreads (at reduced size) from a well-chosen list of 101 great photographic books. There is so much to see and think about here.

The catalog entries, luminously written by Vince Aletti and David Levi Strauss, provide a fairly detailed description, history, and analysis of each of the photographic books. And there are several essays on the history and techniques of photographic publishing; these essays are informative, smart, learned.

This is one of the best-designed books in recent years. The typography, layout, and printing quality are just perfect, at the very highest level of excellence. Andrew Roth and Jerry Kelly did the book design; Sue Medlicott supervised the printing which was done superbly at the Stamperia Valdonega.

In the last few months, I have seen 3 extraordinary visual books that powerfully demonstrate just how wonderful books can be:
(1)The Book of 101 Books by Andrew Roth and colleagues
(2)The Atlas of Oregon (2nd edition) by William Loy, Stuart Allen, Aileen R. Buckley, and James E.Meacham
(3)Artists' Books in the Modern Era 1870-2000: The Reva and David Logan Collection of Illustrated Books, by Robert Flynn Johnson and Donna Stein, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Now this is something special! As a publication designer I can appreciate the care and thought that went into this stunning and unique book. Andrew Roth, in the introduction, explains his brilliant idea, 'The basis for my selection was simple. Foremost, a book had to be a thoroughly considered production; the content, the mise-en-page, choice of paper stock, reproduction quality, text, typeface, binding, jacket design, scale - all of the elements had to blend together to fit naturally within the whole'. I would agree with all of that (I have eight of the 101) and also his selection of the photographic books which mostly exemplify what he was searching for.

Not all of these criteria apply to each book though. The author has wisely included all the covers to his selection and I don't think there is a single book jacket shown that I would class as excellence in design, that is, the title and image working together as one to sum up the contents for a potential purchaser. Mostly they are the usual publishers' marketing department output, a single photo or image with some (bland) typography added. Strangely the cover to 'The Book Of 101 Books' is rather dull and typographically conservative.

Another area where, I think, many of the books fall short of the author's criteria is the lack of captioning. Many of the reproduced spreads clearly just have the photos on the page with no information for the reader. Why do publishers (and possibly even the photographers) think that beautiful, imaginative and stimulating photos don't need some textual explanation on the same page? I recently bought 'Dream Street' by Eugene Smith, an excellent collection of photos taken in 1955 of life in Pittsburgh, virtually all of the photos make me ask "What's going on here" and I have to constantly turn to the back of the book to read a caption, even more annoying because there is plenty of space on each page for them. This lack of a caption on the same page as the photo seems a common fault with many photographic books.

The author says his goal was not to compile a selection of rare or precious books, just great ones and the 101 chosen reflect that vision, starting in 1907, with the twenty volume 'The North American Indian' and ending in 1996 with David LaChapelle's 'LaChapelle Land', these two books are a world apart but nevertheless have elements in common that the author was searching for. The other ninety-nine books show the amazing diversity that a photographer's eye, light and chemicals can do to the world. As well as the spreads from the books there are six essays dealing with photographic book publishing, all of them interesting and thought provoking, Richard Benson (no relation) writes a very succinct explanation of book printing techniques over the last hundred years.

Handling this sumptuous book, turning over the pages of the beautiful paper it is printed on, looking at the images (printed with a screen well over two hundred dots to the inch) it is a good example of why books will not vanish in this expanding digital age.

BTW, another reviewer has commented that 'The Book Of 101 Books' is one of the best designed books of recent years, beautiful as it is I don't think I would go that far and I'll not be adding it to my Listmania 'Ten of my favorite well-designed books'. Editorially I think there are a couple of errors, firstly, in the bibliographic details there is no mention of a books pagination, and secondly, all the text about a book is in one paragraph, clearly a mistake when some of the pieces are several hundred words long. I also think the layouts have an annoying fault, each of the 101 books starts on a spread and the left-hand page displays the books cover within a text wrap of two columns, this second column frequently looks a line short because the writer's initials are ranged right on the last line instead of occupying a new line or even hanging them in the margin, in bold face, for instance.

I agree with all of the other reviews on this page; Oliver North certainly was not in Vietnam very long, but his co-author David Roth certainly represents well the time he did spend as a Marine platoon leader. The accounts are vivid and help to portray Marine combat infantrymen experiences in I-Corps. The book did help me to format my story of flying UH-1D helicopters in the Mekong Delta; I liked the set-up of the chapters and untilized this aspect. I wasn't too interested in the Christianity thing North gets into on his return trip; it certainly is true that this is what has anchored his life--but this is not much of a Vietnam vet story. It still is on my bookshelf, however, for the reasons expressed below by the other reviewers.

i read this book while doing research on ptsd. as an unrepentent left-wing, hippie, i am quite certain that a lot of people will not read this book because of north's political views. they are making a mistake. this book is very healing. it made me cry several times.

this books takes the reader into the heart of the war in I corps in 1968...it seems a lifetime ago--and yet, for many, it is as real as yesterday. we are, as north points out, a nation in need of healing over the vietnam war. too many people still suffer from ptsd as a consequence of it. they have traumatized their own children.... and society as a whole is poorer for the loss of these individuals.

we owe it to ourselves to understand the war and what happened there--no matter what our own political belief system is. this book goes a long way towards that goal. it also gives practical advice on how we, as decent caring humans, can, without a political agenda, help the people we bombed the s--- out of for 10 years. people who do not, amazingly, hate us for it.

READ IT!!!!

As a former U.S. Marine and a Viet Nam veteran, I was apprehensive about Col. North's book, expecting him to only tell about his return trip. I was pleasantly surprised that he confides in the reader his thoughts and actions while he was involved in combat situations during the war.In doing so, he allows the reader to share in his experiences, and also explains why it was necessary for him to return. He puts it quite plainly why the United States lost the war in Viet Nam.

David Kepesh, the aforementioned professor, towards the end of "Professor of Desire," contemplates the introductory lecture he is to deliver to his class on comparative literature:

"Indiscreet, unprofessional, unsavory as portions of these disclosures will surely strike some of you, I nonetheless would like, with your permission, to go ahead now and give an open account to you of the life I formerly led as a human being. I am devoted to fiction, and I assure you that in time I will tell you whatever I may know about it, but in truth nothing lives in me like my life."

This passage may as well be an introduction to this book, one of Roth's most potent and stirring novels from his earlier days. Through the chronicles of David Kepesh's early life, Roth examines the paradoxes of love and desire, the bridges between literature and life, and our nearly-lunatic search for identity.

In this book, we follow Roth's familiar character David Kepesh from his childhood in the Catskills hotel owned by his parents, to a post-college year of sexual freedom in Scandinavia, to a tempestuous/disastrous marriage to Helen Baird, followed by a winter of despair, and concluding with his relationship with Claire Ovington, marked by a love that is blemished by waning desire.

In the end, although more questions are posed than can ever be answered, Roth's novel can resonate with anyone who has ever grappled with the mysteries of love and self-discovery - namely, everyone. And along the way, the reader can revel in the wit, wry humor, and intellect adored by every Roth fan.

David Kepesh, the aforementioned professor, towards the end of "Professor of Desire," contemplates the introductory lecture he is to deliver to his class on comparative literature:

"Indiscreet, unprofessional, unsavory as portions of these disclosures will surely strike some of you, I nonetheless would like, with your permission, to go ahead now and give an open account to you of the life I formerly led as a human being. I am devoted to fiction, and I assure you that in time I will tell you whatever I may know about it, but in truth nothing lives in me like my life."

This passage may as well be an introduction to this book, one of Roth's most potent and stirring novels from his earlier days. Through the chronicles of David Kepesh's early life, Roth examines the paradoxes of love and desire, the bridges between literature and life, and our nearly-lunatic search for identity.

In this book, we follow Roth's familiar character David Kepesh from his childhood in the Catskills hotel owned by his parents, to a post-college year of sexual freedom in Scandinavia, to a tempestuous/disastrous marriage to Helen Baird, followed by a winter of despair, and concluding with his relationship with Claire Ovington, marked by a love that is blemished by waning desire.

In the end, although more questions are posed than can ever be answered, Roth's novel can resonate with anyone who has ever grappled with the mysteries of love and self-discovery - namely, everyone. And along the way, the reader can revel in the wit, wry humor, and intellect adored by every Roth fan.

Philip Roth's 1972 novella, "The Breast", a take-off on Kafka's story "The Metamorphosis", introduced us to David Kepesh, a professor of Literature, who one morning wakes to find himself transformed into an enormous mammary. David Kepesh reappears as the title character of Roth's 1979 novel, "The Professor of Desire". Besides borrowing characters from the earlier story, Roth works in lots of references to Kafka, includes a long episode describing Kepesh's pilgrimage to Kafka's grave in Prague, and at one point compares Kepesh's relation to his body to K.'s relation to the authorities of "The Castle":

". . . I can only compare the body's single-mindedness, its cold indifference and absolute contempt for the well-being of the spirit, to some unyielding, authoritarian regime. And you can petition it all you like, offer up the most heartfelt and dignified and logical sort of appeal - and get no response at all. If anything, a kind of laugh is what you get."

I wasn't able to buy all this Kafka business. To me it seemed pasted-on and extrinsic to the spirit of the rest of the novel. But this is quibbling. "The Professor of Desire" is a delightful story, in which Philip Roth exuberantly displays his many quite un-Kafkaesque gifts. First among them is a magical gift for characterization; it seems that every character in this novel, and there are many, springs effortlessly to life as a complete individual, from Herbie Bratasky on the first page to Mr. Barbatnik on the last.And then there's Roth's eerie gift for dialogue. His characters' words seem always to flow from their own personalities, not the author's, and their speeches are often masterpieces of comic invention.

Though perhaps it falls short of Roth's best, this is a wonderful book. I heartily recommend it.

A vivid description of the brutality and loss of life through Brady photographs and other photographers of the era. Famous generals of both sides are featured in photos along with battle scenes and weaponry of the period. All photos fully captioned.

The CD rom and tons of illustrations bring the conflict to life. Well organized and well narrated the words and pictures blend together well and make for a awe-inspiring look at the conflict that cost many lives.

Thsi book, although written by a French Horn player, can be read by any type of artist. The book focuses on preparing mentally, physically, and spiritually for auditions.

This book is a great introduction to Virtual Reality technology. If you've been wondering what VR is all about, this is the book to read.

I felt the novel to be boring, a simple rehash of Mr. Roth's earlier work, and sloppily written at that. This is too bad, for Roth, at his best, is nothing less than a genius: his novella THE BENNY PODA YEARS was, for me, his finest work since SHYLOCK. But the present novel fails to achieve Roth's previous level of innovation.

A noteworthy feature of contemporary American fiction was the resurgence of Philip Roth. Eight marvellous books in a row. His trio of experimental novels: The Counterlife (that gives post modernism a good name); Deception; and Operation Shylock; the intensely moving biography, Patrimony; for this reader the finest novel of the 1990s, Sabbath's Theater, a nihilistic masterpiece of sex, death and despair; and the new Zuckerman trilogy dissecting post war America, American Pastoral; I Married a Communist; and The Human Stain. Could this great run continue? Sadly, not.

The Dying Animal is a disappointment. Written in a first person narrative it reintroduces David Kepesh, a Professor of English. Kepesh is the man that transformed into a breast in Roth's Kafkan fable, The Breast; and detailing the sexual life of a literary academic in Professor of Desire. Kepesh is a creation of the 1960s, and this new novella indicates that kepesh has not progressed very far. In order to beat off notions of his mortality Kepesh seduces students (although in a concession to the passage of time, Kepesh no longer seduces them when students, having the decency to wait until they pass through his class). This brings a whole new meaning to the concept in modenr education of the Staff-Student Liaison Committee.

In his monologue, addressed to a listener revealed only in the final paragraphs, Kepesh remembers various lovers concentrating on Consuela, a Cuban emigree. The intense relationship between the two, and Consuela's subsequent absence and the effect on Kepesh, forms the crux of the novel.

The novella is very readable. Roth remains a wonderful stylist. But, as he has been subject to on previous occasions Roth is criticised for pronography. This novella is not in my view pornographic. Certainly there are passages that are explicit, but far more pornographic is Kepesh's relationship with Birgitta in The Professor of Desire - Birgitta, like The Monkey in Portnoy's Complaint, being a girl that would do anything. The abusive nature of that relationship is pornographic. The relationships here are not like that (although the ostensible power imbalance inherent in sexual relationships in some recent Roth novels remains).

While sex plays a role in the novella it is not its main focus. Kepesh is worried about growing old, worried about death. One Scottish poet, Norman MacCaig, said the thing that upsetted him most about growing old was that all his friends were dying. Ditto, for Kepesh, and so Roth - as he did in The Conterlife and Sabbath's Theater and The Human Stain, wrestles with death. Sexual activity is used as a means of keeping mortality at bay. Love is not what keeps Kepesh going, sex is. This not only underpins the septugenarian Kepesh's life, but also the lives of his friends, even to the death bed. Kepesh's stroke-ridden friend, a serial adulterer, gropes his wife in his last concerted physical act.

One interesting theme developed in the novella is the relationship between Kepesh and his son (another of these father/son relationships beloved by Roth's writing - see the first Zuckerman trilogy - and his reading - such as his praise of John le Carre's A perfect spy). The son's stumbling path into adultery (based on love) acts as a neat counterpoint to Kepesh's serial philandering.

I think this book merits discussion, much thought. Roth is a serious writer after all. But, why the relatively low rating? For me, there are two principal reasons. This novella simply revisists themes he has explored before, in more depth, with more rounded characters. Kepesh's trials here mirror those of Mickey Sabbath in Sabbath's Theater. Roth is not giving us anything new here. The second reason relates to the ending. The return of a character, and their motivation for returning to visit an old man is absurd and lacking credibility. The absurdity of the final pages serves to undercut the power of some that has gone before.

If you enjoyed this novella try Sabbath's Theater, a funnier, angrier, darker take on similar themes.

This treatise on lust as a life force, juxtaposed against the onset of old age and the acceptance of one's inevitable mortality, is worthy of mention in the same breath as Nabokov's masterful treatise on love, Lolita. Like Lolita, the emotional power of the prose quickly forces the reader to disregard the immorality inherent in the significant age difference between the main character and the object of his desire. The narrator, David Kepesh, is a 62-year-old college professor who routinely seduces his female students. But in his relationship with the 24-year-old Consuela, he finds himself enslaved by his lust for her. Through Kepesh, Roth eloquently explores the conflict between lust and personal freedom, and the struggle to come to terms with the onset of old age and one's own mortality.

Philip Roth is without doubt America's most eloquent literary voice, and The Dying Animal is perhaps his finest work.

Mickey Sabbath's life is one pathetic misadventure after another. An arthritic street performer, who once used his fingers as his puppets, he lives for his next sexual adventure. Any other ties to humanity, love, trust, honesty, (although he claims this value, he only uses it when it suits him) are lost amidst his pursuit of sexual gratification. Roth has deliberately created a character with no redeeming qualities, and while I admire his skill at developing such a reprehensible human being, I didn't enjoy reading about Mickey Sabbath or the lives he destroyed. No matter how many disastrous situations Roth creates for Sabbath I found myself wanting this to end; the book became a chore to read. Sabbath is a pathetic antihero, not an epic one, and hardly worth Roth's efforts on his behalf.

and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Mickey Sabbath was so real that even his status as an absolutely moral-less anti-hero couldn't push me far enough away not to feel sorry for him as the story went on. Reading this book made me want to go out and do something totally outrageous just to feel more alive.

I agree with many of the other reviewers.

David Duke (the narrator of the audio book) did a superb job with accents, emotions and even sexual noises (although I wish he would have done the gorilla noises toward the end).

The sex was too analytical to be erotic in most cases (which is good if you happen to be standing in line at the post office listening to it on tape). I do have to admit I fast forwarded through one of the scenes I found particularly disgusting and I wish I would have fast forwarded through another one of the scenes.

The main character of this book, Mickey Sabbath, envisions his own epitaph as reading: "Morris Sabbath - 'Mickey' - Beloved Whoremonger, Seducer, Sodomist, Abuser of Women, Destroyer of Morals, Ensnarer of Youth, Uxoricide, Suicide - 1929-1994." As a final self-assessment of this character's life, it is not far from the truth. Objectively speaking, there is little in Sabbath's behavior to qualify him as a role model or inspiration for others. And yet, somehow, Roth turns this seemingly despicable character into an undisputed hero. Do we love Sabbath because of his overpowering humanness? His brutal honesty? His perseverance? Is it because he celebrates in himself the dark elements of human sexuality that we, as individuals, must suppress in ourselves? Or is it because Philip Roth is the most eloquent and insightful portrayer of the human soul alive today?

It would be easy to dismiss Sabbath as an immoral pervert, a man driven by his sexual urges with little regard for societal norms or the feelings of others. And as such, it is also easy to reject the notion that he is anything like you and me. He is a man who takes pride in having slept with prostitutes on more than one continent. He is remarkably unfaithful to his wife. He engages in bizarre sex acts with his lover. He rummages through the drawers of a 19-year-old girl, the daughter of an old friend, looking for naked Polaroids, and finding none, settles for swiping a pair of her underwear. And then there is the scene at his lover's grave that is too bizarre to recount here, a scene that would be nothing short of obscene and disgusting in any other author's hands, but that Roth somehow renders as a powerful expression of love and grief. So go ahead, feel free to say that Sabbath is nothing like you, if it makes you feel better.

But when you are finished condemning him, look deeper at who he is and what he represents. Sabbath is a grieving man. He is grieving not only for the death of his free-spirited, erotic mistress, who dies a tragic death in the early pages of the novel. He is also grieving for his own lost life as he begins to accept his own mortality. And he is persistently haunted by the ghost of his mother and the memory of his brother. Yes, he is a social and sexual deviant, but he is also incredibly human. We cannot blame him for the desires and emotions that he unapologetically displays for the world to see, for they are the same desires and emotions that live in each of us. So how can we blame him for the brutal honesty with which he lives his life and faces his demons? It is because there is a little bit of Mickey Sabbath in each of us that makes this novel painful, at times, to read. But that is also what makes it so exquisite and, ultimately, so true.

I don't have much to say about this story, other than it is not silly enough or over the top enough to be good. Absurdism is fine, but there isn't really much beyond a man turning into a giant boob. It seems to rip off Kafka & even points it out, but lacks the depth of Kafka. The characters are not as interesting as K, or Samsa, or any other Kafka characters. The Rilke poem on the last page is a poor translation, and looks silly following this story- The "you must change your life" feels forced ... It' doesn't flow like in Woody Allen's "Another Woman"- where that same poem line is used.

Ah, Phillip Roth. The dirty old man of American literature; if he didn't exist, someone would have surely created him. Ironically enough, that someone would probably be one of the people who find him and his work to be terribly offensive. At times, Roth seems to be writing specifically to offend, as if he knows that without his dirty thoughts, a lot of self-appointed puritans would have a lot less outrage to keep their days active. Certainly, The Breast is a book that superficially seems to be designed specifically to offend delicate sensibilities. The book's narrator wakes up one morning to discover that he has been transformed into a huge female breast. The rest of this rather short book (I completed it in a little less than an hour) is devoted to detailing how this one man adjusts to his new life as a breast. Though Roth never goes for any glib explanations as to how or why this transformation took place, one can't help but get the feeling that the narrator -- so obsessed with sex -- finally just transformed into that which he had become fixated. However, one can't also help but feel that this explanation is a result of reading too much into Roth's whimsical, deadpan fable.

Anyway, as for the meat-and-bones of this review, this is a book that I have to recommend to all Phillip Roth fans and to anyone with an affinity for bizarre, off-center satire. If you don't like Roth, you probably won't care much for this book. As well, this is not a book to read if you're looking for an introduction to Phillip Roth. Though amusing, its certainly not anywhere near his best work.

philip roth's novella the breast is an absolutely enchanting read, while comparisons with kafka and gogol are inevitable, roth himself acknowledges it as the protagonist, a professor of literature wonders about his misfortune.

the book presents a brilliant picture of insanity & human frailty, morality & love. the breast is a fast, pacy read and each page resonates with the assurance of roth's immense talent. although not roth's best book, this will make a delightful addition for fans of roth. read this if you are crazy about roth's style and are not overly prejudiced in favor of kafka's metamorphosis. this is in short eminem doing pink floyd.

If you're a =VH= fan, you should have already known over 90 percents of the facts/trivia in this book. Dave's nickname? Eddie's married to whom? Producer's name? The author also made dozens of useless questions & answers from each of Van Halen CD inserts. If you really want to know more about Van Halen, buy The Van Halen Encyclopedia (C. J. Chilvers) and Crazy From the Heat (David Lee Roth). Dave's book (highly recommended!) is out of print, but you'll definitely find one from auction/Amazon marketplace seller.

This book would make a perfect gift for the Van Halen-obsessed. It contains a mind-boggling amount of research, and if you care about little details like what the Edge, U2's guitarist, said about the US presidency in relation to Van Halen, or how much guacomoli was made available backstage after a VH concert, this is the book for you. It's certainly more thorough than most trivia books. Even major VH fans will find that the book stops just short of telling them more than they ever wanted to know. If you add it to your VH collection, you'll probably find that it's the single greatest source of facts on VH out there.

If your a real VH fan you will buy this book!