Harsh, yes, but brilliantly human...
594807
This book has to be read to be understood.  It has it all, the

mystic journey from pain to joy in the creature we call America.

Surely Republicans, born again Christians, and all other small-

minded people won't like this book, but Louis fans are in for a

real treat.  This is the best book by the best poet in America.
4531747
I can't imagine reading this book without blanching and staring at the page...or feeling mortified. I found it staggering in its blunt intensity. To read of a father who actually treated his children the way that the author's did...I'll admit, I was heartbroken that kids had to put up with such emotional brutality.

Hats off to Chris Offutt for his dedication to the effort, and his courage in completing the task.
3921441
Painful, powerful and incredibly honest. Adam takes us carefully through his life, speaking calmly about the many horrors he has endured as he grew up. I found some aspects of the book heart breaking. It was a bumpy start for this person. He suffered from constant hunger and malnutrition, stealing food just to get by, having to care for babies when he was a very young child himself, his mother was addicted to sex and alcohol, he suffered domestic abuse, bullying at school, bullying at home it. The list goes on. You name it - Adam has lived it. And lived he did. He went on to live despite the many horrors he endured. A testament to human inner strength. A well written memoir that can't be ignored. A writer to watch out for.
344064
Just thinking of people in the modern age, who might have endured suffering, pain and agony and understandably may have been terrible, unspeakable, unthinkable, yet who still have had the opportunity to read this book, have a computer with internet connection and then type up and post a review of it...yet can still critique writing style and include a dismissiveness based on that?

That leaves me speechless but reaffirms my observation that many of those who have not really suffered the unimaginable, yet have such access, continue to be the ones to negatively or poorly rate a work of personal, agonizing minimalism which contains such profound revelations and truth.

I stopped to reread "Night" this week, and it places in great perspective whatever mundane pain, thought or complaint I might have in life right now, in general. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't negate anyone's current situation, but it does give you a wider range in which to observe your own life.

I am a student of WW2 and Holocaust literature and history. I am also a person who was born and spent much time in Germany interacting with and interviewing those who remember firsthand, or those who were 1st gen survivors or ones who directly remember on a variety factors: NOT just because their parents might have been involved, but those who survived and endured the "survivors guilt" that maybe they shouldn't have.

One of the things I've noted is that, because the events have replayed to the level of infinity in their minds, sometimes when they recount, it does sometimes come across as bloodless, or too cool. This is part of the psychological mechanisms of the brain which enact to protect that person. Sometimes the level of self-absorption and intentness of having some kind of entertainment from works of horrific history, or a desire to learn of ugly history but not really wishing to "know" of it, actually horrifies me.
2467890
I finished watching this gem of a film and was crying. I did fine throughout the production until near the end... well, you have to watch it and see for yourselves. This is a fun, touching, and very human film that allows these precious souls to shine through in an unfiltered and real way that is both heartwarming and disturbing. Heartwarming because these elders are caring, bold, kind and so human. Disturbing because their words and stories are a forceful reminder of our own mortality, of the brevity of life, and of what is lost with the passing of every older person.
2824851
A great example of PJ's once-upon-a-time writing flair - she could feel the muscle's sensitive flutter as it whispered to her of its secret trauma. Automatically she responded to its need, stroking first reassurance and then, once it had accepted her touch, using a deeper, more searching kneading technique to send strength back into it, giving it power and confidence, telling it with her touch that it need not fear, that it could trust itself.

Unfortunately, H Kadir is a harsh,insulting man, right from the first meeting. He carries scars from his past (don't we all?) which are demolished by Natalia's fierce accusations whenever Leon tries to dominate her.  There are several long winded, bogged down over-detailed pages which nearly bought down the five stars I gave. But the obligatory skirmishes between wife and OW are deliciously drawn in daggers with a stunning twist ending I didn't see coming. And finally! proper attention rarely given to a decent final chapter, where author is still beautifully developing Natalia and Kadir's characters and private love. A literary triumph with wonderful phrases - highly recommended - a standing ovation if I could.
4759579
Father Leonard's personal experience with tragedy gives this book its substance... and its flaws, it seems. He is clearly sincere in his efforts to make sense of his sister's tragic accident (and similar human tragedies). One can't help but admire his determination to reconcile his pain with his faith and his Jesuit training. Nonetheless, as some other reviewers have noted, some of his claims and conclusions come uncomfortably close to heresy.

Having buried our 25 year old son a few years ago, we are well-acquainted with the challenge of finding God in tragedy. He is there, actively involved, actively leading the way to peace, actively engaged with the messy details of grief. He is not the detached, passive spectator that Father Leonard depicts ... and frankly, if He was, no one would be drawn to seek Him, let alone devote a lifetime to His service.
1037386
As a quick disclaimer, Ive known the author and his family for several years.  That just means that he knows Ill say exactly what I think of the work, even when its something personal like this.  Too, I read the book for the first time not long after I met him, early enough that the book itself formed much of my first impressions.  And with that caveat, Ill tell you that you're in for a treat in reading this work, whoever you are.

The book in its outward presentation is a memoir, telling Lewis story from the formation of his early identity and sense of self through his military service, the collapse of those things after returning home from the second Iraq war, and the rebuilding of self from the ashes of that.  It is beautifully written, told as a series of set pieces that all form a single, coherent narrative but stand individually.  Like any first-rate memoir, the book is much more than just autobiography.

There is the occasional off note in the prose, in places where it adopts some of the more unfortunate conventions of internet-driven slang (my personal peeve is Shatner punctuation, i.e. the Use. Of. Periods. For. Emphasis.), and in some places, the personality he brings out in the writing turns abrasive.  Still the first of those is a minor quibble, while the second is just the flesh and blood of any real person.  Lewis is a superb raconteur, so that reading the book feels a bit like kicking back with him and a couple of pints, but its the fundamental kindness and decency lying at the heart of the work that really carries it.  What struck me about the stories is how many of the individual stories resonated personally, even though I share so little of the experiences described therein, at least in any direct sense (Im not a vet, hate guns, don't ride motorcycles, and I had a great relationship with my father).  That to me is one of the marks of really good storytelling, that ability to draw someone in to an unfamiliar experience not just imaginatively but emotionally.
4333569
Like most men I have often wondered how I would cope in prison. Thanks to Shaun Attwood's superbly written and profoundly moving memoir I now know: with great difficulty. Atwood spent six years inside America's infamously brutal and hopelessly corrupted prison system, convicted on highly dubious drug charges and the flimsiest of evidence, at the behest of a prosecution system that borders on the criminal and insane. Hard Time takes us on a nightmare journey through `Sheriff Joe's' harsh and proudly animalistic `Jailhouse' - far worse than most `super-max' prisons - where minor league arrestees rub shoulders with convicted mob hitmen and mass murderers, as they await either sentencing or trial. It is a twilight zone world of torture and depravity that is filled with sadists - and that's just some of  the guards and officials I'm referring to, not the worst of the prisoners. It is a testament to the human spirit that the detainees forge bonds of warmth, humour and genuine friendship, reinforced by acts of kindness and compassion, in this grim state-run hellhole.

It takes an awful lot to make me angry - to rouse my fighting spirits and surge my blood. But Hard Time made me angry: very angry indeed. I am by no means a bleeding heart liberal and I believe that in a just society serious crime warrants serious punishment; but what is depicted here is beyond the pale. The innocent are thrown in with the guilty and are literally left to fight for their lives against viscous prison-guard predators whom ought to be incarcerated themselves, and lunatic, hard-core `gangbangers' who rule the cells with an iron fist and `shank' of cold steel. It is a hyper-masculine, testosterone-ridden wolf-pack of a lifestyle, and any man who can survive in it and come out healthy, whole and sane, as Attwood did, has my utmost respect and admiration. He went in there as a devil-may-care youngster dabbling in drugs and living the high life; unfairly convicted on grossly blown-up charges, he came out of it as a master of Yoga and Chess, a fully blown intellectual whom has read hundreds of books and has now written his own superb effort. Shaun - I salute you.

I recently had the honor of meeting Shaun and was immediately impressed by his warmth and effervescent energy. Three things I noticed straightaway; we share the same publisher, the same bald heads and the same sense of humour. If you ever get the chance to meet him then I urge you to - he is a man whom has been on a journey and we have much to learn from him.

Steven McLaughlin,
Author of Squaddie: A Soldiers Story
Mainstream Publishing
1507825
I'm sure words such as touching, poignant, etc., have been used to describe this book, and in many ways it was.  However, here is a man who continues to be upbeat, cheerful, maintain a positive attitude towards life and people, and spout many little philosophical tidbits all while his health is deteriorating rapidly day by day because of Lou Gehrig's disease.  Personally, I have a hard time grasping how somebody can maintain such a positive attitude in the face of a debilitating illness such as this, but I'm glad I read the book.  This story has the ability to teach people some valuable lessons if they are willing to learn them.
2150797
Outcry: Holocaust Memoirs is chilling, horrifying, appalling, distressing--words are totally inadequate.  It is almost impossible for a rational mind to absorb the horror of the Holocaust, but Mr. Steinberg does a masterful job of bringing the reader into his hell.  Although I have read a lot about the Holocaust, this book drew me in as few have.  At times, I felt as if I were there observing helplessly as human beings were treated like garbage.  The saving grace is that this is ultimately a story of the triumph of the human heart.  That Mr. Steinberg and other survivors pick up the pieces of their broken lives and build relationships and families is a miracle in itself.

This book is tough to read, but well worth the effort.
2977246
As of this moment this book has attracted 42 five star ratings out of 86 reviews, the rest scattered throughout the spectrum.  I agree with almost every review, positive & negative.  This book is relentless.  It's stunningly well written but harsh, bleak, very demanding.  But it made me re-examine certain aspects of my own life in ways that very few books, or any other work of art, ever has.  I'm not wealthy but I have what I need and many things that I want.  I think it's worth being confronted sometimes with the utter desperation that forms so many people's lives.  If I'm doing this in the comfort of my armchair, this consideration cannot be said to be truly deep.  But the strength of this book's writing manages somehow to cut through armchair comfort in a way that feels meaningful and worthwhile.

In other words, not an easy read, not an entertainment.  Just beautiful, ugly, and unforgettable.
1155649
Never have the noble humanities and horrible dehumanization been revealed to such extremes as in Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities". Just exactly to what extreme the human hatred could go, just exactly to what extreme the human love could go, and just exactly to what extreme the human sacrifice could go, you will get answers from this novel.
It tells ineffably touching stories of love and sacrifice, striking stories of hatred and revenge, in the turmoil of French Revolution. This was the time that hunger would drive poor people to sip the wine spilled on the street stones, this was the time that an innocent man (Dr. Manette, Lucie's father) was imprisoned in the Bastille for eighteen years not for any crimes but for saving people's lives, this was the time that conscience made a noble person (Charles Darnay) to relinquish his aristocratic title and pursue life of simplicity and dignity, this was the time that a gentleman (Charles Darnay) would take the risk his own life to save the life of his servant, and this was the time that a young man (Sydney Carton) would take another man's place on the guillotine and realize his promise to his beloved (Lucie), to whom he treasured as "the last dream of my soul"......
This Masterpiece Theatre miniseries did a fairly good job in crafting the stories, although less successfully in bringing out the grandeur of the Revolution. But thanks to the wonderful actors and actresses, their brilliant acting has, to some extent, made up the weaknesses. Sydney Carton is a fascinating character. Young actor James Wilby has excellently sustained Carton's emotional complexities: his cynicism, his indifference, his impulsive yearning for life, and his devoted love to Lucie. Carton, who is Darnay's lookalike and bears the same great affection towards Lucie, is, however, Darnay's inner alter ego. In contrast with Darnay's ideal, Carton is real, and, when fleshed out by James Wilby with immense delicacies, this is the character that couldn't be more captivating. Most of the other characters are also well rendered, with maybe a weak line with Madame Defarge, whose hatred and thirsty for revenge is somewhat stiffly and superficially depicted.
.
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known", the drama ended with Carton walking towards the axe, while Lucie, Darnay, and their daughter riding towards their safe home. This is a most heroic and epic moment, a moment of glory in the midst of grief, and a moment of eternity in the midst of extermination.
1213839
Wow!  Adrian McKinty's "Dead I Well May Be" is a blistering rogue of a novel; an intelligently savage tale as melancholy as it is brutal - a fatalistic tour through upper Manhattan's mean streets which are pale and gentle against a Mexican prison's brand of hard-time.

Michael Forsythe flees native Ireland reluctantly but just ahead of the law to work for Darkie White, head of the Irish mob controlling the drug flow in one of Harlem's burned out hoods in the Wild West Days of David Dinkin's New York.  Michael has not yet turned 20, but he already has a lifetime behind him: a failed stint in the Army and veteran of Belfast's "Troubles", young Michael finds himself strangely at ease meting out violence to transgressors without discrimination to creed, race, or religion, while finding enough time for hard drinking and loose women.  But what could have been just another simple - if well told - tale of drugs and drug runners shooting each other up in the city takes a furiously unexpected turn down a desperate path of betrayal, survival, and  vengeance in an Odyssey-like journey that has the reader hanging on by the fingernails as McGinty lurches through twists and corners, each more shocking than the last.  Where Homer's Odysseus faces Scylla and Charybdis, young Michael has Dominicans and sadistic prison guards to deal with; Homer's Sirens are Micheal's Bridget, Darky's irresistible moll who launches Michael's voyage into Hell.  True to the fabled warrior-poets, McKinty's pen spins, despite the viciousness of the storyline, achingly beautiful prose.  Michael's fever-fed, hallucinogenic escape through the hurricane is poetry as a raw, open wound. But this is hardly Homer - it is much more readable and infinitely more disturbing - the kind of stuff the IRA likely reads for bedtime stories.

In young Michael Forsythe, McKinty creates the likable, flawed hero -  self educated and deeply literate, wisdom honed by days and nights on the streets - the learned thug who brings "War and Peace" - in audio form - with him on a stake out.  Masterful foreshadowing leads the way but only makes the anticipation greater, and while the climax comes as no surprise, the redemption is no less satisfying.

Part Cormac McCarthy, part Ken Bruen, with a hint of Charlie Huston and Dennis Lehane, Adrian McKinty is the most talented author I've never noticed - till now.  This is powerful fiction - unrepentant and unapologetic - and certainly not for the easily offended or feint of heart.  For me, can't wait to dive into the next two installments of the Michael Forsythe trilogy.  Bravo, Mr. McKinty!
2239363
The sheer humanity of this book took me unawares. This autobiography of a black man growing up fatherless in America at the end of the last century spoke to me even though I am a white woman with an intact family. The book's descriptions of the racism that people of color live with everyday showed me how insidious this construct is in our society. Because Michael's story is also an Everyman story.  He battles inner doubts, bad relationships and poor personal decisions just like all of us.  He describes friendships lost and gained, lovers jilted and grasping, relatives absent and faithful.  The raw emotions of these descriptions put me on the verge of tears, and that doesn't even count the poems. Real poems by real people, expressing their frustrations, hurts, hopes, and fears, are placed organically throughout the book and provide some of the most moving reading I have ever encountered.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to open his or her heart to another human being. A compelling read.
690647
...at once so self-absorbed and yet so self-aware that it's hard to separate the clearly very intelligent author from the stubbornly stupid characters. F Scott Fitzgerald writes with such sympathy and precise, ironic description that it's hard to believe that this isn't a roman a clef (even as he's acknowledged that many of his characters in this work and others are semi-autobiographical.) At first, I was somewhat bored and unconvinced by Gloria and Anthony and their romance, but as they descended into both physical and moral squalor, it became easier to view them as real people. Mr Fitzgerald makes such splendid, splendid choices with words and scenes: the ending, I thought, was really quite beautiful (and damned, if you'll pardon the turn of phrase.)

Took me a while to read, as I'm still getting used to my Kindle (that I heart!) but well worth the time.
2887825
A book about the raw horror of child abuse.  However, this book was not only about David Pelzer's abuse and the people who chose "not to get involved".  It is also about the people who cared, the kindness he  encountered and how those people made a difference in his life.  To all  those readers put off by the grammer, the questions left unanswered, all I  can say is GET OVER YOURSELVES.  A person would have to be completely  oblivious, simple and overly impressed with themselves to come out of this  book complaining about the grammer.  It was a real-life account, real life  doesn't always cross the t's and dot the i's.  As for the people  complaining about the unanswered questions; you assume Mr. Pelzer knows the  answers to those questions, perhaps he does not and never will.  He shows  the strength of the human spirit to overcome great adversity as well as the  importance one kindness can have in the life of another.  I was on the  fence about becoming a foster parent, or an adoptive parent prior to  reading this book.  Once finished, there was no question in my mind that I  will become a foster/adoptive parent.  I intend to make a difference in the  future of another person's life....the critics can keep correcting the  grammer, they miss the big picture.