The Elusive Embrace was well written but was it worth it? This is a memory piece by a fortyish gay male who interweaves his Jewish family's history, his sexual life in New York's Chelsea district, his reminiscences of sexual coming-of-age as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia (the least graphic, and probably the most beautiful and evocative prose), and Greek mythology, at which, as a classics prof, he is expert (useful, but pedantic).

Having achieved a sort of stellar lifestyle compromise--lectureship at Princeton, sexual freedom in Manhattan, and a close relationship mentoring a baby to whom he is almost but not quite a father figure--we wonder why Mendelsohn felt compelled to write about it.

As the song goes, the author is "his own special creation." I guess all gay men are. I have a feeling, though, that Mendelsohn's life story was highly edited to make it more acceptable to a gay readership. We don't hear about what it's like teaching at an Ivy League school, and only passing reference is made to the author's heterosexual experience, or to his life as a graduate student. His life emerges as a coherent work with an awful lot of thimble-rigging, string-pulling and myth-quoting--more than would have been necessary in a more straightforward account. I agree with the earlier reviewer who said the author bit off more than he could chew. Beautifully written, but not too satisfying.

Perhaps the best thing I can say about this gorgeous and provocative book is that the author has crafted such movingly expressive arguments for his beliefs that even when I disagreed with those beliefs (for instance, his sense that sexual fidelity is fundamentally unnatural for men and certainly not worth making any personal sacrifices to maintain), I found myself taking a moment to question myself because I was so seduced by the beauty of his writing style that I almost felt compelled to agree with his content. This is a challenging work of art that, in the end, is less a broad social argument than one man's highly personal search for meaning in his own life.

Daniel Mendelsohn is a beautiful writer and the Elusive Embrace is quite lyrical at times as it looks at desire and the riddle of identity. His memoir flits from his Jewish childhood, family history, gay New York (actually only Chelsea, actually only one avenue in Chelsea), Greek language and literature, and beautiful (mostly now dead) Southern boys. He is building a mythology of himself and the process is wonderful to go through even when the creation of said mythos requires the narrowing of his vision. He is blissfully unaware of gay men outside of Chelsea and the fever dreams of his Southern past, partly because many of these men would not fit his defintion as "boys" and quite likely fall outside his radar. But that is understandable in a memoir such as this when the point is to write what you see and not what remains invisible to you. Also I was less than thrilled with the chapter on being a surrogate father (gay men as the new spinster aunts?) but even here the writing carried me along. As did the references to Greek myths that connected and substantiated all the ideas. These were evocative and necessary to the entire book. A well written look at myth making on a personal level that is worth a read.

But let's be clear right up front. My 5-star rating of this book applies only to the original unabridged version in Johann Wyss' own words. The modernized versions are watered down, time-wasters for word wusses.

When I was nine years old I spent months struggling through this book for the first time. The old style language made for rough going, but I persevered. In the end I was rewarded with more than a classic tale marvelously told; I discovered a love of books and earned self-respect for tackling a tough read.

If I was a teacher whose task it was to introduce students to classic literature, I would skip Dickens and use this book. Kids love adventure, animals, and action. Swiss Family Robinson has it all. It's really a thriller disguised as a literary classic. All book lovers should read this one at least once.

And please don't watch the Disney movie and claim you've "been there, did that" on this story. The movie is totally different and in no way compares.

Never mind the film versions; the original unabridged Swiss Family Robinson is an exciting epic with a lot in it for the whole family.

Our third grade teacher read to us from this book every day and I could hardly wait for the next installment. Finally I got my own copy for a birthday gift, sat on the couch and read it cover to cover in one go. I still have this book, decades later.

From the opening, thrilling tempest scene to the very end and the "rescue", this book has plenty of action as well as creative solutions to problems. There is a lot of material for discussion, how the family solved problems, how they handled disagreements, adversity, disappointment, building of character.

This book definitely teaches values along with the adventure and the values are linked in such a way as to be an integral part of the story.

And Swiss Family Robinson is never boring. There is always an exciting new beast to be discovered, a new plant to use for food or clothing, a new machine or tool to be built, a new part of the island to explore. This is a wonderful book to read out loud to kids until they are old enough to enjoy reading it themselves. If you are bored with re-runs on TV, turn off the box and spend a half-hour or hour every evening reading this aloud. Everyone will have a great time, and kids who are read to, become readers themselves.

There's not many classic books that are more well known than "The Swiss Family Robinson." A Swiss family is stranded on an uninhabited island and there doesn't seem to be any rescues that are lingering around the corner for many years. Soon the family is taming tons of new pets, fighting off animals such as anacondas and lions, and learning how to basically survive off the land the best they can. The Robinson family must keep an eye out for danger while also starting a whole new way of life for themselves.

I thought "The Swiss Family Robinson" was a spectacular adventure/survival book. You can say that the book is pretty much a long diary that is kept by the father of the family of everything that happens to them on the island. The book I read did have many references to God unlike some of the abridged editions. The only thing I didn't like about "The Swiss Family Robinson" is that when the family starts collecting and taming many animals that they find on the island, it gets a little tough to keep up with all the animals' names, but that wasn't bad enough to take anything away from the book for me.

I recommend anybody who likes survival or adventure books, especially if you like reading the classics, to get "The Swiss Family Robinson." I would recommend getting an unabridged version of the book if you can so you won't miss a word.

She claims to have been taught by a Hopi Medicine Woman. Her Indian ex-boyfriend later revealed that she perpetrated a multi-million dollar hoax. A Beverly Hills actress who claims that in the mid-'70s she became an apprentice to Agnes Whistling Elk, a Native American medicine and a Cree shaman from Manitoba. Her Workshop "Into the CrystalDreamtime" has gone on nationwide tours. Medicine Woman, the initial account of her experiences, won Andrews an enormous response from readers across the country. Suspiciously, all subsequent books were marketed as nonfiction. The reason for this was that in November 1988 an affidavit was filed with a lawsuit brought by David Carson, Choctow, a writer and former live-in companion of Andrews, contending that "as a result of our personal relationship, she and I composed a series of literary works." Carson has since made claims suggesting that many of Andrews 's experiences were the results of his own creative imagination. He claimed he wove them into a fictional narrative describing her exotic adventures with various shamans based on his own limited knowledge of Choctow culture.

We live in times where we feel we want to have a more personal relationship to the great mystery and all things spiritual. We want to feel the magic. As a result we seek paths that will include these missing elements - explain the unexplainable, know the unknowable. A book such as, Medicine Woman can fill that collective longing. It is about an ordinary woman who"blunders" upon extraordinary events, whose storytelling allows us the opportunity to fulfill our own unlived fantasy lives. Subconsciously, we are hopeful that if it could happen to her, it could happen to me. Unfortuntnately, we will remain fantasy - bound, mainly because the story and its supposed real events cannot be embodied or experienced. They are words printed in a book, their mastery, as factually described, unattainable only to the author. I believe the hunger is real for the spiritual experience, but that at this time these kinds of books do us a disservice. Narratives of this nature tie us to the author's extraordinary experiences and their accompanying interpretations but, they can never be truly authentic for anyone else. In addition, the "guru" type teachers who "always" insist on anonymity, are forever unaccountable, remaining dream - like and etheric. One would think that there would be building resentment in their apprentices, for by never being able to disclose their identities they have to remain under a constant cloud of criticism, always on the defensive. My final question is for those of us who do feel a geniune calling for the imaginal and unknown. Perhaps it is time to insist that these authors make avaliable their sources. After all, no one would study any other disapline expecting anything less. It is interesting that we let these people off the hook so easily, their credibility intact. These types of books may have served a purpose in the past, in that they inspired their readers to take the imagination and its experiences seriously, but now it may be time to tell the truth - I ask these authors to free their readers with an honest show and telling of the truth, and I bet that by doing so, it will free them in the process as well.

Anyone experiencing a spiritual emergence will relate to this book. While the author's experiences are extraordinary, they are experienced by many on different levels. This book was recommended to me by an instructor and I found it fascinating and educational.

Trouble with Lemons by Daniel Hayes has an interesting protagonist.The protagonist is Tyler McAllister,he lives with his parents then his parents got divoriced.When his dad died over cancer, it was just his brother Chris,his mom,and him.Tyler lives in a town like you live in and he goes to school were we go to learn. He is going through changes because of his dad maybe or going through a teenager. In the begining of the story Tyler saw a dead body floating in the quarry.Later,Tyler fell asleep in science class and that's how Tyler got a detention.That's when Tyler heard Marc and Jacks conversation that led to clues as to what happened to the body.Later,Tyler put all clues together to figure out who killed the dead body. I think this author, Daniel Hayes wrote this book so we understand what we're going through in school and I think this book should be for ages 10 to an adult.

The book Trouble with the Lemons was pretty good. I thought that it looked like a horrible book and was dreading to have to read it. But I enjoyed. It was a neat book to read and I would recommend you try it. The kid seems down to earth and everything. He made me feel like I had it good. His mom and older brother are famous movie stars, and his father died in a plane crash. The main character Tyler and his friend were swimming in the quarry and found a body. It was the one of BooBoo Anderson the school janitor. It is a murder mystery and if you like books with a lot action going on I really think you should try this book.

THE TROUBLE WITH LEMONS

I read the book "The Trouble with Lemons" and this is a great book. I liked it because of the climax it is great. Tyler is the main character in this story. Tyler moves around to a lot of different schools. He is a boy in Junior high school and he always gets into fights. One night, Tyler and his friends went swimming at the quarry. While they are there, Tyler swims into a dead body. The body the he swims into is the school janitor. The mystery of the story is that no one knows who killed him. You will enjoy the excitement with the characters and you will not be able to keep your eyes off this book.

About a year ago, I wrote a review about this book. Everyone was saying that this was a great book, so when I gave this book only 1 star, I took alot of heat from people who think that "Dan's the Man!!". I decided to review this book again. This is my second review and my result is still the same. Dan may be the guru of Visual Basic but he cannot communicate those thoughts into written words. Don't get me wrong, Dan knows how to talk and this book is full of talk, but talk is not teaching nor will talk help you master the advanced subjects such as COM. In this book, Dan starts to tell you about subject, then he goes off on a tangent. Sooner or later, he might return to the subject. The cartoons in the book have a striking resemblance to "Bevis and Butthead". That is a scary thought! Bevis and Butthead becoming software developers and then writing a book about it. The cheap sales pitches for software that his company sells should have been put into an appendix. This book is a very large book (800+ pages) but if you cut out the cartoons and all of the talk, this book would be 1/2 of it's size. I recommend Peter Vogel's book "Visual Basic Object and Component Handbook" instead. Dan is a very smart man but that does not mean he is a great author.

The book covers ActiveX/COM but in a very wordy fashion. Pages and pages of irrelevant text make finding the core issues difficult. Some of the topic examples are reasonably useful, others are extremely trite. Surely Appleman can come up with better scenarios than rabbits in hutches.

I bought this book to help take me beyond what is available in the Microsoft VB documentation, but it does not do so in any useful way. Having already splashed out the money on the book, I would prefer if advertising was kept in one section, rather than having it throughout the book (loads of code segments, no matter how trivial, are prefaced with a Desaware copyright notice, and we are continually told of their software products).

This book has lots of body but not enough meat.

Dan's book is definitely an authoritative work on the subject of COM/ActiveX development using Visual Basic. Even though the book is geared toward professional VB programmers, the material presented provides a well-rounded view of COM/ActiveX for most developers, providing them with the knowledge required to build professional, quality components.

While this book could be read by VB programmers at any level, the book does move a bit faster than most, suggesting that the reader should be familiar with some of the concepts beforehand in order to fully appreciate what Dan is writing about. This is not a limitation in any way. It was refreshing to read a book that got to the core issues quickly.

I appreciate the fact that Dan did not put much code into the printed material. He included only what was necessary to make his point. This left more room for detailed coverage of the relevant issues. Many times, books will be inundated with hard-to-follow code instead of relevant discussion of the information. This book was packed full of information.

I recommend Dan's book to others because I know it covers topics that are essential to VB programmers. COM/ActiveX issues will only become more important as Visual Basic continues to evolve into an Object-Oriented development tool.

Isabelle Forrester and Bill Robinson live in different continents but carry on a friendship via the telephone and a few visits here and there for four years. Isabelle stays at home with her sick child Teddy and her hateful husband. Bill is in a loveless marriage and doesn't want to get divorced because he's afraid it will hurt his career. Isabelle and Bill decide to meet in London for a few days to spend some time together. While in London they share a passionate kiss while at practically the same moment their limousine is hit by a double-decker bus. Their lives are forever changed.

The Kiss is an OK read. The characters are well developed and the storyline for the most part is good. However, there are some parts that are a little far-fetched, such as Bill's hospital bed being wheeled into Isabelle's room everyday. The story seems to get stuck at times and the same details are repeated, which seems is becoming a habit for Ms. Steel. But, once you get past the repetitive parts the story picks up and is interesting and easy to read. The reader is anxious to get to the end to see how the story ends. This is not one of Ms. Steel's best books but is OK to pass the time reading. A nice change of pace and escape in today's world.

I started reading this book the minute I got it. I so look forward to reading her novels. This one keep me so intrigued it was hard to put it down and tend to my families' needs. I felt like I was right there with the characters with all the happenings. The first kiss was so magical and holds them on after the tragedy. I still cannot beleive that Isabelle's husband could be so cold and heartless. Isabelle was so good to her family and her wifely duties that sometimes, I got so frustrated with her husband being a real "jerk" and having no heart when it came to his own son. The Love affair was written very true to reality, yet was not "smutty" at all, true to a Danielle Steel novel. Bill and Isabelle were in love and Bill's reactions to his body afterwards is so very true to reality. I see it all the time as I am a RN. I loved it having a happy ending and that all the characters got what they deserved. I recommend this novel to all Danielle Steel fans and romance readers.

Other than one of her earlier novels, I believe, "To Love Again", did I feel so much for the principals in this novel. My heart went out more to Isabelle more so because that husband of hers was just plain heartless. but to just be kissing and to crash like that, that was a bit much. But I got to give this couple one thing, they didn't carry on no affair, they took their time, and to be real, didn't nothing disrespectful happen in this book. Bill was so hard to feel that he couldn't love that he almost lost out on love until it was almost too late. I really love these kinds of romance. Ms. Steel made a good one this time. I usually read her novels just as they come out now for over twenty three years now,when I first read "The Promise". this one young girl had it, and I went out and bought a copy, and I've been hooked by Steel ever since. and I am not always a disappointed customer. Now when they make them movies is when I really get mad because they mess up the story line. Other than that, her books are alright by me.

The book starts with a strange 'Introduction to Programming' chapter, which is for people who don't know what a variable is (good thing _that's_ in a language reference book!) Meanwhile, there is no 'Introduction to VBScript' chapter. I found it very difficult to find simple information on syntax and keywords (just try to find anything on function return types or declaring arrays...) The main Appendix, which contains lots of valuable information, is organized randomly by arcane subjects (and there's no listing of the subjects) so it's difficult to find anything. It also seems to be lifted out of a VB book and contains things that aren't even supported in VBScript.

The range of topics covered is useful if you're trying to decide whether VBScript is right for your project . But if you're just trying to write Active Server Pages, I recommend skipping this book and getting 'Beginning ASP' by Wrox -- it uses VBScript exclusively and has a better introduction to the syntax and usage of the language.

Subs,procedures, and functions all covered in the book in Chapter 3.

"A reader" doesn't read much! I think Wrox and 1000's of other people who buy may noticed if Subs and Functions missing!

One of best books I buy. But I would like Appendix A (BEST VBScript reference ever!) to be alphabetical - easier to look up, but I love book anyway. I recommend to everyone.

I have read VBScript Programmer's Reference. I would to congratulate the team who put this book together. Its so well written I was programming within the day. Not just a "Hello World" program but a program of substance that opened files, validated them, wrote events in the event log etc.
The book is easy to follow and the short introduction to programming most useful for non-programmers like me and my team.
Unfortunately, for me, the book will lead to more work for me and my team of technical mainframe support staff converting mainframe legacy JCL to VBScript. I will be ordering two more copies of the book for my team and I am sure that they will gain much from it.
Even after a few days, members of staff from programming teams keep borrowing the book I am now forced to lie about its location (under my desk).
If I had a criticism I would say that Cscript should be covered in a little more detail, but its only minor point and I found the information I was looking for on the Web.

I bought 3 books on VBScript, the others are not bad books but they are written with a rocket scientist in mind and assume that the reader is competent in programming and modern scripting techniques. Thankfully your book saved the day and I actually enjoyed reading it. I get the impression that the team that put it together also enjoyed that task, it seems to come across in the text anyways.

Its a great book.

Once again Cisco has produced a very poor quality book. I have now purchased all the CCNP books produced by Cisco and this book is no different to the rest of them. Poor quality, No proof reading, mistakes everywhere, repeated paragraphs/tables and in this book in particular a real lack of detail. This book can be likened to the old Sunday night homework, very little planning, very little content and insufficient detail, by far the worst book in the course. I know from the other books in the CCNP range that the book will cover all subjects in the exam, but is that really good enough ? I for one don't think so.

Luckily Cisco networking products are not of the same quality as there books otherwise there would be no Cisco!

Today I passed Cisco Support 2.0 exam and got 864 (passing score was less then 700). I did it using only this book as study material. If you're looking for a single book - that's it!

Some comments. This book is based on Cisco training course and it gives you very good explanation of Cisco vision of troubleshooting. It's a serious book written by experienced proffecionals and it really helps you in your work not only in passing the test.

Why did I give 4 stars not 5? First, there are a lot of annoyng mistakes like illustration content may be completly different from its title. They are annoyng but not dangerous. It looks like technical editors checked all commands and their explanation but didn't look at pictures and other additional stuff at all.

Another reason that it was included in CCNP preparation library but it doesn't include CD, test examples, test description and other standard features for such books. I had to spend few hours in Internet searching for the exam details and questions samples.

I'm pretty satisfied by this book. Probably you can find something better, but this one is enough to pass test too.

I bought this book to study for the CIT exam (which I passed), but I found it a great reference to have on the shelf by my desk. It is chock full of the output of router and switch "show" commands and fully explains each screen.

It also has one of the best explainations of route caching I have read.

Well worth the money.

Lost Girls exists at a curious intersection of genres: a Scott Turow courtroom drama twisted about a Martin Amis comic amorality play, a Stephen King ghost story messing with a Thomas Harris psycho thriller. This conjunction of story types is mostly compelling -- to Pyper's credit there are few moments where the disparate elements collide rather than collude.

Despite the solid sense of place (Canada certainly an underutilized thriller locale) and dank, gothic atmosphere, the ghost story elements are the least effective (and I'm a big fan of ghosts popping up in genres where the don't belong) because its awfully tough to credit Pyper's amoral, cokefiend, stripclubbing protagonist having such a freakout at a few odds and ends going bump in the night -- and because the book has to decelerate its cocaine-driven prose and pacing to to whip up the requisite dark and stormy lake atmosphere.

So after an appallingly funny kick off the book drags a bit in the middle -- stay with it. The story takes an obvious twist I didn't see coming and stays particular and curious all the way to the end. The only caveat for genre-only readers -- despite the thriller drag Pyper's concerns are more those of Turow & Amis than King & Harris -- is a plus for everyone else.

In this classical murder mystery, author Andrew Pyper tells a tale of a young cocaine addicted lawyer, Bartholomew Christian Crane, who travels to his long-forgotten hometown to defend a high school teacher accused of abducting and killing two of his female students. Being ruthless, Crane will let nothing stand in his way of getting his client off. As he starts to piece together his defense for his client, he finds himself being evoked into the town's inexplicable urban legend that is unraveling before his eyes. He begins to suspect that everything that is occurring to him is happening for a reason. Crane marvels at the thought of the two missing girls are somehow linked to the town's inglorious history and a long lost episode of his murky past.

I give this book an 8.5. There were a few parts that could've been left out, but the rest was a nail-biting thriller. Pyper uses great sensory details and imagery to set you in a place you maybe haven't experienced. If you liked "The Sibyl in Her Grave," or "Drowning Ruth," then "Lost Girls" will surely tingle your spine. A psychological terror, and a labyrinthine legal shocker; from it's cryptic opening, to it's haunting ending, "Lost Girls" will take you into treacherous bewilderment.

Barth Crane is a high powered Toronto attorney who relishes the rush he receives when he wins a case. Ethics are not a problem, as Barth will do anything to triumph, including lying under oath, cheating, and tampering with witnesses.

The tightly focused lawyer travels to Murdoch, Ontario on his first murder case. Local high school teacher Thomas Tripp is accused of killing two students. Barth expects an easy victory because the bodies of the victims were never recovered nor are there any witnesses that Tripp committed a crime. Circumstantial evidence links the suspect to the murder. The barrister settles in at the local hotel and begins to immerse himself in the life of the town in an effort to gain an edge for his client. Gradually, the legend of the Lady in the Lake begins to haunt him; changing him and making him take actions that will effect Barth for the rest of his life.

LOST GIRLS is an atmospheric work that seems gothic in tone. The story line gradually builds up the tension level until the reader feels, like Barth, overwhelmed and anxious. Barth is a loathsome person, yet the audience will feel drawn to him, especially as he travels down a road nobody could have foreseen he would take. Andrew Pyper's ability to bring his story to life is brilliant and will leave readers clamoring for more works as soon as possible. Don't be surprised if this book hits the charts.

Harriet Klausner

Other reviews have described the plot, so I won't spend much time on it. A man, Julian West, goes to sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000. He finds a socialist utopia.

At first, the book is quite interesting. Bellamy does a good job of capturing the protagonist's surpise and confusion at the new world he discovers. The fact that Edith Leete looks like his fiance back in 1887 Boston is a neat twist. The socialist state the author describes is appealing to me, and as someone who believes that socialism can work, I found it thought provoking.

The problem is, there is not enough story or character development here. Bellamy's ideas aren't really suited to the fictional form. He'd have been better off to write a solely political tract. Because the author can't seem to decide if he wants to write a novel or a political essay, both the narrative and the politics are oversimplified, and given short shrift. The introduction by Cecilia Titchi (pardon my spelling), was excellent. In fact, the book fails to live up to it. If you know nothing about socialism, this book my enlighten you as to the philosophy. If it is an option for a political science class, it would be a good pick because it is easy and quick reading. Otherwise, I wouldn't rush to read it.

I grew up on science fiction, and many years ago read this book and was utterly unimpressed. Over the years, at SF conventions, I would ask other fans if they had read this book. Now these are fans who could regale you with quotes from Star Trek, or Star Wars, and who often had read most of Larry Niven or Andre Norton. But "Looking Backward"? Bellamy? Many had never heard of the book or the author. Those who had read the book often shared my opinion. By comparison, all I asked had read "Time Machine" by Wells, and had seen the movie.

I think it is instructive to compare the two books. Written within a few years of each other, with Bellamy's actually being the first, why did "Time Machine" live on, and the other being relegated to a well deserved obscurity? In fact, "Time Machine" is generally considered the first famous novel that describes the concept of time travel.

Try reading the two books consecutively. Well's story is gripping and dramatic. Bellamy's seems stilted and ponderous. Part of this is just the differences in literary style in the intervening century. But "Time Machine" is still a dashing read. Bellamy's text is a thinly wrapped polemic; a hosanna to his vision of a socialistic utopia. Most of the book is a hectoring lecture as to how late twentieth century Boston is a secular paradise, with the evils of capitalism just a historial curiosity. For one thing, books on utopia do not sell well. Regardless of your personal political beliefs, a book that is soothing and tranquil lacks a certain vivacity and drama.

This book is significant today, but NOT as science fiction. Rather as a guidepost to the socialistic beliefs of a certain subculture of a past century.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the movie!

Having never really heard of this novel or its author before, I was rather surprised to discover how immensely popular it was at the end of the nineteenth century. Edward Bellamy does an excellent albeit sometimes pedantic job of communicating his socioeconomic views and provides an interesting and informative read, despite the fact that the utopia of his fictional creation is a socialist nightmare in the realm of my own personal philosophy. It is very important to understand the time in which Bellamy was writing, especially for a conservative-minded thinker such as myself who holds many of Bellamy's views as anathema. It was the mid-1880s, a time of great social unrest; vast strikes by labor unions, clashes between workers and managers, a debilitating economic depression. Bellamy, to his credit, in no way comes off as holier than thou; his wealthy protagonist recognizes his own responsibility in seeing the world in the eyes of the more prosperous classes, basically ignoring the plights of the poor and downtrodden, having inherited rather than earned the money he is privileged to enjoy, etc. This makes the character's observations and conclusions very impactful upon the reader.

While I do respect Bellamy's views and understand the context in which they germinated, I cannot help but describe his future utopia as nothing less than naïve, socialistic, unworkable, and destructive of the individual spirit. Indeed, it sounds to me like vintage Soviet communism, at least in its ideals. Bellamy is a Marxist with blinders on. I should describe the actual novel at this point. The protagonist, an insomniac having employed a mesmerist to help him sleep through the night, finds himself waking up not the following morning in 1887 but in a completely changed world in 2000. His bed chamber was a subterranean fortress of sorts which only he, his servant, and the mesmerist (who left the city that same night) even knew about, and apparently his home proper burned down on that fateful night and thus his servant was clearly unable to bring him out of his trance the following morning. It is only by accident that Dr. Leekes of twentieth-century Boston discovers the unknown tomb and helps resuscitate its remarkable inhabitant. 20th-century life is wholly unlike anything the protagonist has ever known, and the book basically consists of a number of instruction sessions by the Leekes as to how society has been virtually perfected over the preceding 100 years. There is no more war, crime, unhappiness, discrimination, etc. There are no such things as wages or prices, even. All men and women are paid the same by virtue of their being human beings; while money does not exist, everyone has everything they possibly need easily available to them for purchase with special credit cards. Every part of the economy is controlled by the national government, and it is through cooperation of the brotherhood of men that production has exceeded many times over that of privately controlled industries fighting a war against each other in the name of capitalism.

Bellamy's future utopia is most open to question in terms of the means by which individualism is supposedly strengthened rather than smothered, how a complex but seemingly set of incentives supposedly keep each worker happy and productive, how invention or improvement of anything is possible in such a world, and how this great society does not in fact become a mirror of Khrushchev's Russian state. Such a society consisting of an "industrial army" and controlled in the minutest of terms by a central national authority simply sounds like Communism to my ears and is equally as unsustainable. Of course, Bellamy wrote this novel many years before the first corruptions of Marx's dangerous dreams were made a reality on earth. As I said, I disagree with just about everything Bellamy praises, and I think almost anyone would agree his utopia is an impossibility, but I greatly respect the man for his bold, humanitarian vision and applaud his efforts to make the world a better place. In fact, many groups organized themselves along the lines of the world Bellamy envisioned, so the novel's influence on contemporary popular thought is beyond question. Looking Backward remains a fascinating read in our own time.

I should make clear that the novel is not completely a dry recitation of socioeconomic arguments and moralistic treatises. Bellamy makes the story of this most unusual of time travelers a most enjoyable one, bringing in an unusual type of old-fashioned romance to supply the beating heart of a novel that had the potential to become overly analytical and thus rather boring reading otherwise. He also managed to grab me by the scruff of the neck and shake me around a couple of times with his concluding chapter, quite shocking me with a couple of unexpected plot twists. This great humanist of the late nineteenth century can teach us all something about what it means to be truly human, although I fear that his socioeconomic theories are themselves far too romanticized to have much practical relevance in the lives of modern men and women.