SHIbuya HARAJYUKU OTAKU AKIHABARA MANIAOOKS,MUSIC,DVD,kitchen,DVD OTAKU mania Amazon associate helper, write reviews on your weblog<

SAYO Style mania GV-MVP/RX3 Notebook PC Live report
Domino pizza of door-to-door delivery pizzaThe bifidus bacterium of MORISHITA JINTANSt Valentine's Day of the DaimaruAccessoriesTiffany 16 stone braceletLouis Vuitton diamond logo charmMMRO II Recommendation spec. personal computerLUV MACHINESImpact! It is the Ezo "Kita" purple sea urchin of fatty tuna shoots loan cash impression with a mouth!The scallop of large satisfactory ! northern countries and - [ of how much ] botan shrimp are ! tightly.getting to know the technique of motorbike expensive sale -- Ta -- if -- -

OTAKU ultimate rare goods：23422goods
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 >>

< My Trip Down the Pink Carpet > < Sordid Lives > < When You Are Engulfed in Flames > < Band Fags! > < Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea > < Shelter > Leslie Jordan

price：~~$7.02~~
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
Usually ships in 24 hours

customer 's review
(MUCH PRETTIER IN PINK)

(Funny)

(quick and funny)

(Packs a pink wallop)

(Laugh-out-loud funny and painfully accurate.)

Whilst most TV audiences may only know the very gifted comic actor Mr Leslie Jordan as a regular guest star on "Will&Grace" (for which he won an Emmy Award) and "Boston Legal", there is oh so much more to him, as he reveals in his "autobiography" - MY TRIP DOWN THE PINK CARPET. The openly gay actor has had a very diverse career on stage, film and television. But indeed his life off the stage&screen has certainly been a wild ride, and one well worth documenting. Brought up as a Christian in the Deep South, self-tortured by his gay demons and unlucky in love, he turned to a variety of addictive substances that he thought would help him cope with life. Welcome to Hollywood! But he rose above all of that and now has his life and career well and truly back on track. He is happy and comfortable with who he is. As Mr Jordan says in his book, the secret of a healthy life is learning to love oneself. For those who like showbiz autobiographies - this is a great read. For those who might be having trouble coming to terms with their sexuality - this is a MUST read!
the stories are very funny, and I enjoyed the book. Even though the name dropping gets a little deep, his charm goes a long way! Buy this book, it really is a great glimpse into leslie jordans life, and you get to see some famous people from a different point of view.
A very funny and quick summer read. I picked it up in the morning and had finished it that same evening. I found myself laughing outloud several times. Tons of fun
This was definitely a fun read. Little man, big character, voicing what's lost and gained in life through struggles of sexuality, drugs, sobriety and spirituality. Being a gay man myself, the only non-funny part about this read was my own life reflected. Not yet sober, still falling, but the gravity always gets lighter with each new edification. The last chapter of this book really struck home. No better way though, than to deliver our blunders in a light of comedy. I hope to be as strong as this man someday.

Thanks, Leslie.

I am one of the survivors of the same generation as Mr. Jordan, even though we are in different walks of life and living in very different communities. I'm impressed with the author's ability to tell a story from his life with such accuracy while being both moving and funny. I hope volume two is on the horizon.

A hilarious romp from small-town USA to the pink carpet of Hollywood with the beloved Emmy-winning actor, playwright, and gay icon

Leslie Jordan is a small man with a giant propensity for scene stealing. Best known for his bravura recurring role as Karen's nemesis, Beverley Leslie, onWill&Grace(for which he won a Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy in 2006), he has also made memorable appearances onAlly McBeal, Boston Public, Monk, andMurphy Brown.

Raised in a conservative family in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Leslie -- who describes himself as "the gayest man I know" -- boarded a Greyhound bus bound for LA with $1,200 sewn into his underpants and never looked back. His pocket-sized physique and inescapable talent for high camp paved the way to a lucrative and varied career in commercials and on television. Along the way he immersed himself in writing for the stage, and his one-man testimonials have become cult off-Broadway hits. But with success came dangerous temptations: a self-proclaimed former substance abuser and sexaholic, Leslie has spent time in jail and struggled to overcome his addictionsand self-loathing.

My Trip Down the Pink Carpetis a rollicking, fast-paced collection of stories, served up with wit, panache, and plenty of biting asides. Filled with comically overwrought childhood agonies, offbeat observations, and revealing celebrity encounters -- from Boy George to George Clooney -- it delivers a fresh, laugh-out-loud take on Hollywood, fame, addiction, gay culture, and learning to love oneself.
Rerations
< My Trip Down the Pink Carpet > < Sordid Lives > < When You Are Engulfed in Flames > < Band Fags! > < Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea > freaks

< Run to Me > < Night Call > < Uncharted Passage > < Split the Aces > < Designed for Love > < Beautiful Journey > Lisa Girolami

price：~~$4.78~~
Bold Strokes Books
Usually ships in 24 hours

Burned by the four-letter word called love, the only thing Beth Standish wants to do is flee for--or maybe from--her life.

In the middle of the night Beth takes her favorite running shoes and a flyer for the upcoming San Francisco half-marathon, and drives to the City by the Bay. Hoping to escape the ruins of her relationship, Beth intends to run thirteen miles straight into San Francisco's famous fog. When an insightful woman named Alder Beckman comes to her rescue, Beth feels that maybe she's found the calm sanctuary she so desperately seeks. But Beth's calm is soon turned on its ear when she is pursued by an arousing and wild woman named Mary Walston, who has relationship ghosts of her own. It quickly becomes apparent that neither Alder or Mary intend to let Beth disappear into the fog that easily.

Will Beth be able to run fast enough to keep ahead of love, or will it overtake her in the home stretch?
Rerations
< Run to Me > < Night Call > < Uncharted Passage > < Split the Aces > < Designed for Love > freaks

< Heather Has Two Mommies: 10th Anniversary Edition (Alyson Wonderland) > < And Tango Makes Three > < Emma and Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story > < Daddy's Roommate (Alyson Wonderland) > < The Family Book > < Who's in a Family? > Leslea Newman

price：~~$4.78~~
Alyson Books
Usually ships in 24 hours

customer 's review
(Heather has Two Mommies)

(Heather has a Major Controversy)

(A wonderful book)

(Two Mommies)

(Totally Awful)

My daughter likes this book, she seems to get it. And its given her permission to talk about having two mommies.
Leslea Newman's "Heather has Two Mommies" was controversial when it came out-so to speak-nearly two decades ago. It has become a staple in school libraries, most public libraries don't relegate it to a forbidden corner, yet it still provokes challenges... like the Harry Potter series. While the boy wizard has sparked debates about witchcraft, "Heather has two mommies" still inflames with its depiction of lesbian parenting.

"Heather has Two Mommies" is a fascinating relic of its time. Back when it was first published, lesbian parenting wasn't common. High-profile celebrity lesbians like Melissa Etheridge weren't raising children. It was enjoyed by few. Now, lesbians can have children easily through IVF&adoption. "Heather has two mommies",ironically,hearkens back to a more conservative time. The plot is simple: two women decide to have a child. When Heather grows up, she asks about families at day care. She learns that her family is part of a spectrum of families. There's no norm.

"Heather has two mommies" brings up more questions than it answers, especially when one considers presenting the issue of homosexuality to children. In the recent anniversary edition, the artificial insemination beginning of the book has been excised. A little cut- but it means so much. Why self-censorship on Newman's part? The illustrations are also gloomy&a little odd. It doesn't have children's book approachability, like "Daddy's Roommate." It comes across as a glum tome. The two mommies fit the butch/femme stereotype.

"Heather has two mommies" functions better as an artifact of the controversy about lesbian parenting than as a children's book. It hearkens back to a time when society still questioned whether lesbians could be suitable parents. It's proof that times have changed-- but the book is still facing controversy like when it first appeared.
First of all, I'd like to mention that most of the bad reviews here are for the original edition and not the 10th anniversary edition. The latter contains no mention of artificial insemination or any other particularly controversial subjects. It is a sweet story in which Heather attends her first day of school and joins her class in talking about their families and drawing their pictures. All kinds of families are represented in this book, and Heather and her mothers are represented as a normal loving family. Also, an informative note from the author explains her reasons for changing the text for the tenth anniversary edition, which addresses the problems some reviewers had with the book as it was originally written.
It is a good book. It would be nice if it had colours and was not only black and white but still one should definitely buy it. It is important to grow our children whether the parents are gay or not with the open mind that one needs to be a human being.
Hey, I'm a lesbian mom myself. I have two great kids. I was given this book as a gift. What a horrible book. Difficult to read, full of 1970s impossible to comprehend propaganda. Almost seems like the crazy right-wing wrote it, there is so much to object to. How on earth is artificial insemination a subject for kids, and if it was, surely there is a less textbook, more creative positive way to portray it?? Surely. At best, this book is an artifact of good intentions, and little more.
Originally self-published in 1989, Heather Has Two Mommies became the first title in Alyson's newly formed Alyson Wonderland imprint in 1990. The simple and straightforward story of a little girl named Heather and her two lesbian mothers was created by Newman and illustrator Diana Souza because children's books that reflected a nontraditional family did not exist, but a firestorm of controversy soon ensued. Attacked by the religious right, lambasted by Jesse Helms from the floor of the U.S Senate, and stolen from library shelves, it was an uphill battle for Heather. Thanks to the overwhelming support of booksellers, librarians, parents, and children, however, Heather Has Two Mommies has sold over 35,000 copies, launched a minor industry in providing books for the children of gay and lesbian parents and, as attested to by a recent New Yorker cartoon, become part of the cultural lexicon.
This handsome 10-anniversary edition of a minor classic presents the story of Heather, a preschooler with two moms who discovers that some of her friends have very different sorts of families. Juan, for example, has a mommy and a daddy and a big brother named Carlos. Miriam has a mommy and a baby sister. And Joshua has a mommy, a daddy, and a stepdaddy. Their teacher Molly encourages the children to draw pictures of their families, and reassures them that "each family is special" and that "the most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love each other." In the afterword, the author (whose other children's books includeMatzo Ball Moon) explains that although she grew up in a Jewish home, in a Jewish neighborhood, there were no families like hers on the television or in picture books. She came to regard her family as somehow "wrong," since there was no Christmas tree in the living room and no Easter egg hunt. Whatever the religious right may wish to think about nontraditional families, there is no denying that any child enrolled in an American school will encounter friends with single parents, gay parents, stepparents, or adoptive parents. This new, revised version ofHeather Has Two Mommiesoffers an enjoyable, upbeat, age-appropriate introduction to the idea of family diversity. The book is essential for children (ages 2 to 6) with gay parents or family members, and a great addition to a Rainbow Curriculum.--Regina Marler
Rerations
< Heather Has Two Mommies: 10th Anniversary Edition (Alyson Wonderland) > < And Tango Makes Three > < Emma and Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story > < Daddy's Roommate (Alyson Wonderland) > < The Family Book > freaks

< Orlando: A Biography (Oxford World's Classics) > < A Room of One's Own > < To the Lighthouse > < Mrs. Dalloway > < The Waves (Annotated) > < Between the Acts > Virginia Woolf

price：~~$1.76~~
Oxford Univ Pr on Demand

customer 's review
(4.5 out of 5: Sexuality through the ages)

(Milord! Milady!)

(This Book is Still Hip -- Hard to Believe Written and Published in 1928 Edwardian England [63])

(As Only Virginia Woolf Could Write)

(A zany tour through English history based on a house)

The story begins with Orlando as a passionate young nobleman in Queen Elizabeth's court. By the end, Orlando is a 36-year-old woman three centuries later. Orlando witnesses the making of history from its edge. A close examination of the nature of sexuality and the changing climate of the passing centuries. Very novel and engaging if a bit loose-ended at times.
This `romanà clés' is very original. The hero continues to live in different historical periods and undergoes a sex change.
However, it is written in an emotional, sentimental, superlative style: `society in the reign of Queen Anne was of unparalleled brilliance. The graces were supreme.'
Except for the first period, there are no conflicts, only rather superficial descriptions of the mood and spirits of the times. For V. Woolf, `to give a truthful account of society ... only those who have little need of the truth, and no respect for it - the poets and novelists - can be trusted to do it, for this is one of the causes where the truth does not exist.'
`Orlando' is a perfect flight from reality: `But let other pens treat of sex and sexuality; we quit such odious subjects as soon as we can.' `Whigs and Tories, Liberal party and Labour party ... should be left to the historian.'

This book is a clean, introvert, aristocratic, long ode to pure Beauty.
Only for Virginia Woolf fans.

Written in 1928, this book clearly sought to shock the reading public. For every repression delivered by Victorian authorities which surely hampered Woolf's freedoms, this book delivers a defiant rebuke to the same.

Orlando - it states in the beginning - is a man for whom "there can be no doubt of his sex." He is rich, handsome and lives a life even Hugh Hefner may be jealous of. But, scandals lead him to isolation, to public ridicule or upbraiding, which led him to sequester himself to his 200-bedroom hermitage-castle. In his hermit's existence, he does not pass time philandering, but instead pulls books off the library's shelves and romanticizes with fiction.

Eventually tedium compels Orlando to ask his friendly king to deliver him overseas where he can perform the duties of ambassador. He ends up in then Constantinople, now Istanbul, Turkey. While living there, he ends one exhaustingly long night of debauchery and partying with a seven day sleep - and awakes a woman.

This was a "good thing." As a man, he could not appreciate Tennyson, Shakespeare, Byron and the like. As a woman, their written word touched her greatly. She could be red eyed, she could be lachrymose. As a man, he never loved. Wollf says, ". . . love - as the male novelists define it . . . has nothing whatever to do with kindness, fidelity, generosity or poetry. . ." Orlando the man had no love? Maybe, with Sasha (a Russian seductress) - but maybe Sasha ruined him so that he could never love again.

As a woman, Orlando knows love. Wolff explains, "Love is slipping off one's petticoat and - "
Can you imagine the Victorians reading that?!

Orlando's life continues not for decades, but centuries. And, some other characters do as well. "The true length of a person's life . . . is always a matter of dispute. Indeed, it is a difficult business - this time-keeping thing. . . " Indeed, it was for Wolff who quite intentionally delivers this novel as a time-challenged writer.

More obscurities arise - androgynous lovers, angels' visits, children born from or for Orlando - and splendor with these very biologically-defying events.

This is not written in the weaving masterful language which Woolf delivers in "To the Lighthouse" or "Mrs.Dalloway." Instead, here the schizophrenia lies with the main character, not the writing style. Probably, a better story than "Lighthouse" or "Dalloway", but I am partial to the writing style of those masterpieces.

In any event, anyone wondering just how throttled Woolf felt in the stifling moral norms of her country, read this book. If anyone wants a bizarre tale about a bizarre man/woman, this is a must read.
I like to think myself a very well-rounded reader (I have my degree in English), but I don't know if the genius of Virginia Woolf was just beyond me in Orlando. I enjoyed the story and the various historical characters that made appearances throughout, but something about it went a bit over my head. It was a strange tale of adventure and romance, with Orlando seeking the beauties of life and poetry throughout the centuries.
I read Orlando because someone told me that a central theme was Knole, the massive great house of the Sackvilles in Sevenoaks, in Kent south west of London. (I also liked Mrs Dalloway--See my Amazon review.) When we lived in London my family and I spent a day at Knole. It is supposedly the largest private house in England. Much of it now belongs to the National Trust. Knole beggars description--it is a vast mansion, brooding, and dark, but also eminent; it is a castle, a factory, mills, breweries, a village, and menagerie. I remember the deer as being especially numerous and friendly. Orlando the novel is dedicated to Vita Sackville-West who sadly was unable to inherit Knole although she grew up there. Only males could inherit.

The novel Orlando is a tour through English history from the mid-15 hundreds to 1928 always from odd perspectives. It is also a subtle and searching exploration of gender roles, social roles, and artistic and creative efforts. Themes interweave with lightning speed. It's crazy, funny, satirical, wild, and moody. I found parts to be incoherent, post-modern stream-of-consciousness, but most is entertaining and illuminating.

But this novel always comes back to Knole just as Orlando does. He/she (there is a sex change mid-novel) tours her house, thinks about it, ponders it, worries about it, and is always focused on it. Orlando lives for hundreds of years, but somehow I think he/she is a metaphor for the great house. Knole is not mentioned by name in the novel, but that's it. Knole is also the setting for The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West. Knole is very worth a visit if you get to London or Kent. On the web at the National Trust website.

A visit in person however would help bring the novel Orlando to life. The novel is titled Orlando: A Biography. I think it is the biography of Knole.

One other odd feature: My edition (Signet Classics) has in index. This is the first novel I've read with an index. This suggests to me that Orlando is more than a novel, it is also a history of sorts.
Virginia Woolf's exuberant `biography' tells the story of the cross-dressing, sex-changing Orlando who begins life as a young noble in the sixteenth century and moves through numerous historical and geographical worlds to finish as a modern woman writer in the 1920s. The book is in part a happy tribute to the `life' that her love for Vita Sackville-West had breathed into Virginia Woolf's own day-to-day existence; it is also Woolf's light-hearted and light-handed teasing out of the assumptions that lie behind the normal conventions for writing about a fictional or historical life. In this novel, Virginia Woolf plays loose and fast: Orlando uncovers a literary and sexual revolution overnight.
In 1928, way before everyone else was talking about gender-bending and way, way before the terrific movie with Tilda Swinton, Virginia Woolf wrote her comic masterpiece, a fantastic, fanciful love letter disguised as a biography, to Vita Sackville-West. Orlando enters the book as an Elizabethan nobleman and leaves the book three centuries and one change of gender later as a liberated woman of the 1920s. Along the way this most rambunctious of Woolf's characters engages in sword fights, trades barbs with 18th century wits, has a baby, and drives a car. This is a deliriously written, breathless-making book and a classic both of lesbian literature and the Western canon.
Rerations
< Orlando: A Biography (Oxford World's Classics) > < A Room of One's Own > < To the Lighthouse > < Mrs. Dalloway > < The Waves (Annotated) > freaks

< Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School > < Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity > < Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity (Law, Meaning, and Violence) > < Women without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity > < The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and and How All Men Can Help > < Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life > C. J. Pascoe

price：~~$7.02~~
University of California Press
Usually ships in 24 hours

customer 's review
(I'm Glad I Read This)

("Dude, I'm Not Gay")

(Fight Destructive Pop-Culture)

(Schooling, Gender and Masculinity)

This is a fantastic book! It's easy to read, insightful, and incredibly thought provoking. As a teacher and as a man (not that this is a requirement), I whole-heartedly recommend this book to all those interested in society and our schools' reflection of it. It's a great contribution. Thank you.
This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the punishment males receive througout their lives at the hands of sexism, patriarchy, homophobia and heterosexism.

In my book, 10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Find Real Love I write:

Being raised male in the heterosexist culture means avoiding and distancing yourself from being viewed as gay in any way. Gay is synonymous with effeminate. This is inherent sexism, as if being associated with anything female would denigrate you. In our culture, being male is a privileged status, and anything else is viewed as inferior.

A number of times I've had a straight man notice my wedding ring and ask if I'm married. I'll say, "Yes," because I am. When he asks my wife's name, I pleasantly correct him and tell him that I'm married to a man whose name is Mike.

Often, the guy steps back and immediately exclaims, "Dude, I'm not gay!" He may then proceed to ask, "Why did you choose to tell me you're gay?" as if I had a sexual motive, or tell me he was "grossed out" by the idea.

Now, I never implied that he was gay by telling him I was, nor did I have any ulterior motive. I was simply correcting him, just as when people wish me a Merry Christmas. I nicely tell them I am Jewish; whereupon they usually respond politely by saying, "Oh, sorry! Happy Hanukah!" I've never seen anyone back away, exclaiming, "Dude, I'm not Jewish. Now all I can do is imagine you in a yarmulke in synagogue and I'm grossed out. You're trying to convert me?"

"Dude, I'm not gay" and "Dude, You're a fag" are both ways to distance one's self from anything "less than a man" in Western Culture!

I am ordering a copy of this book because I believe that this is a very important subject that exposes a major problem in our culture. Our society tells men to never be emotional and to be as heterosexual as possible through actions, thoughts and speech. Men who do not conform to this mold are ostracized. Women are also imbued with this idea that such one dimensional men embody "masculinity", which causes them to devalue themselves in a quest to live up to the male-defined societal standard of hetero-sexiness. No one can have authentic, deep relationships in a world where everyone is acting on such a narrow script. If there had been a positive force in my life to show me how damaging this process was I likely would not have withdrawn from the world and developed a sex addiction by trying to create a fantasy life through the computer. I think I would not have been emotionally detached from my wife and nearly ruined my marriage that way. I could have avoided the severe depression I experienced in high school and the intense social isolation I felt as a result of having bisexual fantasies. I think that teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and other adults in a position to influence the minds of teenagers should pick up more books like this in an effort to better understand the damage that popular mores (such as gay bashing, hypersexualized media, etc.), when unchecked, have on young adults.
Pascoe, C.J. "Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School", University of California Press, 2007.

Schooling, Gender and Sexuality

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

As a professional educator (on the university level now but I paid my dues as a high school teacher), I first heard about this book and was very interested in reading it. Published by the University of California Press, this book is a serious look at our gay teenagers. The title seems, to me at least, a bit playful for such a serious subject but be that as it may, the book, "Dude, You're a Fag" has a lot of information in it that is original and valuable. As it looks at both gender studies and masculinity, it is a readable way to learn about the problems of the soon to be members of the gay community.
Now that we are older, we realize how difficult it was to deal with masculinity ad gender issues when we were young. It was different back then when I was growing up and discovering my sexuality. We had no role models, we had no organization and most of us felt that we were the only ones. C.J. Pascoe spent eighteen months in the field in a high school that is racially diverse. Her conclusions on the nature of teen masculinity and sexuality are presented here.
It is known that it is the high school that helps us gain a sense of gender identity--in fact it is the place where we, in many cases, become aware of who and what we are. We also know that high schools are places where rumors and slurs are passed out at the speed of light. It is interesting how anyone can gain gender identification in high school when teens today are humiliated so easily. Fears and anxiety also come into play in the high school of today. It is troubling to consider that boys become boys because they are abased and abashed into a masculine identity. What causes masculinity to take hold is peer pressure--we want to be like the crown so publicly we behave like everyone else---or so we did. As Bob Dylan sang, "the times they are a-changing".
A book like this should be on every student's and teacher's reading list. It is so important that we know about and understand the construction of gender and sexuality. We must not assume that because of age and experience, that schoolboys cannot discuss class, gender and ethnicity. Not only can but they do.
Pescoe looks at homophobia as well and her research s so lucid that it invites us to think about the identity of gender formation, gender practices and gender equality (or lack thereof). In using the scientific method to approach her subject, Pescoe gives us a great deal of background information a well as a hands on approach for learning how to deal with the issues. Kids are not hiding their sexuality as we did--they are open and proud--such a change from my school days. The naiveté of youth is wonderful even though it may not always be practical. To see kids today embrace their sexuality at such young ages reflects ho0w far we have come as a community. That does not mean that they youth of today are less troubled when they discover their sexual selves. They just approach the situation differently.

High school and the difficult terrain of sexuality and gender identity are brilliantly explored in this smart, incisive ethnography. Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in a racially diverse working-class high school,Dude, You're a Fagsheds new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe's unorthodox approach analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process but also a sexual one. She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality.
Rerations
< Dude, You're a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School > < Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity > < Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity (Law, Meaning, and Violence) > < Women without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity > < The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and and How All Men Can Help > freaks

< Fingersmith > < Tipping the Velvet: A Novel > < Affinity > < The Night Watch > < Fingersmith > < Tipping the Velvet > Sarah Waters

price：~~$5.12~~
Riverhead Trade
Usually ships in 24 hours

customer 's review
(half amazing... half not.)

(A tale of mystery&madness)

(Heart pounding suspense)

(Historical novel)

(Thumbs Down)

the first half of this book was so good, i was in shock!
it starts in a slow but very engaging way... turns surprisingly great...
but the second part of the story was too much for me...
i lost interest, i wanted so bad to know what would happen with the main characters, but it just turned too complicated and unengaging...
it all makes sense and it's kind of fascinating, but the emotional grip dissapears and i was a little dissapointed to feel turned down after such a compelling first half.
The first section of this book had me hooked. The labyrinthine underworld of Victorian London, the strange and intriguing characters and the nefarious plot set in motion are the books strongest points and they're at their best in the opening chapters. But by the end of the first section the emotional angst was getting to be a bit much, and the pornography-by-proxy in the second section seems like a 21st century cop out; seriously, the author had to resort to that in order to convey the heroine's bleak, oppressive life? The love story between the two heroines and their mutual betrayal ought to have been enough to carry the second heroine's pathos. When we get back to moving the plot forward, with one girl locked up in a madhouse and the other a prisoner in the London underworld the book begins to fascinate again. And that fascination lasts through a startling twist and a dramatic&emotional climax. But again, at the very conclusion of the book, the author throws in the porno stuff, which honestly distracts from the mystery, the romance and the drama of what would otherwise be a thrilling story.
I LOVED this book. My heart was pounding during several narrative moments in the novel. There are lots of plot twists and turns, and the reader will never see them coming. I lost many hours of sleep reading this book because I just couldn't put it down.
A female Oliver Twist story with a Lesbian sub plot. This is an interesting fictional account of a female orphan reared by thieves (fingersmiths) . It takes place in 1844 in London and is sexually explicit in a way a Dickens novel could never be. Well researched and wonderfully written.
I don't like writing negative reviews. Really, I don't. ----Except, that is, for books such as this one which fully deserve it. Fingersmith is, to be brief, a sump of slipshod writing, contrived plotting, bogus atmospherics and two dimensional characters. If we are at the point where this can be considered as anything approaching Dickens or The Brontes, as so many of the professional reviewers do on the back cover and the opening pages, then we have reached a low point indeed in literary valuation. ----As a test, pick any page from Charlotte Bronte's masterwork, Villette, concerning its heroine Lucy Snow, and compare it to any of the pages here concerning Maud or Sue, and you shall behold the clear difference. You may still prefer Maud and Sue and Fingersmith, but that is rather a judgment on you than on Bronte. My guess, though, is that most reviewers here haven't even read Bronte unless they were forced to do so by an English teacher.

Outraged readers will no doubt want to know what I mean by slipshod writing since they, to my disbelief, refer to it as "wonderful," "beautiful," "skillful" and other such superlatives. Let's take Sue's character, shall we? The girl was brought up in an environment wherein she didn't even learn to write her own name, and yet, she mouths utterances such as, "I was, not to put too fine a point on it, properly funked." P.423 This is, not to put too fine a point on it, the voice of an educated person like Sarah Waters with a slangy flair to it, not Sue, or Susan, or whatever name you want to call her by the end. Sue also mentions Helen of Troy as if she has read The Iliad and many other incongruous things besides that beggar belief.

My real problem with the book though is that it is so unchallenging as well as unentertaining. To plough through this book is to be exposed, time and again, to man's inhumanity to man, man's inhumanity to woman, woman's inhumanity to woman - especially in the madhouse, and so on. My only feeling after finishing it was a relief at not having to read any more about comic book characters about whom I couldn't care two shillings put through a Victorian meat grinder, which is no less brutal than the Twenty-First Century version of it.

My final exhortation to the prospective reader: Read the Brontes, read Dickens (particularly Bleak House), read George Eliot, read Thomas Hardy (esp. Jude the Obscure), read, in short, the real thing rather than this, sadly, uninspired and uninspiring literary throwback that, as Sarah Waters has said, arose out of her doctoral studies on Victorian pornography.

In Victorian England, an orphan girl is sent to a country estate to work for-and ultimately woo-its young heiress, on behalf of a mysterious benefactor known as Gentleman.
Fingersmithis the third slice of engrossing lesbian Victoriana from Sarah Waters. Although lighter and more melodramatic in tone than its predecessor,Affinity, this hypnotic suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs: pickpockets, orphans, grim prisons, lunatic asylums, "laughing villains," and, of course, "stolen fortunes and girls made out to be mad." Divided into three parts, the tale is narrated by two orphaned girls whose lives are inextricably linked. Waters's penchant for byzantine plotting can get a bit exhausting, but even at its densest moments--and remember, this is smoggy London circa 1862--it remains mesmerizing. A damning critique of Victorian moral and sexual hypocrisy, a gripping melodrama, and a love story to boot, this book ingeniously reworks some truly classic themes.--Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk
Rerations
< Fingersmith > < Tipping the Velvet: A Novel > < Affinity > < The Night Watch > < Fingersmith > freaks

< Diplomacy >