Disturbingly Provocative
937247
This Is War grows on you and holds up to repeated play.  Alibi is what Death Cab's Equinox should've been for New Moon.  Stranger in a Strange Land is hauntingly beautiful.  Also highly praised is the bewitching, Night of the Hunter.  Lyrically obscure, the album invites the listener on a journey to find their own meaning.  The album is intriguing, captivating and worth every penny.
4052988
It's very disturbing, to say the least, but well done.
4716808
I cannot give this book five stars because I don't know how I could actually love something that is so disturbing and actually made me cringe at times.  However, the quality of the writing and the value of the book as a fine piece of literature would rate it as a five.  I could not put the book down and when it became disturbing, I was already committed and had a need to see it through.  I would say there are a lot of similarities to Nabokov's Lolita except for the extreme violence and language.  As other reviewers said, this book is not for the faint of heart.  Expect to be shocked and sickened.  I am still reeling after reading this and it has been several days.
3471434
The irony of the title is typical of the novel's prodding of the reader's thoughts , imagination, and beliefs.  At once compelling and provocative, the book entertains as it requires involvement introspected of its readers.  Characters and themes emerge and will not let go until the reader's journey ends and even thereafter.
3015980
This book is not for everyone.  Walter Mosely seems to write books that fall in to various categories, and this one is certainly not from the category that would appeal to a mass audience like his Easy Rawlins novels.  Some readers may have detected the percolations of the darker side of Mosely within the Rawlins books, however, and readers intrigued by those glimpses may want to read this work.

I read the book in two sittings, utterly glued to the page.  It was shocking, disgusting, disturbing, and gut wrenching.  The book describes in minute detail experiences that most people barely allow themselves to conceptualize in words.  The character engages not only in fairly extreme sexual acts, he  also describes these acts in stomach churning detail.  Many readers may be disturbed by the insights into the dark recesses of the male sexual brain.

The main complaint I have seen voiced by critics of the book is that it is a male fantasy, or that it is unrealistic, or that it endorses a hedonistic lifestyle or philosophy.  I think these criticisms are correct, from a certain point of view, and there is no doubt this is a flawed work, but those criticisms do not take away from the raw power of much of the novel.

The novel is written in the first person, and for some readers, it may be hard to keep one's perspective.  It is easy to be drawn in to the character's experiences through the vivid narration and detail.  However, I don't believe that we are meant to identify with him as we would a conventional hero.  I don't believe the author endorsed the character's actions, or intended him as a model for the behavior of others, but that he used the character to expose rarely charted realms of difficult experiences that many people have, but that few choose to question or explore.  Admittedly this is done using some fairly extreme situations.

The criticism of the unreality of the book is a serious one.  The plot features several chance circumstances, twists, and, frankly, ridiculous feats of sexual stamina and bodily fluid production on the part of the main character.  The book is unrealistic in its cramming of events that rely on pure chance into a week's time.  I believe the author did this in order to make the emotional pressure that the character is undergoing seem even more extreme, and to provide a speed to the narrative and a way to excuse some of the ill-considered and impulsive behavior that the character engages in.  I found that despite the unreality of the situation, the book was still very gripping, because the depiction of the mentality and emotions of the character were so vivid and believable.  In short, I found the character to be believable, even if the situations he was put in strained credulity.

Ultimately, the book batters the reader with a series of practically insane sexual and emotional experiences.  I found that process of being subjected to these to be a challenging one on an emotional and intellectual level.  I don't believe every reader will be interested in a book like this. However, I thought it was a powerful book and a fairly unique one.
1919290
A college professor is accused of seducing one of his students, and is resigns his position in disgrace. With his life somewhat out of control, he moves in with his daughter on her farm in a rural - and tumultuous - part of South Africa. There they are brutally attacked and each must come to terms with what has happened to them. This book is strangely disturbing and thought-provoking. The characters are not given much depth. In fact, it is difficult to say whether they are truly known or not. The ends without an ending as well. However, it is a story that stays with a reader. It is also an interesting study into life as a white person in South Africa and how the balance and blatant racism - on both sides - is prevelant. Not a book for those interested in pure entertainment, but for deeper reading, I would recommend.
1644430
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine seems like a bizarre book when you take it at face value. The story is crazy and ludicrous. It's about A, who lives with B, and has boyfriend C. B seems to become more and more like A. C loves TV, and spends most of his time watching TV shows. A starts to lose her identity, she doesn't know who she is, where she starts and where she ends. And she's surrounded by strange things. Like Kandy Kake commercials, which descriptions are mind melting. And TruBeauty cosmetics commercials. And That's My Partner game show. And Wally's supermarket with ever-changing displays and carefully studied buying process of consumers. And some kind of religious cult that dresses in white sheets called New Christian Church of Conjoined Eaters.

Underneath this peculiar world and A's struggles in it you read presenting the postmodern dystopia. It is truly a novel tackling a questions in what direction are we going, how much consumerism and conformity are taking over individuals and their individuality. A's world is our world. We buy things we don't need. We watch the mind numbing entertainment. We try to look like the beautiful people on TV. We try to look like someone else. We try to be someone else. Where are we, where we start and where we end? Do we really want the stuff we buy and do? Who are we?

The book is food for thought. It must be read carefully. Choose the time when you read this book wisely. If you're not ready to take such a strange story in, and see beauty in it, don't read it just yet. Wait for the right moment. Read it when you most vulnerable and welcoming of new ideas wrapped in a strange paper.
3975730
This novel intrigued and disturbed me at times.  Fascinating, the knowledge that the characterisations were based on actual people and events with a rich assortment of photos and documentation to back it up.  Ms. Tademy's eloquent style struck notes in my psyche.  I don't think I could have stopped reading if I'd wanted to.

At the same time, this book carries the same "stamp" on it that other books of its kind share.  While based on real life people and events it is a work of fiction and it's disturbing to me that the story repeatedly accents a negative response towards whites and Creoles in the story.  That's understandable but it's not always convincing or realistic.  It's difficult for me to understand why a slave woman would engage in an illicit affair with a man who did not own her who she did not really have any respect or regard for, then opt to remain in that relationship for two decades after the Emancipation and have several children with this man she neither liked nor wanted.  It's easy enough to say she had no choice (as a slave) but what about after slavery when choice and consent can certainly be offered or withheld?  Nor do I think it reasonable to assume her protector cared nothing for her when he presented her with a vast tract of property and provided lavishly for her and their children.  That sounds like a family to me.

The antebellum slave system is a stain upon our country's conscience.  But realistically, it was a system accepted by people at the time and it's unreasonable to depict all of one class as being too evil, jaded, or stupid to see this.  It is equally unrealistic to depict the slave class as continuously exploited and miserable.
891354
Rather than write another synopsis of the novel, I would instead comment on the number of different themes which present themselves in this incredibly imaginative tale.  I see themes of Whites and Black slavery, the relationships between parents and children, the universal process of coming to adulthood, the idea of dominance and submission in relationships, and our treatment of the other creatures on this earth which we call "animals."  If we were not the "dominant" species on this planet, would we be treated like the mounts in this story?  I believe that we would.  And I wonder about something else:  If horses could speak, what would they tell us?  This is a disturbing story which does what all great literature does.  It changes us forever.
3953268
Myers' book engages the reader with very expansive predictions on the coming changes in human social interaction, which the author manages to present in extraordinarily subtle ways.  More of a philosophical discourse than an essay, Myers book manages to engage the reader in a very provocative dialectic without the reader initially realizing such.  Very descriptive despite its compactness, the commentary is quietly but firmly inquisitive in ways that engage the reader beyond its instructiveness.

On the surface Myers discussion is of how humans interact with one another in simulated worlds, but far more profoundly, he mounts an almost-disconcerting discussion of how these changes will alter the way in which people are going to interact with *themselves*.

The book is a prediction (harbinger perhaps) of the ways that previous concepts of social fabric will change as people interact in the world of dreams -- but only as an allegory of interacting in worlds comprised pure *self*, unfettered by any limitations of identity.  With great delicateness, Myers suggests how this unfettered self may also self-actualize, both as its own identity and also as a symbiote of the real self -- and perhaps even an adversary.

Myers leaves his book open ended, which is perhaps the only obvious allusion in the book -- that there is much more yet to come.
1791041
Well written and deeply holds your interest.  Very disturbing though. Makes you question much about human nature and morality. Just how far would you go to protect someone you love, especially your child. I had chosen this book for my book club and the provocative issues contributed to great discussion
3273783
It was hard to put down.  Not unlike seeing a car crash, it is disturbing but you can't help but look.  A.M.Homes is a very provocative writer who gives you a keyhole to look through to characters you would never possibly meet.
4406738
Be forewarned.  This is a fundamentally disturbing book.  It raises a number of questions that I have wrestled with for most of my life insofar as religion.  This is a book that you need to read a few times, and ponder upon the messages and then draw your own conclusion.  The fact that it makes you think and rethink makes it a very interesting read.
3093968
Hillman is a provocative author with many keen insights, but not unlike many psychologists in the Jungian tradition, he cannot refrain from the use of Myths. I deliberately capitalized the word Myth, because it more often than not is the problem, not the resource to resolution. Don't misunderstand me! Myths have figured heavily in all civilizations for their power to "see" something that is often otherwise not apparent. Moreover, myths are the backbone of civilizing humanity, telling stories, usually morality tales, that provide an insight that more direct discourse and narrative cannot capture. These Myths have a limited use, primarily for children, whose immaginations are charged by the peculiarity of the story, and through that peculiarity perceive a "truth" about life. Aesop's fables are perhaps paradigmatic, but other Myths exist too.

But as we enter the 21st C., isn't it time to limit the use of Myths for their pedagogical uses with children, and strip our adult minds of those Myths that have taken hold and twisted our sense of things. The most notable Myth in Western Civilization has been the Bible. The ironic twist about these particular Myths is that they are no longer pedagogical, but have become polemical. And I am far from confident that most of those Myths are innocent or benign. They no longer tell a story or morality tale, but in many people have become the Standard by which to measure all of life. And because the Myth transforms into religion, it often takes hold of people as though the stories are literally true, rather than metaphorically provocative. Instead of understanding a God of love and compassion, one encounters Yahweh whose jealousy and wrath are staples. And instead of perceiving "God" as the Energy that pervades the universe, its conception is of an anthropromorphic Deity, who caps things off by becoming human.

The point of all this is that Myths that go beyond mere stories and are transformed into "reality," often cause more damage than good. This is true both for the individual who maps out the world not as it is, but how a nomadic tribe millennia ago saw things. New tribes have arisen, but they tell the same unintelligible Myths. People even go to war over these Myths.

Thus, Hillman's use of the "acorn" is nowhere near that kind of Myth, but it perpetuates the Myth that only metaphors and stories can explain ourselves. So one Myth is substituted for another, denying all coherence to ourselves and others. That's what Myths do. And so we delude ourselves into thinking that only another Myth can overcome previous ones. At some point, we have to stop the endless progression of Myths and grab onto reality and face it head on. Myths not only do not do that, they prevent that from happening by their very nature.

Hillman's use of Myth is meant to be a "tool," but like many a tool it often becomes part of some larger apparatus like the person who uses it. Saint Paul said when he became an adult he put away childish things. And I suggest that using one Myth to see ourselves out of another Myth still keeps us in Myths. We persist in using childish tools, when only adult ones ultimately work. What was originally only a vehicle for insight inheres to our being and becomes the prism through which we view life. Hillman's "acorn" Myth is definitely useful, but as adults it's time to put away childish tools and start confronting life as adults. Instead of trying to "see" ourselves as we are, and for who we are, we hoist a new Myth to take on for changing our perception. We "see" the world through "Jungian" glasses, for example, rather than through the ones we should have formed.

At its most challenging reward, introspection and self-analysis require we face ourselves as we are, stripped of all the stories we have adopted as "our life." Only then can we find what we are searching for, and then begin to make sense of it.
3168672
The subject matter is provocative but still a good read.  The visual settings are very well done. Having been to two of the three locals. I could imagine myself back at each again. Now curious to see the third.  Enjoy.
4459715
This is a stunning work of insanity/entertainment that takes the protagonist through such mind-boggling adventures as wrestling with crocodiles and experiencing orgasms after electro-tortures by secret government officials. It is fascinating that so many dubious accounts could be gathered into one man's life! The book is shockingly amusing and difficult to put down.

I was left wondering, "Has the author committed the most egregious act of undermining others who have purportedly been victimized by the sharp blades of conspiracy and secret societal workings; or has he lent more valid attention to their cause?" Was he simply trying to entertain? The allegations presented in this book are extreme.

If the author was completely deranged, then it is impressive that he maintained the capacity to write as intelligently as he did.

This is certainly another worthwhile and unforgettable exploration of bizarre consciousness by Feral House.
3616059
This is the kind of book that your mother warned you about. But instead of it being the Communist Manifesto or other obscure utopian pamphlet like it, this book by Dr. Block is provocative but quite the opposite of a call to armed revolution. Thus, the basic premise is that consensual relations between adults are a) ethical, which makes them nobody's business but of the actors involved, b) socially beneficial, since they play an rol in fullfiling wants or needs that we may normally ignore. Defending the undefendable takes one case after other, each on a separate chapter, discussing the pimp, the miser, the hooker, the scalper and other characters (actually, social roles we could play if we choose to) in a very intriguing and provocative way. Libertarianism boils down to the non-aggression principle, and Dr. Block applies it in a smart and uncompromising way, to explore the professions, jobs or activities we were told by our Moms, to never be or be related to. The best possible conclusion is: let adults do as they please, as long as they do not use personal or government force against others. Period.

A brilliant, very serious but fun and even funny at times, treatise on the social roles we may have never seen from this richer and audacious perspective.