Absolutely a wonderful adaptation of the original for younger readers. I have younger kids, ages 5 & 7 and they love this book and the others like it. It is a good book for "Transitional" readers in the 1st and 2nd grade. I just love the fact I can share these wonderful stories with them!

You can also see my review of Aslan, another picture book in this series. The entire series is just wonderful. The text is pure Lewis - all excerpts from the original text. Maze is very true to his descriptions in her illustrations. My daughters love the original novels and they love these books as well! The only concern for this particular book is that some of the illustrations can be a little scary for a sensitive child. The witch is evil but beautiful. Her cohorts are evil and many are gruesome.

I grew up reading the Narnia books, and I was thrilled to find this beautifully illustrated child's version! My 4 year old son loves for us to read this book to him as well as the other two Narnia books illustrated by Deborah Maze. Keep in mind that this book is only a small portion of the original book, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." With that in mind, sit down with a little one and enjoy the story and the incredible, detailed drawings from the world of Narnia!

Working my way through the Proust oeuvre and biographies, I was relieved beyond measure to find that White, alone among biographers, has dared to write that Proust was gay, and to redefine some of the 'close friendships' his other biographers refer to so coyly.
It is hard to quantify the influence Proust's sexuality had on his writing, mainly because it is so gracefully veiled. Yet on a second reading, particularly through the prism of White's biography, it screams from every line. How could past biographers not deal with the central fact of his life? While White does not mistake Proust's oeuvre for autobiography, he provides a short account of the missing piece of the puzzle that is as entertaining as it is revealing. As in all his writing, White is direct and uneuphemistic - qualities which starkly reveal the subtext of Proust's complex and imagistic novels.
White is accurate, as factual as one can be in such a brief book, and provides a bibliography which is invaluable for anyone setting out to discover Proust's life for themselves. I recommend this book to anyone planning to read Proust for the first time, or anyone who is moving beyond "In Search of Lost Time" to a search for the lost novelist himself.

Although there is no shortage of books on Proust in English, and no shortage of enormously long biographies, there is a surprising lack of short biographies. Luckily, this excellent little volume by Edmund White fills a major need. While we have major long biographies like those of Painter, Tadie, and Carter, these may not be appropriate for someone wanting a brief overview. The trick with any biography of Proust is striking a balance between writing about Proust's life and Proust's art, not an easy task given the degree with which Proust based his work on events in his own life. It is virtually impossible to disentangle the two.

This is a short book (around 150 pages), but in that brief span, White is able to touch on all the major events of Proust's life, the key relationships of his life, the major themes of his work as an author, and the ways in which Proust's life became the basis for his work. If one is unfamiliar with Proust before picking up this book, one will gain a first rate overview of him before setting it down. One thing that tremendously enhances the value of the book is an excellent annotated biography that gives a great overview of work on Proust both in English and French.

White, who is a well known gay author, does a superb job writing about the myriad of contradictions in Proust's own work as a lightly closeted gay author. Although Proust's being gay is the worst kept secret of the century, Proust fought many duels over accusations that he was homosexual (or, an invert, as Proust would have put it). Proust was the first writer to write extensively about homosexuality, both male and female, but maintained a façade of heterosexuality to those who did not know him well.

All in all, this is an excellent brief biography of the man many regard as the great novelist of the 20th century. I heartily recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about Proust.

Edmund White, one of my favorite contemporary American Authors, manages to capture the life of Marcel Proust in a manner that grabs the reader's attention. The book is a short appraisal of Proust's life, with a refreshing focus on Proust's barely in-the-closet homosexuality. The illuminating look at Proust's psyche and private relationships provide a different way of interpreting his masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past. This easy-to-read biography comes highly recommended.

"Just who is Keith Fleming and why is he tryng to slay me" might be a good subtitle for this short memoir. Frankly I bought the book because of my great admiration for Edmund White (the Uncle Ed of Keith's minor autobiography) and in the end all reasons for liking the book reflect back to that initial response. Yes, this is the life of an unfortunate, acneiform teenage product of yet another dysfunctional family unit whose saving grace is his finding solace with his brilliant writer uncle in New York. Keith Fleming writes well, has some pages when his prose actually begins to sing, but aside from his "growing up" experience with Edmund White, his story - full of despair and cruel circumstances -hardly registers as a precis for a book. But all criticism aside, Fleming does give us more insights into the person of Edmund White and it is refreshing to read passages that demonstrate White's warmth and humanity and caring that often his books fail to suggest. Far from being just a flamboyant social surface person, White, as drawn by his nephew, has more than a modicum of compassion for family, for adolescence, for the sticks and stones that make us falter as we mature. So, I think this young writer bears watching. Maybe next time his misery will not be too much with us.......

I still feel under the spell of Keith Fleming's wonderful memoir, The Boy with the Thorn in his Side. I read it over the weekend in 2 sittings. The opening pages grabbed me right away -- what an eccentric, fascinating family! Whether describing his first innocent sexual adventures, or his horrifying experience as the patient of a pyschiatrist/sadist, or his touching romance with an inner-city Latina, Fleming writes so well about what it feels like to be a teenager at the mercy of circumstances. And what circumstances! The book takes us through one extreme situation after another, always described with deep feeling and great sense of style. This book is so much more than a portrait of his uncle Edmund White. I recommend it to anyone interested in love, in families, in adolescence -- in life!

I've read this first work by Keith Fleming several times and have shared it with friends, all of whom agree that it is intensely personal, amusing at times, and chronicles an adolescent's developement during perhaps the most difficult years, and under some very difficult and confusing circumstances.

I tend to focus more on Mr. Fleming's talent as a writed/narrator of this work than I do on his uncle, Mr. White. He is indeed a colorful subject, but the subtleness which with the author connects to our own adolescent experiences is easily lost if the focus is placed on his more famous uncle than on what Keith Fleming is really trying to portray, i.e., growing up as a troubled adolescent.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading something real and written from the heart and soul. If you are seeking fluff, seek elsewhere. This book is for the serious minded reader, which is not to say it is obtuse, or difficult reading, but that it represents that rare work which portrays the human in all of us at our most vulnerable times.

This is my first book by Edmund White and probably my last. His stories are marginally entertaining & I suppose the they succeed on some level, but they so strewn with French phrases that can only be known by a French speaker or a Francophile that one begins to wonder who Edmund is trying to impress? The same goes for his conquests, always trying to impress with his prowess and his internationalism. In short, if you can stomach pretention at a party you may be able to stomach this. I can't, there are too many good things to read.

I don't feel that these stories are riddled with "pertention" like others have said. As a matter of fact, it is the frankness of White's writing that gives his characters the ability to be both relatable and divine. His descriptions of Greece and Texas create a world so striking in your mind that you want to give him the Oscar for Best Cinamatography despite the fact that this is a book and not a movie.
Amazing stories about life, love, and rejection from both. If you have read one of his novels (which you should do first) and enjoyed them then you will be able to read these with great pleasure.

Edmund White's published output seems to grow yearly. This multi-talented writer has added scholarly biographies, shared research, and new novels to his resume since publishing this book of short stories SKINNED ALIVE in 1995. And it is because of this expansion of his scope of writing that it is refreshing to make this mini-retrospective excursion into White's gifts.

Some will argue that his stories are too self centered, that his Francophilia gets in the way visually and textually. The stories is this collection are not at all limited to his expatriate status - our own American In Paris. The spectrum described by his characters is much more than that. White is not afraid to mix his own history with that of his characters and in doing so he validates what might otherwise seem like far-fetched tales. "My Oracle" is a simple story about an aging HIV exposed man taking a trip to Crete and how he rediscovers passion and being alive - a state all but discarded by his ruminating on the terminal drought of his experiences at home. Here is a buffed middle aged male longing for resurrection and he finds it in the simplest way. His other stories ask us to glimpse mortality and vanity and make some sense of it. White has some difficulty ending a short story; we're left with a feeling of lack of resolution. But maybe that is part of this superb writer's talent. "You, dear reader, finish the thought". This is a collection that deserves revisiting on a regular basis, when life changes rise in your path.

While shopping with an ex-lover of mine I found the Dutch print of this book. Bought it... read it... enjoyed it... told all my friends about it...

I have never been a person who liked to read books with an autobiographical point of view; but I am glad I have dared to look beyond my prejudices and go for it.

Nice words, beautifully written, Edmund White is a real craftsman. (Based solely on this novel, because he lost some magic when I read A Boys story).

A very helpfull and insightfull book. How did gay men live in the 50's up till the 80's... Really beautiful!

I spread the word about the book among almost all of my friends and even the heterosexual people really liked it. I think it's not only a gay-tale, but it's a tale about loving people, wheter they are male, female... whatever, it doesn't matter, because the one thing you can read between all the lines is that the writer must have really loved the people he wrote about.

Within a few weeks he'll be coming to the Netherlands for a presentation, most definitely I am one of the people being there and hanging on to every word he tells.

White chose the title to this novel from Haydn's The Farewell Symphony, in which, as the musical piece nears conclusion, the musicians leave the stage, one by one, until there is a sole violinist remaining, who finishes the work that so many others began.

In White's novel, we are taken on a tour of the protagonist's (White himself) 30's, 40's, and 50's as he climbs from unknown author to celebrated chronicler of gay life. Along the way, White bares his soul through his no-holds-barred sexual confessions, as we see him interract with friends, lovers, and back-alley liaisons.

Beginning post-Stonewall, and culminating in the AIDS crisis we witness White in many scenarios: best friend, object of desire, live-in lover, and even surrogate parent. White envelops each role with his particularly magical brand of prose, sentiment, and bravado, that is sometimes shocking, sometimes sad, but always entertaining.

As the novel carries on, and reaches the now 20 year old beginning of the AIDS epidemic, we see the significance and poignancy of the title, as the disease ravages the ranks of White's friends, and leaves him the one violinist remaining to chronicle their lives, as they intertwined with his own.

From backrooms to bedrooms, from parking lots to Paris, with stops in New York, Venice, and Morrocco along the way, White delivers another triumph in chronicling his life, and what began as A Boy's Own Story becomes the life of a man.

I'm always intrugued by White's work and his singular ability to capture not only his stories but mine and those of many other gay men. As a raconteur of the dawning and tarnishing of gaylife, he is peerless. He leaves me breathless, having to re-read the last paragraph over & over.

I hope that the people at Bloomsbury Press continue to employ wise and opinionated writers who can tell us about their favorite cities and the personal secrets to be found in them. This first, by Edmund White, is a winner.

White takes us into HIS Paris, a city he has lived in for many, many years. As an American, the city will naturally feel different to him than it might to a native. White's writing is, as always, graceful and beautiful. His assessment of Colette, his desription of "nationalism" among the Jews of Paris, and, certainly, his thoughts on Homosexuality and specifically HIV in this city are important and fascinating. I also especially enjoyed the short appendix on "further reading."

It surprised me that a few of the other reviewers were taken aback that White would spend so much of his time on gay Parisian life. This has always been a subject for White...in his novels, his memoirs and in his non-fiction works. Hire Julia Child to write about Paris and we're bound to get a book filled with thoughts on food. By the way, a "flaneur," we are told, is a person who walks, strolls for the purpose of walking or strolling...not with any "ulterior" motive. RECOMMENDED

This book is as much about people who don't fit in as it is about Paris: african-american ex-patriates, jews, gays, poets and artists, Paris has given safe harbor over the decades to those who found drawing a breath elsewhere painful. Paris of course is not without its faults, its political and social incorrectness, but Edmund White describes the city in such a way that you can't help but want to retrace his steps and visit the lesser known streets and museums. Having been to Paris twice but not on nearly such familiar terms, I recommend this tome to the novice or expert francophile. Merci beaucoup pour ce livre, Msr White...

Edmund White has done it again. He has created the first (in what seems to be a series) guided tour of a great city which focuses on the idiosyncrases, particular flavor, befuddling history and ultimate addicting charm of Paris. This is as close as it gets to walking along side an established scholar and join him in the role of "Flaneur" - one who meanders without prejudice through the backways of a great city, just for the sake of observing and reflecting. There is more French (rather Parisian) history in this little tome than multivolume sets that mold on library shelves. But we find out only the things that interest White (he makes it all so poignant). Sections of the city and the book are devoted to the peculiar Parisian take on monarchism vs royalsim vs republicanism vs socialism. White cleverly introduces anecdotes that at first suggest neighborhood gossip but later are referenced to available writing that documents these strange truths. There is an entertaining history of African Americans in Paris, immigrants of all nationalities as they are today and were in history, a hilariously confused lineage of the royalty of France, and a frightening examination of why AIDS is so rampant in the city. White strolls, cruises, pauses, reflects, delights in the smells and times of day when the light is best in certain areas, and provides a staggering list of the countless museums devoted to every idea imaginable while castigating city design choices and current architecture meant to make the city logical.

The format of this book is very small which means it would fit into the back pocket of any tourist visiting the City of Light who longs for much more insight than pocket guides from tour companies can even suggest. White writes as well in books like this and his bios of Genet, Proust etc as he does in his inimitable novels. This is a little treasure of a book!

*The Married Man* is a memoir and tribute to Edmund White's lover who died of AIDS. The book captures reader's attention as soon as one reads the first paragraph. Austin Smith is an American furniture scholar living in Paris. Pushing fifty and without love, at the gym he met Julien who claimed to be bisexual. The trivial chance encounter gradually matures into a relationship of unspeakable intensity. The sero-discordant couple flee to Providence, Rhode Island as Austin secures a teaching post. White explores with details the challenges of this couple who root from different cultural values, ages, incomes, and languages. Problems aggrevate when AIDS-stricken ex-lover can't stand the current sweetheart. White's prose is beautiful, eatil-oriented, and root-to-the-spot. White would never forfeit the details that build a relationship: things like speech etiquettes, a nickname, a provoked thought, an argument, frustration caused by age difference, even jealous thought. As Austin found out about Julien's AIDS status, the couple deals with Julien's imminent death with a low but sober profile. From Providence, in a quest to save both health and happiness, they traveled to Venice to sun-drenched Key West and eventually Morroco. White delves deeper into human emotion and motivation than any author who writes fiction on AIDS. What he reveals here between Austin and Julien is not always pleasant or expected, but rather subtly rendered and poignant. Medical condition and the turmoil from which is delved fully: euthanasia, taxopasmosis, etc. The novel is heatbreaking yet stands as an honest account of the love story between two courageous men. 3.8 stars.

I found it hard to get through this novel, mostly because I have seen the horrors of AIDS up close and don't really want to be reminded of it by reading about the agonies for the person with AIDS and his caregivers. I was also frustrated by the third-person narration. (It's fine for a first-person narrator not to understand what makes a major character tick, but if the perspective is one character's, I think it should be told in first person.)

I also thought there was too much pseudo-sociological comment about differences between Latino and Anglo ways of living and seeing the world, that this should be shown, not told.

However, I also thought there were many insights -- insights into characters, locales (especially the exotic one of American universities for the long-expatriated author/protagonist), and the ways of love.

I found the anonymous (typically anonymous!) Ohio reviewer's statement "The characters changed their morals as quickly as they changed their shirt" deeply and viciously wrong. Austin continues to support both the "lover" with whom he's not having sex (and has not known very long before his jealth problems begin) and an ex-lover with whom he has not had sex in many years. Austin is deeply loyal to those he has loved and takes on HUGE responsibilities for two EXCEPTIONALLY demanding dying men. That he has other desires is not a variation from his morality, which is to try to enhance the quality of life and experience of those he cares about. I am quite sure that I would not want to meet someone for whom this is less important than ensuring the monogamy of erotic imagining!

I found this book to be an incredibly insightful, descriptive and well-written work that seems to occur on many levels at once. I could put myself in the place of almost every character and truly relate to the situation they found themselves in. The difficulty of balancing important relationships from different epochs of one's life that have come together in one place is a situation that we all find ourselves in. As a gay man, I saw an unselfconscious treatment of male sex that was surprising in its forthrightness. At the same time, it was presented in such a matter-of-fact way that it almost seems to transcend the taboo of gay sex, that Hollywood finds so titallating. White seems to step outside of his American view of gay life and relationships and it is through the eyes of other cultures that we see ourselves so clearly and also so differently. Nevertheless, the story that White weaves is universal for any gay reader. The main character, Austin, experiences so many of the pressures that a middle-aged man faces (his age, weight, loneliness, the trade-offs to secure love and acceptance) that I could not help but feel my view broadened by the carefully driven plot and character development. In the end, I have concluded that the story here is so brutally honest in its treatment of friendship and sexual relations, death and decline that many people cannot help but see their own lives in it and reject it for its truth: no one wants to be the unmarried man...

This book is a start....but with the advent of the internet, you can find much better (written, produced, looking, defined) material else where....

The author completely misses the 'non-mainstream' parts of the leather community..(bears, etc...)

Maybe a 3rd edition is in the works?

you can find better....

i juste loved this book. it gave me and my partner so many new ideas and things to try and really opened our minds to a whole new arena of pleasure. thank you!

This book has helped me through many hard times. Being a gay male is made much easier by reading this book. It teaches you a lot about yourself. Now my sex life is great, and I couldn't be happier! Recommended!

This latest book by Rorem is a desperate attempt to continue reporting on his witty and sometimes scandalous life. However, the wit is trying and desiccated. Further, what Rorem now hopes we will find scandalous has more to do with his disdain of the words "pundit" or "grunge" than anything truly controversial. One can't blame Rorem; his lover's illness and decline was probably devastating. He might have done better to wait until he had some time to heal. LIES is more a study of a fraying and distracted man than a heartfelt account of fame and death.

This was my first exposure to the writing of Ned Rorem and perhaps because of this, I found "Lies" to be thoroughly readable. Yes, there are moments when he does come across as a sort of whining name-dropper; but there are also times when he sheds light on dying, relationships, music, composing and the like that make it a worthwhile read.

As far as actual literary value goes, I won't even comment ... the other reviews to this point seem accurate on content, having not read other Rorem it may or may not be so that this is below par, and frankly, upon getting into the book I wasn't paying much attention to all of that so much as, getting towards the end, the on-the-spot accounts of watching a loved one die. Perhaps it's voyeurism, but, to me the raw honesty in that alone made this book if not entirely riveting, definitely worth reading.