'Salo' is a prominent in that select group of 'scandalous' 1970s films (e.g. 'Straw Dogs', 'In the Realm of the Senses') which retains the power to shock, appal, unnerve today (although I personally found 'Salo' more numbing that anything). Pasolini's last film before his brutal murder in 1975, it is a transplanting of the Marquis de Sade's infamous 1785 novel to the dying days of Fascist Italy, in which four prominent figures (a bishop, an aristocrat, a banker and a judge) retire to an abandoned villa with soldiers, courtesans, collaborators and 18 slaves to indulge in a ritualised orgy of sexual excess, faecal banquets, storytelling, torture and murder.

Gary Indiana's monograph starts well, with a number of apparent digressions effectively contextualising 'Salo': the author's first encounter with the film in the ... L.A. of the 1970s; 'Salo''s place at the culmination of Pasolini's career (with a clear-eyed appraisal of that career, and the personal and political biography that was inseperable from it); 'Salo''s status as the last major art-movie, released in the same year as 'Jaws' destroyed auteurism, independence and experiment forever (a development Indiana bracingly rants against).

Indiana is very good on Pasolini's contradictions, his courage and frequent dislikability, his style of 'contamination' (e.g. interspersing 'real' actors in a predominantly unprofessional cast; his recourse to pastiche and allusion) and some of his major themes - the lingering fascism in the soulless corruption of consumerist society and its debasing of the human body; the superiority of pre-industrial rusticity etc.

But when he gets to the film itself, Indiana opts for a lengthy description of its plot with occasional asides. As so often in this series (and the BFI classics), the lack of systematic criticism (from non-film-academic/critics)leads to a frustratingly bitty stu.

I ordered this book thinking it would be filled with illustrations and photographs of the beautiful University of Notre Dame campus (and its trees, shrubs and vines). Because there were no reviews, I took a risk in ordering the book. Unfortunately, there were no pictures and I was very disappointed. So, for those of you who are looking for a picture book, don't buy this one. However, although I am not going to read it, this book does seem to have a lot of information on the types of plants around the campus. Such information includes history, economic uses, horticulture characteristics, and natural distribution, as well as branch and leaf features, flower and fruit characteristics, and botanical information that can be used to identify plants. This book should be read by those who are interested in the complexities of plant life. I hope I have been of some help because if there were a comment such as mine when I was searching for a book, I would have never ordered this one. But I was looking for something completely different. I do feel, on the flip side that this book has more information about plants than I have ever seen. Therefore, if you want to learn a lot about plantlife, buy this book!

Even though the name of the book states Indiana and adjacent states, this book tends to mostly talk of plants found in Indiana. It includes a map of the 8 areas the state has been divided into according to the landscape, in addition to a map of all the counties. It could use actual photos, however, instead of drawings of the plants. The ideas given for uses of the wild plants for food are basic, but good. It tells the season each plant can be found and used safely, but this book is more for those who know what to look for in the plants already compared to a beginner- in my opinion. If I was a beginner in wild plant foraging, I would look elsewhere for a better photo of a plant before attempting to use it for eating. A good book with photos (even though some are in black & white), and better information on wild plants would be, in my opinion, Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide by Thomas S. Elias & Peter A. Dykeman.

Young Indiana Jones and the Face of the Dragon
by: William McCay is about two people and there adventures. Indy and Dr. Jones (Indy's dad) start their adventure on a cruise ship heading to the coast of Japan. When they arrive military forces cut them off. Their ship had to take a detour to the slumps of Japan. They both end up living in a weird hotel. Indy find something mysterious item in his bag. What he doesn't know is that the item is a good luck charm and helps them through the journey.

Indy is/was the most interesting character in my own opinion. Indy is exciting and adventurous. On the other hand Dr.Jones is the complete opposite. He is dull and doesn't get involved. The theme of the story is that good people get good things. I believed this is the theme because the mysterious item Indy found gives him good luck. What I liked about the book was the plot, it was very exciting and was a little scary. What I didn't like about the book is was the ending and the dialogue. The dialogue was hard to understand and the ending came way to fast and also was really predictable.

I thought the authors way of writing made the book fun to read. He will keep you interested and the descriptions of the characters are very good. The writing and vocab is a little hard to understand. Some of the books words are hard to understand because of the foreign words. Most of the book was hard to relate to. I think the appropriate age for this book is 9-12 because of mild language and violence. I would recommend this book to kids who hates to read and like mysteries. I gave this book *** stars.

I really love Indy. Have the movies, the soundtracks, the books, the comics, the pc games... man, I'm crazy about this archeologist.

But, where is Indy in this Martin Caidin's novel? I wonder if he ever saw the films! His Indy looks more like James Bond or McGyver.

I know that new stories with Indy need knew enemies, new scenarios and knew plots... but, for God's sake, respect the character! You cam't just create an empty character and call him Indiana Jones!!!

But the truth is... true Indy you can only find in the 3 movies.

After having read all the previous books in the IJ series, this one was a huge disappointment. Caidin's Indiana Jones is nothing like the Indy we all know and love from the movies and the book series. Furthermore, the author continually strays from the storyline established in the first several novels. One wonders if he even read all of them before attempting his story. He also seems more interested in developing a story about early 20th c. aviation and poorly-written spy capers than in writing about everybody's favorite archaeologist. I have read better fan-fic than this one.

... In short, this book was a huge dissapointment.

This book had great chracters for example: Tarkiz Belem- Indy's bodyguard, William Cromwell- pilot and ace war hero, Rene Foulis- another ace fighter in world war I, and Gale Parker- Indy's friend. This book was extrodanerily smart and action packed! The only complaint was that Indy just isn't Indy in this book. But I give it a 5!

I was the model for Mickey Landry in Indiana's latest faction. Having actually been on the Kimes case before Kimes became chic, I must say that the satirical portrayal of this deadly mother son team, does nothing but trivialize their crimes. I would rather see thought provoking exploration into how the mind of a female predator works. What makes Sante Kimes tick? What could have possibly happened to her to create such a monster. She is not a comic character, or some sort of twisted folk hero. She is truly evil. The style of Indiana's writing is not what bothered me, rather it was the flippant treatment of quiet, seething and pathological evil which is glorified and its victims satirized.

The idea of writing a fictionalized account of the Santee Kimes case is a good one. As is often mentioned, truth is stranger than fiction and sometimes more interesting too. That's especially true of a case so depraved and evil as this one. In fact, I would worry if someone could make up what happened in this case without knowing the previous facts.

Gary Indiana is a very talented writer and communicator and he proves it through much of this book. The problem is that he isn't always that consistent. There were times when I marvelled at how vividly he described a character or a scene. There were times when I couldn't put the book down because the action of what was being told was so compelling.

Unfortunately there were also a number of times when I had to put the book down and re-read passages to figure out where I was in the story. I know some of the is done for effect and is part of his style, but there are times when I think that he needs to pay a little more attention to the actual craft and discipline of being a writer. While Indiana is describing events that are hard to reconstruct and retell and that he does so in different voice, he could have made it easier to read at times.

With that criticism, I still might seek out the other two books of this trilogy. Depraved Indifference can not be considered as high-minded literature; in fact, it's about as lurid of a book you'll ever find. Still, I'm drawn to it and think Indiana demonstrates unique talent.

In summary, I guess I would recommend the book with my qualifications and look forward to new work in the future.

the darkest sides of human nature are not always easy to look at - but there is a value in doing so. and there is a value to those storytellers amongst us who can live inside the heads of characters as venal, narcissistic and evil as these.

i loved Indiana's writing. his descriptions of, say, the industrial wastelands of newark, new jersey are downright beautiful, and surprising, drawing parallels between the characters in the novel and the environments they find themselves, and besides I like a good run on sentence since I'm not the sort of person who believes in strict formulas or is immune to the charms of an idiosyncratic intellect suffused with style exercising little restraint in turning a phrase.

not a book for everyone, but I for one will be seeking out and reading other works from Indiana.

Still haunted by scenes I wish I'd never encountered. A comedy? Not even an amusing satire.

In "Resentment," Gary Indiana brings a writer on an oddessy through Los Angeles during the time of the "Martinez Brothers' Trial" a/k/a 'the Trial of Lyle and Eric Melendez.'

Other than managing to keep my interest in the book in Indiana's humorous presentation of the Martinez trial -- especially a rocklingly funny, albeit tasteless, crime scene analyst called to testify for the defense -- who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome -- I could not find myself very interested in the odd sub-stories taking place during the same period.

While there was layer upon layer of sidebar stories woven into the Melendez trial -- each involving supposed life in Los Angeles; a life of bizarre relationships, mindlessness, drug altered thinking, AIDS, and all kinds of other issues -- these stories failed to be coherent or even interesting.

Indiana might best have served the reader by simply covering the "Martinez trial;"his humor brought to this portion of the story offers lots of insight into the ridiculous angles of defense strategy, which did in fact surround the real trial of the deadly duo!

Overall, kind of weak and very disjointed, but worth a read if you followed, and continue to be interested in, various points of view on the Menendez brothers' and their twisted lives.

Like some 19th century Russian, Indiana grapples with BIG issues of morality and the human condition. In his epic vision, Los Angeles comes across like Mortville, the nightmare town from John Waters' masterpiece Desperate Living. The hapless characters, each rendered frighteningly believable by witty, insightful prose, are all on collision courses with each other's wanton perversity and unchecked megalomania. Wickedly funny and unsentimental, Indiana is never unempathetic as he unflinchingly depicts the car crash of contemporary society. Can't we all get along? Perhaps not.

A trash book, pure and simple. "Boilerblotto" below is typical of Purdue fans...

This guy is right on the money. I spent a year in Indiana, and these morons think they're the only place on the globe, only the whole place [is bad]. Bloomington is like a regular college town without all the fun and attractive people. ...

Anyone who knows what kind of trash Bobby Knight spews and what a joke Indiana University is will get hours of laughs from this. A great party starter/coffee-table reader!

First, just to set the records straight - Milan wasn't the underdogs that the movie "Hoosiers" made them out to be. They should have won the State Championship in 1953, but they were overconfident (they lost in the championship game).

The book is very disappointing. It's a very dry history of the team. It's not poorly written, but it's not as exciting as I had hoped. I would suggest only getting it as an addition to a collection of other Indiana High School books.

I grew up with this story and would recommend "A Boy, A Ball, and A Dream: The Marvin Wood Story" Marvin Wood was the coach of the '54 Milan Indians.

If you're a basketball fan, you gotta love the concept of the '54 Milan team; underdogs take all in THE high school basketball tourny. But this book is hard to read; I had to fight to make it through the repetitious phrasing and metaphors. And the organization is a bit odd. First an overview, then the '53 season, then the '54 season, followed by biographical chapters for each of the players. You would've though the bio chapters would come first.....at least it would do a lot more for the flow of the book. Recommended only for the most die-hard HS basketball historians.

I had the good fortune to talk at length with the book's author. I asked him why people wanted to read about Milan. He said Milan was the ultamite underdog. He drove to each of the players' homes and interviewed each of them for a day. As good as the movie? No...but you'll hear the players themselves speak.

As a big fan of the Father Dowling series, I was very disappointed in this first book of a new series. For me, the story was dull. I didn't care who committed the murder, and I cared less about Phil and Roger who were investigating. I couldn't recommend this novel.

A good yarn, good plot, some interesting characters, but so badly written that I wonder if the author bothered to go back over what appears to be a first draft. Has he ever heard of a transition? Where were his editors? It did though drive to Amazon to look for an up-to-date Rockne bio (one due out this month) and found to my amazement a listing for a novel written by Rockne that figures in this murder mystery.

I must commend McInerny for putting himself at risk by attempting to intermingle a modern fictional work with the time-honored tradition that is Notre Dame. As an alum, myself, it was amusing to read about my old stomping grounds, but I found the references to the Notre Dame campus, buildings, tradition and environs to be distracting at times. McInerny seems to be forcing discussion of Notre Dame history through his characters, incorporating wording and phraseology that few would use in daily conversation. The plot seemed rushed, and I believe that those who have never seen the beauty of the campus would be hard pressed to understand where and why certain actions take place. Notre Dame tradition is deeply rooted and anyone writing about it can be assured to receive criticism or praise from fans and alumni alike. McInerny's brave attempt at bringing this tradition into a fictitional realm is only mediocre, and I hope that in future books of this series, his results are more entertaining and intriguin