Zurich 1917, a marvellous subject. The meeting point of the Bolsheviks and other revolutionaries on one side, and of the new « revolutionary » artists, be they James Joyce and the stream of consciousness writers, or Tristan Tzara and the Dada movement.

The first interest of the play is to situate the dynamic of each revolutionary movement very well. Lenin is the figurehead of the revolutionary politicians, James Joyce and Tzara of the modern literature movements.

Then Stoppard makes them meet. In Zurich it is more or less an artificial meeting though they share most of their ideas (the files that are unknowingly exchanged at the beginning and exchanged back at the end show how identical their ideas are) and yet they have styles, general postures that make them unable to have a real dialogue.

Tom Stoppard goes even further by tracing along Lenin's positions on art. He shows the perfect contradiction contained - as Walt Whitman would say - by the man. On one side (Tolstoy), he understands that a work of art is a reflection (hence not a purely identical image) of social contradictions and therefore of society, and also a reflection of the contradictory artist (all artists contain contradictions) and his contradictory position in society (hence in the social contradictions of this society). On the other side, once in power, he condemns, at first, then wavers on the subject, Mayakovsky and the Futurist mocement, and definitely considers intellectuals as bourgeois individualists. But the artists of 1917 represent exactly a similar contradiction between the absolutely nihilistic approach of the Dada movement, and the mentally realistic movement represented by James Joyce. The former rejects all heritage. The latter rearranges the full heritage within a modern man's consciousness, hence within a revolutionary or disturbing consciousness.

The play is at times funny, at times realistic, at times dramatic, according to the points of view, but the essential one of these is the recollections two (minor) characters have of the period sixty years later. We are forced to accept that historical perspective : what it was then and what we can do of it now.

The conclusion of the play is typical perpetual movement, here perpetual syllogism : « Firstly, you're either a revolutionary or you're not, and if you're not you might as well be an artist as anything else. Secondly, if you can't be an artist, you might as well be a revolutionary... I forget the third thing. » Unfinished of course, like any historical achievement. History is always unfinished, in spite of Marx's dream of a contradiction-free communist society. This is the biggest sham of western philosophy ever dreamed of by a man of the amplitude and intensity of Karl Marx. You can be a genius but reality is more real than philosophy. The proof, as Marx liked to say, of the pudding is in my eating it. Full stop. Period.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

This is probably my favorite Stoppard play. Everything about it is raised to such a level of excellence that it's difficult to imagine how it can be surpassed.

Stoppard showcases his linguistic talents at their most dazzling and expects the reader to keep up intellectually. Not to sound daunting, but in order to enjoy "Travesties" properly, it helps to know some rudimentary German, French, and Russian; be well familiar with Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" and James Joyce's "Ulysses"; and also to have a good factual knowledge of the Great War and the Great October Revolution. If you do not have this background knowledge, you risk missing out on most of Stoppard's witty insight and leaving the theatre/closing the book confused and disappointed.

The most important thing to remember about Travesties is that it is essentially Stoppard arguing with himself. This really shines through in his "derailed" scenes, where the characters have to abort a scene half-way through because it's obviously going in a wrong direction. Basically, it starts out with the characters being themselves, but as it progresses, one can see that they are simply two sides of Stoppard's own mind speaking to the audience through masks. And then it's as if the author remembers to keep his distance from the audience and steps back into the shadows. The effect is rather mystical; it's as if we are granted a brief glimpse beyond the fabric of what we take to be reality. What remains unclear is whether we are now looking into the "true" reality or yet another scene setting.

In short, buy the book, read it outloud, amuse yourself, alarm your neighbors.

This is one of my most favorite plays, and I was lucky enough to see it performed on stage. In 1917 Zurich, James Joyce, Tristan Tzara and VI Lenin are all converging on the movements that define their very careers later in life. The tale is narrated by Henry Carr, an actual historical figure, as an old man in 1972, who was with the three celebs as a young man, and his memory is a bit faulty! He once played Algernon in "The Importance of Being Earnest" which required him to buy some new trousers, and he insists that Joyce reimburse him. Thus starts a legal battle.

Travesties is a non-stop energetic creative retelling of history in its most fantastical setting. Read it, and if you ever get the opportunity, go see it!

Nabokov and Pushkin are among my favorite authors, both having an excellent command of the language, the media, and the art. But Nabokov's Pushkin is too literal to be any good. James Falen's trans. is far superior, perhaps the best, and it's worth while to read the very best Pushkin. Ironically, Nabokov was fretted that anyone other than his son would ever translate his words; I think Pushkin would have felt the same if he saw Nabokov's translation of his masterpiece. Falen, while also literal, also is metered and rhymes. Nabokov's thuds. Read Nabokov's great novels (Pnin, Lolita, King Queen & Knave, Bend Sinister, Invitation to a Beheading, Despair, etc.) but leave Pushkin to Falen, not Nabokov.

I'm a Russian Language and Literature major in Yonsei Univ. in Korea. Having lived in Moscow for around 3 years, I'd heard there a lot about Pushkin and read many of his famous works. The most prestigious of his, however, must be "Onegin." It's a great mixture of verse and prose in its form. If possible, try to read this in Russian, as well. This long poetical prose was written for 8 years and the ending rhyme perfectly matches for the entire line until the very end. Compared to others, it is definitely a conspicuous and brilliant one. "Onegin" can be the author himself or yourself. The love between Onegin and TaTyana is neither the cheap kind of love that often appears in any books nor the tragic one that is intended to squeze your tears. As a literature, this book covers not only love between passionate youth, but also a large range of literary works in it, which can tell us about the contemporary literature current and its atmosphere. Calling Onegin "My friend", Pushkin, the author, shows the probability and likelihood of the work. Finally, I'm just sorry that the title has been changed into English. The original name must be "Yevgeni Onegin(¬¦¬Ó¬Ô¬Ö¬ß¬Ú¬Û ¬°¬ß¬Ö¬Ô¬Ú¬ß)." If you are a literature major or intersted in it, I'd like to recommand you read this. You can't help but loving the two lovers and may reread it, especially the two correspondences through a long period of time. Only with readng this book, you'll also learn a huge area of the contemporary literature of the 19th century from the books mentioned in "Onegin" that take part as its subtext. Enjoy yourself!

I'm so happy that I'm Russian and I could read this masterpiece in original language. This is one of the best Russian books ever written, and it is the example of all-time classics. Evgeniy Onegin is so extremely well-written, so original, so interesting, so intelligent. If you want to understand Russian people, you should live in Russia for years. But if you want just to approach to understanding them read some Russian literature. Your first authors may be Tolstoy or Dostoyevskiy, but I should recommend reading Pushkin at first because he is the most Russian of all Russian writers.

The only thing that may make your reading not so great is the fact that you will read it in translation. I have never read any but I think that if you like (or dislike) one of them you should try some others.

I know that Nabokov didn't translate it using the verses (and Pushkin's verses are so great), but I think it is the most punctual one. So maybe you should try to read exactly it (especially if you have already read some not so punctual translation but in verse form).

Anyway Evgeniy Onegin is one of the greatest books ever written!!!

I wasn't expecting this book to be as accessable as I found it. I know next to nothing about life in Russia during the outbreak of WWII, and I knew going in that this was a novel about a man in the Russian army. I figured there'd be numerous names and references to people, places, and policies I'd have to gloss over, and just hope I'd get an idea of the book. I was wrong.

I was also wrong in thinking that it wouldn't be that funny. I found it amusing and entertaining to see slapstick in a "European Classic". But, it wasn't stupid humor. It seems as though Voinovich had a lot of thought behind it, twisting it around so it not only made the reader laugh, but also tied into the plot.

The only thing I thought it may have lacked was character development. It is a short novel, but I felt as if I didn't really get to know Gladishev, Chonkin, or Nyura. Perhaps given a few more pages, I could have identified with these characters a bit more. But, since they are from a culture so foreign to myself, perhaps it would have taken a lot more for me to identify with the characters. Perhaps it's my own sheltered way of life that inhibited a stronger connection with this novel.

If anything, this book is a fabulous introduction into Russian culture at the beginning of WWII. Being that it is a fiction/comedy however, there may not be a lot of accuracy in its content, but it at least leaves one with a sense of lifestyle to which these characters live.

This was the selection of my book club. I was a little leery, because unless it's EXTREMELY well done, satire doesn't work for me - it's an all-or-nothing proposition. Anything less than Mark-Twain-level and I can't be bothered.

Well, "Private Chonkin" was a pleasant surprise. I had the feeling that the writer and/or translator had a lot of fun with this one - I kept hearing a giggle off the page as I read. As is always the case with satire, it helps to be somewhat familiar with the reality that's being skewed, but in this case, it's not a requirement for enjoying the book.

The premise is pretty good, and ripe for satire - hapless nudnik of a soldier is assigned to guard a downed plane in a remote village in the Soviet Union just before the beginning of WW II. His superiors forget about him as he settles into the life of the village, and when they finally remember him, all hell breaks loose as he proves to be a lot smarter than any of them. The author skewers everyone and everything, but none as savagely as the Party and the Army.

The depictions of life in remote areas can be hair-raising; the villages, the people, and their lives are pretty primitive. I had the sense that this part of the world hadn't changed in centuries. And I also had the feeling that these were accurate descriptions, rooted in some pretty harsh realities. The only parts that I felt bordered on tedium were the lengthy descriptions of Private Chonkin's dreams; they played a role in the overall satire but otherwise didn't move the story forward.

With translations, it's hard to tell what you're really appreciating: the art of the writer or that of the translator. Obviously, the translator has to have something to work with, but the nuances could be credited to either. That said, I found this book well-written and highly amusing, and I recommend it to anyone who appreciates this kind of writing.

Voinovich was expelled from the Soviet Writers' Union, because of his poignant satire. The guardians of the communist order could not stand his free, humorous exposition of the follies of the Soviet society. "Private Chonkin" is his masterpiece. Voinovich shows much that plagued the Soviet society: pervasive alchoholism, bureaucratic intransingence, sychophantic officials, horrific abuse of power, and the spread of pseudo-science (much fun is made in the book of Lysenko's approach to evolution.)

Voinovich is not bitter or angry. He finds a place for good-natured humor, even amid the appalling conditions of Russian's brutal rural communism. This book is invaluable to all those who want to be acquainted with the character and spirit of communist despotism in Russia in the twentieth century. But in the end, one does not put down this book feeling discouraged and sad. Orwellian gloom does not prevail here. And why is that? Because people retain the ability to laugh at themselves and at the life around them, not taking too seriously grave doctrines and events. Chonkin survives the advent of terror, and his simplicity and good nature prove superior to dogma and repression, suggesting, at least to me, that a single human being is generally more valuable than all utopian doctrines and insane plans for implementing them.

This novel is a good first effort, with vivid characters and a bìt of a surprise ending, which is one of Nab's trademarks. While I would never have read it for itself alone, it is interesting to see how a genius began in a new medium.

Putting my obsession for Nabokov and for first novels in general aside, reading this was still pure bliss. Sometimes narrative breaks for the author to sneak in some philosophical musing about memory, but somehow it fits. Immature writer syndrome, I suppose, which i've caught in my own work.

It is a book about first love, and losing her, and then finding her again, but engaged to another man, who's not half the man you are. Nabokov questions how much you're in love with only the memory, and whether finding the flesh and blood girl again will ever fill the hole that your memory and desire have dug.

Makes interesting reading next to Martin Amis' first work, The Rachel Papers.

Though I found this book in some pasages quite boring none the less I liked it very much ganin is a great character easy to hate for alot of reasons but mainly the guy like most of us lives in the past trying all his life to recapture a moment he thinks was the greatest and happiest moment of his life in the hopes of living it again in this case with mary the love of his life...but ofcorse sadly for all of us that can never happen again I dont think there are hollywood endings in the stories of nabkov just realistic ones...but still what a great ending an ending that confirmed the idea I had all through the book that some sort of awakening has to happen in his life and realization that the past no matter how beautiful it was can never be resurrected except in our memories and the reality of his dull,poor and ugly life is still a reality.But I think as ganin realised in the end that other maries waiting to be loved happier moments waiting to be lived can still exits in the future.

If you remember Woody Guthrie, or even if you don't, this is a must. What fun to sing along with this book... " Bling Blang, hammer with my hammer, Zing-o zang-o Cutting with my saw" The sheet music is even printed on the inside of the jacket! Although the collage pictures are not to my taste, the joy of having fun singing this with my baby more than compensates. Kids will probably enjoy the children's artwork at the end of the book more than I.

While this book does not come with the bonus CD that 'Howdi Do' does, it is a great book with wonderful illustrations. But do your child a favor and also purchase the 'Howdi Do' book, you will then get the music CD performed by Band of Weeds, giving a childish musical romp to three of Woody's wonderful songs, including "Bling Blang", by far one of my children's favorites.

This is my 3 year old son's favorite book. Our whole family sings and dances as we read it. My son knows the whole thing and loves to pretend he is hammering and sawing. Buy it, make up a tune, sing it, and enjoy!

If you would like to see a book of some of the games of a great player, you may be interested in this book. But a few words of warning first.

#1.) This book came out BEFORE Kramnik won the chess World Championship, so already it is a little dated.

#2.) This is some of the dryest text you may ever see in your life. (Few, if any good stories.) In fact, if you suffer from insomnia, this may be a good book for you. I also get the impression that Kramnik either accepted factually that he was very talented, or he is one of the most conceited individuals on the face of the earth.

#3.) Many of the Soviet books are "ghost-written" by other chess players - trainers, analysts and such. I get the impression that this is what happened here. (A few of the errors in analysis are too basic to have been perpetrated by Kramnik. Indeed, I. Damsky is probably responsible for the majority of this book.)

Having given the above harsh criticisms, you may get the idea that I hate this book. This is simply not the case. I am a Master who makes a great part of his living from teaching chess. I consider it my responsibility to give as an honest review of every chess book as I possibly can. I also feel it my duty to reflect what many of my students and contacts on the Internet have told me about this book.

If you are looking for a book with some of the best annotations by a top player available, this would be a good book for you to choose. (Many of the annotations are gleaned from magazines where Kramnik had a direct hand in reviewing the games.)

What this book lacks in great stories, and perhaps quality, it makes up for in quantity. You get almost 200 deeply annotated games by the current World Champion. You will get one of the most COMPLETE chess educations available in one book by carefully studying ALL of these games. (And I estimate it would take the average player nearly two years to do this!)

Warning: Most of these games are highly technical. Many of my students decribed them as "dry and boring." (In the style of Capablanca and Karpov.) The average player may not have the skill to appreciate just how hard it is to play like this. Careful study of these games will definitely improve your chess.

....

Kramnik has defeated Kasparov in their 16-game match a few months ago.

I thought that this simple fact would enlighten potential purchasers.

Kramnik's games are so beautiful and his annotations so insightful that I am forced to award his book five stars. Be warned, however, you will learn next to nothing of his childhood from the text. For those of us interested in the human side of chess, this is a major fault.

As many reviewers have said, the very monotony of Aleksandra's last diary gives it an eerie significance. However, beyond that, there is little to recommend it. Entries, spaced one to a page, mostly consist of a single brief paragraph, and the content is boring-- notes on the weather, her health, the health of her children. "Sat for 10. m[inutes] on the balkony [sic]." It is a very short book, and a very quick read. Only for the true Romanov fanatic (of which I am one), I'm afraid. Aleksandra's letters and the letters & diaries of the others who shared her captivity are far more interesting.

Alix's diary is a most important document,
it reveals her , but in a very different way to say
how her letters do.in her diary, it is of chief importance
to note the things she leaves out, and how laconic the
text itself is.this tells as much about her at the time
than had she written pages about her feelings and experiences.
This is an extremely important book, the last page is
agonising - the "ex-Tsarina" has written in a fine and clear
hand "July 17th" - but the page is blank. We have to read
what Alexandra didnt write - between the lines.her last
diary reveals her final states of mind, her humaness, her fear,
in those last terrible words, in the entry for July 16th.
Alix has written her own memorial here, and it is a just tribute.

It is ironic that, being the most private of persons, many of the last Tsarinia's most intimate thoughts are now available in several books, including this recently declassified diary of her final days. However, readers who search out this book are probably sympathetic, and will find her daily entries of interest and sometimes moving. Alexandra wasn't writing a best-selling novel -- simply a daily account of the tedium of their imprisonment, and how she, her family, and attendants passed the time -- but for those interested in Alix, her husband, and children, this book is a valuable link to their final days. The introduction, essay by Jonathan Brent, and other sections are all appropriate accompaniment. It will be interesting to see if excerpts from the children's diaries also are eventually published; several books compiled and edited by Russian archivists already have quoted from some of those diaries.

If you are interested in the last tsar and his family, I invite you to contact me at whitcombj@juno.com.

Required for an IT class. Written in 1998, four years old, you'll find lots of outdated material. Some of it is still timely, mostly the theory stuff.

This is a must-read for anyone who wants an introduction to Information Systems. This must be a prescribed reading for Masters in IS. The book is very relevent even today in the digital era. It covers different aspects of IS from development to managing, local to global. And it is very easy to read too!

This is a required book for a graduate course I'm taking. It is full of timely information and includes numerous case studies from real companies. These studies help to integrate the information provided so it is more easily understood. The book is not an easy read; no one should expect to be able to skim through it. There is simply too much information for that to be successful. But for a serious student, who will take the time to read the book, it is an excellent resource.

The thing I noticed most of all about this book is the strength the author has is creating original and interesting characters - from the main character, who is overly honest, wry and sarchastic yet is deeply affected by the war, to the glue-sniffing former friend who is so out of it that he wants to join the Crotian army because he'll be paid more. I don't think this book could have been written in English-it has the feeling of a translation from Serbian (that's a good thing).

I'm only 17 but do to the recent activities in Yugoslavia, I've been thrown into its path. Arsenijevic is a writer who beautifully entwines comedy and tragedy. You are often laughing and crying because of the ambivalence. If you have been paying attention to the horrors going on in Kosovo right now, you somehow can understand, through reading, how those people fighting to remain normal feel right now. A must read. You'll never put it down.

This is a great book about methaphysical Belgrade during past ten years.

This book is for those who care more about substance than style. Dr. Ginzburg's subject-the toroidal spiral field and its study by scientists beginning with Archimedes-is fascinating and its significance hard to overestimate. Dr. Ginzburg clearly believes the toroidal spiral field is the mathematical representation of what can also be called the "universal field," insofar as it constitutes the essence of the structure of the unverse: nothing less. Readers of The Tao of Physics, The Physics of Immortality, The Dancing Wu Li Masters and Wholeness and the Implicate Order will profit from this book.

Dr. Ginzburg (who maintains an interesting related web site: Helicola@aol.com) has self-published this work, which suffers from a lack of editorial polish, although this detracts far less than might be feared from the fundamental importance of the work. While much of the book is a fictionalized account of the transmission of the apocryphal "Archimedes File," in which is found the initial discovery of the importance of the toroidal spiral field, the story-telling method employed makes for an entertaining introduction to profound subject matter and incidentally provides a pleasant "tour" of the evolution of the physical sciences through the early Twentieth Century. The book would also have benefitted from footnoting, but given that it is not presented as an academic text, this is easily overlooked as well.

What matters here is the message, as Dr. Ginzburg well knows. Dr. Ginzburg has a passion or his subject and is committed to making toroidal spiral field theory beter known. "The scientist... who sees geometry as the divine proportion of created things," wrote Claudio Magris in Danube, describing Kepler, who himself wrote that "[i]t is the geometrician who approaches closest to the design of the Deity." Dr. Ginzburg is seeking to reveal that design-which he believes to be the toroidal spiral field-to his readers, and has written a book which will compel its readers to think long and carefully about what they have read.

"The term 'particle' has no physical meaning," Dr. Ginzburg gives as the conclusion of Peter Tait, a Scots physicist who died in 1901. "What we perceive as a particle is actually a toroidal spiral field." If this is true-and this reviewer believes it to be so-,the implications are enormous. It is hard to imagine a more exciting field of inquiry and speculation: physics melding into metaphysics. Dr. Ginzburg hopes to continue his tale of the Archimedes File and its place in the Twentieth Century, in the Twenty Fist, today and tomorrow. It is to be hoped that he does, and that deserved attention is given to his work.

Unified Spiral Field and Matter. Author: Vladimir B. Ginzburg Publisher: Helicola Press 1999, ISBN: 0-9671432-0-9. Subject: A Story of a Great Discovery.

Unified Spiral Field and Matter is an independent continuation and expansion of a previous 1996 publication, Spiral Grain of the Universe, by Dr. Vladimir B. Ginzburg. It is a unique and a brilliant book, for the layman, as well as the learned.

Like the 1996 book, the Unified Spiral Filed and Matter presents the reader with a story of a great discovery. This is the discovery of the spiral nature of the material Universe. It presents the reader with a discovery, which accentuates the rotational movements of everything in the observable Universe. From the smallest grains of matter to the galaxies, and the role this plays in its construction. The insight climaxes in the creation of models of the fundamental particles of matter, in the form of spirals, which Dr. Ginzburg classifies as Vortices, Spheruses, Helixes and Toruses and which he then describes graphically and mathematically, explaining their dynamics in the terms of contemporary physics.

The book's novel approach in presenting such ideas to the general public is in Dr. Ginzburg's brilliant account of the history of the idea of spirals. This he traces back to Archimedes, and then through the past 2200 years, in the thinking of some of histories profoundest natural philosophers, thinkers, discoverers and physicists. This part of the book is not just a most enjoyable reading for the inquisitive thinker, but thoroughly informative and provocative to the intellect, at the same time as it serves as the accumulative foundation for the groundbreaking discoveries in the theorisations of the Unified Spiral Filed and Matter.

Dr. Ginzburg's ideas may prove to be as close to the fundamental truths regarding the construction principles of the material Universe, as anything being currently presented in physics. This in particular when it comes to our understanding of what forces holds the fundamental particles together.

The Unified Spiral Field and Matter is a brilliant exposition of fundamental ideas and issues in mathematics, physics and the creation of particle field-concepts. I recommend this reading to anyone interested in the big questions in particle physics and humanities possibilities for the construction of the all important and ultimate Theory of Everything.

Paul J. Einarsson.

I found this book easy to read and understand. It was exciting to follow the line of possessors of the Archimedes file, the events that brought the file to each in succession and the importance of each possessor in bringing us closer to an understanding the structure of the universe. It was quite informative about the attitudes and personalities of so many great scientists.