I worked at Gore Place as an intern in college, where Robert Roberts worked. Many don't realize that this is often credited as the first book published in the US by an African-American. Insight into the labors of a butler in the early republic, of interest to those who are curious about lives of Af-Ams of the era, even though his race is never mentioned in the book.

I bought this book both as a training guide for my own servants and as a bit of historical research into butlers. Published in 1827 originally this book is a look into the lives of an upper class American family through the eyes of their butler. He covers everything you can image from claening to serving meals to appropriate dress to a philosophical discussion of the roles of servant and employers.

Robert Olen Butler was ordered to Vietnam, like several hundred thousand young Americans of his generation. But while he was no stranger to the visceral terrors of that politically, tactically and morally awkward war, Vietnamese culture was not opaque, puzzling and frustrating to him, as it was to most American soldiers. Because of his facility with language, Butler was first assigned to master the complexly musical Vietnamese language, so that he could serve as a translator-liaison between the American military and their South Vietnamese counterparts. Once in Vietnam, Butler used his fluency for a more humane pursuits: When off-duty he went into the streets in civilian garb, conversing with common people in doorways, homes and businesses -- a crucial tutorial in their character, attitudes, history and culture. Butler says that this uncommon access compelled him to "fall in love" with the Vietnamese people and their ancient culture, and that love shines in the remarkable set of stories compiled in "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain." The unifying aspect of these touching stories, which captured the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is that each is told in the gentle voice of a Vietnamese dislocated by war and resettled in southern Louisiana, The Vietnam War and its aftermath are addressed in dozens of books, but this compilation offers a unique and revealing perspective on Vietnam for a country still haunted by that doomed, ambiguous war. Poetic without being precious, sentimental without being maudlin, sensitive but far from enervated, these stories are a must-read landmark of literary humanity.

At turns tragic and tender, comic and cosmic, this stirring collection of short stories passes the core test of great fiction: its power is both particular and universal. On the level of the particular, the author succeeds in opening a window on the soul of the Vietnamese, a people whose lives and communities are torn apart by a war not of their own making, a people struggling to assimilate--without disappearing--in this strange new world called America. Yet Butler's vision is also universal: the pain of loss, betrayal, and dislocation, the hope of love, survival, and forgiveness--these are experiences which resonate across the spectrum of humankind, all the more so because Butler effectively balances narrative voices both young and old, male and female.

There is a wonderful contrapuntal force to these stories. As you move through Butler's seamless blend of anecdote, reminiscence, and fairy tale, themes and motifs continually recur, subtly reinforcing one another: the grip of tradition, the power of ghosts, the shallowness of American materialism, the call to ancestor worship, the scars of war, the deep-rootedness of ethnic division. Highly recommended for anyone who cares about: (1) the Vietnam War; (2) the immigrant experience; or (3) great fiction. Read the whole collection, but if you must be selective, my favorites were "Open Arms," a poignant tale of culture clash and true belief, "Love," a laugh-out-loud revenge story, and "The American Couple," a deeply psychological account of catharsis and recovered love.

Even if I had not grown up in Lake Charles, LA and attended the university there, where Mr. Butler teaches, I would have loved this book. Funny thing is, I discovered it quite by accident in a public library in San Francisco! The book is about Vietnamese people in and around Lake Charles. The fact that we have this place in common, not only "brought the stories home" for me, but makes me very proud and happy that a writer of such high caliber so masterfully captured the region's unique essence and that of the Asian immigrant's experience there. My own experience in Lake Charles was very much that of the Asian in this race-conscious Southern state. Each story, however, was not so much about discrimination or racial differences as about personal growth and assimilation. Butler's characters demonstrate that there is no ONE Asian personality just like there is no ONE personality for any other race. The people are believable, the place is certainly real, and the author has done a wonderful job of writing. Thank you, Mr. Butler.

Walt Whitman once said: "It is the job of the poet to resolve all tongues unto his own." In this regard, Robert Olen Butler is a true poet in the way he goes inside the head of a teenage Vietnamese American boy to create a living, breathing character that anyone with a heart should be able to identify with. This book should be taught in American high schools. (P.S. For a fascinating non-fiction companion to this book, read "Born to Kill" by T.J. English, the true story of a Vietnamese-American gang.)

Butler has written a great piece on an Amerasian's experience in New York City during the 80's. The author shows the main character's struggle with figuring out his identity and the different types of people who live on the fringes in New York City. A great fusion of 1970s Saigon and 1980s New York.

"The Alleys of Eden" was first published in the early 1980's. Its revival is due to the later works of Robert Olen Butler, including the 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner, "A Good Scent from a Faraway Mountain." Few writers have delved into the psychological lives of Vietnam vets as Butler has. This novel tests the love between an American deserter in Vietnam and a Vietnamese woman, who are bonded by the extremities of the war. When the couple try to start over in America, they are faced with a different set of challenges. This novel is remiscent of Le Ly Hayslip's autobiographies, "When Heaven and Earth Change Places," and "Child of War: Woman of Peace." The irony is that it took more than a decade for Butler's refreshing novel to surface, and that is largely due to the efforts of the Vietnam vets' struggles to be heard and the public's recent interent in literature related to Vietnam.

Hayflick's book "How and Why We Age" is an excellent, first hand account on the research that has been conducted up to now on the biology of aging. It is of note that Hayflick is one of the pioneers in the field. The book is well written and can be enjoyed both by the scientist and the layperson. One flaw, in my opinion, involves Hayflick's personal- and highly biassed- account of the supposedly erroneous conclusions of Alexis Carrel regarding the immortality of cells cultured in vitro. After presenting what seems conclusive evidence opposing Carrel's claim, Hayflick describes a conversation with a technician who worked at Carrel's lab in New York in the thirties, who discloses highly questionable procedures, and describes threats to her when she reaised issues with the lab directors. It is clearly suggested that there was scientific negligence and even misconduct, and yet, the identity of this technician is not revealed, and the accusations, half a century la! ter, are foggy and impossible to challenge. This is a very serious issue, as Hayflick himself claims to have proven Carrel wrong, through his discovery of a fixed maximum number of divisions in cells grown in vitro. However, some even more recent experiments suggest that it is Hayflick who is wrong, because the cell culture conditions he uses are highly artificial, while Carrel's more primitive, but also more robust method (cultivating a chunk of tissue) are closer to physiological conditions. The issue at stakes is by no means trivial: are cells intrinsically immortal, ageless, or do they age and die like whole organisms?

If you are a fan of porn movies from the 80s, you'll enjoy reading this book. Butler goes through all the dirt on various actors, actresses, and directors as well as tells various stories about shooting many of his movies.

Mostly though, this book is a big ego stroke. Its stream of consciousness style jumps from place to place, mostly how Butler is looking for love and tries to find it in sex/porn, how he feels like a little kid inside, and how he feels about his wife Lisa. Interesting stuff at times, but more like reading notes from a therapy session than an autobiography.

Jerry Butler is a big kid. He justifies a lot of poor choices and bad behavior while wondering while people are mad at him, won't talk to him, and can't stand to be around him. Typical for a porn star. The movies he makes are two dimensional and this book is as well.

Raw Talent is a nice juicy read BUT given the way Butler/Seiderman slammed a lot of his co-workers in the adult industry, I am not surprised that he is indeed now driving a city bus in Brooklyn!!!

While his occasional arrogance and tell-all tales are amusing, entertaining; one can also read between the lines and sense a man fast approaching a pre-midlife crisis with a sense of uncertainty as to what the next phase of his life should be post-adult filmdom.

I do, however, admire the honesty of one in a profession that so many folks openly slam...yet devour in private!!!

Well, what can I say. Being 31 years old, I grew up with this guy. I thought he was intense, uninhibited and added a comical element to the industry. Rent one of his movies and compare him to the other male actors around the same time period and see how boring they were compared to this guy. I will say this is no boring read and it is alot of fun to hear about all the people he worked with. Myself, like alot of other people out in the world have fantasized about what it would be like to work in the porn business, and this book is about as close as you can get without actually doing it. It is insightful to the ways of the porno industry, who is a skunk and who is not. He is very candid about sex and the risk of AIDS in the business and he is right to say those things.
However, the feel of the book is that he has an obvious chip on his shoulder and wants to get back at some in the industry with his somewhat vicious commentary. But if it is true, it is true, and if he did it just to sell books that is good too. Either way Paul (aka. Jerry Butler) if you read this review, I liked your book, and I've asked others to buy it and read it. You'll be surprised how fun they think it is.

DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU ARE STUDYING FOR THE NEW ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING PE EXAM - IT IS NOT USEFUL AT ALL. I bought this book as reference to study for and take the newly established Architectural Engineering PE exam and was sorely disappointed. The author fails in his self-proclaimed attempt to distill engineering design formulations into an easy-to-read format. The equations throughout the book are simply "dumbed down" linear statements of esoteric symbols with next to no regard to engineering notation conventions. The example problems may resemble some types of common design problems, but are rarely general enough to apply to varying situations. I didn;t refer eveon one time to any equation or example problem in this book when studying for or taking the actual PE exam in April 2003.

This book is very helpful for the architects understanding of structures with its companion CD, is a unique problem-solving tool and provides solutions to difficulties as they arise on the job.

Excellent resource for professionals who need ready access to common architectural design issues. Provides excellent emperical techniques not available in academic texts. Real time saver. One disappointment - the computer disk of calculations was for the P. C. computers and not usable by the MacIntosh community which I am a part. Even without the computing aid, the book was well worth it's price.

butler is another louisiana writer i have come to appreciate. not many male writers can write female characters well...this guy is so good it, makes you wonder if he lives inside their heads...maybe he grew up in a house full of women?.....the dialog is excellent...and the female characters are as intriguing as the protagonist...some people griped about the glorification of prostitution...but it is a necessary evil...it's more honest for a guy to pay for sex, than it is for him to wine and dine a woman, giving her expensive gifts, to get her into bed with him....

i thought fiona's story was excellent , yet sad....

Butler steps in and creates a whirling erotic novel that makes one appreciate all the subtleties of sexual relationships. Ira Halloway, the protagonist, lives for love (and sex, of course); he breaths it; he thrives on it. He carries the memories of his former lovers, memories that lie as secrets inside him. These women's voices whisper to him, reminding him of intimate moments: back in Vietnam as a soldier among cocoa-skinned prostitutes, in Illinois as a hormone-driven boy, in New York as a father-lover. The prose flows smoothly like his thoughts and Butler must get credit for this. Beautiful language. And most of the story takes place in Halloway's mind, where his brain tries to make sense of his landscape of lovers. He remembers the parts of women's bodies as though they are religious idols: the insteps, the toes, the rounded shoulders, the rose-tinted nipples, and just about every other crevice and appendage that a woman has. All these memories create nervous conflict. His wife, once the victim of incest, turns deeply religious---fanatical---and Halloway must tread lightly around her struggles or risk losing both her and, more importantly, their son. I enjoyed the book, and if I have anything critical to say about it, I'd have to accuse it as being long-winded and monotonous at times. Read it anyway and form your own opinion.

I could not put this book down for a minute and I could not beleive that a male author could write so eloqently, sexually and emotionally, about his love for women. The novel was very moving and I'm looking for other books by Butler with erotic themes.

Robert Olen Butler is an excellent writer, so one can almost understand his desire, first with "Tabloid Dreams" and now with "Mr. Spaceman" (an expansion of one of the stories in "Tabloid Dreams"), to escape the melancholic Vietnam memoirs he'd become known for.

"Mr. Spaceman" as a feature-length exposition goes a lot further toward redeeming his wanderlust than the dozen short stories in "Tabloid Dreams." At least here he takes the time to develop the rhythms of his characters, and to bring some "humanity" to his oddball cast and that, ironically, includes the forlorn but ultimately likable Spaceman himself, Desi. Through a series of interviews with his abductees, Desi (and the reader) learn of the lives, loves and fears of this busload of gamblers, and it is their stories, not Desi's, where Butler's humanity and compassion most reveal themselves.

But alas, the overriding premise is tough sledding. The nuggets of Butlerisms are cold comfort in a novel this obtuse, and ultimately one wishes Butler would choose to exercise his gifts in a format with less baggage.

Perhaps, having gotten it out of his system, next time he will.

Desi the Spaceman has quite a task before him. As he continues to hover over planet Earth with his wife Edna - he picked her up in the Walmart parking lot near her home in Alabama - he realizes that his mission is coming to its most dangerous step. He must reveal himself to Earth and face the possible defensive (and violent) response.

Before the "unveiling", which is to take place on New Year's Eve, Desi decides to hijack a bus of casino-bound gamblers from a dark highway. He's brought people to his ship before, but these will be the first who are allowed to retain the experience upon their release. The bus reveals a truly diverse bunch, everything from a punky, confused Christian to a gay bus driver named Hank.

Mr. Spaceman is a simple, affecting collection of the very things that Desi is trying to learn from each of the individuals. Their inner voices, emotions, fears, and - most importantly - their yearnings. While it sounds a lot like science fiction, it's really more of a gentle, New Age study of the human condition. Robert Olen Butler seems to have a great compassion (if not always the best understanding) for each of his characters as they reveal their stories to the spaceman. That sensitive tone carries through the novel without much plot development, but that seems about right. While there's nothing new here, it's an enjoyable read and I certainly look forward to other works by the author.

The author of the beautiful Pulitzer-winning "Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" sends his readers on another incredible journey with "Mr. Spaceman." Not afraid to tread new ground by taking his literary voice into the science fiction genre, Robert Olen Butler has written the perfect novel for the new millenium. "Mr. Spaceman" is deeply satisfying -- funny, moving and always surprising. I couldn't put it down and felt a huge sense of loss when I finished reading. A slim book, it speaks volumes about our commercialized society, about dreams, about families, about religion and about love. This is a unique and very funny voice, writing at his best. Mr. Spaceman will stay with you for a long time.

I have never read anything so deeply poignant and beautiful as this love story between Ben and Tien. This was a fabulous, touching book and I loved the weaving-in of Vietnamese culture. I didn't expect the ending, perhaps I was being a bit naive. I highly reccommend this book.

I enjoyed this book tremendously! I read it in one sitting, even though I "knew" the outcome, I couldn't wait to see how it was handled. It was a beautiful, complex story full of history, culture, dreams and fairytales. This was my first Robert Olen Butler book and I can't wait to read another one. I'm always pleased to come across a sensitive love story by a male author. And, this one touches all the senses!

Robert Olen Butler has explored an "unspeakable" topic in this novel. This is a beautiful love story between Ben, a forty-four year-old Vietnam Veteran, and Thien, a twenty-six year-old Amerasian woman. Though a generation apart, they complement each other with their searches for fulfillment: Ben, for a closure which he supposedly finds, and Thien, for the love of her life. Butler is a master storyteller who excels at giving voice to his two protagonists. The prose is lyrical, sensual, and rawfully honest. The most harrowing aspect of the novel is that it raises more questions in the end than it answers. If that is Butler's intention, then he has succeeded. A romantic at heart, I cried for the torn lovers... It's a novel worth losing sleep over...