Walton's book, while wonderfully written, has several glaring errors that make one question whether he bothered to keep his facts straight on the events taking place in his book. For instance, in the opening paragraph of the book, the author crosses the bridge from Concordia "County," Louisiana into Natchez, MS. Any self-respecting Southerner knows that Louisiana has parishes, not counties. In addition, he talks of Charles Evers, brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, as longtime mayor of Philadephia, MS. Actually, Evers was mayor of Fayette, MS, which is quite a long way from Philadelphia. I enjoyed the book, but I found myself wondering how much of it was accurate. As a native Missippian, his family story tugs at my heartstrings and leaves me wondering if things will ever change in my home state. I only wish I could trust his story to be true.

This is purer in its idea than in its executiion, but the story of an African-American man travelling back to Mississippi offers many interesting observations about race and history. I especially enjoyed all the quotes, excerpts he provided.

HAVING GROWN UP IN LAUREL, MISSISSIPPI, A TOWN OF APPROXIMATELY 20,000 IN THE STATE'S SOUTHERN END, I WAS PLEASED TO FIND ANTHONY WALTON'S BOOK SPEAK NOT ONLY TO THE COMPLEX HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI AND IT'S RACE RELATIONS, BUT THE PRESENT - AND HOW THE PAST DOES (OR FOR SOME FOLKS DOES NOT) INFORM THE PRESENT. HE WEAVES AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY WITH THE LARGER HISTORY OF THE NATION AND WITH REMINISCINGS WHICH, ALL TOGETHER, SPELL OUT A SMART AND HEART-FELT PORTRAIT OF THE IMMEASURABLY DIFFICULT TRANSITION FROM THE DAYS OF THE "PECULIAR INSTITUTION". IS MISSISSIPPI INTEGRATED TODAY? NOT BY A LONG STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION. BUT WALTON HELPS US TO PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE - ALLOWING US TO WITNESS THE HORROR OF THE PAST AS WELL AS HELPING US TO REALIZE THAT CHANGE - ESPECIALLY IMMMENSE CHANGE - TAKES DECADES, IF NOT CENTURIES. INSIGHTFUL, WARM, AND HIGHLY READABLE.

I was intrigued by the promise of this novel, billed as BBW (Big Beautiful Women)-friendly. Soon lulled by undeveloped characters and boorish academia, I skipped to the end. I was horrified to discover the insensitive anti-fat ending. The stuff of schoolchildren mockings. Great. More fat abasement to perpetuate already biased stereotypes. Here was an opportunity to promote an engaging piece about warm, caring, sexy love with a BBW. Instead of BBW-loving being embraced as a healthy relationship, it was placed in the same category as masochism and dreams of loving in a leper colony. This book is not BBW-friendly and in fact, quite the opposite.
I absolutely do not recommend this book to BBWs, FAs or other culturally progressive folks looking for a good read.

I read FLESH in less than a week. It is a wonderful book the flows like a conversation. It is filled with accurate descriptions of academia, descents into voyeruism and other fetishes, and wonderful words (keep a dictionary handy-this book is a vocabulary builder). You follow the narrator's story without pause, waiting for the questions he brings up to be answered. You're on the edge waiting for answers until the last ten pages of the novel, but when the story ends you're still intrigued waiting for more definite answers. It is intelligent erotica with great "Fish out of water" descriptons. Read it despite the ending.

A crisp, lively story with interesting characters and fascinating psychological turns. The satire of academe is delicious. Max's diary, revealed toward the end of the novel, is a gem worth waiting for. I liked this book a lot. Galef is both funny and profound.

Volume I: Pike exhaustively recounts his daily activities on board. In almost no instance except for the frigid winter is there much drama or dialogue between he and his men. Even when he reaches what he thinks is the source of the Mississippi, he is actually mistaken, though "correct" as far as the assumptions of the day. Toward the head of the river, it is difficult to assess where Pike even is without the notes (which in themselves almost swallow the book, but of sheer necessity to the reading). We reach the headwaters of the river and return to St Louis without much fanfare or dialogue, save that Pike spoke with the English fur traders near the source and explained America's new ownership of the territory (one of his objectives).

Volume II: In this volume Pike is no better. There is an extremely boring journey across Kansas and into Colorado, and he the real drama sets in. Pike and his men are without winter clothing and now in the Colorado Rockies. The frostbite on some of his men forces them to stay behind, unable to continue. This occurs day after day, week after week, until the expedition reaches what is believed to be the source of the Arkansas River. Otherwise the volume meekly runs through Pike's capture by Spanish authorities and his return to the U.S. via Spanish escort. This last is a daily log of conversations with French or Spanish military figures, and of little interest in general.

This review refers to Volume Two. Although at times quite verbose and long-winded (due to the historical notation), the book did illustrate the adventure and hardships of early American explorers, along with political intrigue between Spanish and American relationships in the early 1800's. Pike left St. Louis in 1806 to explore the present southwestern United States.He and his men suffered and endured many misfortunes and hardships while in the Colorado mountains, then only to be arrested by Spanish authorities for trespassing into their territory. I suppose the debate will go on forever, did Pike intentionally get arrested in order to further explore Mexico so that the American government would be more enlightened as to their culture, military strengths and weaknesses, geography, trade possibilities, economy,etc.? It is a creditable, thorough and absorbing account of early American western history.

I was not impressed. What I thought would be a thorough treatment of Till's lynching was instead a collection of others' work. So many different points of view makes it impossible to read as a narrative or as history. Interesting, yes, and the book has its place as a source of accounts written at the time of the murder and trial, but other books do a better job of presenting a complete account. If you get this book as a companion piece to other works, do yourself a favor and skip the author's commentary.

Some might say the 1950s should provide the history, while we in the 21st century provide the analysis -- particularly in matters of race, where the discourse of fifty years ago might be thought too embryonic to add anything to today's sophisticated discussions. Think again. More than half the pages of Chris Metress's 'The Lynching of Emmett Till' are devoted to writings contemporary with the famous case. These pieces display not only the passion and immediacy you would expect -- and which are invaluable for the modern reader -- but also great shrewdness, subtlety, and eloquence, as they report on what one writer calls a "total, unavenged obliteration." (Not every contributor is sympathetic to Till, by the way; just one example is an announcement from the American Anti-Communist Militia claiming that Till is alive and well in California!)

The rest of the book, made up of pieces written in the years since, shows how the Till tragedy has lingered in the American imagination and conscience. Metress collects remarkable meditations on the Till case by Anne Moody, John Edgar Wideman, Langston Hughes, among others. It is quite incredible how Till has loomed in these writers' thoughts. (The book even includes a really awful - and, fortunately, disowned -- song by Bob Dylan.)

Metress's commentary fully situates the reader in all the various contexts but is never overbearing. This is a book of voices; Metress is a superb listener.

While Heck creates a decent Twain for his book, the rest is a sorry excuse for a mystery. An obvious villain and an insipid narrator make for a painful read. If not for a decent grasp of Twain's general demeanor and commentary this book would have been unreadable. A good idea but the execution does not make me want to see if the author grows into a better mystery writer.

William Wentworth Cabot has just graduated from Yale, and for his first job, he becomes Mark Twain's traveling secretary. Interested in travel, Wentworth is over his head when a body is found in New York with Mark Twain's name in his pocket. Does it have anything to do with Twain's plans to dig up a fortune in gold mid-trip? And is the killer on board their ship all the way on the Mississippi?

This book is an enjoyable jaunt down the Mississippi with Mark Twain on a riverboat. The main characters were enjoyable, and I especially enjoyed the portrayal of Twain. The plot was a little weak, however. The information on riverboats and the river was interesting, but too much attention was paid to it, with little advancing the story. Still, once a second body is found, the plot kicks into high gear. I was caught off guard by the revelation of the killer, but everything fit together logically.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the books in this historic mystery series.

Anyone who is a fan of Mark Twain will enjoy this book. This delightful debut of Detective Clemens includes an exciting riverboat trip on the Mississippi, a tale of buried treasure, a gang of tricky gamblers, and tons of period detail. Peter J. Heck's portrayal of Twain is every bit believable from his quick wit to his southern drawl. He and his traveling secretary, Wentworth Cabot, make an unusual team. I found this book to be suspenseful, entertaining, and informative. It left me wanting to read more.

This book brought back memories of my past childhood. I was very excitied to see my father mentioned in the book. I think my cousin has done a wonderful job in the research and writing of this book. I am very proud of him.

Edward Lepoma has written a wonderful book, well researched and beautifully written. At last we know the influences that shaped Mary Mahoney into the great person she was. It was obviously written by someone who understood Mary but who was not blind to her faults.

I am a long time friend of the author and became acquainted with Mary Mahoney and her restaurant through him. Mary was indeed larger than life and the author has captured this in his book. This is an excellent biography. It is well researched and presents a true picture of a great lady, warts and all. Mary was loyal to her heritage, friends, family, city and her religion. She is still sorely missed as hostess, friend and benefactor by everyone she touched in her joyful life. You will laugh and you will cry as you read this book.

This book is fairly essential to those interested in the music of Patton and his contemporaries, as it is based on the comprehensive research on the subject by Gayle Dean Wardlow, research which is largely unavailable elsewhere. Unfortunately, Calt's presentation of this information is poor at best, and downright malicious at times. His writing is typically peppered with ad homien attacks at his subjects, and this book is no exception. The book is also in desperate need of thorough editing... one sometimes wonders how it got published at all.

Calt denigrates almost every other bluesman of that time and place--except, perhaps, Robert Johnson. Still, the book contains invaluable information about an elusive subject. Anyone who admires Patton's work and is interested in the period should be able to tolerate Calt's excesses. His bile is put to better use in his bio of Skip James--whom Calt knew personally. That very quirky (and sometimes fascinating) book becomes as much a study of the author as of his subject. And they deserved each other.

This book is the final word in the elusive character known as Charley Patton. Gayle Dean Wardlow's exhaustive research and Steven Calt's vivid presentation create a text which I have read and re-read dozens of times. Unlike biased hacks such as David Evans , the two authors give a balanced , even handed portrait of "Papa Charley" , the greatest blues artist the Mississippi delta has ever produced....and that's saying something.

I want to be sympathetic to an established writer, so John Eastman's review from Jan, 99 sums it up for me in every detail. I ate up the History in his book, which was my reason for reading, but the kid stuff drove me crazy (I've got some of my own), and the writing, exclusive of the historical part, was bad. I think all poor Dan Spurr needed was a good honest editor.

This book is as much, or more, of a parental odyssey than a historical one. What information Spurr presents on LaSalle and current thinking and research about this fascinating French explorer is solid and intriguing. Far less engaging, at least to this reader, is Spurr's own family story. Long, dreary episodes tell us considerably more than we want to know about father, mother, and children (his wife mercifully escapes our scrutiny); he even quotes at length some of the clever little bedtime stories he makes up for his son. While all of this wordage is significant to him, no doubt -- and even mildly interesting, perhaps, to other daddies and mommies -- it provides a less than enchanting gift to the general reader. The book belongs on the parents' shelf of "what I did with my kids last summer" rather than with serious historical travelogs. One comes away with the impression that the relatively minor focus on LaSalle emerged as an incidental by-product of a family jaunt. Also, Spurr is not an especially gifted writer, making some of his too-frequent, ruminative, pretentiously insightful passages less than crystalline at best, murky and obscure at worst. Unfortunately, his prose comes alive only when he's discussing his boat or his kids. We learn precious little about the mighty river itself, its dwellers and endless permutations. Spurr's bankside activities mostly revolve around acquiring fuel for his boat. Still, Spurr's book is worth reading for its useful gleanings about current discoveries relating to LaSalle -- one must just tread a lot of water in order to find the good stuff.

When I saw La Salle in the title, I was almost put off this book, but I am glad I took the time to look a bit further. Being a Mississippi River travelog buff, I hoped to find something of interst in this book and indeed I did. Skipping all the entries on La Salle and focusing only on Daniel Spurr's here and now story, I felt as if I were traveling along with him as "a fly on the wall" in the cramped quarters of Spurr's boat, Pearl. The author and his family seemed to be involved with the waters and the banks of this river as opposed to just skimming past to be getting somewhere. I empathized with the author over the myriad uncertainties, irritations and feelings of guilt that go hand-in-hand with parenting. I understood the deisre to introduce his young son to a world far removed from the two-dimensional-virtual-reality vortex Steve was fast becoming addicted to. Travel can be about getting away from or going toward, but I think this story was ultimately about going along WITH. And in this case, I think Mr. Spurr and his children were traveling in spirit with the son Peter, who died in a train accident. I felt a deep heartache coming through in Spurr's words, but also his hope of renewal and his sense of the circle of life. Pre-America barely exisits anymore within the 48 contiguous states, but along the banks of The Mississippi, this author came close to finding it, in spirit and in fact.

i

i have a deep appreciation for fine literature and unfortunately this just isn't it. the themes were obvious and irritating. i found it superficial and thoroughly uninteresting. None of the characters were fully developed and although extremely short, i found it difficult to complete it.

In her first piece of full-length fiction (more of a novella than a novel), Eudora Welty has taken a Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same title, set it along the Natchez Trace in Mississippi, added a couple of legendary Southern outlaws (including the notorious Harp Brothers, one of whom is represented only by his severed head), and stirred in a good measure of Southern humor. The result is a wickedly funny (if slight) adult fantasy, complete with the usual cast: a beautiful young girl, a stepmother, and a good number of Disneyesque dimwits. There are no hidden meanings or surprise plot twists--this is just a fanciful yarn cleverly told with great wit and style.

This lovely novella introduced Eudora Welty to the world. Now it can introduce you to Eudora Welty. A raucous, genre-bending mixture of historical fiction, romance novel, and tall tale -- all shot through with the compassion and psychological subtlety for which Welty would become famous -- _The Robber Bridegroom_ still holds a place of honor in Southern literature.