As others have noted, this book is particularly helpful when trying to understand Flaubert and his other works. The popularly read Madame Bovary in particular features a character, Homais, who continually tries to impose his own ideas about religeon on people who aren't even interested in listening... it is interesting to see, though, where views similar to Homais' come out in the Temptation of St. Anthony.

The work itself is written like a play, though to do this on stage would be an interesting feat. It would perhaps better take the form of film, such as Bunuel's Simon in the Desert.

For those interested in getting in to studying early Christian movements following the death of Christ, although this will hardly serve as a textbook, Flaubert seems to have had a broad repetoir of little known (today, at least) historical facts and facets that will help point an aspiring student in the right direction.

Though hardly light reading, and probably of little appeal to those who do not have an interest in either Flaubert, French literature, or religeon, the trials and tribulations Antony is subjected to through one night of temptation will be at the least entertaining, if not enlightening, to a few.

This is a work that should not be neglected by those interested in Flaubert or by lovers of French Literature. It's format resembles an old-fashioned cyclorama, which was basically a revolving canvas, portraying various interpretive images to an audience that would be seated in the middle of a room. Or it may recall the same period's "magic lantern" which would produce a similar effect, projecting a series of images on a flat wall, the precursor of modern cinema.

Flaubert ushered in an entirely new sensibility to the world of letters. He reinvented the concept of the literary artist as word-and world shaper. The word is the world and vice-versa. No writer ever engaged in such a Herculean struggle to shape every word, every sentence, every image, every assonance or consonance to perfectly conform to his intention.

Flaubert engaged in a kind of ascetisism his entire adult life, which is hardly news, but is central to an understanding of this work and to his attraction towards St. Anthony for a protagonist. Flaubert was for many years a kind of hermit in his study at Croisset, where he retired to his study to read books and write novels. He had contact with his mother and adopted niece and wrote letters to a mistress (Louise Collet, and later to George Sand) along with a few male friends. He would make brief sojourns into Paris, but for the most part, stayed to himself in his provincial hideaway. What he dreamt of there, besides his most famous works (Madame Bovary and L'Education Sentimentale) were reveries such as this novel and Salammbo, another book set in the Near-East and equally evocative in terms of his treatment of that region's sensual and Byzantine richness.

"The Temptation" sparkles with some of Flaubert's most carefully and lovingly constructed imagery. It is the author's own homage to the fertility of his imagination. He never fathered a child literally that we know of, but this work and Salammbo were his ways of saying that he was fertile in all other respects. Each passing personage or creature is a seed sewn by this father of imagery.

One of the most senseless and ill-informed utterances in the annals of criticism is Proust's comment that Flaubert never created one memorable metaphor. Flaubert's entire cannon is one vast metaphor. They are evident in every sentence and every passage of every novel he ever wrote. This is particularly true in this work, as any informed reader will no doubt conclude after reading it.

One other area of recommendation extends to students of Gnosticism. Flaubert encapsulates much of the central theories of the early Gnostic Fathers and Apostles in a few well-delineated characterisations and brush strokes. I would also recommend the Penguin edition, edited and translated by Kitty Mrosovsky, for her introduction and notes. The only drawback I have with her is that she portrays Henry James as denigrating Flaubert's work, where in fact he generally effusively praises it. To those who can read it in its original text, I can only say I envy you and wish I were there.

This is a startling and brilliant piece of prose poetry that deserves to be more widely read; just don't expect anything like his more conventional novels. Indeed, don't read it expecting a novel at all; it reads more like a cross between modernist poetry and Medieval vision literature.

Marshall's First hand account of Pork Chop Hill remains one of our most gripping account of this snapshot of the Korean War. The first hand stories from the front line grunts and officers offer an amazing look into who made up our front line.

Marshall starts this account of Pork Chop Hill's defense, loss, and the fight to regain it at a run. Two other battles on the same front line are told to set the stage of the command climate and the events building to the battle for Pork Chop. While these two accounts (one a repulse of the Chinese and one a loss of an outpost) set the tactical stage for the Battle of Pork Chop Hill, a reader unfamiliar with the Korean war and what stage of the war this battle occurs in will be lost by his original account.

As Marshall tells the story of what happened on Pork Chop he gives a vivid description of what occured from the perspective of the survivors from each platoon. The flavor of battle is retold well thru his account. What is conveyed most is that there really is no way a person can understand the exhaustion and effort put forth by the men involved.

A couple of interesting anachronisms show up in his near fifty year old telling. His careful censorship of the language use by the soldiers is unfortunate. Granted, if he used the language that soldiers really used, he couldn't get his book published in the fifties. However, the attempt at artfully dancing around what the soldiers really said is a little annoying. So on one hand the censorship was required to get the book out in the day it was written, while on the other it lessens the blunt accuracy of the account. In a similar vein, the other oddity I found was how easily the derogitory language towards the Chinese flowed. There was even this one passage where an obviously Chinese American soldiers was refering to the enemy as "Chinks." Again a reflection of the times

Marshall's spellbinding version of the battle of Pork Chop Hill remains one of the most comprehensive books about military strategy and ground combat ever written. War veterans and military strategists would love this book.

April 1953, while peace talks continue in Panmunjom, Korea, only 70 miles away the battle of Pork Chop Hill raged. Marshall's book analyzes of one of the last battles of the War to be fought--Pork Chop Hill. Someone not familiar with what stage of the war this battle occurs may be lost by its significance. Marshall's story is about the senseless loss of lives in a battle that had no real military significance. It is recounted from the perspective of surviving soldiers through interviews immediately following the fighting.

Marshall, as a war correspondent and military operations analysis officer, is directed by the military to interview the front line men, on the battlefield, in order to make recommendations to military command of anyone deserving medals. In doing so, Marshall conveys the excruciating effort put forth by American soldiers against crafty Red Chinese, who were familiar with hillside, secret underground tunnels and well-camouflaged holes to aid in the hand-to-hand combat. Most American soldiers, recently rotated to the platoon, had not acquainted themselves with the terrain and even became lost during the night advance. At a disadvantage and exhausted, some soldiers hid in the bunkers, not even firing their rifles at the enemy.

Marshall states in his book "Compared to Gettysburg or the Ardennes, Pork Chop Hill was hardly more than a skirmish. But within the force that engaged, losses were unusually heavy."
Marshall uses this analogy to emphasize the excessive casualties for a relatively minor battle. Marshall relates how American press rushed to cover the battle at Freedom Village (that was occurring simultaneously), which left the heroism and sacrifices at Pork Chop Hill unreported. Marshall states: "The neglect" from the press was worse because a few weeks earlier the 7th Infantry had been lambasted for the loss of Old Baldy and the staging Operation Smack. They had been described as weary, slipshod, demoralized troops, and, while the Pork Chop Hill fight was on, this caustic criticism from home was repeated over Red Chinese loudspeakers to the American fighters." Psychological propaganda, a common tactic used by the Red Chinese, blasted belittling statements about the American's over loudspeakers positioned directly on the battlefield.

Marshall prints the derogatory language used by soldiers in referring to the Red Chinese as "Chinks". However, quotes from the soldier's themselves are devoid of vulgarities, lessening the emotional effect, but necessary for a book written in the early 50's to be published. This book is a factual, chronological progression of the battle, containing great detail about military tactics, and an almost matter-of-fact account of injuries and deaths.

I do not prefer this type of book because as the reader I was not able to make any emotional attachment to any single character. It seemed as though this book lacked any real plot and was written strictly to retell this struggle of power between the United Nations and the Red Chinese.

The Korean War was once considered a "police action," but to the thousand of brave soldiers, who lost their lives and survived, it was a war.

This book ahowed me what happened at this battle and how terrible it really was

This book wasn't at all what I expected. Every other sentence begins with "God" and it's not helpful at all for someone who's getting divorced that is not religious or not Christian, for that matter! The advice given by this book such as "group prayer" is wholly based on the Bible and not professional experience. I'm not bashing books based on religion, I just wished I had known this was one.

When going through a divorce, friends and family members sometimes say things that are well intended, but hurtful. Sometimes people say little or nothing because they don't know what to say. This book is an excellent guide to help readers understand how to offer support during this difficult time.

This book has psychologically and spiritually sound advise in a framework that helps to ease the chaos and focus the reader on coping & dealing with the reality of this tragic life experience. ...........Steve Millbern, Divorce Care Leadership ................Saddleback Valley Community Church

If your entire life revolves around action movies chances are (a) you're dumb (b) a virgin or (c) entombed in your own little comic book world. Marshall Julius shows all of these traits in this book. I also suspect that his grasp of beauty anf beauty in film would easily fit onto the back of a postage stamp.

His assertion that 'Singing In The Rain' would have been a better film if it had ended 'in a bloodbath, Gene Kelly's guts exposed in a tchnicolor (sic) flash of violence' is plain stupid. As is his rather immature wish that 'one day all films will have the depth of plot and strength of character' as 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'.

To conclude, this book is to serious film literature what Jackie Collins is to highbrow fition. Makes a great doorweight though!

You know you're in for he-man reading from the pic of Robocop on the cover! Marshal Julius doesn't just give a high- testosterone rating to a movie if it's JUST action; he weighs the pros and cons of what makes an action film bad or good. If the plot or performances are off-key, he tells you---like his review of "The Chinese Connection" mentions that whereas Bruce Lee is extraordinary, the movie's production values are sub- standard. I'll admit I disagree with Julius' high rating of "Flash Gordon" (with Sam Jones and Max von Sydow), but he's well on-the-mark with the rest of the reviews. And check out the action- star bios peppered throughout!!!

"Vengeful cops, and car chases, lunatic villains and martial-arts masters, male-bonding, ginfights and super secret agents, swords and sorcerors, wartime Nazi-bashing, boys' own adventures, casual destruction and general death-defiance..." (from the Introduction).
That's the stuff; over 250 movies reviewed and rated from one mini-gun to the five-gun action whoppers (such as RoboCop and Die Hard). From James Bond to Topper Harley, they're all here in all their butt-kickin' splendor.
Highly recommended for the action movie buff, or student of contemporary American culture.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Average Clan of the Cave Bear clone with the usual hunting action and incidental paleontology education.

This is a well written and entertaining book (though perhaps not as interesting as the author's other prehistoric novel, Reindeer Moon. It's quite different from some other more popular novels set in early human history, in part because Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is better able than other authors to get inside the heads of people very different from ourselves. It's not great literature, but it is certainly an interesting, engaging book.

These two books could have been one book really, they are very much alike. Instead of the girl Yanan telling her story we have the boy Kori, son of the shaman Swift from "Reindeer". A good summer read, well worth it.

This book could have used a good editor. For my money, the book ends on page 272; unfortunately, the book is 372 pages long. There are some seeds of good story telling here, but the writer doesn't trust herself to stay with her main characters and give the reader a satisfying journey with them. Instead, she introduces new characters right up to the last page of the book, relinquishing or giving short shrift to the ones we've grown interested in. I also found myself growing exasperated with the self-conscious quirkiness of the characters. A little goes a long way with a story like this, and it's much easier to relate to characters who who don't seem to have their idiosyncracies pasted on. The book jacket draws parallels between this writer and John Irving, and it's true to some extent. But it's Irving's weaknesses she seems to share, not his strengths, ie., his tendency to dispatch characters heartlessly, to throw in ill-advised and unnecessary plot twists, to leave us with the sense that we've spent a very long time with characters we still don't fully know.

Nevertheless, I was very taken by the premise of the book -- the child who loses her parents in a freak accident and ends up being parented by two flawed uncles. If she could have stayed with that, and the boy Raoul whom she finds in her loneliness, the book would have held my attention much more.

i read the excerpt of this novel in the magazine _real simple_ and got hooked in just a few pages.... this is an exceptional novel and the author's style is not bland as one of the above reviews suggested, but rather intriguing. you may find yourself drawn in just as quickly as i did.

"...the raw challenge of a bizarre situation that had the appeal of possibly yielding a giant pot of gold." In some ways, this quote is an apt description of this novel. Reading this book is much like going on an amusement park ride -compulsive, silly, ridiculous, gripping, pleasurable, exhilarating. There are great moments of emotionally charged tension and anticipation that inevitably lead you somewhere unexpected. I loved the sense of adventure and the humor and weirdness of it. And the love story between Elray and Raoul is magical.

I was already skeptical of this book from reading the title, but decided to try to give the book a fair shot anyhow. Unfortunatly, it lived up to my low expections and proved to be little more than a how-to-guide for trapping a man. With sections like six trix (tricks) this book was little more than a guide to game playing and pulling every trick in the book (no pun intended) to win the grand prize of a husband. One section advises, "go out with anyone who doesn't make you sick," while another advises that "it is better to sleep with a man sooner than later," along with other questionable sexual advice. I also thought the book had too many self-tests, and did not offer enough solid advice on building and maintaining a positive relationships. The author's only advice -- compromise. I did think that the little caricatures of the two authors were kind of cute, but the ebonics throughout the text was not. I do not recommend this book for anyone looking for serious pre-marital advice, but if you are looking for some light, entertaining reading, than this might be the book for you.

I take my hat off to Monique and Cassandra for having the creative wherewithal to help sistas who are in search of a black man. Many of us moan and groan about the shortage of brothers, but these two women decided to do more than complain. I absolutely loved the book and found it to be quite informative. I appreciated how they interwove humor with a very serious subject for single sistas. All in all they gave very sound advice....get your act together and you will attract a together brotha The book is definitely worth getting!!!!!

I bought this book at the BX bookstore in England,and I found the book to be enlightening. Before one has to find a husband, the ladies suggest that you find yourself first. After all, how are you going to deal with another person and you don't know how to deal with yourself? There is also places in the book where you can write in answers to questions that they ask you, and gives you plenty food for thought. A great book not only for finding a husband, but also finding yourself. There is also a picture of both authors with their husbands and children just to let you know that their plan works.

I enjoyed reading all sections of this book, but especially the parts about the places I've been. It included phrases from my birthplace of Chicago that I didn't even realize the rest of the country doesn't use. For example, "gapers delay": the traffic jam caused by people slowing or stopping to stare at something, like an accident. My only complaint is that his description was too narrow. In Crotty's definition, a gapers delay is caused one particular billboard which I'm sure is gone by now. But believe me, the gaper's delay is still there somewhere.

"How to Talk American" is an irreverent but surprisingly accurate (at least based on my experience) guide to the local slang and terminology of various American cities, regions, and subcultures. Crotty's book delves deep into the lingo of places and people that the reader would not otherwise experience (no matter who that reader is). Perhaps the main value of this book, however, is its demonstration that, despite the rapid homogenization (or McDonaldization) of our society, there is still a rich supply of local terms, or words shared by a limited group of people with shared interests, and that these terms have not (yet) been appropriated by the larger culture. Surprisingly, these terms are for the most part actually interesting and funny, especially when viewed through the eyes of the roving and perceptive author. If this book has a weakness, it lies in the plot and character development. Wait--there is no plot and no character development--it's a guide to slang! OK, if this book has a weakness, it is that at times the author is overambitious and includes some terms better left out and fails to focus on a smaller and perhaps more representative sample. But that fault can be readily forgiven. It's a good, if not a quick, read, and it's absolutely indispensable for anyone who has more than a passing interest in the state of American language.

this compilation of phrases, slang, and witicisms really tickled me! Especially enjoyed the midwest section as I was born in Omaha, NB and raised (reared?) in Indiana and Iowa . . .fun!

This book is essential to anyone taking Anatomy. It is very detailed and provides a lot of pictures. It is sometimes too detailed, which makes it difficult for the average student to understand. I recommend using it along with the anatomy coloring book. My only complaint is the price, why is it so expensive?

I have to use this book for Human Anatomy and it is great the detail put into the book. If you buy it new from the publisher it even comes with a CD and a thinner, helpful spiral bound book that contains all of the diagrams.

This book is a wonderful text for an introductory college course in human anatomy. I attend Weber State University and had the luxury of being taught by Dr. Van De Graaff. He is a wonderful professor with vast knowledge. The greatness of the book and the strength of its author have inspired many individuals such as myself to aspire to new heights in their college careers. Thanks Dr. Van De Graaff.

This book gives you information about many Arizona towns and cities. What I liked is that Mr. Trimble explains the history of the towns, even those small ones in the middle of nowhere. He explains who founded the towns, how and why, and gives you the background on the people involved. Mr. Trimble's writing style is humorous, easy to read, and fun! This book is a must for anyone traveling Arizona's roads!

This is the best book about Arizona, and I've read quite a few. You can certainly read this book straight through (you'll find some duplication of stories because of the format), but the book is best read when travelling around the state (turn to whatever highway you happen to be on - while someone else is driving!) or by just opening to any page and starting to read. You'll be amazed at all the information contained herein!

From the capital city of Phoenix to tiny state route 73 (Carrizo to McNary), something happened practically everywhere in Arizona - and this book will tell you what it was and when it did.

An excellent book by an excellent author! This book, Marshall Trimble's best, is highly recommended for anyone in Arizona who wants to learn more about his state, and for anyone outside Arizona who wants to know what all the fuss is about.

If you travel around Arizona (or even if you don't) this book is a nice resource to have. Most of Arizona's major roadways are covered and the author does a nice job of describing historical events that occurred at various locations. Before I bought this book, I passed many historic locations and was never even aware of it. Now when I travel around the state, I can point out these historic places or explain the history behind various small towns or landmarks (whether my fellow passengers like it or not). I've read several of Trimble's books and this is the one that I refer back to the most.

Another reviewer stated that there were inaccuracies in this book. Not being a historian, I can't comment on that. As someone who has read many books on Arizona history, I must admit that it is annoying to read one book about an event, then read another one that gives a very different account. Unfortunately that is the frustrating part about history - parts of it seem to become lost or reinterpreted as the years pass.