The Bell Jar (Perennial Classic)
by Sylvia Plath
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 December, 1999)
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Editorial Review

Plath was an excellent poet but is known to many for this largely autobiographical novel. The Bell Jar tells the story of a gifted young woman's mental breakdown beginning during a summer internship as a junior editor at a magazine in New York City in the early 1950s. The real Plath committed suicide in 1963 and left behind this scathingly sad, honest and perfectly-written book, which remains one of the best-told tales of a woman's descent into insanity. ... Read more

Reviews (389)

Bell Jar
Reading the Bell Jar I got pulled into Esters world. Sylvia Plath pulls you into the world of a young woman and her slip into depression. In the first couple pages she speaks about seeing a cadaver for the first time, and that is just enough totweek your intrest. The way she speaks about some things can make you either bond with her or think she is compleatly insane.When I read this book i couldnt put it down and once i finished it stayed in my brain for days. This is possibly one of my favorite books that I've read in a long time and would highly recommend reading it.

Review of Bell Jar
I personally think that it is an okay book if a reader wants to read about how womans were like in 1950s and about mental diseases. It was interesting story about Esther trying to be healthy(in mental means) again after attempts to suiside. This gives readers, especially people who have depression, hope to readers that `This is not the end, so don't give away your life so easily.'

Also the title of "Bell Jar" which is compared to Esthers mind that was closed and not letting the hope to come in and keeping the despair among herself.

Eventhought you think that you will not have any mental diseases like depression, after you read the book, you wouldn't feel safe that a person like Esther was also having depression that she tries to end her life. This is a story of a person's life over one's life. I would recommend others to read it since there was no book like this in the world.

An addictive spiral out of control
Wheh..this was very good. It was so interesting watching Esther slowly spiral into a place she couldn't escape. I can see why this novel caused such a stir, back in the day. I can imagine that there are still some pretty oppressive schools that would FREAK if a teacher were to assign this novel...although I think it would make great high school reading. Some of Esther's stifling obstacles are not quite as true in today's world, but most are and/or have been replaced by others. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060930187
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Literary    5. Plath, Sylvia, 1932-1963    6. Reading Group Guide   

Girl, Interrupted
by SUSANNA KAYSEN
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (19 April, 1994)
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Editorial Review

When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people.But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. Her clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of neuro-chemical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant. ... Read more

Reviews (379)

world spinning book
Set in a psychiatric hospital in 1967, it is told by 18-year-old Susanna, who is living under a blanket of depression and spending her days in McLean Hospital near Boston. We see the hospital and its occupants through her eyes, while trying to understand her mental illness (Borderline Disorder).
For a difficult subject, this book has a somewhat playful tone. It's as if the halls of McLean hospital are typical corridors of an apartment complex. ("It was a perpetual picnic, our hospital.") and a "seclusion room" ("Freedom was the price of privacy"). Through other characters' stories, Kaysen pieces together the reasons for her own suicide attempt. With each flashback, she reveals more details about her own attempted "premeditated murder." She discusses her fears and delusions, wondering if others see them, too. This makes us question ourselves and feel a bit closer to the comfort of being called crazy. Kaysen escorts us on a journey to a "parallel universe," creating a direct and clear route in case we travel there ourselves one day. I am hoping that I experience no one going down the same path Kaysen does in the book but I am sure I will. To overall put a score on the book was I would rate it a 9 out of a 10. One thing that was a disappointment was how the film-version of the novel strayed from the truth. I wish the film had been an accurate portrayal of this real life novel.

Packs a Strong Punch
"Girl Interrupted" is a petite memoir. However it packs a heck of a punch. Dealing very truthfully about a college girl who suffers a mental breakdown it provides human drama and startling insight into the commonality of mental illness. Of books of its kind, it ranks as powerfully as "My Fractured Life", "A Child Called It", and "Running With Scissors." I highly recommend it.

Insightful but sometimes confusing
In Girl Interrupted , I learned a lot about the real story , not the Hollywood Glamour Movie story .
Allthough this book is insightful , at times I found myself flipping back and forth between chapters to follow the story . For example in one chapter Daisy dies , but several chapters later she is in the story again having a conversation with another person . After awhile , it all falls into place .
The book contains real parts of Kaysen's mental records which are really interesting to read .
A caution to those who are offended easily , this may not be the book for you as there is STRONG language as well as sexual content that may not be suitible for younger children or if you cannot handle that sort of detail . ... Read more

Isbn: 0679746048
Subjects:  1. 1948-    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography / Autobiography    5. Biography/Autobiography    6. Kaysen, Susanna,    7. Literary    8. Massachusetts    9. Mental health    10. Mentally ill    11. Psychiatric hospital patients    12. Specific Groups - Special Needs    13. Women    14. Biography & Autobiography / General    15. Kaysen, Susanna    16. Reading Group Guide   

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
by JoanneGreenberg
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (07 November, 1989)
list price: $6.99 -- our price: $6.99
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Reviews (100)

wkrc wcpo cpo drehz
dextrorotatory per fortran chiral considerations as ikoned..
dextroratatory, methamphetamine sulfate 1943

dextro rotatorylate 1800

levo rotatroy late 1800

different spans, different test benches...the arrival of

monopoloy fortran..the loaded deck

why not just run cards instead of beaming?

one could follow the four color map word search
there would necessarily be master of key board..

Chine make circuit, N Korean solvents willing, print.

Qubit perovskite cubed.
Meter cubed..phan list both mainfram in nam

i know... phan good closer

The Brill PDR keyboard.Modern Library?Any takers.

Maybe Carl Sagan, Bill Colby, Stephen Jay Gould,
Stephen Ambrose, Richard P Feynman, Brill

APA Keyboards prolly have arrival times.


Prolly.

Your thumbs and Mary of Peter and Paul... same thumbs..

I know phan.

You list good.

Full weight
"i never promised you a rose garden" is an excellent book about a 16-year-old girl named Deborah Blau, who just so happens to be schizophrenic in a bad way. Deborah is admitted to an unnamed mental hospital in a small town, where her problems begin to surface as she stops hiding them. Deborah, it turns out, doesn't quite live on earth. She lives in a kingdom called Yr, speaking to her gods, flying around, and, if she slips up, being severely punished. She is assisted in her troubles by a famous psychologist who seems to understand her better than the rest of the hospital staff. Thus begins her three long years at the hospital and her journey towards reality.
"i never promised you a rose garden" is a book about the troubled mind of a schizophrenic, from her point of view. Actually, it's third person omniscient, so it's not from her point of view, but you know what she's thinking. It is an excellent dramatization of the mind of a seriously ill person. When i say dramatization, i mean that this is a drama, not an action or a western, but i also mean that it is not a cold and distanced psychology novel. It is emotional, raw, and doesn't step around subjects that some people may not want to deal with. It describes Deborah's world with vivid and believable prose. There is no mark of sentimentality, melodrama, or philosophy. It deals with the one thing not often discussed: the fear that one day, Deborah may have to face the world again; "the little maybe." As such, it carries a message for everyone who would rather hide that face their fears. I would recommend this book to anyone, whether they are interested in psychology or not. It is an excellent and believable insight into the world of the insane, and one hell of a story as well.

I promise you'll enjoy it
This is really a book for everyone.Obviously, if you're suffering from some form of mental illness, you'll want to read this book and you'll be able to relate to parts of it. But if you're not, you'll also enjoy it as a look at how the "other half" lives. This is a harrowing yet touching account of a teenager's foray into the land of mental illness.Would also recommend another book (disturbing yet at times funny) called THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD--the main character suffers from multiple personality disorder and post traumatic stress syndrome. ... Read more

Isbn: 0451160312
Sales Rank: 7084
Subjects:  1. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12)    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. General    5. Mentally ill    6. Fiction / General   

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 February, 1999)
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Editorial Review

What is most notable about this funny, touching, memorable first novelfrom Stephen Chbosky is the resounding accuracy with which the author captures the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood. Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensityof a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recentsuicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings:

I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report due on top of that. Or wondering who did the heart breaking. And wondering why.

With the help of a teacher who recognizes his wisdom and intuition, and his two friends, seniors Samantha and Patrick, Charlie mostly manages to avoid the depression he feels creeping up like kudzu. When it all becomes too much, after a shocking realization about his beloved late Aunt Helen, Charlie retreats from reality for awhile. But he makes it back in due time, ready to face his sophomore year and all that it may bring. Charlie, sincerely searching for that feeling of "being infinite," is a kindred spirit to the generation that's been slapped with the label X.--Brangien Davis ... Read more

Reviews (1073)

Page turner
Perks of being a wallflower is one of those books you just can't put down. The way Stephen Chbosky told the life of high school so well, all the characters were so great and amazing. I really enjoyed reading this profound novel, it really makes you think.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
This book, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, was simply amazing, it had to do with everything that seems to be going on in my life and my friends.I finished the book in less than 12 hours, because it was that good.This book forever changed my life and made me realize that I wasn't the only messed up teenager out there.This is the type of book where each page there's something else exciting waiting to happen. This author should continue it or something.

This book dealt with growing up, rape, teen sex, pregenancy, abortion, molesting, depression, homosexuals, and so many other topics that would help any kid that has experienced one or more of these topics.

I know this review wasn't very helpful, but it was the best I could do. Now go out and buy this book!

IT MAY EVEN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER is amazing. It is my favorite book for about a year, mainly because I haven't read anything that can top it yet (except for THE LOSERS CLUB by Richard Perez -- which came close).

I heard about this book through the internet. My friends always went on about it and I was always seeing quotes and pictures from it.. etc. I was again, searching for something to read that would hold my interest, and I just happened to think of this. I finally clicked on Amazon, got it a week later, and finished it that night. The way it's written makes it easy to absorb. I couldn't believe how great it was.

In a way, I guess you could say that the book changed my outlook on life. I don't know the exact reason how or why ... but it did. I started thinking differently and doing things differently, getting into different things (writing, music, etc.) and spending more time with my friends. Before all this I was as anti-social as they come. I hated leaving the house and I didn't WANT any friends. I guess after reading about Charlie and Patrick and Sam, and participating ... I decided to value my friends more, (or work to find a friendship like Charlie's and Patrick's and Sam's) and try to participate. And I guess it worked. But that's not the point.

PERKS is a great book. Maybe it will change YOUR life. You won't know until you read it. Click on Amazon, right now; it's worth your time. Also, I have to say thanks to the reviewer who suggested that other novel, THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition by Richard Perez, another great, enjoyable book that got under my skin, that I can't stop thinking about. (Best "used" book I ever bought!) PERKS and THE LOSERS' CLUB are now a permanent part of my home library. ... Read more

Isbn: 0671027344
Subjects:  1. American First Novelists    2. Bildungsromans    3. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12)    4. Epistolary fiction    5. Fiction - General    6. General    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Social Situations - Adolescence    9. Social Situations - Death & Dying    10. Social Situations - Homosexuality    11. Fiction / General   

Ariel
by Sylvia Plath
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 March, 1999)
list price: $12.00 -- our price: $9.60
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Editorial Review

Sylvia Plath churned out her final poems at the remarkable rateof two or three a day, and Robert Lowell describes themas written by "hardly a person at all ... but one of those super-real, hypnotic, great classical heroines." Even more remarkable, she wrote them during one of the coldest, snowiest winters (1962-63) Londoners have ever known. Snowbound, without central heating, she and her two children spent much of their time sniffling, coughing, or running temperatures (In "Fever 103°" shewrites, "I have been flickering, off, on, off on. / The sheets grow heavy as a lecher's kiss."). Pipes froze, lights failed, and candles wereunobtainable.

As if these physical privations weren't enough, Plath was out in the cold in another sense--her husband, Ted Hughes, had left her for another woman earlier that year. Despite all this (or perhaps because of it), the Ariel poems dazzle with their lyricism, their surprising and vivid imagery, and their wit. Rather than confining herself to her bleak surroundings, Plath draws from a wide array of experience. In "Berck-Plage," for instance, clouds are "electrifyingly-colouredsherbets, scooped from the freeze." In "The Night Dances," the poet standscrib-side, reveling in her son's own brand of do-si-do: "Such pure leapsand spirals--Surely they travel / The world forever, I shall not entirely / Sit emptied of beauties, the gift / Of your small breath..."

Though at times they present the reader with hopelessness laid bare, these poems also teem with the brightest shards of a life, confounding those who merely look for the words of a gloomy, dispassionate suicide. Plath rose each morning in the final months of her life to "that still blue, almost eternal hour before the baby's cry" and left us these words like "axes/After whose stroke the wood rings..." ... Read more

Reviews (37)

kindred spirit
one girl had written that plath became famous, heralded because she committed suicide, acting as a kind of anti-heroine, or the patron saint of teenage girl depression.well, to sum her and her life's work up that way is unfair.if you trace her work from its inception to ariel you will see a marked progression -- real growth of an artist.ariel's poems are unlike any that she had ever written before.previous poems may have contained suggestions of the pathos inside, but she covered it up fairly well with strict meters and almost cloying attention to form.these poems in ariel are a true revelation.they plunge into the deepest, darkest parts of consciousness and subconsciousness and rarely come up for air.they are harried, hurried, feverish.they are honest, devastatingly so.while you may not appreciate her "style", i think it would be hard to deny these poems of raw emotion -- and to me that kind of uncontained feeling that conveys itself so strongly to its readers speaks, no, screams, of genius.

Death is an art

"There is more to life than death"

True, but I think a point has been missed about Plath's poetry with that statement. To Sylvia Plath to die was to live. Death was freedom, and the power to chose that death was to be truly alive, as she demonstrated in her Ariel poems as she edged closer and closer to the brink of madness. Death is an art, after all. As the poems progress, she becomes more haughty about death, as though she's teasing it. She had a courtship with it, a drive to control this uncontrollable natural force that took her father and grandmother too soon. There is a strong hint of rebirth at the end of Ariel, which will not be missed if you read all the way to the end, rather than skim the collection and whine about teenagers who idolize Plath. We are very lucky to finally have the complete version that Plath intended. Her poetry is striking, vivid, and haunting. Plath eventually lost her game with death, choosing it like the poppies "igniting its carbon monoxides" and attempted suicide for the last time by a gas oven in 1963. Sylvia Plath became immortal through her poetry, and in this way she has won over death.
While $25 is quite a bit for a book of poetry, Plath fans will not have much of a problem paying that if it means getting the poems in Plath's original order and uncut. This may be a pretentious reason, but I'm a stickler for originals, especially when it concerns classic literature and poetry. The fact that there are facsimiles in the back of the book make that decision to buy even easier.

I've read better -- much better
First off, I think in order to be fair, I should give a little background information on myself to validate my opinions.

I am a 16 yeard old white female.I attend an Art's School for students who are gifted in music, dance, theatre, creative writing, or visual arts.The students selected are interviewed for about 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the core area.The odds of getting ito the school are about 1 out of 450.I attend the school for creative writing and not only do I have to write an abundant amount of work, I must also study both contemporary and classic literature.No, I am not trying to flatter myself or brag, but I think this information is necessary in order to understand my viewpoints on Plath's work.

Also, like Plath, I have been committed to psychiatric hospitals and had to stay at one for 3 full years.Though I have never known Plath's diagnosis, it is probable that it is the same as mine:manic-depressive psychosis due to her severe depression, rage, and the amount of work she created right before her suicide.

Reading the following information, it would seem I would be a perfect, die-hard, Plath fan.But, alas, I am not.

Plath's work, in my opinion, is definitely not a work of "genius."Some of her poems come close, but are still lacking in their astonishment that so many describe.The poems that touch on the border of "genius" are "Elm" ("I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root:/It is what you fear./I do not fear it: I have been there." and "I am terrified by this dark thing/That sleeps in me;/All day I feel its soft, feathery turnings, its malignity."), "Widow" (Widow. The dead syllable, with its shadow/Of an echo, exposes the panel in the wall/Behind which the secret passages lies--stale air,/Fusty remembrances, the coiled-spring stair/That opens at the top onto nothing at all..../), "Poppies in July" ("Little poppies, little hell flames,/Do you do no harm?//You flicker. I cannot touch you./I put my hands among the flames. Nothing burns.//And it exhausts me to watch you/Flickering like that, wrinkly and clear red, like the skin of a mouth.//A mouth just bloodied."), "Crossing the Water" ("The spirit of blackness is in us, it is in the fishes./A snag is lifting a valedictory, pale hand;//Stars open among the lilies./Are you not blinded by such expressionless sirens?/This is the silence of astounded souls."), "Lady Lazarus" ("Dying/Is an art, like everything else./I do it exceptionally well."), and a few other lines from some other poems that I don't think are worth mentioning at this point.

Plath became famous because of her "suffering artist" personality that she displayed.Yes, she did stay in London with her young children in a freezing winter where she wrote her "Ariel" poems, but she wasn't the only one, and I'm sure much others had it worse.

But, the most obvious reason she became famous was because of her suicide.This is why whiny, depressed, angst-ridden teenagers are drawn to Plath.They do not love her because of her dazzling poetry, but because she chose to kill her herself.Many teenagers, especially females, model themselves after Plath.They attempt suicide to live more "deeply" and write horrible Plath-like poetry that isn't even near the realm of Plath's work.They feel that Plath created this poetry just for them and that they are the only ones who truly understand how Plath felt, and no one else in the world (or their school) feels this way.They don't bother to understand the poetry.Instead they read it a few times, over analyze it, and decide that they also feel the same way and that they should also write poetry and attempt suicide.

Die-hard, teenage Plath fans also tend to be incredibly close minded to any other poetry, expect for Plath and other suicidal poets (i.e. Anne Sexton).These people are just ignorant and think that they are "TRULY" unique, and that their poetry should be published so others can know that they suffer.

I have had to read poetry by these types of people, and I tell you, they are very inadequate to the writing they CAN do, because many of them are very talented, but are narrow minded and only write about their so-called "sufferings."I can tell by their thought processes that they have talent, but refuse to expand into different realms of poetry.

Of course, when you write about suffering, it isn't always pathetic.Just don't make it the topic of your whole book of poetry.There is more to life then death.

And, not just teenage Plath fans, but teenagers who write poetry in general usually don't edit and rewrite their work because they feel as though it takes the "soul" out of their work.They want to leave it "raw" and "unpolished."They want people to feel what they were feeling in that exact moment.And this is why much of their poetry horrible:they don't believe in editing their work.

Plath did edit her work.She was considered a professional.While standing in the bookstore and reading this book (I did not bother to purchase it) I read her original manuscripts.Obviously, the published ones were better.The most disappointing thing about this volume was that they only provided a few of her original manuscripts.What they should've done (or should do) instead is make a whole book dedicated to her original manuscripts so others can see her creative process and the value of editing and rewriting.Put the manuscripts first, and then the final poem.I think this would make out for a nice book....it might be worth $25.

Those who feel that this book is worth the money are either the die-hard Plath fans, or educators of some sort, who for some bizarre reason need to purchase this book.

Overall, I'm not a fan of Plath, so I cannot give a good rating to this book.The Collected Poems I would give 3 stars, only because you can see how much she progressed (for the better) in her poetry and it includes her all her published (and some previously unpublished) works.

If you want to read good poetry, I suggest Emily Dickinson, or, if you want to stick to more contemporary poetry, Louise Gluck ("The Wild Iris" won a Pulitzer), or find some good translations for Rainer Maria Rilke, Anna Akhmatova, and Marina Tseteyeva.Plath just doesn't live up to the hype.If you suffer for your art, at least make sure it's "good" art.
... Read more

Isbn: 0060931728
Subjects:  1. American - General    2. General    3. Plath, Sylvia, 1932-1963    4. Poetry    5. Reading Group Guide   

The Trick Is to Keep Breathing: A Novel
by Janice Galloway
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 September, 1995)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Editorial Review

Drama teacher Joy Stone is losing her grip. In a captivating story of the onset and evolution of depression, her problems accumulate, denial activates, and food becomes a major player. Through the wit and irony that is gaining international applause, Galloway crafts the chicken-or-egg dilemma of life in our times and being depressed. Yet even through her growing obsessions and the metamorphoses of family and friends into suspicious characters, Galloway's main character and the reader find that the trick in living rests with the simplest things. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

A book u HAVE to read unless ur crazy
Janice Galloways unique technique of writing is very significant in this book, as Joy the maain character is slowly slipping into madness the techniques used show how she feels for example when people talk to joy she uses a script to show how joy thinks nothing said to her s genuine. Also Janice uses joys home outside of glasgow to show her isolation. i recommend this book to everyone. and if u do read it it will show u how we r all so close to maddness ourselves.

Haunting
My interest in the band "Garbage" led me to this book - its title was used by them to create a chillingly magnificent song on their second CD. I found the book itself to be one of the most creative and compelling works I read this year. The story it tells gets under your skin to such a point that I don't recommend it for those already depressed. For the rest of us, it is a chilling look inside a sympathetic character, a young woman dancing around the border between sanity and madness. She knows she is on the verge of losing it all, and knows she is not getting the kind of help she needs from anyone - least of all the mediocre medical personnel who see her as just one more casefile. Yet she's unable to shake the helplessness and displays the lack of will to take control of her own life which is so often found in the insane and/or suicidal. Galloway makes extremely skilled use of innovative page layouts and even unexpected graphics to really show us her character's imbalanced view of the world. We see through her eyes.

An amazing noveloffering insight regarding female depression
Galloway's novel about the depression and life of a middle-aged, female drama teacher living in Scotland, is captivating and insightful. Galloway uses snapshots from Joy's memory as well as emotion filled diction to create a fictional novel with a lasting effect and unique style. This first person narritive, written from the point of view of Joy Stone, a female battleing a depression over the death of her lover. "Sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes they just get worse. Sometimes all that happens is passing time...The whole point is that time passes. That things fade" (Galloway, The Trick is To Keep Breathing). The novel tracks Joy during a year of her depression and gives a more personal understanding of the world of female depression. ... Read more

Isbn: 1564780813
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Popular English Fiction   

Skin Game : A Memoir
by Caroline Kettlewell
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (07 June, 2000)
list price: $11.95 -- our price: $8.96
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Editorial Review

A number of recent books by journalists and therapists have probed the social and psychological forces behind the alarming practice of self-mutilation; this unflinching memoir tells readers what it feels like. Caroline Kettlewell made her first attempt at age 12 with a Swiss Army knife, too dull to perform satisfactorily, but she quickly graduated to razor blades. "There was a very fine, an elegant pain," she writes of her initiation. "In the razor's wake, the skin melted away ... then the blood welled up ... the chaos in my head spun itself into a silk of silence." Describing her tense but not unusually difficult youth, the author doesn't spend a lot of time trying to figure out why she was so unhappy, concentrating instead on making palpable her sense of dread and terror of being out of control, emotions relieved by the act of cutting. Some readers may wish for more self-analysis, but others will find Kettlewell's austere prose and sensibility refreshing. "I kept cutting because it worked. When I cut I felt better, " she explains. "I stopped cutting because I always could have stopped cutting." Not the fanciest way to put it, but those sentences, like the entire book, have the cadences of "the plain and inelegant truth." --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (45)

Misses the mark
As a former cutter, I've been researching books that address the topic, fiction and nonfiction. The main character in "Skin Game" cuts, yes, but it is only a part of a much larger fractured self, and only one of her self-destructive behaviors.

I have no problem with the "big words" she uses to describe her cutting -- often it is very intelligent girls who resort to SI (they are book smart, but emotionally underdeveloped).

Overall, I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking to understand why someone self-injures. It has a few gems of wisdom about cutting, but there is too much to wade through in order to find them.

And frankly, I disagree with her final assessment that cutting was her choice all along, and she could have stopped at any time. This belittles the powerful emotions that drive a person to cut in the first place, when cutting becomes the only way to release emotions too strong to articulate. The main character herself describes this. Until they can find safe ways to address those emotions and alternative methods to express them, cutting is like an addiction because it temporarily relieves the inner maelstrom. It is literally a survival mechanism. Speaking from experience, even if the cutting recedes on its own, it will crop up again under high stress or emotional trauma until better coping skills are learned.

To understand SI, choose one of the many fine nonfiction books out there like "Cutting" or "Bodily Harm." "Skin Game" would serve a better purpose in a writing class.

See also the Editorial review from "Publisher's Weekly" (I think Amazon includes it above).

Getting to know the Cutter
My sister is a cutter and when I first found out early last year, I immediately got onto the internet to search for answers. This book reads beautifully and has helped me understand some of the feelings that my sister may have and the reasons she has chosen to do, what she does. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in knowing how cutters actually feel.

my fav memoir
i've never experienced some of things kettlewell talks about,but i can relate to the emotional and physical outcome perfectly.no,she didn't go through any seemingly tragic times,no,there was nothing extraordinary about her family,and yet she was depressed,she had an eating disorder,and she self-injured.so,one might ask why did she do it?how did she stop?this books leaves you with,really,none of those answers.to some this might be the thing that makes them hate this book.but,i think it allows people to see that you don't have to have some great epiphany before you can stop destructive actions.
... Read more

Isbn: 0312263937
Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Kettlewell, Caroline    5. Mental illness    6. Patients    7. Psychology    8. Psychopathology - Compulsive Behavior    9. Self-mutilation    10. Specific Groups - Special Needs    11. Virginia    12. Women    13. Psychology & Psychiatry / Compulsive Behavior    14. Reading Group Guide   

The Girl in the Box
by OUIDA SEBESTYEN
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 October, 1989)
list price: $4.99
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Reviews (47)

soul searching.
Finding it hard to put the book down it is quite the page turner, although it is slow paced. No genre fits this book, in fact; it's in it's own genre. I wanted an ending because the book built my mind up to so many different cinclusions and it ust left me there with no closure. But when you are soul searching there is no end so the book fits the concept and the way it involves around so many personal issues in life its a wonderful journey.

A great book to read!
I loved this book and would recremend it to anyone.The struggle that Jackie went through was amazing.It is hard to believe anyone could go through that kind of torture.I liked the ending because I could decide in my mind whether or not Jackie dies in that hell hole or if she somehow survives.
I liked how she has the type writer and the way she writes letters to her family and April.I think when Jackie was writing the story, it was a way to finally come to grips with what happened to her.Again everybody read this book because it is simply the best page turner you can pick up!

A great read for coming-of-age teen
~I first read this book at age 12, when growing up was very hard and frightening. Now at 18, I still curl up with this book on a rainy day to help remind me of certain things. How lucky I am to be alive, to have friends, and to have survived that stage in my life. This book takes you into the mind of one very frightened girl doing some soul searching as her end draws near, and as she figures out her life, you begin to do the same with yours.This book forces you to look inward to your soul and~~ begin to figure out who you are, why you're here, and what to do next. At this very difficult time in a teens life, it's important to look at themselves and ask these vital questions. Although saddened, by the end of this book you will be ready to look at yourself in a new light and begin the journey ahead.~ ... Read more

Isbn: 0553282611
Sales Rank: 562064
Subjects:  1. Children's Books - Young Adult    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)    3. Fiction    4. Kidnapping    5. Social Situations - General    6. Survival    7. Juvenile Fiction / Social Situations / General   

White Oleander : A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)
by Janet Fitch
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 2000)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Editorial Review

Oprah Book Club® Selection, May 1999: Astrid Magnussen, the teenage narrator of Janet Fitch's engrossing first novel, White Oleander, has a mother who is as sharp as a new knife. An uncompromising poet, Ingrid despises weakness and self-pity, telling her daughter that they are descendants of Vikings, savages who fought fiercely to survive. And when one of Ingrid's boyfriends abandons her, she illustrates her point, killing the man with the poison of oleander flowers. This leads to a life sentence in prison, leaving Astrid to teach herself the art of survival in a string of Los Angeles foster homes.

As Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Hollywood bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existential anxieties. "Who was I, really?" she asks. "I was the sole occupant of my mother's totalitarian state, my own personal history rewritten to fit the story she was telling that day. There were so many missing pieces." Fitch adroitly leads Astrid down a path of sorting out her past and identity. In the process, this girl develops a wire-tight inner strength, gains her mother's white-blonde beauty, and achieves some measure of control over their relationship. Even from prison, Ingrid tries to mold her daughter. Foiling her, Astrid learns about tenderness from one foster mother and how to stand up for herself from another. Like the weather in Los Angeles--the winds of the Santa Anas, the scorching heat--Astrid's teenage life is intense. Fitch's novel deftly displays that, and also makes Astrid's life meaningful. --Katherine Anderson ... Read more

Reviews (933)

A Bumby Road Worth Taking
Hidden behind an unstable life and a jailed mother, is a girl. This girl moves from foster family to foster family. In each household she experiences the diversity of man kind, from street selling sisters to a perfect mother driven to suicide. Yet, through it all, this teenager still stays connected to her mother. A mother who poisoned her ex-boyfriend because of the jealousy she felt for his new girlfriend. Nothing can break the relationship between the mother and her daughter. Even as the girl grows up and moves on, her mother still remains in her everyday thoughts.
White Oleander takes you through a journey. This journey is a bumpy road, yet it is one road you will never forget. Whether you can relate to the relationships or experiences in this book, it does not matter. The intense relationship between the mother and the daughter will impact you. Read White Oleander and be prepared to cry, laugh, and appreciate your mother a little bit more.

Love it and Hate it and Therefore It's a Three Star From Me
If you're into heavy drama, you might like this book. I find myself having this love-hate feeling for it. I love the book because I love the strong character of Astrid. The author successfully exerted an impression of a child that had to grow a little too fast and had to learn a little too soon the true meaning of life. It moved me as the story depicted the difficulty of children in foster homes to have to move to different homes with different social demographics, different personalities, and different problems in order for them to get on with their lives. I kind of hate the book because the emotions were expressed in such a way that I found myself exhausted in trying to relate to the characters feelings and thoughts. A few times that I had to put down the book a little while and then reread the sentences again so that I could relate better to the characters and the situations they were in. The book is a so-so to me simply because I think it's just too dramatic for me to comprehend.

A fifteen year old's Review...
Well, I've read books since I was old enough to stand. Over the years I have devoured every kid's book and now every classic novel or popular teen lit i can get my hands on. So when I say this is one of the best books I have EVER read... well, its saying something. cuz unlike many kids my age, i've read enough literature to form a pretty good opinion. I've read everything from Harry Potter and the Gossip Girl series to more intellectual books such as The Virgin Suicides and To Kill a Mockingbird (Btw, all those books I just named are AWESOME). Im not a huge Harvard graduate lit-snob but I know whats good literature when i read it. and this is it.

White Oleander is simply AMAZING. I only wish I had Janet Fitch's writing talent. The whole book is like a poem... but yet its dishy and engrossing. you dont get exhausted by big snobbish words or long complicated and detailed paragraphs. its... well, its one of the first books I've seen that manages to be elegant and ethereal and yet talk about things like drugs and oral sex. Her writing makes ANYTHING she talks about poetic and beautiful. not trashy and dirty. Astrid's life is harsh, ugly, and downright dirty, but being raised by a free-spirited poet, she has a way of describing her situations that makes you fall in love with everyday things. she looks at what we would call trash and sees something interesting. THe book is dramatic and never boring. ABSOLUTELY amazing. my ultra-hip cousin had this one on her bookshelf and when i was sleeping over for a sex and the city marathon one night, i stumbled upon this. i got so into it, i took it home and finished it in two days. If you try this book and absolutely love it, you should also try:Summer Sisters, Virgin Suicides, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Lovely Bones. and there is so much more. But this stands out. Cuz it is simply beautiful. Astrid is Like someone from ancient greece or rome, thrown into the bizzarre culture of modern day slum-California, but still is a sheer enchantress.

Warning: if you dislike tons of profanity... this book has too many f-bombs to count. but its realistic. cuz Astrid's foster homes are not exactly family-friendy environments and I think the language makes her story believable. how many criminals and white trash people speak like choirkids? ... Read more

Isbn: 0316284955
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Fiction / General    5. Reading Group Guide   

The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1994)
list price: $12.95 -- our price: $10.36
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Reviews (349)

Please find something else
The Virgin Suicides is a story about five very diverse girls living under the strict and strange religious rule of an extremely dominant (whacko) mother.As the girls begin to experience some small teenage freedoms, the iron curtain comes down in a completely unbelievable suburban nightmare.The story is told from the perspective of some neighbor boys who, along with their impotent parents and the girls own impotent father, seem unable to do anything to stop the girls from their certain fate.Pick up a different book, this one is just not a worthy find.

Dark yet poetic
The Virgin Suicides is told from the view point of the neighborhood boys of the small town USA.They are facinated by five sisters that share this Elm lined street.

Every line is poetry.The desciptions of the feelings that they have for these 5 sisters are amazing.The plot itself is very touching, and when you finish the book you want to read it again, hear the story again, live in the minds of these girls that had to escape from a world in which they could not live.

Read "Middlesex" Instead
Maybe it's because I read "Middlesex" first and got my expectations up... I couldn't even finish this book, but obviously there are many who disagree.Read "Middlesex" and see how much improved his second novel was! ... Read more

Isbn: 0446670251
Sales Rank: 1675
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Literary    4. Movie-TV Tie-In - General    5. Psychological    6. Suburban life    7. Suicidal behavior    8. Teenage girls    9. Teenagers    10. Fiction / Psychological   

Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
by Joyce Carol Oates
Average Customer Review:
Library Binding (01 October, 1999)
list price: $22.70
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Reviews (56)

Oops
Alomost all the reviews for this book were positive, except for mine.I did not like how long, and boring this book was.The only thing that kept it going was possibility of one of the characters having a love affair with another girl.I say, rent the movie, its more interesting (but does not follow the book, obviously.)

Powerful and truly real from start to finish, you feel it al
Joyce Carol Oates finds a way to bring you back to this time, to this place and become on of these girls going through their pains and sufferings and ups and downs.These characters are all real they are either you or your daughter or your friend and you understand the times and the hardships and why they feel they need to act the way they do because she makes you one of them.`It burns and burns and never looks back'.That is something this book truly does.

loved it
When I read Foxfire four years ago, I became a Joyce Carol Oates fanatic. That didn't change when I read it again just recently. Its appeal is the girl gang idea- about the power struggles that each of the five girls as they move through adolescence. Legs Sadowsky is a troubled young girl who brings four others together in ways they never thought possible. Oates has a marvelous way with words, in which you are horrified yet at the same time fascinated by all that happens. Legs makes for a marvelous, beautiful character in that way. The girls are brutal to one another, and harsh to an outside world, which has, in a way, rejected them. In the end, the girls have to make decisions about growing up that affect each other and, inevitably, the outside world. Its a sexy, sad, and thought-provoking book that I couldn't put down. ... Read more

Isbn: 0785769854
Sales Rank: 2539430
Subjects:  1. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9)   

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 May, 1991)
list price: $6.99 -- our price: $6.29
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Editorial Review

Since his debut in 1951 as The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield has been synonymous with "cynical adolescent." Holden narrates the story of a couple of days in his sixteen-year-old life, just after he's been expelled from prep school, in a slang that sounds edgy even today and keeps this novel on banned book lists. It begins,

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them."

His constant wry observations about what he encounters, from teachers to phonies (the two of course are not mutually exclusive) capture the essence of the eternal teenage experience of alienation. ... Read more

Reviews (2544)

Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye follows a teenage boy who is searching for understanding. Holden wants to find someone, anyone who will relate to him only to find himself annoyed by the phoniness of the world. The adolescence that was stolen from him by the death of the brother he idolized, forces Holden to realize he only wishes to be able to preserve the innocence of the world. Wishing he could become the "catcher in the rye" and save children from growing up. Although I cannot really relate to the character, I can relate to being frustrated with the trivialness of the world. I would recommend this book to any high school students that have yet to find themselves. It is a quick read and gives insight to growing up and finding your true self.

Forget Phony Books
The Catcher in the Rye, -by J. D. Salinger
I am glad I finally read The Catcher in the Rye.Everyone always talked about it, how great it was, and now I can really appreciate it.J. D. Salinger really understands what teens are thinking, because I could definitely relate with this book.The experiences and thoughts remain the same over all the years since it was first published (1951) to the present.
The main character, Holden, is a confused teen-aged boy that everyone can relate to.He tries to put on a big tough guy attitude but he is really just a good guy.He loves his sister Phoebe and his parents, no matter how much he disagrees with them.He is against all the evils in the world, tries to rub out all the "f*** you" signs and helps little kids put on their skates.
He is passed from one boarding school to another, just trying to fit in.He is smart, but doesn't get good grades.He makes a few friends here and there, but just finds people to be too phony. He also has to watch out for perverty guys and womanizing creeps like his old roommate, Stradlater.
He spends his Christmas break being an adult, sleeping in hotels and hanging out in bars.This only helps him to discover that this is not happiness and decides to leave it all.In every kids fantasy he dreams of moving away to a peaceful cabin in the middle of nowhere, away from all the jerk taxi drivers.It takes the innocence and stubborn love of his sister Phoebe to convince him to stay.
This is an excellent book that I recommend reading a.s.a.p..I regret not reading it earlier and this is a "must" book to read before graduating from high school.

Pointless
After reading this novel, I wonder what possesed me to finish it.The point of the story was virtually nonexistent.Salinger's supposedly great work is boring and unintelligent.Anyone who has a highly opinionated friend or sibling has already lived this story to some extent.If you are looking for a deep or meaningful novel, I suggest reading Brave New World, Walden Two, or anything by Chuck Palahniuk or Geroge Orwell instead. ... Read more

Isbn: 0316769487
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Literature: Classics    5. Fiction / Classics   

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Perennial Classics)
by Milan Kundera Michael Henry Heim
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 1999)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Reviews (190)

For the lover of vocab and beautiful images
As a person in intense hatred for the limitations of the english language, I found this book to be stunning in the ways of translating even the most difficult emotions to comprehend.Though the story itself is very plain, the emotions that go into the story are complex, and Milan Kundera ammends these limitations through the use of beautifully expressed images.

The novel takes place during an era of communist takeover in Czechoslavakia.Having less to do with political statements and bias, the novel deals with deep images within the roots of the movement as well as within character motivations towards their seemingly rediculous actions.

I would reccommend this book to anyone who has been a fan of the classics, but desires something more than just words to express meaning.The book is deeply philosophical, but strays away from the long-winded philosophy fiction that most people are aware of.It is a beautiful novel and extremely easy to read, if you are a romantic and open to the expression of life in images.

everything they said it would be
oh love and its painful realities ! It haswrittenabout andexpounded on since thestart of the printed word but then howcouldyou not beblown away if it comesa -wading to you ina "bulrush basket"? in theheart of Kundera'snarrative cum philosopical musings is really a touching love storyof extraordinary intimacy. Tomas, Tereza, Sabina...you feel that you have been let inthe most private recesss of their lives that you almost flinch, close the book, and hope you have not offended. im glad to have finally readthis brilliant gem as it celebratesalmost 20 years in print.it has met and far surpassed my expectations!

I simply must tell you...
I don't write reviews on Amazon as a hobby, that is to say, I write only when I am compelled to do so by a strong feeling of either like or dislike toward the product (book, movie, cd) in question.I have, as of this writing, reviewed only one work of fiction (Kureishi's 'Intimacy') because it had a very profound impact on me, as few other books have had, until recently...

Interestingly enough, Kundera's "Unbelievable Lightness of Being" lives only a few titles away from "Intimacy" on the shelves of terrestial bookstores, and yet despite returning there often (to browse through Kureishi's other works) I never noticed it.This is unfortunate, because I should have read it ages ago.

There is something very gripping about this story.It can evoke passionate feelings, awaken dormant resentment, and cause you to question your most strongly held beliefs and convictions - all in a span of just a few days (but only if you're a slow reader, like me).

What resonated with me most was how accessible the true thoughts and feelings of the characters were to the reader.I saw the author's frequent meanderings, which some have criticized, as a fascinating journey through the thought process of the protagonists.The reasons for their actions were often very transparent, and thus easy to understand and relate to, which in turn made them difficult to condemn.

Kundera's writing is neither black nor white, it is gray but in its grayness...it is inspiringly human.For this reason, the Unbearable Lightness of Being has become the second work of fiction I felt compelled to review. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060932139
Sales Rank: 2172
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. Fiction - General    4. Kundera, Milan - Prose & Criticism    5. Literary    6. Literature: Classics    7. Reading Group Guide   

Speak
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 April, 2001)
list price: $8.99 -- our price: $8.09
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Editorial Review

Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

Laurie Halse Anderson's first novel is a stunning and sympathetic tribute to the teenage outcast. The triumphant ending, in which Melinda finds her voice, is cause for cheering (while many readers might also shed a tear or two). After reading Speak, it will be hard for any teen to look at the class scapegoat again without a measure of compassion and understanding for that person--who may be screaming beneath the silence. (Ages 13 and older) --Jennifer Hubert ... Read more

Reviews (846)

Peer Presser
I enjoyed this book very much. It was a little slow moving, but it still caught my interest because of the overall moral.

This book is about a freshmen girl in high school, Melinda. She was the average teenager, but during an at-the-end-of-summer party something horrible happened. Even though something bad had happened to Melinda, people wouldn't talk to her and made her feel bad for calling the cops. They did this because Melinda never told anyone. She kept this big secret to herself, and lost all of her friends over calling the cops. Through out this story Melinda deals with kids that don't understand, and an Art project in which she must draw a real tree. She does make some friends and even finds a hid-away in a janitor's closet. But overall, she gets through a horrible experience in her life.

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the realness of a summer ending party. Melinda had a big secret that she kept hidden. I still don't know why she did keep it hidden, but for some reason she must have thought that she was responsible for what had happened. Melinda was a character I could relate to, and maybe this is why I loved this book so much. 2 thumps-up to Laurie Halse Anderson. I loved this book, and I hope you do too.

Review
Melinda busted an end of the summer party by calling the police. The night of the party something happened to her (something she can never forget). Since she called the police her old friends will not talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her. On the first day of school a boy that was sitting behind her on the bus, unwrapped his breakfast then shot the wrapper at the back of her head. One of the basketball players hit her square in the face with mash potatoes and gravy. The whole lunchroom laughed at her. Her ex-best friend Rachel and some kids were sitting behind her and they just laughed at her. Rachel was the person in the whole galaxy that Melinda was dying to tell her what really happened. The person Melinda hated, because of the night at the party was Andy Evens.
I would recommend Speak to anyone who, because it was a good story. You will not want to put this book down, because you will want to know what comes next.

Silently I Speak
Melinda is considered a nobody in school because she called the cops at a summer party. But nobody really knows why. Now everyone, even her friends hate her. The setting takes place in a barn, near a small woods, At Merryweather High School in Syracuse and at her home. She has nobody to talk to. Nobody except Heather from Ohio, a new girl who is using her until she can find a higher class of friends. Her parents or teachers doesn't evenknow what happen on that horrible night. Only Andy "Beast" and herself. She goes to school all year withdrawn and failing, telling Rachel at the end of the year. Melinda then decides that she needs to move on with her life. I think that the book relates to many teens, mostly girls. One way is that kids can can be very cruel to each other and do run in clicks. Another is that kids, sadly enough, are not close enough to parents, teachers or any other adult that they can talk to about their problems. I didn't likethat her parents or teachers didn't see that their was more wrong. They just thought that she was being lazy. There were many silent signs that something drastic had taken place in Melinda's life. Everyone was to busy with their own life to see the signs. I think that the author could have made the ending of the book end so that it gave kids some information on what to do in case of a tradgety. ... Read more

Isbn: 014131088X
Subjects:  1. Children's 12-Up - Fiction - General    2. Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12)    3. Emotional problems    4. Fiction    5. General    6. High schools    7. Juvenile Fiction    8. Rape    9. Schools    10. Social Situations - Adolescence    11. Social Situations - Physical & Emotional Abuse    12. Juvenile Fiction / General   

Sarah : A Novel
by J. T. LeRoy
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (09 June, 2001)
list price: $13.95 -- our price: $11.16
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Reviews (62)

See how society throws away kids.....read for yourself!
The experiences of J.T. Leroy are like many of those had by children I have counseled over the past 12 years. Though many readers may gasp or grunt with dismay over the raw, gritty descriptions Leroy has to offer, my advice to you is this:suck it up and get over it, because this is nothing compared to what some kids have experienced.So, put away your shocked faces, your queasy stomaches, and come out from your neatly sheltered lives for just long enough to understand and come to terms with how we throw away kids in society, just like Leroy.Be willing, for just a few hours, to delve into the darker side of life, a side that exists for children all over the world, and maybe this one opportunity will encourage you to go about your daily business with a little more sensitivity and compassion for others.

Disturbingly funny
When I picked up this book about a 12 year old truck stop whore (lot lizard) who's mother dresses up as a boy to bring in the big bucks, the last thing I expected was for it to be funny.
Boy, was I wrong!
The characters (their superstitions) and situations in this book are coffee-out-your-nose funny. While you can't wait to hear what kind of trouble the protagonist is going to get into next, on his quest to become the world's greatest lot lizard, you can't help but feel a tug on your heart strings as you realize the depth of longing this kid has for real love and family.

Out of the Curiosity Shop Comes a Sustained Intrigue
JT LeRoy made a noisy splash on the literary scene when SARAH was published in 2000 when he was a mere 19 years old.Something of the nature of a cult was born and was encouraged by his subsequent work THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS and now HAROLD'S END.This reader read them in reverse order and perhaps that is the reason for a 4 star vs a 5 star rating.

LeRoy has talent: there is no question about his skills at writing interesting fiction.The subject matter is certainly edgy, provocative, and seems bound to ply the shock treatment of his works as the main driver.But the same has been said about many fine writers in the past who successfully grabbed the audience by the collar and demanded to be heard.Genet, Lawrence, Gide, Burroughs, Rechy, etc. come to mind.Having read the three books of his output there does seem at this point to be a sameness that one hopes will dissipate into other arenas, enough to justify his '15 minutes of fame'.

SARAH, simply, is a young boy, son of a truck stop prostitute, who has managed to survive his 'home culture' by dressing as a little girl and pandering to the lusts of his mother's tricks and of pedophilic truck drivers at truck stops in West Virginia.It is a tale of survival, of tenuous dreams misguided, of sexual promiscuity and perversion, and of the 'family' of lizards (prostitutes) and pimps who manage to exist in a squalid environment.The language is razor sharp, the characters are well drawn if at times caricatures, and LeRoy manages to gain the readers' compassion for nearly every person who populates this strange curiosity shop of living.

LeRoy is at his best when he waxes poetic and it is those passages that his latent talent feels most secure. Young writers like LeRoy are fascinating to watch, to see if the initial burst of flame is sustainable.I hope it is.Grady Harp, February 2005 ... Read more

Isbn: 158234146X
Sales Rank: 31088
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Fiction / General   

COURTNEY LOVE: THE REAL STORY
by Poppy Z. Brite
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (18 December, 1998)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $9.75
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Editorial Review

Poppy Z. Brite, better known for her punk-gothic horror and dreadful taste in clothing (the jacket photo shows her looking like a reject from a 1985 audition for a Cure video) here gets her hands on something much scarier than club-hopping vampires: the life of Courtney Love. Born Love Michelle Harrison, Courtney's childhood combines the worst of doped-up hippie parenting with her innate autism to produce a life that could only lead to rock-and-roll stardom. Starting with her first acid trip at age 4, administered by her father, a paragon of parental responsibility, Courtney went on to four name changes, two years in juvenile detention, a trip to Japan courtesy of a white slave ring, living with gloom rockers in Liverpool, and a melange of drugs and sexual experiments all prior to leaving her teens. This makes for quite the page-turner--in a guilty sort of way and in spite of Poppy Z.'s occasionally cutesy-teen prose: "Courtney Love has always been surrounded by chaos, triumph, pain, and glamour." Still, in spite of the taboo of reading celebrity bios, this one stands out because of the truly odd and, perhaps, innovative life of its subject. Not simply a rock-and-roll musical bedrooms romp, Love's life is far enough out of the mainstream, or even the alternate streams, to offer challenges to many of the values we take for granted in living our lives. Things such as safety, stability, and even hygiene are thrown out the window in a life that reads like the outsider fiction of Hesse or Kerouac, only with more electric guitars. ... Read more

Reviews (74)

It was fun.
I like Courtney Love, still love Hole's CDs. I enjoyed the read, but took it with about a pound of salt. Poppy Z. Brite should get some kind of award for how much she can kiss Courtney's ass.

Fun fluff.

The Courtney Bio by Melissa Rossi is better.

the girl with too much cake
I got my hands on this book because I LOVE Ms. Brite's horror novels, and it was actually this biography that launched me into the music of Courtney Love. The music is better than the book, though, and Brite's other books are also more well-written than this one. It's a pretty biased story, a fact that didn't bother me in any way, but I guess that real Nirvana or Kurt Cobain fans do not find this entertaining at all. If you Love Courtney Love, however, you should definitely Read Through This, since it sketches a nice picture of this enfant terrible of rock music.

Love to read about Love
Why I like this book:
*hard to put down
*read a couple of times (without being bored)
*fun to skim through when there's nothing else to do
*includes nice glossy pictures
*includes personal letters, notes, etc.

I don't know if the book is 100% true, but it was a great read anyhow! ... Read more

Isbn: 0684848007
Subjects:  1. 1965-    2. Biography    3. Biography / Autobiography    4. Composers & Musicians - General    5. Composers & Musicians - Pop    6. Entertainment & Performing Arts - Actors & Actresses    7. General    8. Love, Courtney,    9. Music    10. Rock music    11. Rock musicians    12. United States    13. Love, Courtney    14. Music / General   

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 June, 1995)
list price: $12.95
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Editorial Review

In 1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald announced his decision to write "something new--something extraordinary and beautiful and simple + intricately patterned." That extraordinary, beautiful, intricately patterned, and above all, simple novel became The Great Gatsby, arguably Fitzgerald's finest work and certainly the book for which he is best known. A portrait of the Jazz Age in all of its decadence and excess, Gatsby captured the spirit of the author's generation and earned itself a permanent place in American mythology. Self-made, self-invented millionaire Jay Gatsby embodies some of Fitzgerald's--and his country's--most abiding obsessions: money, ambition, greed, and the promise of new beginnings."Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter--tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther.... And one fine morning--"Gatsby's rise to glory and eventual fall from grace becomes a kind of cautionary tale about the American Dream.

It's also a love story, of sorts, the narrative of Gatsby's quixotic passion for Daisy Buchanan. The pair meet five years before the novel begins, when Daisy is a legendary young Louisville beauty and Gatsby an impoverished officer. They fall in love, but while Gatsby serves overseas, Daisy marries the brutal, bullying, but extremely rich Tom Buchanan. After the war, Gatsby devotes himself blindly to the pursuit of wealth by whatever means--and to the pursuit of Daisy, which amounts to the same thing. "Her voice is full of money," Gatsby says admiringly, in one of the novel's more famous descriptions. His millions made, Gatsby buys a mansion across Long Island Sound from Daisy's patrician East Egg address, throws lavish parties, and waits for her to appear. When she does, events unfold with all the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama, with detached, cynical neighbor Nick Carraway acting as chorus throughout. Spare, elegantly plotted, and written in crystalline prose, The Great Gatsby is as perfectly satisfying as the best kind of poem. ... Read more

Reviews (931)

Teenager's Review
Now, at the age of 15, I am reading this book, The Great Gatsby. I was not forced into reading this novel, but coaxed into reading it by my older sister. After the completion of the book it took a few days of pondering before I could make a clear knowledge of it's contents. I enjoyed reading it, staying up until three or four o' clock in the morning on schoolnights just to find out what happens. I am proud to say that this is one of my top ten favorite books which also includes:
THE SCARLET LETTER
THE ILIAD
BEOWULF
GRENDAL
THE ODDYSSY
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCK FINN
THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
MACBETH
KING LEAR

Count your lucky stars
Gadzooks! This is one fine little book.No, it's not long, but the tale is tight and well told and quite unlike anything else in American literature.Only a few books come to mind with regards to the "knock me out" kind.McCrae's "Children's Corner" is one such book, as is Steinbeck's "East of Eden."Other than that, there aren't a great deal.But "Gatsby" is at the top of the heap and probably will be for the next hundred years.There have been two movies made of this book (that I know of), and both are excellent.Don't be put off if you HAD to read this in school.Try it out again as it really IS a classic.

A rich story
"The Great Gatsby" is one of the most exquisite books I have ever read to date that deals with most if not all aspects of love and the challenges of life. There is so much to learn especially for us in this modern world where so many people use the word "love" without really knowing what it truly means. The author is so descriptive that I sometimes felt as if I was in the story. He made it easy for readers to penetrate the souls of the characters and relate to their lives.

The character development is prodigious, while prose is outstanding. I felt as much for Gatsby as I have for any other character. He had always had high aspirations, but his dreams were taken away from him by the fact the he had to fight a war, and he could never be the same again. Gatsby's ambition is to have his former love, who is now married to an unfaithful husband, a quest that saw outstanding twist and turns in the story to make it the great read we have heard so much about. This book is truly inspirational for everyone irrespective of race, gender, age or occupation.Recommended stories are DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE USURPER AND OTHERS, THE SCARLET LETTER, WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS, in the sense that they go to add to this rich theme. ... Read more

Isbn: 0684801523
Subjects:  1. Classics    2. Fiction    3. First loves    4. General    5. Literary    6. Literature - Classics / Criticism    7. Long Island (N.Y.)    8. Rich people    9. Traffic accidents    10. Fiction / General   

Girlfriend in a Coma
by Douglas Coupland
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 March, 1999)
list price: $13.00 -- our price: $10.40
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

In this latest novel from the poet laureate of Gen X--who is himself now a dangerously mature 36--boy does indeed meet girl. The year is 1979, and the lovers get right down to business in a very Couplandian bit of plein air intercourse: "Karen and I deflowered each other atop Grouse Mountain, among the cedars beside a ski slope, atop crystal snow shards beneath penlight stars. It was a December night so cold and clear that the air felt like the air of the Moon--lung-burning; mentholated and pure; hint of ozone, zinc, ski wax, and Karen's strawberry shampoo." Are we in for an archetypal '80s romance, played out against a pop-cultural backdrop? Nope. Only hours after losing her virginity, Karen loses consciousness as well--for almost two decades. The narrator and his circle soldier on, making the slow progression from debauched Vancouver youths to semiresponsible adults. Several end up working on a television series that bears a suspicious resemblance to The X-Files (surely a self-referential wink on the author's part). And then ... Karen wakes up. Her astonishment--which suggests a 20th-century, substance-abusing Rip Van Winkle--dominates the second half of the novel, and gives Coupland free reign to muse about time, identity, and the meaning (if any) of the impending millennium. Alas, he also slaps a concluding apocalypse onto the novel. As sleeping sickness overwhelms the populace, the world ends with neither a bang nor a whimper, but a universal yawn--which doesn't, fortunately, outweigh the sweetness, oddity, and ironic smarts of everything that has preceded it. ... Read more

Reviews (168)

Sorry, not a fan of this book
I have to agree with J. Seifert's review.This book might be thought provoking, eye opening, or supposedly mind-blowing for some teenager who's never considered that technology might not be the meaning of life, but for any adult who's already thought way beyond Coupland's very obvious comments on modern society, the book had nothing new or interesting to say and wasn't all that entertaining along the way.About the middle of the book, I was actually enjoying the plot and wanted to read more to see how things turned out for the self-obsessed whiners ("Oh, I'm so lonely.""I have no one to love.""What is the meaning of life?"Boo hoo.) who were the central characters.But then the end was SOOO preachy that it kind of ruined it for me.The ending was bizarre and over-simplistic at the same time -- I felt like a 13-year-old could have written it.In the end, I couldn't decide whether Coupland was advocating anarchy, religous fanatacism, or both.I'm sure everyone who reads it must have their own interpretation, which is only fair.But for me, the ending was silly, pointless, and had no clear or redeeming message.Sorry Coupland fans.I guess I won't join the club.

Read this last.
At best, this book is preachy and strange, at worst it's a response, published as an afterthought, to a stoned, shoe-gazing dare.
You have to know going into it that this is not a good book. If you have never read a Douglas Coupland book before, stay away from this one. If, however, you have an affectionate fondness for Coupland, if you've read all of his other books and you find his struggle to reinvent a moral vocabulary *before*it's*too*late* absolutely adorable, then go for it. This book is like an eccentric aunt, and should be appreciated that way.

It's pretty witty, Smiths fans!
I picked up this book at the library based soley on the title; I had never read a Coupland book before. I picked it up because it is the title of a Smiths song.

Almost everyone who reviewed this seemed to find this book dull or pointless. I liked it. It was interesting and while it was trying to make a point about nonconformity that was not too subtle, it stilled managed to amuse me. Scattered throughout the dialouge are Smiths song titles. If you like the Smiths, like offbeat books, and have often daydreamed about being the last people alive on earth, then this book is amusing.

I think the author had a lot of fun with a lot of his readers who failed to catch the blatant refrences. It seemed to me as though he almost wrote the book based around the choosing of random lyrics in a random order and THAT had me giggling non stop. The book to me seemed like a weird concept album that not everybody got or found amusing. But fret not, it was still pretty good without the inside jokes. ... Read more

Isbn: 0060987324
Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. General    4. Fiction / General