I did not see the movie Finding Forrester as I have always enjoyed the written word more than the the big screen. But... in this case, I should have seen the movie.

The novel by James Ellison was based on the screenplay so I did not go into this book expecting literary genius. I did, however, expect correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. For a novel about a young boy who possesses the gift of writing to be replete with so many obvious errors, leaves a strange feeling of irony that draws away from the story. This is a shame because the story is not half bad.

The concept is entertaining and the characters - likeable. But the errors combined with the overly simplistic writing style create a disappointing read. Certainly, more could have been done to flesh out the characters and to bring the scenes to life. The paragraphs with Jamal and William in William's apartment, alone, could really be used to create a mood and feel for the relationship between these two central characters. As they stand, the passages are flat and two-dimensional with very little flair to draw the reader into the work.

Really, the storyline is the only thing that makes this short, easy-to-read novel entertaining and that can't be attributed to Ellison since it is really Mike Rich's creation.

It appears that Ellison could take a few lessons from the protagonist in this novel about quality writing. It just goes to show you that a good storyline does not necessarily a good read make!

The novel "Finding Forrester" is fabulous to read (it took me a little over 4 hours...) and one of the most uplifting books I've ploughed through of late.

But the author has of course based his novel on the screenplay by Mike Rich -- the story, which is really the most outstanding aspect of "Finding Forrester", is not his in original. I will read the screenplay, and it will be seen how much of the book is really 'his'. There are also many editing errors and grammatical imprecisions that haven't been corrected by the publishers. In addition, the prose appears very bare-bone in traits, lacking in elaboration. In some cases, the writing is downright flimsy.

Nonetheless, Ellison fills many of the gaps in the film, in some cases with care and detail. For instance, he follows up on themes the motion picture touches upon without drawing a conclusion (see my review of the film), and most notably gives us the text Forrester reads in the Mailor-Callow auditorium (which in the film is unfortunately mostly covered up by music). In some instances, as in the party at the Spence Estate, Ellison gives significantly greater detail than the film, although he won't let the reader guess whose work his allusions recall: F. Scott Fitzgerald. By giving greater detail, central themes therefore appear much clearer: teenage development, race relations, social integration and deviance, Jamal's relationship with Claire, to name a few. In addition, in certain scences Ellison manages to create a great atmosphere by very simple and straightforward observations. This gives us a feeling of immersion and participation. He very ably characterises Jamal (and Forrester) with the same tactics: simple, recurrent observations. He ably but rather rudimentally combines images with feelings: sweat and heat with the fear and anxiety people dare not show explicitly; laces, sneakers, shoes and feet with fun, apprehension, routine. This give us an insight into the characters that isn't given by the film in the same manner.

The novel "Finding Forrester" is not a masterpiece, but then it is not meant to be. It is great to read, and sheds so much more light onto the film "Finding Forrester", and the story as a whole, that make us even more appreciative.

Like many reviewers, I saw the movie "Finding Forrester" well prior to buying and reading the book. I have viewed this movie a number of times now and still find it as inspirational and moving as the first viewing. Now, after reading the book, this story has to be one of the most meaningful and inspirational stories I've ever read.

Jamal Wallace is a 16-year-old South Bronx African-American kid introduced to the reader as a "regular" teenager, loving basketball and loathing school. As incredibly talented as Jamal is with a basketball, his literary gifts approach genius. However, not wanting to be seen as a freak, Jamal hides his intellectual side from his friends and teachers.

Close to the neighborhood courts, Jamal and his friends observe regular visits by a well-dressed man driving a BMW to the man in the upstairs apartment who has not been seen by the public in years. This (the well-dressed man and a BMW) are rarities in the South Bronx. Jamal's friends indicate that this mystery man is a "murderer" or a some sort of ghost. On a dare from his friends, Jamal climbs in the mystery man's window only to be scared out of the apartment when surprised by the mystery man. In his haste to make his escape, Jamal drops his backpack which contains his writing notebooks along with his school work. Two days later, his backpack is tossed out the apartment window at Jamal's feet. When Jamal opens the backpack, he finds his writing notebooks are still there but have edited by the man in the apartment. After confronting and apologizing to the old man, Jamal soon learns he is the reclusive legendary novelist William Forrester, a man who only wrote one novel but which received the Pulitzer Prize.

After striking up a strange friendship (inasmuch as strange can be defined as a frienship between a 16 year old African-American and a 70 year old anglo Scot), Forrester agrees to teach and mentor Jamal in his writing aspirations. Concurrent with his new friendship, Jamal is recruited for an academic and basketball scholarship to a snobby, WASP-based Manhattan prepratory school. Encouraged by Forrester and his mother, Jamal decides to leave his friends behind for the potential advantages of the prep school.

Soon after arriving, Jamal meets Claire, the daughter of an extremely powerful businessman who also happens to be the chairman of the board at the prep school. Jamal runs afoul of a writing/literary instructor (a failed writer known to Forrester) who acuses him (Jamal) of plagarism. Jamal is ostracized by Claire and most of his new friends even though he is not guilty. In reality, Jamal is honoring a promise he made to Forrester. This story ignites at this point and is best experienced by the viewer or reader.

This "novel" is a rewrite of the original screenplay by Mike Rich and therefore, is not an original novel. Ellison follows the storyline true to the screenplay albeit with few explanations/expansions providing the reader with some insight not seen on the screen. The most important expansion provided by Ellison is the actual text of the "story" read by Forrester during the writing contest hosted by the prep school. In the movie, the viewer was only provided with bits and pieces of the story. This is actually the prelude to the climax.

The novel is realtively sparse in peripheral prose. This is evidenced by the fact that the novel is less than 200 pages while the movie is 2.5 hours. In other words, although Ellison did provide a few spectacular gems (see above), he did not massage the storyline enough to provide the reader with the necessary visual images typically accorded a story of this stature.

This is an inspirational and motivational story. As an aspiring writer, this story is touching, emotional and caring. While the book lacks a bit of defferential detail, the storyline is brilliant. Watch the movie or read the book...you'll not be disappointed.

I finished reading this book only a few weeks ago for a college class I'm in. It certainly wasn't the kind of book I'd pick up just on my own, but I wouldn't say I didn't like it.

The story is set primarily in Boston and somewhat in New York during the 1880's. At the request of his cousin Olive Chancellor, southern lawyer Basil Ransom comes to visit. He accompanies her to a meeting where the young Verena Tarrant speaks wonderfully on women's rights. Olive is so impressed with Verena, she starts what's debatably a lesbian relationship with her, but Ransom is taken with Verena as well and so a struggle begins between the two for Verena's affections.

I think Henry James does an excellent job of giving complete descriptions of each character and you really get a sense of who they are. Olive comes across as rigid and passionate, Verena as young, full of life and curious and Basil as sexist and determined. Basil uses all his ability to wrench Verena from Olive. As I mentioned, the relationship between Verena and Olive is debatable. There are no sex scenes in this novel, but the implication is there. Additionally, I've learned in the class for which I read this novel that many women during this time period engaged in very intense romantic relationships which may or may not be described as sexual.

There are of course other characters such as Verena's parents and other women's rights activists, but the whole focus of the novel is on this struggle for Verena. It wouldn't be completely unfair to say that in some ways nothing much happens in this novel. It's truly a character driven story. There aren't really antagonists and protagonists in the story, but more just people whom all have faults and are just trying to make the right decisions. Although my description of Basil above may sound like a bad guy and although he's unapologetically sexist, he perhaps is no worse than Olive who sometimes seems to be using Verena, a young woman whose thoughts and feelings are maleable. At its heart, the novel is still a love story. Overall, I'd say this is probably worth reading if you like novels about this time period, about love or if you like this author. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'd read another novel by James, but I don't regret reading this.

The astonishing thing about this book -- and a lot of Henry James's writing -- is his insight into the problems of women. This book deals with the problem of independence and freedom. Most of us, let's admit it, love the idea of being swept off our feet by some competent, assertive male. It's a real turn-on. If you don't believe it, check out how many successful professional women secretly read historical romances by the boxload. The problem comes the next morning when he starts to take control, bit by bit, of your entire life. In this book you have Olive, who is not, I think, a lesbian but someone who is very lonely and doesn't trust men and Verena, who likes men just fine, but is, for the moment anyway, under the spell of Olive and her feminist ideology. Are these our only options? Verena Makes her choice, but James notes that the tears she sheds may not, unhappily, be her last.

James after 1898 was too subtle, too often employing apposition to add layers like coats of paint to each observation. Works like The Ambassadors (1903) rely on the reader's powers of synthesis, which can be in turns exhilarating or frustrating. The Bostonians (1885) is an extremely straightforward, dramatic, cruel, hilarious, political, compassionate love story and one of the best novels by anyone. Olive Chancellor is tragic: with so much love behind her cold, horrified stares. Basil Ransom is magnetic, but an educated idiot savant whose passion and will are nothing other than natural talent. Verena Tarrant has nothing but natural talent--she is an organism that throbs with passion like a finely tuned Geiger counter. Whether the private turmoil of sex and marriage finally draw her from the political sisterhood, and what happens to queer women like Olive, are high-stakes, human questions that James presents with sheer drama and almost unbelievable insight.

I'm using this book for my first college physics course. I find the text very dry and boring, and the problems at the end of each chapter are confusing and not well explained. For example, I'm doing my homework and one of the problems is "speculate on how gaseous diffusion works." Just that, does not explain what gaseous diffusion is. As with many of the problems in this book, the first thing that comes into my mind is "what the hell are you talking about??" Another question asks me to compare the length of something to "the diameter of a molecule." Huh? What molecule? Are all molecules the same diameter? And how the heck am I supposed to know what that diameter is? Gah. I do not recommend this book unless you like being confused.

Also, the discussion questions at the end of each chapter are very nice, but the answers are not provided anywhere. So how are you supposed to know if you answered them correctly? And another thing I really hate about this book, it will say "and why do you think this happens?" and then not tell you why. About 90% of the time my answer is "I have no clue why that happened." :/ This book makes me hate physics.

I bought this book because I thought is was "College Physics" by Sears. Well, it isn't. This looks, feels and reads like a high school textbook - if you're looking for a serious, academic-level introduction to physics, then don't buy this. Its full of pictures and "real life" examples that are intended to spare the student any effort and save him/her from abstract thought. Much is lost because of this, and we're left with a bunch of pictures and stories about the authors' flying hobby.

Don't buy this, please, I regret it everytime I see it sitting uselessly next to the open copy of the Sears book I loaned from the library.

Excellent!! I'm studying in Form 7 and going to take my Advanced Level Examinations this year. No other reference book avaliable in Hong Kong better than University Physics. The content are very well organized and the examples are extremely useful. I'm sure that you won't be disappointed after you buy this book.

Liquor, love, babes, war, ships, planes, etc.! You name it and Michener included it somewhere in his book. Tales of the South Pacific is a book that is written to make many different points about human nature and war. Many of the characters whom the reader is made to sympathize with show the aspects of human life. These characters are also brought to the piont that the only thing they will ever have is what they had doubted the entire war... heroism. These short stories are written in a heavy style that becomes too much work to read sometimes. Even so, the reader is brought along by wondering about the welfare of the special character that they feel close to. This writing is best if one can take brakes through-out the book to let their mind catch up with the story. This book was interesting, yet overall the way in which the characters are represented made the book come alive with emotions.

Because this is Michener's first published book, because it is different from his subsequent works, and because many people are more familiar with the Rogers and Hammerstein musical than with the book, I will reveal my biases up front. I do not care for epic historicals, and so have never enjoyed Michener's writing before reading Tales of the South Pacific. The musical was Rogers and Hammerstein's second or third collaborative effort, and to me was a poor follow up to Oklahoma.

That said, reading this book gave me the feeling I have when my father and I rummage through his collection of black and white war photos, postcards, and 78 RPM disks from his days as a Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy in and around the South Pacific. Each artifact stimulates a story, many of which are linked to another, and another. Sometimes the stories are about the war theater in Europe or Africa or home in the states. Most often, they are simply about friendships, loss and the discoveries of an eighteen year old doing a man's work in the first few months away from his parents' farm.

Like my father's stories, Michener's Tales of the South Pacific could be set anywhere, but they are about being somewhere other than where one comes from. They are about finding belonging in new surroundings and accepting that great people are rarely 100 percent great. Michener's heroes are the very human people who were decent to one another, believed in the value of their nation's cause and the people around them, demonstrated leadership, but didn't take the trappings of the navy or rank very seriously. His nemeses were not just the Japanese, but American biggots, mean SOBs and phonies. Like Hersey's, Bell for Adano, the stories were practically current events when they were published, and Michener's perspective on sex and the races were shocking material for many Americans who had been fed years of propaganda about their boys (and girls) overseas and who only after 1945 could truly emerge from the depression of 1930s to enter a new, modern and more aggressively democratic age. Tales of the South Pacific foreshadowed the new world to come while honoring the great people who helped to make it possible. At the end of the book, the reader is glad to be among the survivors, standing in the graveyard among heroes, but worried that the supply of greatness might someday be used up.

I first read this book when I was young, not long after I saw the movie "South Pacific". I didn't particularly like it because the characters were the same ones as in the movie but they didn't "fit" in the same way. After many, manyy years, I read it just the other night and loved it! It had been long enough since I saw the film that the characters could stand on their own. Mitchener wrote this soon after the war when his memories were still fresh and he displays a great deal of affection for the "typical" sailor caught thousands of miles from home. For many, they would never get home. To this American tale, he adds a lot of tropical spice: Bloody Mary, the Frenchman's Daughter, Emil De Becque himself. Mitchener shows the American fighting man as hero, coward, nice guy, louse, sacrificial, selfish, and mostly a combination of all of these traits. Although I have read many of Mitchener's books, this is still his best: young, filled with Mitchener's memories from his recently-concluded naval service during World War II. Deservedly one of the classics that came from World War II.

I thought the value of this book lied not in its story (it was forgettable), but as a sort of cultural museum, allowing one to look into what English "high society" was like at the end of the 19th century.

What it was, I found, was horribly superficial and empty. These people had little to do with their time except gather at eachother's parlours and chat idlely and endlessly. But with nothing to talk about and all day to talk about it, it was considered better to sound "clever" than to have something meaningful to say; style was valued in the absense of substance. No one said what they felt, no one felt strongly about what they said, and the whole frustrating lot of them came across as a bunch of phonies. They were all but toppling over with the weight of their own pretensions.

The reason I found this frustrating, though, is that in his other works I have read (admittedly not that many), the reward for struggling through James' prose is his deeply penetrating understanding of human nature; clearly, James "gets" people, and it shows in his sharp observation and subtle wit. So that made me struggle all the more to peel back the layers of clever chatter to "get" what James was driving at, but after I turned the final unfathomable page, all I could say was "huh?"

Critics will often pair this novel with his earlier "What Maisie Knew."

Both novels deal with the child's / adolescent's emerging conscience, while faced with adult corruption.

In "Maisie" and "Awkward," we see James following up on his fascination with Hawthornian themes.

James's facility with dialogue, in which abrupt blushes are loaded with meaning, is apparent here. The drawing-room conversations reminded me of a party in a swimming pool; each character is constantly, in a conversational sense, "taking a plunge and coming up somewhere else."

I found this novel somewhat thin - read closely James's "Preface to the New York Edition"; can you hear James in self-defense mode?

Overall, not bad, but "Maisie's" somber and gloomy tone was better suited to the subject matter and themes than the "light and ironic" touch of "Awkward."

This novel tells a familiar tale: old-fashioned man enters a tangled web of wealthy British fashionable types, makes a proposal, and the web falls apart. Mr. Longdon, a wealthy old man from Suffolk, returns to London to find the children and grandchildren of his ancient love. Out of respect for this unspoiled affection, he takes an interest in the grand-daughter of his love and tries to pull her out of the circle of influence that has, effectively, soiled her. James manages some interesting and convincing characters, and these pawns interact in some magnificent scenes. It almost reminds me of Restoration Comedy, with its complicated dialogue and dramatic jumps in setting that resemble staged scenes. The major thread of the novel is the relationship between Vanderbank, a complicated but good-natured young man who has managed to penetrate that affluent circle, and Nanda Brookenham, the granddaughter of Longdon's lost love. Vanderbank remains deliciously puzzling to the end of the novel, and Nanda manages a kind of heroism. The conclusion is somewhat surprising; James, by this point in his career, seems to have moved beyond the endorsement of conservative values evident in a work like The Bostonians. Despite the surprise, though, it was a great deal of fun getting to that conclusion. This novel is as close to a page-turner as I have read from James thus far, and bristles with subtle interrogation of a rotting social structure. I have no trouble saying, like F.R. Leavis, that this novel ranks among James's best.

Without using unappropiate language, this book [was really bad].... Like what I read, this book was not packed with action. I do not recommend this book to the people out there who want nonstop blood and conflict after conflict. I would recommend this book to those people who always want happy endings. Really, to me this book was really boring. I had to read this for school, and the title looked good, and when I read the back, it sounded good. Well, shows that the saying, don't judge a book by it's cover got me this time. The vocab of this book is kind of weird. You would have to be at least a teen to read this. Other than that, don't even try.

Without using inappropriate language, this book [was not good]. Like what I read, this book was not packed with action. I do not recommend this book to the people out there who want nonstop blood and conflict after conflict. I would recommend this book to those people who always want happy endings. Really, to me this book was really boring. I had to read this for school, and the title looked good, and when I read the back, it sounded good. Well, shows that the saying, don't judge a book by it's cover got me this time. The vocab of this book is kind of weird. You would have to be at least a teen to read this. Other than that, don't even try.

The Bloody County is a magnificent book. Sometimes it gets boring by telling to much informantion at one time, but then becomes good by picking up the story really quick.The story is based on a young boy named Ben Buck and his family that move from Connecticut to a placed called the Wyoming River Valley. The government one day comes and tell them that they have to move because another family rightfully owns this land, but the family won't leave. The next week Indians that work for the government come and scalp Ben's mother and his sister's husband. This scares the whole family and they split up. This book has its ups and downs but in the end comes out to be a pretty good book. The best part of the book is when the river floods, pulling a family and their canoe into the raging stream and then the Buck family saves them. I recommend this book to a person this book to a person that likes to read about early settlement in the U.S.

The last completed novel by Henry James is, like preceding works of his later era ("The Wings of the Dove" comes up to mind first), very hard to read. That's the warning to every unwary reader who happens to think about starting to read Henry James anew.

The plot is simple: its about two couples of people -- Charlotte and Amerigo, and Adam Verver and his daughter Maggie Verver. Charlotte loves Amerigo, who, however, decides to marry Maggie. Soon after that, Charlotte marries Adam Verver, an American millionaire. Still, Amerigo and Charlotte maintain their former relations as lovers until their secret is discovered by Maggie unexpectedly with an advent of a golden bowl, which looks perfect outward, but deep inside cracked. Maggie, who greatly adores her deceived father, in turn, starts to move in order to mend the cracked relations, or secure the apparently happy family life without disturbing the present relations.

As this sketch of the story tells you, one of the favorite topics of the 19th century literature -- adultery -- is staged in the center of the book, but the way James handles it is very different from those of other American or British writers. The meaning is hidden in a web of complicated, even contorted sentences of James, and you have to read often repeatedly to grasp the syntax. The grammar is sometimes unclear, with his frequent use of pronouns and double negatives, and very often you just have to take time to understand to what person James' "he" or "she" really refers to. It is not a rare thing for you to find that a paragraph starts with those "he" and "she" without any hint about its identity, so you just read on until you hit the right meaning of these pronouns. And this is just one example of the hard-to-chew James prose. If you think it is pompous, you surely are excused.

But as you read on again, you find, behind this entangled sentences and a rather banal melodramatic story, something intelligent, something about humans that lurks in the dark part of our heart. I will not pretend that I can understand all of the book, but James clearly shows how we, with a limited ability of our perception, try to act as the characters of the book do, in the given atomosphere of society. To me, this book is about the way of the people's behavior luminously recorded; about the way of our expressing and perceiving ourselves without uttering them aloud.

Gore Vidal says about the book: "James's conversational style was endlessly complex, humourous, unexpected -- euphemistic where most people are direct, and suddenly precise where avoidance or ellipsis is usual (see his introduction of "The Golden Bowl" in Penguin Classics edition. This is exactly the nature of this book, which would either attract or repel you. Unfortunately, I admit, this is not my cup of tea, for I prefer more story-oriented novels. Still, if you really want to challenge reading something really substantial, I for one recommend this book.

There is a sumptuous film version of the book, starring Uma Thurman and Nick Nolte. It might be a good idea to watch it before you start reading the book.

I discovered James in college and read all his full-length novels before reaching age 30. The only one I had real trouble with was The Golden Bowl.

I recently reread the novel and reveled in its elegant complexity. (It would be nice to think that the passage of 20 years has brought wisdom and insight that made me a better reader, but the credit belongs to Dorothea Krook's illuminating discussion in The Ordeal of Consciousness in Henry James.)

The Golden Bowl is the last, the most demanding, and the most rewarding of James's major novels. Even its immediate predecessors, The Ambassadors and The Wings of the Dove, do not reach its deep examination of the mixed motives, the tangled good and evil, that drive human action and passion. Although he presents his characters' acts and much of what goes on in their heads, James manages in such a way that while Krook believes Adam and Maggie are on the side of the angels, Gore Vidal (who introduces the current Penguin edition) believes they are monsters of manipulation--and (as Krook acknowledges) both views are consistent with the evidence.

Much--too much--of these riches of doubt and ambiguity is lost in the Merchant/Ivory/Jhabvala translation to the screen (2001). The movie has some good things, but it could have had many more. Surprised by extraneous material (like the exotic dance), heavy-handed symbolism (the exterior darkness on the day Charlotte and Amerigo find the golden bowl), and needless oversimplifications (Amerigo's talk of "dishonor" to Charlotte, which exaggerates his virtue and his desire to be done with her), I got the sense that nobody involved in the production had read the novel with the care that it requires and rewards. Had they done so, their version could have been really fine--both as a movie and as an invitation to the novel.

It is certainly true that Henry James is a notoriously difficult writer. That's because he gives you very little to hold onto -- no clear statements of purpose, no overtly articulated themes, no ideas. Rather, he presents the very textures of his characters' minds as they try to make sense of what is happening to them. For James, such an act is the very essence of being human.

These difficulties are especially apparent in "The Golden Bowl," where virtually nothing happens. Yet in this dark masterpiece, James gives us a remarkably clear guide to what he is up to, namely, the golden bowl itself. On the one hand, it stands for all that is beautiful. But on the other, it suggests the fundamental brokenness of the characters in the novel, who view each other as mere objects to be collected, moved around, and manipulated. Maggie, Prince Amerigo, Adam, and, to a lesser extent, Charolotte, all suffer from this affliction.

The level of maninpulation by these characters is extraordinary. And the greatest manipulator of all is the novel's apparent victim, Maggie, who through insinuation persuades her father to return to America with Charlotte so Maggie can have Prince Amerigo to herself. This shatters all of their lives to pieces, just as the golden bowl is smashed to bits near the end of the novel.

This novel snaked its way around my heart, and its characters have been lingering in my head for days. I'm hesitant to start in on another book because I don't want the world of Penny, the Saint and Ndele to be edged out of my consciousness.

I'm curious to know what the author's personal experience with chronic illness is, because he has so perfectly captured what it feels like to inhabit a broken down body. The novel's protagonist, Penny, has a severe case of juvenile-onset diabetes. Living with a pervasive chronic illness is living with an ornery beast inside of you. Some days he leaves you alone and sleeps, but most of the time he's hungry and wants to devour your energy and spirit from the inside. You wrestle him, sometimes tame him, often ignore him as he gnaws on your leg--it's a chaotic cycle of confrontation and denial, victory and defeat.

Penny is so drawn into the struggle with her diabetes that she finds it difficult to establish a positive sense of self, to identify herself as anything but a failure. The illness feels like punishment, evidence of her unworthiness. This makes it difficult for her to connect with other people.

And then the first person she starts to connect with--a college boyfriend she calls the Saint--gets literally devoured by a beast, an Alaskan bear. For the next seven numb years, she stumbles around academia back in Chicago. She decides to embark on a summertime cross-country bike trek back to Alaska, both to escape and to confront. To escape the stultifying academic environment, an overbearing dissertation advisor and a way-overdue dissertation. And to confront her body's decay and her mind's obsession with how and why her boyfriend died.

The bulk of the novel chronicles her journey and the dialogue that runs through her head as the bike wheels tick off Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana... It's not a glamorized journey: cheesy motels, aggressive road-hogging trucks, dubious road conditions, and sweaty t-shirts abound. But along the way she learns that something as little as a pothole can change your life. And that healing comes not from a syringe, but from the power of connecting with another human being--the healing of human kindness, the healing of human touch.

What's amazing is that within this beautiful story, the author integrates provocative issues like racism and euthanasia seamlessly. They come up naturally, as part of the story, rather than stick out as "this-is-a-novel-of-the-90's" issues du jour.

As someone living with a beast of a chronic illness myself, I can testify that the author's treatment of illness is spot-on. The book will linger on my nightstand, and in my heart, for quite some time, as I reread passages and smile again at how a cranky protagonist not unlike myself finds what she needs in the unlikeliest of ways.

I browsed through this book on the new fiction shelf some months ago, put it back, and the beginning of the story haunted me ever since. There was something about the voice of the protagonist that I really liked. I finally decided to buy it several weeks later as a gift for my wife, and I'm very glad I did. I loved the story, the mood, the setting, the characters, the feel. The ending was not what I wanted, but McManus is apparently a dark writer, and since the story had such a bleak feel, I guess he felt it could only end on a dark note. But my hat is off to him for a truly great novel. I couldn't put it down, and I usually only say that about suspense thrillers

Here's what I liked about GOING INTO THE SUN. First, James McManus seems to have great insight into womanhood. My female friend who recommended this novel agreed. In this respect, the book is artful and ingenious. The internal talk within the main character is utterly fascinating. Second, McManus has a rare command of the English language. He is able to put words together that creates such a vivid portrayal of the characters, they do NOT appear to be fictional. Reading this book is more like watching a movie. McManus creates pictures in my mind.

Now, I don't like many of the outcomes that happened in the book. I suspect my uneasiness is related to McManus vivid writing style. I would describe many passages in the book as "unnerving" and "distressing." McManus' writing can put the reader on edge. You're not going to like it, but you won't be able to stop reading.

At the beginning, I had a great admiration for the heroine, Penny Culligan. I was astounded with this disabled woman's courage. My admiration for her grew stronger and stronger by each passing page. However, in the end I felt "let down." She chickened out! But then again, after some reflection (and this book WILL make you reflect), it couldn't have ended any other way. My admiration was renewed.

I did not like this book, it was boring. There was no action.
I only like Science Fiction books, or non Fiction.

Overall I think that this was an ok book and it was pretty informative and showed people what it was like back when there was slaves. I would recommend this book but probably to a little lower grade level,like fourth or fifth grade since it was so short.

This book is very different and it's not something I would normally read. But it was nice to get out and read different things I don't always think about. It gives the imagination fuel to burn. And the book was very cultured. I would recommend this book to people that like books with different cultures.

James is a fabulous writer. Her tortured, ironic, overly-cerebral characters are fascinating, and her eye for detail is stunning. I think the book was exactly the right length, just long enough to delve into the characters and wrap up all the loose ends. Philippa, Maurice, and Scase were utterly absorbing and frighteningly real. In the end, "Innocent Blood" is a literary triumph.

INNOCENT BLOOD is one of the most gripping books I have ever read. PD James takes a common childhood fantasy ('what if I were adopted?') and crafts a tale of a complex young woman on a thrilling, frightening, and ultimately empowering journey of self-discovery. Philippa Palfrey adopted, but under circumstances far more grim than the Victorian melodramatics of her imagination. She locates her birth mother in prison and convinces her to live with her upon her release. Waiting for that very day is the father of a child Philippa's mother was convicted of killing. That man, named Scase, is truly creepy; James doesn't try to hide that yet still manages to evoke sympathy for him. The author builds the suspense to a shattering moment when mother, daughter, and Scase are brought together in a bizarre triptych; one is mad enough to kill, one is trying to kill, and one wants to die. Philippa is one of the most psychologically-complex characters ever to spring from James's vast imagination. Some readers will be shocked by the turn taken in Philippa's relationship with her adoptive father in the final chapters, but not a moment in this book rings false. I cannot praise INNOCENT BLOOD highly enough. Here, PD James is at the height of her awesome ability to set a scene -- you will see the drops of water on the laminated table in the adoption records office and smell the oranges in the grocery below Philippa's apartment. Thank you, PD James, for this thrilling read.

James is a great writer of detective/crime fiction. Her Adam Dalgleish series of novels are excellent, very readable and enjoyable.

She surpasses herself with "Innocent Blood", this 'stand alone' (i.e. not part of a detective/crime series) novel of crime and revenge. James tells the story of a young adoptee who, upon her 18th birthday, applies for the right to see her birth certificate and learn the identity of her birth parents. She discovers that her mother is in jail, convicted of murder, but is soon eligible for release. Someone else is aware of the impending release -- the father of the murder victim -- is waiting to exact revenge.

The character of the adoptee, her fantasies about her birth parents and her difficulties with her adoptive parents, is very well written. One aches at her adolescent self-assuredness which we suspect will lead her to painful revelations. The father of the murder victim seeking revenge is developed slowly and carefully so that one begins to wonder who is the criminal mind at work in the novel. His pursuit of his daughter's killer becomes the life-changing and animating event of his life.

The birth mother/murderer/revenge target is less well drawn -- and justly so. The action of the novel is driven by the fantasies, resentments and expectations that her daughter and father of her victim have about this enigmatic woman. It's apparent that who she really is is ultimately and tragically immaterial to those who so desperately seek her.

A great read and very well crafted and written novel. A must for crime fiction readers -- but a recommended read for anyone looking for a well-wrought compelling piece of contemporary British fiction.