Tfh182 USA

Pungent and hilarious, if completely off the deep end: Ames is like a perpetual undergraduate jokester, whom you either love or hate on first sight. Mark Grueter, wrote "There are roughly two different types of readers: those who read and appreciate P.G. Wodehouse and those who do not. Those of us who read Wodehouse generally agree that he is one of the funniest writer of all time; so what better way to lift one’s spirits than to read something guaranteed to arouse laughter?" Wake Up, Sir! is Woodhouse for our times. will finish review later must get out the dood. ... (continue)

If You have never read Vollmann this may be a good choice as a first read. As W.T.V. suggests in the compilers notes, keep it near your bed and read a few pages a night or use it to slay the nightmarish flies of sleep with it hard covers or lay it across your eyes to guard yourself from light.

Vollmann has been called a raw and natural genius and I agree. This book will do many things but put you to sleep is not one of them.

enjoy...

PS. I only recently discovered this site. It might be fun.

as anyone read Yasunari Kawabata's "Palm-of-the-hand stories. what did you think... ... (continue)

When I picked up this book I could not put it down.

IT is a play but do not let that put you off, assuming you may think well I enjoy going to a play but not really interested in "reading" a play.

The play reads like a story and once you start the story you will be not rest until you finish it.

I have given this book to three different people as presents. This a a must read.... The best book I read that year by an American author was The Road by Cormac McCarthy and the best Play was the Pillowman ... (continue)

The Stray Dog cabaret in St. Petersburg was the haunt of poets, artists, and musicians. It was a place to meet, drink, read, brawl, celebrate, and stage performances. In the years before the 1917 revolution a more talented collection of genius has seldom been seen in one place. It has since become a symbol of the extraordinary literary ferment of that time. It was then that Alexander Blok composed his apocalyptic sequence "Twelve"; that the futurists Velimir Khlebnikov and Vladimir Mayakovsky exploded language into bold new forms; that the lapidary lyrics of Osip Mandelstam and plangent love poems of Anna Akhmatova saw the light; that the electrifying Marina Tsvetaeva stunned and dazzled everyone. Boris Pasternak was also of this company, putting together his great youthful hymn to nature, My Sister, Life.

It was a transforming moment-not just for Russian but for world poetry—and a short-lived one. Within little more than a decade, revolution and terror were to disperse, silence, and destroy almost all the poets of the Stray Dog cabaret.

Schmidt's strength as a translator is capturing the flavor of this group of poets. The late Paul Schmidt is considered by many to be one of the great translators of the Russian to English being able to capture the flavor. My suspicion is that most of above poets aren't very widely read in the English-speaking world which is a shame. They represent the silver age of Russian poetry. The Stray Dog Cabaret costs less that 14 dollars. A bargain to say the least. If you enjoy poetry I am sure you will cherish this book.

A few short snippet's
Akhmatova writes, "This is the moment they told us would come some day / when there's nobody alive to hear what we say. / The world is no longer the place it used to be. / Be still, don't break my heart. Be silent, poetry." Here is Tsvetaeva: "I'm still alive. That may be soon / a sin." Here is Mandelstam: "All I want to do is / escape the madness here. / To rise into the light / where I can disappear." And here is Akhmatova again: "In the west the familiar light still shines / And the spires of cities glow in the sun. / But here a dark figure is marking the houses / And calling the ravens, and the ravens come." Just to give you another taste, here's the first verse of "To Anna Akhmatova," one of the poems included in the book:

I sent you a rose in a glass of champagne

while the gypsies played as the gypsies do.

Then you turned to the man you were with and said:

"You see his eyes? He's in love with me too."
_______________________________

You too will fall in love with this book if you have the good fortune to find it in your hand. ... (continue)

Murakami at his best. I picked up this book by chance and absolutely loved it. It is the type of book once you start you can not put down but when you approach the end you read slowly because it was so much fun you don't want the ride to end. I read several of the reviews on the site and felt they provided an accurate synopsis of the plot and outline of the book. I can not imagine anyone NOT enjoying this book. It is wonderful on so many levels. I plan on reading it again in a few months. In an radio interview Murakami gave on NPR he spoke of the "hidden" references and clues in the book. I do think it is one of those rare books that is even better the second time around. I recently read Norwegian Wood which I also enjoyed very much and then picked up his latest book of 24 short stories. I was very disappointed in the book of short stories. I felt only four of five of the short stories were worthy of his talent. ... (continue)