Search Now:

Netsurfer Digest Before there were blogs, there was Netsurfer. http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/

Netsurfer Science There is no adequate defense, except stupidity, against the impact of a new idea. - Percy Williams Bridgman http://www.netsurf.com/nss/

Netsurfer Free Trial Sign up for a free 30 day trial subscription to Netsurfer e-zines! CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

About Netsurfer Books

Netsurfer Books is an e-zine offering short reviews of books and related items. We include listings based on recommendations from our staff and reviews from other individuals. Are we bribed to include any of these items? No. Do we receive a commission if you purchase an item through one of the links included here? Yes. Are we waiting to hear from you about what you'd like to see reviewed? Definitely.

Editor's Choice

Natural Capitalism

Natural Capitalism Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins Little, Brown and Company; ISBN: 0316353000 This is a provocative, energizing book that aims to improve economic planning by discarding unexamined assumptions, thinking in terms of systems, and valuing non-renewable natural resources. The authors demonstrate how waste can be radically reduced and both social benefits and profits be enhanced by reconceptualizing how we do business, make products, manage services. Rather than buying an air conditioner, if a customer buys the product of cool air and a business provides it in the most economical way, the provider is motivated to create the most efficient air conditioner possible, to maintain it well, and to recycle it as completely as possible when it no longer functions satisfactorily. This approach can allow all of us to live better using half the material and energy that now support a diminishing quality of life. The penultimate chapter of the book is devoted to the amazing, heartening successes achieved since 1972 by the city of Curitiba, Brazil. Through integrated design and planning and a determination to improve life for all its citizens, its economy is based on sound environmental principles, clean industry, and broad access to services, creating jobs in the process. Invitingly written,Natural Capitalism is highly recommended to anyone concerned with making a business succeed, as well as to all concerned with reversing human despoliation of our environment. [CW]

Biography, History, Society

Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The American Circus Circa 1910 as seen by F. W. Glasier

Wild, Weird, and Wonderful: The American Circus Circa 1910 as seen by F. W. Glasier Mark Sloan, F. W. Glasier (Photographer), Timothy Tegge (Illustrator) W. W. Norton; ISBN: 0971454841 If you are looking for one of those sensationalist picture books about the freaks and geeks to be found at some disreputable "circuses," look elsewhere. You won't find any of those here. What you will find are vintage photos taken by F. W. Glasier during the period from 1901 to 1927. These are stunning portrayals of proud traveling entertainers and the circuses they inhabited, taken in the medium of the day: black and white photographs. Many of these gorgeous photos were taken behind the scenes and they capture the true spirit of the circus, unseen among the crowds beneath the big top. There are elephants fresh from the unloaded trains, crowd scenes, wagons, work crews, and sideshow performers. The many formal portraits are priceless, as is the foreword by lifelong circus member Timothy Noel Tegge. Many accompanying paragraphs add stitches to enrich the tapestry of photographs. This is a book that the performers themselves would be proud of: it shares the rich traditions of the world of wonder many of us grew to love as children. Awe inspiring. [GB]

The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions

The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions Robert T. Carroll John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471272426 Pardon me, but didn't we once live in a rational society? I distinctly remember that when I was growing up the Age of Reason was considered a good thing. Don't they teach thinking in school any more? Or have mysterious enemies been poisoning our national vital fluids with goofy juice? Cast your mind in any direction and odds are you'll reel in inanity of some boggling dimension. Fortunetellers and seancists inhabit the airwaves like so many carnival hucksters. Schoolbooks in Georgia are required to have warning stickers espousing bio-evolutionary precepts as written in millennia-old religious texts. According to the bumper stickers Angels and other spiritual whatnots are hovering so thickly they need to be hip checked just to get an elbow on the bar. Next time some valued co-worker spouts some idiocy that leaves your jaw dangling for lack of response, trundle back to your desk and quickly consult the Skeptic's Dictionary. You'll get a better idea of the rotten intellectual underpinnings of said tom foolishness, and have a couple of counter arrows of your own to sling back. It's probably too late to stem the human tide of numbskulls, but maybe you can take a few of them with you. [MA]

Sodom and Gomorrah: On the Everyday Reality and Persecution of Homosexuals in the Middle Ages

Sodom and Gomorrah: On the Everyday Reality and Persecution of Homosexuals in the Middle Ages Bernd-Ulrich Hergemoller Free Association Books; ISBN 1853435031 The more I read about the middle ages, the less it seems a uniform, colorless and dismal time. Rather, similar conflicts to those today were played out in smaller communities, albeit in a more brutal fashion. Contemporary values, particularly prejudices and the sense of socially unacceptable behavior, originates to a scary extent from that uncompromising time. Hergemoller is a historian, an expert on socially-disadvantaged groups in the middle ages, and an extremely gifted writer. This work, published in 2000, breaks new ground in the study of homosexuality in the medieval period. Critical examination of this topic has appeared only in the past two decades. Hergemoller's meticulously-documented scholarship shows clearly not only that communities of homosexuals existed in the largest medieval cities, but elaborates on their social and moral situation. The book makes the case that the organized persecution of homosexuals served as a mechanism of social control over the lower middle class (such as craftsmen). The periods of intensive persecution coincided with crises in which the ruling elite seized the opportunity to concentrate attention on an 'inner enemy.' Homosexuals were so stigmatized at that time that the mere mention of their 'crime' was forbidden. Documentation is abundant, however, in the form of legal records from inquiries. These present testimony from which one can infer a broader social environment. Short, full of colorful anecdotes and vivid details, this book is quite accessible despite the gravity of its subject matter. It ends with an analysis of the central theological works which contributed to and eventually dominated both religious and secular consciousness, from the late middle ages to the present day. The gripping chapter on the secret 'antisodomy' tribunal in Venice concludes with this: "Only by realizing the history of the past is also the history of the present can we prevent it from becoming the history of the future." [EG]

100 Photographs That Changed the World

100 Photographs That Changed the World Life Magazine (Editor), Gordon Parks, Editors of Life Magazine Time, Inc., Home Entertainment; ISBN: 1931933847 The old saying about the value of a picture is much too conservative. The photographs in this masterpiece are worth a great deal more than 100,000 words. These pictures may have changed the world, but they did so one person at a time over several decades. These top quality photographs show triumph and tragedy, strength and frailty. Each turn of the page will touch you in myriad different ways. Most images can stand alone, but each accompanying paragraph will help put the photograph in proper perspective. A frame from the Zapruder film that captured the assassination of President Kennedy will take you back to that fateful day in 1963. The stark image of a young Vietnamese girl, running nude down the road, will have you hearing her screams of horror at the carnage left behind her. Your spirit will sing with the triumphant raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima. You cannot help but be profoundly moved by these images. Some will bring smiles, but many will undoubtedly bring tears. This is not a book merely to be read, but one to be lived again and again to the depths of your very soul. Breathtaking. [GB]

2003 Guide to Domestic Spying, the USA Patriot Act, and the DARPA Information Awareness Office: Surveillance, Computer Intercepts, Technologies for Anti-Terrorism (Core Federal Information Series CD-ROM)

2003 Guide to Domestic Spying, the USA Patriot Act, and the DARPA Information Awareness Office: Surveillance, Computer Intercepts, Technologies for Anti-Terrorism (Core Federal Information Series CD-ROM) US Government Progressive Management; ISBN: 1592482155 So let's just be clear. US intelligence services, including the FBI, CIA, Border Patrol and others had all the information they needed to prevent the 9-11 attacks. They were simply unable to process and collate that information, mostly due to bureaucratic / political infighting, and lack of focus. Therefore it seems obvious that the Patriot Act is not at its core about combating terrorism, but is pointed at some other target. But whom? Again the answer is obvious in the very name of the act. The Patriot Act is written to combat anyone who is not a "patriot." And who would they be? The administration occupying the White House, Justice Department, and Legislative Branch have made this clear as well. Anyone who is against them is aiding the terrorists. This would include anyone who won't sing the Attorney General's psychotic patriotic songs, or pray at his staff meetings. This includes anyone participating in an "alternative lifestyle." This includes anyone who is in favor of a woman's right to choose. This includes violators of "intellectual property." This includes violations of secret ordinances, which you don't know about. Or read The War on Our Freedoms to find out more. [MA]

The Fire Next Time

The Fire Next Time James Baldwin Vintage Books; ISBN 067974472X It is hard for me to imagine a clearer or more forceful appeal for an end to racism in America. Baldwin blends biography, impassioned essay, and polemic. First published 41 years ago, before most civil rights legislation had been passed, Baldwin articulates the limits of dignity and security for an African-American at that time. If only this book were dated! Much of it concerns the dangerous and bleak social and moral environment in which young black men grew up. Too little progress has been made: Consider endemic inequities in school budgets, prison populations and unemployment statistics. More to the point, young black men continue to be associated with a dangerous and mistrusted element in society - in popular music, cinema and especially police 'reality TV.' Americans fail to reject these reprehensible characterizations; the consumer demand for such entertainment may even be increasing. Baldwin concentrates on the immense spiritual cost of this ongoing racism, to all Americans. The equality this book aims at starts with 'consciousness,' with an end both to the negative associations with the African-Americans' situation as well as the unexamined and self-serving positive associations of white American culture. This change in consciousness will be difficult since it must occur from all sides, black and white, through a dismantling and discarding of the politics of difference. Unfortunately, political developments of the past two decades have enshrined such differences. We need to heed Baldwin's plea, perhaps now more than ever. [EG]

Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made

Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made Kenneth Turan University of California Press; ISBN: 0520218671 Anyone who loves good movies has to be aware of the proliferation of film festivals around the world and may be thinking it might be fun to experience one. Some offer the opportunity to see major feature films before their commercial release but others give viewers access to films that may never receive commercial distribution. Kenneth Turan, the Los Angeles Times film critic and frequent contributor to National Public Radio's Morning Edition, here surveys some of the most noteworthy and describes their particular character and setting and the sorts of directors and audiences they attract. Among them are Cannes and Sundance, of course, but also FESPACO in Burkina Faso, the Havana and Sarajevo film festivals, the Midnight Sun festival, a project of the irrepressible Finnish Kaurismaaki brothers, directors Aki and Mika, held in a Lapland village north of the Arctic Circle each June. Also included are two events that are more celebrations of film than film festivals in the usual sense of competitions: Perdonene in Italy each year brings together lovers of silent film, fans, collectors and archivists who show old films, some newly rediscovered, accompanied by piano and even orchestral performances, as these films enjoyed in their original screenings. And Lone Pine, in California's High Sierra, where films shot in the nearby Alabama Hills are the exclusive offering. But since more than 300 films have been shot here over seventy five years, the pickings aren't slim (though they are mostly westerns). This is a rewarding book, especially for any one interested enough in films to be curious about how those that show up in our local theaters are chosen and what we may be missing. [CW]

Ball Four

Ball Four Jim Bouton John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0020306652 I inherited this book from an uncle, or else I doubt I would have read it. I'm not really much of a sports fan, and certainly don't go in for sports autobiography. But this isn't so much a book about baseball; well actually it's a book totally about baseball. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's a book about being inside something that most people don't get to be inside of. It's not so much about the subject; it's about Bouton's ability to put you in his shoes, which have been nailed to the floor by one of his teammates. This isn't a book about baseball, it's a book about what it's like to be a professional baseball player. And it's damned funny. I remember (barely) that when this book came out there was a bit of outcry from outraged fellow teammates and owners. I don't doubt it. The drugs, the women, the fans, and idiotic team owners and managers are yanked out into the daylight smelling vaguely of foot powder. I'm sure baseball has changed greatly since this book was written in the early 70s (for one thing big league players aren't grateful to be making $40,000 per year), but these short-form chapters on a year late in Bouton's career are an easy and hilarious read nonetheless. [MA]

Tiny Game Hunting: Environmentally Healthy Ways to Trap and Kill the Pests in Your House and Garden, New Edition

Tiny Game Hunting: Environmentally Healthy Ways to Trap and Kill the Pests in Your House and Garden, New Edition Hilary Dole Klein, Adrian M. Wenner University of California Press; ISBN: 0520221079 Your humble reviewer lives a fairly normal life in a fairly normal house in a fairly normal neighborhood in Berkeley, California. A few years ago he had to spend about $30,000 to have termite damage repaired. Every fall his cats get fleas. Head lice are chronic in his children's schools. In the winter when it rains, ants move in to take over his kitchen. Slugs and snails eat the lettuce his wife plants in her garden. His apple tree has worms, his orange tree has scale, his roses have thrips, and his houseplants have mealybugs. The occasional rat drives his wife bonkers. The occasional raccoon wanders in to see what's happening. Your reviewer is thankful he lives in an area fairly free of mosquitoes and cockroaches. Maybe your own life is not so very different. However. The approximately 5,000,000,000 pounds of pesticides used in the United States every year seem directly linked to the fact that sperm counts in men in the United States have dropped about 40% in the past 50 years; that about 1 woman in 20 was diagnosed with breast cancer fifty years ago but about 1 in 8 now; that the rates of testicular cancer, prostate cancer, Parkinson's disease, and learning disabilities and hyperaggression in children are soaring. Pesticides kill tens of millions of birds and fish in the United States every year, and untold numbers of beneficial insects. The list of pesticide horrors grows annually. PESTICIDE USE IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE SOLUTION. In your home, it will do much more damage to you and your family than it will ever do to your pests. So, what is one to do? Read this book. It suggests several hundred proven, safe, ecologically sound, common-sense ways to kill or control common house and garden pests. And the authors have a rousing sense of humor about it all. Highly recommended to anyone living in a house. [WW]

When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work.

When Generations Collide: Who They Are. Why They Clash. How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work. Lynne C. Lancaster, David Stillman HarperBusiness; ISBN: 0066621062 You are discussing the latest project with your newly-hired engineering recruit when she suddenly answers her phone and taps in an instant message to another engineer down the hall, all without missing a word from you. Is she being rude or simply "multitasking"? It depends on your point of view, your age, her age, and a whole suite of puzzling "rules" for social and business discourse. Solve the puzzle by learning how each age group, or "generation," relates to their peers and others. Lancaster and Stillman define these generations, spanning the years from World War II to the present, as "The Traditionalist, The Baby Boomers, The Generation Xers, and the Millennials." Once the generations are understood through section one in the book, the following sections describe how to recruit them, how to best utilize their talents, how to retain them, and how to manage (or be managed by) them. Case studies from the authors' own experiences are liberally sprinkled throughout to help make their theories real. Not everyone will fit within the authors' limited categories, but at a minimum, this book will give you a kit full of tools that will enable you to understand the many different personalities encountered in the work environment. An excellent business-management resource. [GB]

Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers

Murder and Mayhem: A Doctor Answers Medical and Forensic Questions for Mystery Writers D. P. Lyle St. Martin's Minotaur; ISBN: 0312309457 "Madeline's gaze took in the slowly shifting pines. The wind murmured through the branches with the dried voices of long ago dead. Her expression slowly changed from melancholy to concern, and then to fear as her trembling hand moved from the wine glass to snatch at her throat..." Oh wait...is potassium cyanide a fast-acting or slow-acting metabolic poison? Would strychnine be a better choice for this particular murder scene? Would cyanide even be available in 13th-century London? These are important questions to the mystery writer (or the idly curious.) Dr. Lyle has answered these questions and many more for his "The Doctor Is In" columns written for newsletters of the Mystery Writers of America. In this book he has culled more than a gross of questions covering injuries and treatment, drugs, diseases, medical processes, effects of weapons, crime scenes, coroners, and odds and ends. This collection of fascinating stuff is invaluable to the murder mystery writer, and makes interesting reading even if you're just bent in that direction. At a minimum, it will allow you to discuss the next episode of C.S.I. with your friends as if you actually know what you're talking about. Fun. [GB]

Fiction

The Secret Agent

The Secret Agent Joseph Conrad Oxford University Press; ISBN: 0192834770 Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), a Pole, traveled the world as a merchant seaman for about twenty years before settling down to become one of the English language's great novelists and short story writers. In high school or college most of us were probably required to read at least one of his classic works: Heart of Darkness, or Nostromo, or Lord Jim. In school, however, we probably missed The Secret Agent, one of his best novels and one which concerns an issue that certainly interests most of us these days, political terrorists and the ways in which they are manipulated by national governments. The novel is set in 1894 London, in the underworld of the nihilistic anarchists, a slackerly mob who mostly want to sit around in pubs drinking beer, watching girls, and bragging to one another. They are goaded into action, however, by an agent provocateur of the Russian government who persuades them to try to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, a sort of English national icon, an act which would inflame British public opinion against the anarchists and simultaneously generate sympathy for the political repression of such political dissidents then going on in pre-revolutionary Russia. The Observatory doesn't get blown up, but murder, suicide, mayhem, chaos, and general confusion rain down upon the innocent public. Not a new story then, same old story now. This is a masterpiece of English literature. You might find it interesting. [WW]

The Hollywood Murders

The Hollywood Murders Ellery Queen Four Walls Eight Windows; ISBN: 1568581734 OK I admit it, I didn't actually read this novel, I read a different Ellery Queen novel, but it isn't in print. In fact nearly all of the Ellery Queen novels are out of print. This is a shame, but unsurprising. For in the Queen universe things are much simpler than they are now. Men had not yet been transformed into the puling milquetoasts they are in the new millennium. Men were tough guys, thugs, bullet heads, they smoked, they drank, and they knew how to use a gun. Women were prostitutes, or hopheads, or floozies, or maybe they were just plain dames. Striding through the tales are the Ubermen. Queens's heroes and heroic villains rise above the necks of the sidewalk citizens like gorillas amongst chimpanzees. I'm sure this book is every bit as good as the one I read, and you should have it. Every man's library requires at least one copy of Ellery Queen, if you're man enough, that is. [MA]

Timeline

Timeline Michael Crichton Ballantine Books; ISBN: 0345417623 We each have our own list of authors that we can rely on to provide consistent entertainment or enlightenment through their books. It's a good bet that Michael Crichton is on thousands of such virtual lists. His books follow a well-tested formula and also find themselves on best-seller lists time after time(line). His secret? Take emerging technologies from the pages of current science journals, massage them to create a framework for an engaging story, weave in convincing characters, throw in a dash of intrigue, and you'll get even more than this mixed metaphor might suggest. You'll get another blockbuster that has "soon to be adapted for film" written all over it. Here, Crichton uses wormholes and quantum theory to build a time machine to drop staid graduate students right smack in the middle of circa 1300 France. The result is good old-fashioned swashbuckling adventure. The bad guys couldn't be "badder," and the good guys (gals!) might as well wear white hats. The "dangerous rescue" plot twists are predictable, but this well-written page-turner remains ultimately satisfying. [GB]

Life With Jeeves: The Inimitable Jeeves, Very Good, Jeeves!, and Right Ho, Jeeves

Life With Jeeves: The Inimitable Jeeves, Very Good, Jeeves!, and Right Ho, Jeeves PG Wodehouse Viking Press; ISBN: 0140059024 There is, I think, a certain sort of book which is published for the nightstand. My personal all-time favorite is the collected Sherlock Holmes (previously reviewed). One of these three books is generally right alongside it. These collections of short stories are by the master of the English comedy of manners PG Wodehouse, and include all of the short stories featuring Bertie Wooster and his gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves. Reading them all together like this, one is struck by the repetition of technique. Bertie purchases a garment of extravagantly garish taste; Jeeves sniffs; troubles ensue, often involving domineering aunts, prospective fiancés, or the love traumas of his old school chums. After Bertie makes a clumsy effort to sort out the difficulty on his own, Jeeves steps in and all is made well, after which Bertie dutifully turns in the sartorial item of his man's displeasure (generally to find that it has already been disposed of). But of course you don't read Wodehouse for the plot, really even the novels run on basically the same tracks. You read Wodehouse for the indelibly delightful turn of phrase. You read and reread him for the same reason. [MA]

Bright Web in the Darkness

Bright Web in the Darkness Alexander Saxton University of California Press; ISBN: 0520209311 A much-fabled time, think Rosie the Riveter, the period in the early 40s when, by virtue of the number of men leaving for WW II, women were allowed into occupations formerly deemed suitable for men only. Alexander Saxton bases his novel on the history of women shipyard workers in Richmond, California, and a Dorothea Lange photograph of some of them graces the cover. The integrity and credibility of his characters bring it to life: Sally Kallela, a bright and independent young woman from a union family in a Sierra foothills town, and Joyce Allen, the daughter of a black railroad conductor, an only child, a serious pianist, raised in a small Nevada railroad town, who leaves home for San Francisco to find work after her father's death. The two meet in a class for applicants to shipyard jobs and become friends and housemates, learn their work and learn to have confidence in their ability to accomplish it and contribute to the effort. But they also come to see the deep prejudices that denigrate the capabilities of women and blacks. Black workers pay dues for union membership but they are made members of the Auxiliary union, which is not authorized to meet, and they debate the options of striking or of working through the courts to see the implementation of the Fair Employment Practices Act. Saxton weaves the complicated story, illuminating the positions and assumptions of a range of characters including the crafts union leaders, a labor lawyer, a black shipfitter wounded during earlier service in Europe, Sally's boyfriend who finds, during his stint in the merchant marine, that he has a taste for reading and learning. Tillie Olsen's fine afterword praises Saxton for writing about work, a subject actually explored by few novelists, and here done with complexity and understanding. [CW]

All Summer Long

All Summer Long Bob Greene Griffin Trade Paperback; ISBN: 0312262841 "Road trip!" What red-blooded American male (or female!) doesn't quake upon hearing these words? This leads to the real question: Is the quaking in anticipation or dread? Many of you may (barely) remember that lost weekend from your young adult years, when you spent some "quality" time with your absolute best friends out on the open road. You may have had a destination in mind. But then again, maybe you didn't. Regardless, it was all about the journey, not the destination. Bob Greene has recaptured these nostalgic memories, but he has updated them with baby-boomer inspiration. This well-written and entertaining book chronicles three old friends that have become reacquainted at their 25th high school reunion. Ben, Robbie, and Michael all manage to escape their 40-something daily grinds long enough to embark on an adventure of fantastic proportions. They take the proverbial road trip upon the highways and byways of this great country, and discover as much about themselves as they do about the roads they travel. Look at this book as an opportunity to escape back to what was, or at least, what might have been. [GB]

Carbon Dreams

Carbon Dreams Susan M. Gaines Creative Arts Book Company; ISBN: 0887393063 Written from the point of view of a serious young woman scientist, this is an unusual novel. It doesn't cut non-scientists a lot of slack but it presents Cristina Arenas' work and research concerns clearly enough that one whose knowledge of chemistry and biology is limited can still become deeply engaged with the novel. It's set in a university-related oceanographical research institute on the coast of northern California in the 80s. This allows the reader to make some interesting comparisons with the present: women scientists are decidedly less subject to gender prejudice among their older male colleagues now (though Tina's most difficult relations are with a successful, highly ambitious woman scientist). But the warnings of scientists then working on climate change caused by human-produced carbon dioxide failed to effect change in government policy in this country. Thus the concerns about global warming expressed in the 80s have become much more serious in the intervening two decades. This is handled interestingly by the author: her central character is so involved in her research into weather conditions in the distant past that she is nearly oblivious to the relevance of her research to conditions in the present. But her boyfriend, a landscaper and organic farmer, is acutely attuned to man's effect on global climate and puzzled at her detachment and their debates are impassioned and illuminating.The novel is especially good at conveying the sorts of dilemmas and choices faced by a woman scientist seriously committed to her work (and also has some great, sensuous descriptions of wonderful meals served up by the man who cooks as well as grows beautiful fruits and vegetables). [CW]

Briefing For A Descent Into Hell

Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris Lessing Vintage Books; ISBN 0394746627 I think I was fifteen when my mother passed me this book. At that time, on a steady diet of mediocre science fiction, I didn't know what to make of it. The novel begins with the case notes for a completely delirious man checked into a hospital. Much of the novel occurs inside the head of the far-from-lucid main character. Unfortunately, I let the writing put me off and only read this book much later. Briefing for a Descent Into Hell certainly classifies as 'science fiction.' Lessing takes on many problems of the technology and the individual in society. The central theme in the book is the form of social control imposed on adults which leads them to engage in and accept or even expect destructive and compromising behavior. Without giving away too much, the title plays off the idea that occurs to the protagonist in his ideation: One could live more peacefully and harmoniously with others and nature. Perhaps those who know this are part of a hidden group, dedicated to bringing this about. Plot twists reveal that more may be going on than a nervous breakdown. The psychiatrist's investigation of his patient's life through correspondence reinforces this impression. Perhaps the main character's fever dreams are closer to 'sanity' than the world the psychiatrists are trying to bring him back to. Foremost in this book, ahead of its time, Lessing insinuates that modern pharmaceuticals are a means of constraining the mind and maintaining normality. Unlike most science fiction, this book contains some challenging literary language and doesn't attempt to explain or pursue every avenue which it opens onto. The rich writing offers poetic glimpses of our complex inner life, full of potential we rarely if ever fulfill. [EG]

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke Vintage International; ISBN: 0679732454 You many not be a 28 year old man, suffering from an anxious existential crisis in belle-époque Paris, and yearning for a young lady you've left behind. You probably aren't living on a trust fund with nothing to do but think far too much about your disturbing upper class childhood and wasted talents and try to recover from your Unexplained Illness. Despite this, and the challenging poetic style, you may find enormous affinities here. Rilke wrote renowned spiritual poetry in the early twentieth century. This novel is his major prose work. Through his protagonist, an sick young man with a feverish mind and lots of unresolved issues, Rilke explores some profound territory. A bit of my favorite passage is "For the sake of a single verse, one must see many cities, men and things, one must know the animals, one must feel how the birds fly and know the gestures with which the little flowers open in the morning. One must be able to think back to roads in unknown regions, to unexpected meetings and to partings one had seen coming; to days of childhood that are still unexplained..." This captures the book's mode - evocative and ephemeral yet unhealthily concentrated on unattainables. You will get to know many details of Malte's life by reading this book, but this story is the only the background upon which Rilke brilliantly renders a sensitive young man's spiritual crisis and its reconciliation. [EG]

Poetry

Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus

Fragments: The Collected Wisdom of Heraclitus Heraclitus, translated by Brooks Haxton Viking; ISBN: 0670891959 About 2,500 years ago, Heraclitus, an exact contemporary of Buddha, Confucius, and Lao Tzu, gave up the throne of Ephesus to philosophize and teach full time. His major work, On Nature, was considered by Plato and Aristotle to be the first really coherent philosophical treatise and was the basis of much of their own subsequent work. Very unfortunately, the text of On Nature has been lost for a very long time, but we do know that Heraclitus' major concern was with the "flux," his observation that everything both material and immaterial is subject to never ending processes of change and transmutation. He frequently used fire as a metaphor for this reality. Even now, we still sometimes hear his thought that "The river where you set your foot just now is gone - those waters giving way to this, now that." (Or, "You can't step in the same river twice.") In any case, all that we now have left of Heraclitus' own work are 130 short aphorisms, usually rendered as poems. Brooks Haxton has given us a fine new translation of these, and they are published in an easy-to-use text with the original Greek and the English translation on facing pages. "All things change to fire, and fire exhausted falls back into things," and "what was scattered gathers, what was gathered blows apart" certainly would have had Einstein's blessing, I think. Or maybe you would like, "To a god the wisdom of the wisest man sounds apish. Beauty in a human face looks apish too. In everything we have attained the excellence of apes." Reading this is a lot more interesting than watching idiot pundits and politicians and commercials on TV. [WW]

Duino Elegies: Bilingual Edition

Duino Elegies: Bilingual Edition Rainer Maria Rilke, translated from the German by Edward Snow North Point Press; ISBN: 0865475466 These ten loosely-connected lyric poems written by Rainer Maria Rilke between 1912 and 1922, at Castle Duino overlooking the Adriatic coast near Trieste, are a major landmark in 20th-century German poetry. Edward Snow's fine new translation will probably be authoritative for some time. It is easy to read and use with the original German and the English on facing pages. The dustjacket blurb says, "With their symbolic landscapes, vatic pronouncements, complex tropes, and often haunting intensity, the Elegies rank among the outstanding visionary works of the century." Whatever that means, I guess it about sums it up. "Who has turned us around like this, so/always, no matter what we do, we're in the stance/of someone just departing? As he,/on the last hill that shows him all his valley/ one last time, turns, stops, lingers-,/we live our lives, forever taking leave." Very highly recommended to poetry lovers. To others, what can I say? Try it; you might like it. It is not "difficult," as some modern poetry can be, but in fact about as "easy" as modern poetry can be. A good book to give as a gift to someone whom you're trying to impress with your soft and fuzzy, sensitive side. [WW]

Beowulf

Beowulf Seamus Heaney, translator Farrar, Strauss and Giroux; ISBN: 0374111197 Beowulf was written in the Anglo-Saxon language in northern England about 1,000 years ago. It consists of about 3,000 lines of heroic narrative concerning the deeds of a Swedish prince named Beowulf who goes to Denmark to slay for the Danes a man-eating monster named Grendel and Grendel's even nastier mother, then returns home to rule Sweden as king for fifty years before finally killing and being killed by a dragon which has been ravishing his own country. This is shorter but in the same vein as The Iliad and The Odyssey, and every bit as good. What we have in this book is a very useful Introduction and brilliant translation into modern English verse by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, who quite rightly won the Nobel Prize for Literature a few years back. The book is set up with the Anglo-Saxon and the modern English translation on facing pages. You will want to read both. Heaney's translation of lines 1384-1389, Beowulf speaking: "It is always better/to avenge dear ones/than to indulge in mourning. /For every one of us, living in this world/means waiting for the end. Let whoever can/win glory before death. When a warrior is gone,/that will be his best and only bulwark." This is one of the earliest and greatest pieces of English literature, so what can I say to recommend it? Two things, I guess. First, I really like this new translation, and second, to point out to any who don't already know it, that this is an absolute must-read for all J.R.R. Tolkien fans. [WW]

Children's Books

Mrs. Armitage and the Big Wave

Mrs. Armitage and the Big Wave Quentin Blake Harcourt Brace & Company; ISBN: 0152016422 Quentin Blake's wacky drawings suit his story very well. The intrepid (if bespectacled) surf dude Mrs. Armitage and her trusty dog Breakspear challenge the surf and are rewarded for their patience with a Big Wave. But while waiting, Mrs. Armitage sees to their various needs in ways that will delight both child and adult readers, at least all those of us who aren't serious surfers and who may be more attuned to other considerations such as a dog's need for a rest (she buys Breakspear an inflatable desert island). A plastic duck that can carry a box full of inviting snacks is added to their paraphernalia, and a megaphone to hail other surfers, as well as a sturdy boat hook to ward off any shark that might show up. The boat hook comes in handy to retrieve a child out beyond her depth just as the big wave arrives, and, after a few cool moves on Mrs. Armitage's part, all arrive safely on the beach. This one will provoke giggles for sure. Blake is a prolific, much-loved illustrator. A child who likes this book would doubtless be intrigued by his website, and his newest, Mrs. Armitage, Queen of the Road). [CW]

Revenge of the Baby-Sat

Revenge of the Baby-Sat Bill Watterson Andrews McMeel Publishing; ISBN 0836218663 Every kid should be treated to a Calvin and Hobbes phase. Symptoms include incessant quoting of favorite passages and an inexhaustible urge to read pages aloud to anyone who will listen. Not everyone will react the same to Watterson's wit and keen observations. Some might just rip through this book, thinking it a sort of twisted Peanuts comic including a few adult characters. After all, not everyone can relate to Calvin's irrepressible imagination and his one-boy uprising against the oppression of everyday conventions and expectations. Calvin pursues various ill-conceived adventures with his best friend, a stuffed animal tiger named Hobbes. To Calvin, Hobbes is a life-sized tiger capable of speech. To Hobbes, Calvin is a best friend who constantly needs to have his judgment questioned. Nearly every scheme Calvin has flies in the face of reality - sometimes quite literally as he imagines the ability to rearrange time and space. In an attempt to escape from unpleasantness like homework, chores, or meals he doesn't like, he transports himself into other stories where he is the downtrodden hero. Though Calvin rarely escapes the shackles and torments of his mundane world, every kid can relate to the righteousness and rambunctious fun of his rebellion against fate. [EG].

Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade without a Clue

Jack Adrift: Fourth Grade without a Clue Jack Gantos Farrar, Straus and Giroux; ISBN:0374399875 Jack Gantos's newest book finds young Jack Henry facing a new school year all the way down in Cape Hatteras, in a Navy trailer next to a swamp, his dad having taken a job working for the Navy and moved the family from the known world of Pittsburg. Young Jack, a bit of a smart-ass, finds himself with a beautiful young teacher and immediately becomes infatuated. He tries to decide between his parents' conflicting advice in how to make friends (Dad: tell them what they want to hear; Mom: always tell the truth). He learns how to cope with his rather sinister principal's effort to recruit him as a spy who'll report to her on his miscreant peers. He comes to terms with the fact that he still loves Charlotte's Web even though some might think a fourth grader should prefer more sophisticated reading (not that he isn't quite a savvy kid for nine years old). And he begins to take in stride his dad's sometimes rather childish if harmless rebelliousness. Running through the book are the knowing sarcasm of his big sister, the antics of the kid next door with the overgrown ego, and the duck Jack is coerced into nursing back to health who, in the process, gives him the perspective he needs to make some sense of things. A nice touch are the hand-written chapter openings, pages from Jack's journal, that add bits of information and a nice kind of verisimilitude. [CW]

The Ink Drinker

The Ink Drinker Éric Sanvoisin Delacorte Press; ISBN 0385325916 Creepy, cool and silly, this tiny illustrated novel is actually a children's book, suitable for reading aloud in fifteen minutes or so. Written from the perspective and in the voice of a curious, irreverent boy, Sanvoisin somehow manages to capture the flamboyant, abbreviated style of a ten-year-old storyteller. This gives the book a pace and excessive attention to certain ridiculous details which an 'adult writer' simply can't attain. The story concerns the son of a bookstore owner who can't stand to read. He discovers then pursues a supernatural shoplifter, only to make a terrible discovery. He then learns to appreciate books, in an unsavory way. Sanvoisin's over the top idiom transforms what would be scary into entertaining camp horror. Fine comic illustrations embellish every page in appealing bande dessinée idiom, revealing the book's French origin. [EG]

Corrections

Corrections

The name of the author of Bittersweet, Peter Macinnis, was misspelled in the August issue. Our apologies. And we mistakenly listed the original instead of the newly updated edition of Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology in the August review.