Islands Out of Time is an engaging, compelling novel. The drama of the end of Atlantis is created through interesting characters and a complex scenario. The esoteric references are well woven through this well written novel. Thompson is a poet and an historian = he brings all his skills into the writing of this book. I wish he'd write more novels.

By the end of page 2 of Matt Ash's ISLANDS, the protagonist finds himself abandoned by his wife for a baby-faced tennis pro and fired from his position as History Professor for suggesting publicly that Fr. President should keep his cassock zipped. By the end of the short first chapter, we suspect that Matt is virtually friendless, cut off from as past he'd rather not remember and scrambling to survive by any means possible.

This is the first challenge that the reader has to face in this daring and disorienting novel: the protagonist is not your typical sympathetic first person narrator--the sensitive, honest romatic hero we all like to relate to. No--he's deliberately alienating, self-doubting and self-protective, ready to rationalize every failure and burn and slash everything and everyone around him with caustic wit. He distances himself from the reader as effectively as he has distanced himself from others in the novel. Nor is he a "reliable narrator." We know he's hiding something, but we're not sure what. When clues are dropped by Matt, they are often false. Whem questions are asked, he walks away. There are moments when every reader must wonder why anyone else in this novel has anything to do with him.

Yet that is the central magic of this novel: against our will and better judgment, we find ourselves caring about this guy. He reveals himself indirectly and inadvertently when he's trying to hide behind facades of toughness and sarcasm. We notice kindness, vulnerability, sympathy, and caring in scenes where he'd rather be seen as aloof and contemptuous. He is painfully honest when he's trying to be manipulative and smiles most broadly when his pain is deepest. As a lover, he is Cary Grant on the outside, but Woody Allen inside. Perhaps it is his veiled vulnerability that attracts us, or our growing recognition of the depth of pain he tries to hide. Maybe each of us relates to Matt's inner conflict between the desire to isolate himself from the complications of society--as a kind of "Man Who Loved Islands"--and the pull we all feel towards human community and love. Is Matt--are WE--willing to pay the price of pain and vulnerability and failure for the joy of community, the pleasure of love?

In the end, Matt Ash is the guy we hate to love, but love him you will.

ISLANDS, though, is more than a romance (though ultimately it is one), nor a psychological profile of 21st century ambiguity and uncertainty (though it that too). The novel is an odyssey, clearly borrowing its structure from Homer. Matt Ash, the character,is given a research project to explore the essence of "islandness," but it is unclear whether there is some mysterious plan or purpose behind the project defined by the Eisenhower Committee that sponsors it. What Matt Ash, the writer, does is to give each of ten islands a story or unique characteristic or mood that captures some element of the essence of the place: Prince Edward Island becomes a place of Gothic isolation, Venice of masks and mystery, Australia of the search for a distinct national character. Santa Catlalina is visited in the off season of winter; Hawaii remains hidden behind the games of lonely tourists seeking paradise. On the Isle d'Yeu in France, Ash finds the ancient joy of the telling of tall tales for curious strangers--all done with a tongue-in-cheek play on Alain Robbe-Grillet's sensational novel, THE VOYEUR. If Manhattan is a place of the seductions of lovers, Sicily--the key story--is the island where stoicism, realism and the hardest truths of human vulnerability are encountered directly. The result for Matt and for us is heartbreaking, but perhaps liberating as well.

Much of the joy of reading this painfully joyful novel is that the reader is kept constantly off guard, uncertain, surprised, caught in a detective novel--at once comic and perilous--in which the anticipated solutions are constantly kept doubtful and shifting. Whatever conclusion Matt himself will make, and what its consequences might be, the novel keeps pulling us forward as we travel the islands, enchantingly and beautifully evoked in a way no guide book could ever do.

ISLANDS, ISLANDS, ISLANDS, among the first publications of the innovative press, Superiorbook.com, has quickly gained a reputation as an underground favorite, particularly on campuses. It's a novel unlike anything you've ever read. Whatever else you may discover on this tour, I can promise you that you won't be bored. With the emergence of this Island, 2000 looks like a very good year.

I discovered this book while perusing through stacks of dusty volumes in a used book store in Santa Fe, NM in the mid 80's. Thinking that I knew something of the island's history, I commenced to explore chapter one. Two days later I emerged from a wonderful and educational experience that left me feeling less sure of my ethnocentric gringo attitude. Steiner had reached me and showed me a different side of the culture and people that I had made my own through marriage. If you know nothing of Puerto Rico or think you know a lot, read this book. I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did.
P.S. this is my first review so it may not follow traditional form but I really liked this book !!!

190 pp., 130 pp. of full color photographs, 16 pp of maps.
Slipcased. 10.75" x 12". Text and photos by Fernando Cervigon and Paolo Gasparini, Published by Fundacion Polar.

An astonishingly beautiful and expensively- produced book detailing the geography and life of the Caribbean Islands off the coast of Venezuela. There must be 250+ photographs, reproduced in the best possible color, probably half of them aerial.
The book shows life in the fishing villages, in the jungle, along the coast. An exhaustive survey of this little known area. It's a benchmark book of its type. Read this and you'll more about the area than anyone who lives there.

This is an exquisite book that far exceeds the imparting of information. It is indeed "fine art ". The photographs, maps, art and quality of paper are elegant. I was pleased to discover many photos that I do not have and wanted from my 2001 visit to Iona, as well as 'those of yore' that bring back memories of the King George V steamer and the unfinished abbey in 1954, my first visit. It represents a superb job of assembling a variety of images and perspectives. This is more than a tourist guide of landmarks and religious history as it also includes the natural beauty of birds, flowers and sea creatures, and life on the island. Even the inside cover is an artistic delight! Having already purchased Mr. de Watteville's STAFFA, I was especially eager to have this work. With 123 pages it is an excellent value, despite exchange rate and postage, because of its quality. Family and friends not only pick it up to peruse, but become engrossed in the text as well. This book is indeed a tribute to the spectacular isle of Iona.

A later edition of this book was published in 1994. The later edition has been broken down into 3 volumes by Oakwood Press. The 1994 edition has been rewritten with new material added that takes the history of the railway up to 1993. The later edition has also been broken down in to a diary of year by year account of significant events that have shaped the railway. Both the 1974 and the 1994 editions are very good reads and contain different texts there are some photographs that are common to both editions, and a good number that are unique to each publication

A coffee table size book with text and 65 4 color photos of the people and landscapes of the Out Islands of The Bahamas. Text relates the geographical, cultural and historical evidence present in the photos and words of the people. This history is only being preserved in words and song of the people. Read about the 'Shark Lady', the Bush Medicine man and other friendly faces from exotic places like 'Crooked Island', 'Great Exuma' and 'Farmers Cay'.

This is a beautiful and colorful re-telling of the Japanese folktale, Issunboshi, in English.

The oni, monsters in the story are pretty scary-looking, but my five- and seven-year-olds find the story exciting. The costumes and setting are from ancient Japan (Heian period,) and thus show another kind of kimono than that we often associate with Japanese tradition. The princess wears the twelve-layer kimono, like Masako-sama wore when she married the present Crown Prince of Japan. They also enjoy how he and his elderly parents cope with his minute size -- the use of a needle for a sword, and a bowl for a boat, capture their imagination. And they enjoy it all the more, because they`re familiar with the Japanese nursery song, included with translation at the back of the book, along with some additional illustrated information on ancient Japanese things.

Italians, including Sardinians and Sicilians, left their homeland by the millions between the French Revolution and the onset of World War II. Roughly 20,000,000 Italian migrants, about 10% of all long-distance migrants during those years, left for newer, more profitable worlds. The vast majority of the Italian migrants were unskilled workers and peasants, street traders, and owners of small parcels of land. Their search for wages prompted temporary migration but scattered them more widely than most other European and Asian migrants of the era. About half of the Italian migrants found work in Europe, approximately a third traveled to North America, and a quarter went to South America, while small, but significant numbers also worked in Australia and in North and South Africa. Once abroad, the largest groups were men who worked in construction, mining, and industry, or in plantation or other forms of large-scale, commercial agriculture.

During the 19th century, the creation of new nations and international mass migrations progressed along with the development of new labor movements. Many of these movements were based on the notion that class transcended national boundaries, "workers of the world unite," where an Italian anarchist proclaimed "there are no frontiers." Whether they were "sent" or "received" migrants, Italian or non-Italian, the nation-state was challenged from below (by the regionalism or ethnic diversity of their populations) and from above (by class-conscious and consciously internationalist labor movements). During and after World War I, nation-states increasingly resolved this tension by pressuring migrants to increase commitment and loyalty to one nation.

This is a fascinating study of the Italian workers of the world and how they saw themselves as Italians, part of the international workers of the world, and as assimilated immigrants in their new countries and what impact that had on the formation of those nation-states and Italy. Eleven experts from various universities and research institutions contributed to this book. Two segments are about Italian nationalism in the age of exile and labor migration, 1789-1880. Five segments look at class, nation, and internationalism in an era of proletarian mass migration, 1870-1920. The last four segments look at antifascism as an international movement.

If you ever wanted to put the Italian-American (United States) immigrant movement in perspective, this book will certainly help.

Very well written and illustrated ( by the authors wife). My grandson , who is fascinated with bugs and lizards, loves the story. Written by a resident of and about a lizard in the USVI. A fun and educational story.He lives on St Thomas.