There are very few novels that have knocked me out of my chair as consistently as this one. Thompson's writing may seem crude to the uninitiated, but one cannot resist being swept up by his delightful tapestry of slang which peppers some of the most captivating prose I've ever read. It's about life in America, in it's underwear, up way past its bedtime, broke, beaten up, bombed out of its skull, with a tenacious hope running through it all like a river. No heterosexual American male in his right mind will be able to put this book down, and none should miss the chance to read it.

A Garden Of Sand is representative of Wichita and the area in which Earl Thompson grew up. In an alley between the 15 hundred block on North St.Francis and Santa Fe streets. The moral decay of the 1930's was evident and compounded by the depression. People did what they could and grappled with a way of life that had been unknown in the U.S. up until that time. The characters in A Garden Of Sand were based on actual people and merchants in that area of town. This is a telling portrait of those times, and as other readers have mentioned it raises fear in ones heart to read this masterpiece. It should do exactly that! The lessons of the past often slip by those in the near future. The times change, and those times will come again to America. It may be different people and different authors, but history repeats itself in an unrelenting way. This book speaks for a community and time that can only best be described as "shattered". With the money and food gone, life and it's seeming gentleness often changes into an all consuming monster. A time that shall revisit us all. I think that this book is the definative primer of those times. It may run only second to The Grapes Of Wrath as a benchmark of the dirty thirties. But, it tells a far better story that the reader becomes entangled with. Earl Thompson gave us a lot during his short stay on earth. Somewhere, the spark of energy that drove this man is thinking and reacting to the surroundings he is in today. If you read this book and are unmoved by the characters and description of the times. Please get some help!

I was overwhelmed when I first read "A Garden of Sand". I immediately rushed out to buy more of Earl Thompson's books, only to discover he had written but three. And then died. This hugely talented author somehow got lost in the shuffle and never attained the merit he deserved. "A Garden of Sand" is an epic novel of one boy's journey through the depression as well as coping within the ultimate dysfunctional family. Thompson sees, then translates in an unerring manner all the feelings, hopes and downfalls of the human experience. Each scene is chiseled in perfection. And I don't think I've ever read such achingly real sexual encounters before. I am truly amazed that any astute hollywood producer has not not bought the rights to this book and is filming an award winning production at this very moment.

I recommend this book only for serious enthusiasts who are truly passionate about authentic Thai cooking/food and are not looking for quick, adapted recipes!

Having enjoyed authentic Thai food during my trips to Thailand, I am repeatedly disappointed with the adapted versions found in most local restaurants here. Since I am an avid cook, I have been experimenting to replicate the dishes I had in Thailand.

After some research I found David Thompson's "Thai Food" to be a rare find. Most Thai cook books I have come across provide adapted recipes with shortcuts and suggested substitutes for ingredients! How dreadful! Undoubtedly, Thai food involves much effort and can even be tedious. But the taste is well worth it. More importantly, ingredients in Thai cooking CAN NOT be substituted if the REAL flavor and aroma are to be achieved. For example, if you are going to substitute regular ginger for galangal (Thai ginger), or lime zest for kaffir lime zest, as many books suggest - you may as well not cook Thai food!

This is what sets David's book apart from the rest - he sticks to the real stuff! He painstakingly explains all the details of real Thai cooking, discussing each ingredient and various techniques followed by the recipes. While some recipes are quite cumbersome or require ingredients which are not easily available, the book is worth the insight it provides into authentic Thai cuisine. Once you understand the basics, you can be creative by combing basic Thai ingredients with techniques and create your own recipes without straying from the flavors, tastes and aroma of REAL Thai cuisine!

One complaint however: where is the recipe for Yum Woon Sen??

This is the one. The definitive guide to Thai cuisine. Having lived in Thailand I can say that this book is destined to be a classic. Thorough is an understatement. Beautiful design and photography. The only fault is a disappointing Thai transliteration system devised by the author and no Thai script to back it up. But the average reader will have no use for Thai script anyway. This isn't a weekend cookbook, it's Larousse. And that's why it's great.

After cooking about the fifth dish from this book ("Stir Fried Beef with Spices") with palate-boggling success , I would like to recommend this book to anybody serious about Thai cooking. While there are no shortcuts (consistent with the author's view to keep things as original as possible) the result is well worth the effort. Some things sound more complicated than they are. Furthermore, this is the first Thai cookbook out of the five or six I have got which explains in detail some really important techniques (like the cracking of coconut cream and why this is important for frying curry pastes). The background chapters are highly recommended.

My two open questions are why the Gaeng Panaeng is far from "dry" (with about five cups of coconut milk/cream) and why there is no recipe for Yam Wun Sen (a favourite of my Thai girlfriend, and I thought it was a classic dish). But these are minor points and maybe there is a good reason (I would be curious to learn).

All in all: Highly recommended, together with "Vatch" Bhumichitr's books (whose writing style and inside country knowledge I also like very much) my favourite cookbook.

After reading "A Garden of Sand", I scoured the bookstores looking for more titles by Earl Thompson. Fortunately, I was able to find all four. Unfortunately, Earl died before he could write more. Perhaps, it's fitting that his books (which seem to represent a thinly veiled depiction of his actual life) died with him. I know of few people who could have survived the traumatic and dysfunctional life that Earl's main characters lived.

Caldo Largo was one of the last books that Earl wrote, however, it does not lack the verve and grit that permeate all of his novels. It tells of the life of a shrimp boat owner in Brownsville, Texas in the early 1960's.

Scenes and characters depicted in Caldo Largo seem so real you can almost taste, smell, and feel them. The plot line is nothing that fits any "formula" novel, unless you compare it with other Thompson novels. I could best describe Caldo Largo as a mix between Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath with all the dirty parts left in, lots of fajita flavoring, and a little Shakespearean introspection (or psychosocial character analysis if you will).

I only wish I had kept all my Thompson novels. They're probably worth quite a lot now. I had to throw them out when I got married since my wife insisted they were pornography. But, if you get past all the sex, drugs, and violence, you'll actually appreciate the books finer points like its wonderful descriptive writing, character development, rhythm, and strange sense of truth and justice in pithy human relations.

So for you Shakespeare fans, read it for the deeper themes. For those of you who can't stand the Bard, read it for fun and adventure.

Korean war vet buy a boat and becomes a shrimper in texas...his loves, his struggles, his close encounters of the sexual kind. Kind of a cross between Forrest Gump and To Have Not...but much better then both! Read it and laugh and cry. A book you will recommend but never loan out!

"Tatoo" is the second book in Earl Thompson's sweeping tale of a young man coming of age in the underside of the 1940's. This is my favorite of all three, and the one that received the most media coverage in its first publishing.

Thompson wasn't afraid to write of the people he knew, and the characters he created are never one-dimensional -- they eat, sleep, drink, fight, and indulge in sex. This is what life was really like for so many hard-working people during the WWII era, despite the rosy message musicals of that time force-fed the public.

Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Dreiser are lauded as great novelists for their accurate display of human plight. Thompson is no less prolific and realistic, but because of his depiction of raw sex, I'd bet his novels will never be taught in any public school. The stark sexual themes -- including incest and rape -- will offend the masses but will never appeal to the "Debbie Does Dallas" set. Still,his protagonist is so real and the story so fun that this ranks high on my "Top 10 read every year" list.

Having worked for many years in the navy, reading books has occupied a great deal of my time. The first occasion on which I read the book tattoo, I was struck by the sheer depth to the charachters that enabled these american individuals in an alien culture to my own, to be brought to life and appreciated by myself, an english sailor. I have read the book many times since and will continue to do so in the future. Along with Orwell's 1984, it is my favourite.

feel the hunger in your belly, have a sense of desperation in your soul. Not many novels alow me to let go and put myself in the place of the main character, but this one does. You will feel all of Jack Andersen's pains, desires,triumphs,failures and fantasies as if they were your own. The very rare combination of great writer and consumate storyteller. A true tradgedy that Mr. Thompson is no longer with us. Highly recommended, but not for the prudish or politically correct. A must read.

Complete with 3-D glasses, this interesting book gives the reader a sampling of the variety of visual perceptual images that make the brain work in order to understand what we are seeing. Compact and brief, I believe Dr. Thomson illustrates how the eye and the brain make an effort to work together, yet sometimes face a battle! I recommend this enjoyable book, and plan to use it to introduce some of my students to how the eye see, and what the brain thinks.