Peeling the Onion18 reviews Gunter Grass Harcourt, 2007 Best Grass yet + Gunter's Memoirs + An accidental writer + A tale, a tall tale even, but so European             Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business30 reviews David Mamet Pantheon, 2007 Thought provoking Insight + Behind the scenes in Hollywood + A Hoot Mamet does it again! In BAMBI VS. GODZILLA, he offers essays which provide new ways of looking at motion picture production, writing and life. He inspires. He challenges. He shares ways of looking at things that are as profound and simple as they are new. I wish I could have gotten this kind ...             Disgrace338 reviews J. M. Coetzee Penguin (Non-Classics), 2000 Why J.M. Coetzee emigrated from South Africa + Riveting + Challenges the reader Disgrace is not about a rape. It is not about an University professor having affairs with students. The fact that he is 50sh, the fact that he has a daughter running a kennel in the countryside are not relevant. The book is about the condition of living as a white in South Africa today. The rape ...             Slow Man42 reviews J.M. Coetzee Vintage Books, 2006 Getting rid of Ms. Costello + Fairly enjoyable, rather confusing; maybe don't start here? - 3 3/4 What it puzzles me is that the professional reviewers - like the links from http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/coetzeej/slowman.htm - did not get the essence of the book. They just tell the plot, when there is no plot. They are upset - everyone is upset - by the artificial introduction in the ...             The Second World War15 reviews John Keegan Penguin (Non-Classics), 2005 An excellent one volume account + An excellent analysis of the Second World War + J.Keegan : Second World War __ Very Good + Attempts the Impossible ... nearly succeeds!             The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time1455 reviews Mark Haddon Vintage, 2004 Fun and engaging + Not your usual read . . . + An unusual and striking first novel + Very Likeable Book             Survival In Auschwitz71 reviews Primo Levi Touchstone, 1996 primo levi + Vivid Portrayal of Horror + "...man is bound to pursue his own ends by all possible means, while he who errs but once pays dearly." + Direct and Powerful + Excellent! Excellent! Excellent!             Electric Flesh: A Novel Claro Soft Skull Press, 2006 Howard Hordinary is convinced that he’s the bastard grandchild of Harry Houdini. An unemployed executioner with a fetish for electric chairs, Howard is tormented by multiple perversities and obsessed with schemes to restore his status as executioner and as Houdini’s legitimate heir. Cycling back and forth between Hordinary's paranoid present and Houdini’s fantastical past ...             Man Is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag33 reviews Janusz Bardach, Kathleen Gleeson University of California Press, 1999 An unbelievably bleak tale of survival in the Gulag + You Can Survive Anything if You Keep Believing You Will + Gripping + Stunning + Surviving against all odds             At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA76 reviews George Tenet HarperCollins, 2007 A Reality Check: Tenet Tells His Story and its definately worth listening to + Fascinating, but Biased, Look at our Government from 1997-2004 + At the center of the storm + Director of Central Intelligence - DCI             Timbuktu: A Novel111 reviews Paul Auster Picador, 2000 A Charming Novel By An Unpredictable Author + Very touching book + Sweet and believable + In the mood for something sentimental?             Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics)5 reviews Hannah Arendt Penguin Classics, 2006 A Classic that Elaborates on the Genocide of Jews and Others + Incredible investigation of Adolf Eichmann + excellent! + Emphasis on Banality + Rethinking the Nature of Evil             Twenty Prose Poems2 reviews Charles Baudelaire City Lights Publishers, 2001 Evocative + One of the first modern poets These prose poems were my first experience with Baudelaire. I didn't know what to expect, but they're pretty good. They are often vague, but even then manage to be evocative. I'll admit I also bought the book to help my French along (as it is bilingual), but it's Baudelaire and it's good and ...             The Story of Lucy Gault: A Novel54 reviews William Trevor Penguin (Non-Classics), 2003 LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION... + Heart has its reasons, reason knows not why. + Melancholic Mournfulness and Atonement + The power of forgiveness             Intimacy49 reviews Hanif Kureishi Faber and Faber, 2001 Total intimidad + A Sad Disturbing Story + An important and weirdly thrilling book... + Wonderful. + Startling short novel             Youth: Scenes from Provincial Life II24 reviews J. M. Coetzee Penguin (Non-Classics), 2003 Portrait of Coetzee as a young man + Each man is an island + EVEN COETZEE CAN BE FUNNY This book by South African writer J. M. Coetzee is not exactly an autobiography, as it recounts a few years of his life, from about the time he was 19 to his mid 20s, during the early 1960s. Though less than 200 pages long, this is hardly a fast read. Coetzee's writing style is not overly complex, ...             Ignorance: A Novel37 reviews Milan Kundera Harper Perennial, 2003 You can't go home again + another persons shoes + Nostalgia ("nostos"-return, "algos"-suffering) + Nostalgia             The Goodbye Kiss4 reviews Massimo Carlotto Europa Editions, 2006 "Stash the heat and concentrate on the plan." + A black and white picture of obscure society corners + Not the Best, But one of The Best - The Italian Jim Thompson? When Massimo Carlotto's hard-boiled noir novel, "The Goodbye Kiss" begins, Giorgio Pellegrini is a fugitive living in South America. He fled Italy in the 70s after his involvement with the Red Brigades--now he's in his 30s and he's engaged in guerrilla warfare. One night, he's ordered to execute ...             Targeting Iran (City Lights Open Media)5 reviews David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky, ... City Lights Publishers, 2007 Interviews on the Past, Present & Future of the U.S.-Iran Relationship + Clear, simple arguments to counter the warmongering against Iran + unknown society + Iran is not the enemy! + Target Iran             The Dead Father9 reviews Donald Barthelme Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004 Classic Barthelme + Funny in a funny way + funny angry profane absurd "The Dead Father" is a novel by Barthelme who is far more famous for his short stories. But fans of his short stories won't be surprised by anything in The Dead Father. All his trademarks are there: Long pages of odd dialogue, humorous lists, deadpan humor, metafiction, etc. If you are new to ...