Good books you've just read

clark · 2004-03-08 16:22:52

Check out some of his poetry.

You can see one of them in the poetry thread here:
[http://www.newmars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1027]Any poets thread

They have not seen the stars... [sigh]

Rxke · 2004-03-08 16:34:51

I've read it there, before you posted the link, but thanks to refer to it again...
It is beautiful.

I can still remember how impressed I was with his "Fahrenheit 451" , when I read it as a teenage-angst-ridden kid...
His sparse wording, his simple, direct-hitting observations... Are still impressive (for me) after all these years, and that's no minor feat.

Bill White · 2004-03-08 19:23:46

I have been re-reading [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … ce&s=books]Oxygen a Mars-Direct based novel. NBC pays $5 billion (if I recall) for broadcast rights to the launch.

Its very tightly written. Fast paced and thrilling.

Josh Cryer · 2004-03-09 02:47:55

"Oxygen" looks interesting, I ought to get that for my brother.

clark · 2004-03-09 07:42:22

I just finished rereading Catcher in the Rye.

I'm still not sure why it's considered such a 'must read' book though. Yeah, I get the subtext, and I agree the voice is spot on... but the story... I dunno. Three days in New York during a mental breakdown after yet another school expulsion filled with angst, teenage wander-lust, and the vain attempt to understand others when you haven't quite figured yourself out, is, well, boring.

However, I did enjoy the quote Mr. Antolini gave Holden on the piece of paper: "The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one."

clark · 2004-03-20 19:19:59

So, after some thought, I revisited yet another classic. War of the Worlds by Mr. H.G. Wells.

Now, many are more familiar with Orson Wells version, but this is the original.

Those invading Martians are some baddies.

I encourage all to take a look at this book if you have the chance- yet one more perspective on Man and the Martians. And for the American-centrics, you'll have to accept that England, and Mother London, play prominently in the story. Refrences to english countryside can be confusing, but it's worth the read.

Ugly critters, those Martians.

Rxke · 2004-03-21 03:16:13

I liked that one. The 'British Gentleman' of yesteryear point of view is so ... alien for us 21st C people... The part where he, in a controlled way, drinks a little liquor and smokes a cigarette, like taking medicine... after being 'shocked' (when he saw the invaders for the first time, beginning of the book)

... Just to be again that self-composed, calm gentlemen... Great stuff.

You should maybe one day try John Windham(sp?) 'The day of the Triffids' it's a bit the same feeling, description of British Society (or Civilized Culture) falling apart under the onslaught of an external alien factor... Though a bit more pessimistic, also his 'the kraken awakes' is in the same vein...

GraemeSkinner · 2004-03-21 10:03:48

I've just finished the Amber Spyglass - by Philip Pullman, and I quite enjoyed it. Every now and again (ok most days) I like to pick up a book that has nothing to do with study, or work. His Dark Materials certainly gave me a relaxing read whilst trying to unwind. Now its nothing but study related texts until October - well maybe tonight I'll skim through 'Consider Phlebas' - Iain M. Banks, its been a while since I picked that one up, and its calling from the shelves.

dicktice · 2004-03-21 13:05:50

"War of the Worlds" by HG Wells, is really penetrating in the description of the urban society's demise. Reads like today, in any of a dozen places being razed on Earth today. Another is "Malville": right back to feudal times in two generations! But, to me, the most important and still very possible consequence of nuclear conflict, is "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute. He showed how it can still happen (and possibly helped prevent it, thereby) everywhere on Earth, just due to radioactive fallout. Needs to be read by every tinhorn dictator and takeover president, before feeling tempted to be first to H-bomb. Fortunately, I've yet to hear of a "suicidal dictator." They all seem to survive, in spite of how many suicides they are responsible for causing, have you noticed? So that's the good news. For the bad news, that book should be read by every generation.

DonPanic · 2004-03-21 19:02:39

LO
Walking down the Quais de Seine, I saw a novel book, intittled "Les Xipehuz" by J Rosny Ainé, the "War of Fire" author.
I was attracted by the strange tittle. After a short bargain with the bouquinist I bought it 10 €.
What a luck, this 1887 short novel is among the very first books, may be the very first one where ETs confront Humans, old ages humans living very much as the Red Indians. It starts as a clan of humans join their summer pasture territories, see bright luminous shapes flying in the air and think that they must be gods. Ancients of the tribe order to youngsters to go process and present the gods with the best, food, flowers, and jewels the tribe has...then the slaughter starts on...
I shall not tell more, except that it's an amazingly modern and somehow quite poetic story.
US tittle : "Xipehuz and the Death of the Earth" R. Reginald (Editor), Douglas Melville (Editor) ISBN: 0405110200
Publisher: Ayer Company Publishers, Incorporated

I'm to read again "The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch",
I think that Philip K Dick is "le plus grand auteur de ScienceFiction de tous les temps"*

* Translate yourself

Palomar · 2004-05-30 11:56:21

*Has anyone here read http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0 … 78465]Kiln People, by David Brin? I saw this book just last evening, while browsing. It looks good, but is rather lengthy.

Also, I picked up a copy of Ira Levin's _The Stepford Wives_. He's an excellent author of course. I may see the new remake of the film starring Nicole Kidman, but I have ordered the DVD of the original 1975 movie starring Katharine Ross (I love retro stuff -- brings back memories -- and although Ms. Kidman is a favorite actress of mine, I'm also a fan of Ms. Ross).

Anyway, _Kiln People_ looks very cool and I love sci-fi mixed with mystery/detective type stuff.

--Cindy

Trebuchet · 2004-05-30 14:51:17

I hate breaking it to you, Dicktice, but "On the Beach" was horribly wrong about the effects of a global nuclear war. In the scenario outlined in the book, the northern hemisphere would be a charnel house with half the population or more dead and all the major cities (and many of the smaller ones) mostly burned down. There would be local hot spots of intesne radioactivity, although most areas would be liveable after two or three weeks, except for China and Siberia, where if I recall correctly the book had both China and Russia dropping cobalt-jacketed bombs; most of that area would be uninhabitable for a long, long time.

The southern hemisphere, on the other hand, would get off relatively free - apart from an increased risk of cancer over your lifetime as if everyone smoked cigarettes their entire lives down there.

Palomar · 2004-06-04 08:32:07

*Picked up a copy of the book http://www.apirateofexquisitemind.com/]A Pirate of Exquisite Mind day before last. It is a marvelous read. The web site hosts a sample chapter, bio info, etc.

I also picked up The Lunar Men, concerning the friendship, work, experiments, and discoveries of 5 English gentlemen from the 18th century.

For fun, The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore. What a hoot.

Anyway, I need to stay out of Barnes & Noble for a while. :-\

--Cindy

BWhite · 2004-07-18 07:56:07

I know I am ten years behind the times, yet earlier this week I finally read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

The plot was fairly weak, IMHO, but the writing style rocked.

And anyone who can name a character Hiro Protagonist gets two thumbs up from me.

Gennaro · 2004-07-18 10:12:24

Just re-read Barbara Tuchmann's The March of Folly. I recommend the chapter about Vietnam for anyone who's interested in modern history. You can't help thinking about Iraq, although it's not the entire story either...
Oh, and don't skip the introductory chapter. A better definition of contemporary, maybe especially, European political correctness than "Pursuit of a Policy Contrary to Self-Interest" is hard to come by. More so as the notion itself wasn't even invented in 1984.

Palomar · 2004-07-18 10:47:40

*Picked up a copy of the book http://www.apirateofexquisitemind.com/]A Pirate of Exquisite Mind day before last. It is a marvelous read. The web site hosts a sample chapter, bio info, etc.

*Well...if the above two posts are any indication I guess I've had this thread and what I've been reading lately in mind as well.

I bought _A New Voyage Round the World_ by William Dampier, who is the subject of a biography I mentioned (above, in quote box).

It is very interesting to read about life on the high seas in the 1680's and 1690's. What a contrast (understatement) between indepth, scientifically-oriented and beautiful descriptions of the flora, fauna and peoples of the as-yet unspoiled lands he visited and the bloody battles and violence of a life of piracy, etc., etc. :-\

The book _A New Voyage Round the World_ (abridged for today's reader) costs $120.00 through amazon.com but I got it for $30 from an Australian antiquarian bookseller through http://www.bookfinder.com]http://www.bookfinder.com

--Cindy

Algol · 2004-07-19 06:37:11

Just read "Under the Frog" by Tibor Fischer. Absolutely superb book, cant emphasise enough how much you all should read it.

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Under the Frog follows the adventures of two young Hungarian basketball players through the turbulent years between the end of World War II and the anti-Soviet uprising of 1956. In this spirited indictment of totalitarianism, the two improbable heroes, Pataki and Gyuri, travel the length and breadth of Hungary in an epic quest for food, lodging, and female companionship.

Its both deeply moving and seriously funny, both a bitter denouciation of a totalitarian regime and a reflection on how laughter can rise out of tradegy, and tradegy out of absurbity.

Earthfirst · 2004-07-20 19:07:48

The special learner, understanding the special needs child text book. It goes over evry disorder retarts have, I was force to read it for a class. It help me to learn why mark kicks and beats up evry one, Extra chromosen, adtisem, LD, at risk.
It made me wonder why we medic kids for ADHD with ritlalen when a good sound beatening would work just as well?
Why does mark throw desks, hit the teacher, and refuse to do work. Because he just does not feel like doing it, and because mama bought coke instead of marks anti pshoctics lithen, thorasen. Makes me glad that I wont become a teacher. Real insight into kids with special means

Mundaka · 2004-08-13 02:18:31

Trebuchet · 2004-08-13 03:14:53

I just read Snow Crash myself, without having seen BWhite's review/post up above. I wholly reccomend reading this. The plot is bizzare and stupid, but somehow this doesn't matter, as the even more bizzare and fancifully weird setting and characters draw the reader's attention far more than the strange plot.

C'mon now. Any novel where one of the characters has a nuclear bomb in his motorcycle sidecar with the words POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattooed on his forehead is begging to be read. Cobra Commander would approve.

The book gets weaker as it goes on, I think because the ultrastrange setting and characters has grown somewhat less surreal after reading long enough. But still - it's very good.

BWhite · 2004-08-13 08:29:40

I just read Snow Crash myself, without having seen BWhite's review/post up above. I wholly reccomend reading this. The plot is bizzare and stupid, but somehow this doesn't matter, as the even more bizzare and fancifully weird setting and characters draw the reader's attention far more than the strange plot.
C'mon now. Any novel where one of the characters has a nuclear bomb in his motorcycle sidecar with the words POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattooed on his forehead is begging to be read. Cobra Commander would approve.
The book gets weaker as it goes on, I think because the ultrastrange setting and characters has grown somewhat less surreal after reading long enough. But still - it's very good.

I agree.

When I first read Snow Crash, I was entranced by his use of language and by his caricatures of American culture. But I agree the plot is very weak, maybe a D- or a D.

But its a fun read, just for the skateboarding and harpooning. And the guy with the H-bomb trigger wired into his brain (hardly a spoiler because this tid-bit doesn't really play into the plot).

Morris · 2004-08-13 16:32:29

I just read Snow Crash myself, without having seen BWhite's review/post up above. I wholly reccomend reading this. The plot is bizzare and stupid, but somehow this doesn't matter, as the even more bizzare and fancifully weird setting and characters draw the reader's attention far more than the strange plot.
C'mon now. Any novel where one of the characters has a nuclear bomb in his motorcycle sidecar with the words POOR IMPULSE CONTROL tattooed on his forehead is begging to be read. Cobra Commander would approve.
The book gets weaker as it goes on, I think because the ultrastrange setting and characters has grown somewhat less surreal after reading long enough. But still - it's very good.
I agree.
When I first read Snow Crash, I was entranced by his use of language and by his caricatures of American culture. But I agree the plot is very weak, maybe a D- or a D.
But its a fun read, just for the skateboarding and harpooning. And the guy with the H-bomb trigger wired into his brain (hardly a spoiler because this tid-bit doesn't really play into the plot).

Sounds like you guys would enjoy the works of Cordwainer Smith (pseudonym). He was a lesser-known but influential SF writer of the 1950s who had a very impressive (and exciting) career in real life. Two volumes of his short stories were re-released a few years ago. Some of his better stories include: "The Dead Lady of Clown Town", "The Burning of the Brain", "The Lady Who Sailed the Soul", "Mother Hitton's Littul Kittens", and "No, No, Not Rogov".

prometheusunbound · 2004-08-13 17:41:42

I'm re-reading "The Power Broker; Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" for the third time. I LOVE the book a lot.

I thought I would just insert a little book review.

btw Robert Moses built all of these highways BEFORE the National Highway Act. . . . .in the great depression. THAT is why his accomplishments are so significant, all highway builders after him followed in his footsteps.

I wrote this for school, for my AP Eng. Class, which is why you might find refs. to Mrs. Kozak.

That crazy SOB author Robert A. Caro writes the most epic, informative, biographical opera about the life history of the mighty Robert Moses and his world in The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. Caro asserts that Moses was the most titanically arrogant, visionary, autocractical megalomaniac to ever plan the parks and highways of a city. Yes, this may sound like hyperbole, but Moses in his lifetime spent twenty seven billion dollars of 1968 money to build his gargantuan projects in NYC. In today’s money that would be about one hundred and thirty billion dollars to spend on parks and highways alone. Just one of his many projects would make a man immortalized in memory, yet he did one after another, and another. He was not just a urban planner-he was the modern Ozzymindas, whose works made the nations tremble and fear. Caro’s mission is to inform us about the man himself-a leviathan in a valley of titans in the largest city of the world, his colossal projects, and their far reaching and tremendous impact on the community and politics of not only New York, but the cities of America.
Caro has advanced the tripartite personality of Moses as being a Trinity of three parts to make one that the towering arrogance, visionary brilliance, and autocratic power together summed up all that was Robert Moses. Robert Moses did not get rich from what he did as he filled in twelve political positions at both the city and state level as “ . . . Robert Moses had, in cash reserves, practically nothing.”(pg. 1060). If Moses had no desire for money, what he did lust for was the power to implement his gigantic visions of NYC as he thought it should be. In the early years of NY Governor Alfred Smith, Moses was an especially able, if impromptu, legal advisor in matters concerning legislature. During this period, Moses spent his free time on Long Island and in certain parts of the city proper, fantasizing about what it could be as a park. Just about every project that Moses completed had started to formulate in his mind at that time, when he would wander around the city and the island looking for proper areas to make parks when he did not even yet have the power to do so! To the young Moses, “Suddenly the burning eyes were looking at everything on Long Island in terms of parks.” (pg. 159) These prophetic visions awed Governor Smith, and as a token of his gratitude for Moses services, Smith offered him the State Commission of Parks. But right after being granted this power, Moses sneaked certain clauses into an innocuous looking bill to vastly expand the power of his commission to galactic proportions and make it an independent entity with “. . .virtually all the powers granted to the City of New York in the city’s charter.” (pg. 175) Once he had that power, Moses used it for forty years to gain more power to carry out his vision, and his vision alone. In delivering his vision Robert Moses surrounded himself with yesmen that “. . .nodded when he wanted them to nod, they laughed when he wanted them to laugh. Watching them, you got disgusted with your fellow man.” (pg. 816) Not only did Moses demand autocratic control over his men, he would ignore all suggestions they made in acts of arrogance and in belief that he was always right. Moses was “. . .blind and deaf to reason, to argument, to new ideas, to any ideas except his own.”(pg. 830) Moses possessed arrogance in quantities that would rival Jupiter himself. In a certain photo, he stands before a panorama of NYC on a steel beam, hands at his side with the elbows stuck out. A rolled-up draft of plan is in his left hand. His leonine face seems to announce, Look, and be amazed, for all this I created. In a stunning display, Caro graphically illustrates the true depth of his arrogance in
When the Sea-Ef was heading back into the Babylon dock, for example, he was given to standing at the very point of its prow, arms folded across his chest and jaw outthrust. A Bay Shore history teacher, seeing him one day, thought he looked “very impressive”--strikingly similar to pictures the teacher had seen in history books, pictures of Napoleon Bonaparte. . . . .Taking a particularly important guest on a tour himself, he would speak in the imperial “we,” but it was his gestures, sweepingly expansive, as, perhaps from a yacht offshore, he indicated the Belt Parkway sweeping off to the right and left, the park areas alongside, and then pointed to the Verrazano Bridge towering over the boat (“And then we built. . .”), that most strikingly suggested an emperor who looked on all he saw as his creation; standing on the deck of that yacht, he might have been Claudius looking proudly at Ostia. (pg. 832-32)

With near biblical powers at his command, Moses then proceeded to do what his namesake did. Staff of power in hand, he parted the sea of buildings to make way for his vision of highways and parks. His roads, constructed at a time when there were no superhighways, seemed to put everything else in Lilliputian scale. Moses protean might was well expressed in Caro’s expression “. . .he was the spearhead, the cutting edge, of this Panzer division of public works.” (pg. 927) A momentary listing of some of Moses greater achievements can be given here, yet their scale cannot be given except by a city native or visitor. In buildings, he built the Lincoln Center, New York Coliseum, UN Headquarters, Co-op City (projects), the Astoria Pool, Fordham University campus, Pratt University campus, Long Island University campus and the World’s Fair of 1964-5. In highways he was as a Prometheus unbound, the diamond tip of the spearhead in this department, as he built his revolutionary parkways when the autobahns were even yet born. In his forty-four years of service, he constructed just about every single highway that was ever made in NYC. A fairly complete list would include the Henry Hudson Parkway, Saw Mill River Parkway, Sprain Parkway, Bronx River Parkway, Hutchinson Parkway, New England Thruway, Harlem River Drive, Deegan Expressway, Cross Bronx Expressway, Bruckner Expressway, Staten Island Expressway, Shore Parkway, Marine Parkway, Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, Atlantic Avenue, Grand Center Parkway, Van Wyck Parkway, Clearview Expressway, Cross Island Expressway, Northern State Parkway, Long Island Expressway, Meadowbrook Parkway, Wantagh State Parkway, Seaford-Osyster Bay Expressway, Ocean Parkway, Southern State Parkway, Bethpage State Parkway, Robert Moses Causeway, Sheridan Expressway, Throg’s Neck Expressway, Nassau Expressway, Gowanus Expressway, West Side Highway, Prospect Expressway, Whitestone Expressway, Sagitkos State Parkway and the Sunken Meadow State Parkway. In total, the miles add up to four hundred and sixteen for NYC alone. The bridges Moses built would have made him the greatest builder in the world alone, as Caro expresses,
Only one borough of New York City--the Bronx--is on the mainland of the United States, and bridges link the island boroughs that form metropolises. Since 1931, seven such bridges were built, immense structures, some of them anchored by towers as tall as seventy story buildings, supported by cables made up of enough wire to drop a noose around the earth. Those bridges are the Triborrough, the Verrazano, the Throg’s Neck, the Marine, the Henry Hudson, the Cross Bay, and the Bronx-Whitestone. Robert Moses had built every one of these bridges. (pg. 6)
Missing from this list are two titans built at other places, the Alexander Hamilton and the Robert Moses Twin Causeway. And yet the achievements still do not end, as Moses was also the park commissioner, which was his original job. When he started, there were 119 small parks, but when he ended, 777. He built beaches-Orchard Beach, Jacob Riis Park, and Jones Beach. Moses created or reshaped Wolfes Pond Park, Great Kills Park, La Tourette Park, Silver Lake Park, Owls Head Park, South Beach Park, Dyker Beach Park, Marine Park, Kissena Park, Van Cordlant Park, Hempsted Lake Park, Bethpage State Park, Massapequia Park, Giglgo State Park, Belmont State Park, Robert Moses State Park, Heckscher State Park, Caumset State Park, Sunken Meadows State Park, Connetquote State Park, Wildwood State Park, Hither Hills State Park, Orient Beach State Park and Ms. Kozak’s favorite, Montauk Point State Park. The one project that was his crowning achievement were the mythological dams on the Niagara and St. Lawrence waterway. In terms of scale, these epic dams stood immense next to even his seven fabled Bronx bridges. The Niagara River is a relatively short river, but more water rushes between its flanks than any other river in the world. A mere inkling of the colossal immensity of these dams is gathered here from Caro’s comments,
. . .is the St. Lawrence--and stretched across it, one of the most colossal single works of man, a structure of steel and concrete as tall as a ten-story apartment house, an apartment house as long as eleven football fields, a structure vaster by far then any of the pyramids, or in terms of bulk, of any six pyramids together. . .And at Niagara, Robert Moses built a series of dams, parks and parkways that make the St. Lawrence development look small. (pg. 8-9)

Only God knows if the world will ever see such an monumental serial builder again.
Unfortunately, Robert Moses lost contact with everyday reality and his programs became a catalyst for urban decay. Moses also held prejudices and did not want the poor to use mass transit on his highways because most of the poor were black. In a most damning indictment of Moses, Caro states,
Robert Moses had always displayed a genius for adorning his creations with little details that made them fit in with their setting, that made the people who used them feel at home with them. There was a little detail on the playhouse-comfort station in the Harlem section of Riverside Park that is found nowhere else in the park. The wrought iron trellises of the park’s other playhouses and comfort stations are decorated with designs like curling waves. . . . .The wrought iron trellises of the Harlem playhouse-comfort station are decorated with monkeys. (pg. 560)

Not only did he design parks and transportation to be difficult to reach for the poor, he also was a virulent racist. His racism was not only limited to policy of his parks and highways. He also had the unique position of acting as the intermediary between the city and the federal government. “‘. . . .represent the city in its relations with cooperating state and federal agencies.’ Moses used. . . .thereby making certain that it would be he and he alone who was presenting the city’s position.” (pg. 705) All moneys from Uncle Sam and the Empire State came through Moses first, to be used only for what Moses saw fit. As a devastating result, the funds needed for the expansion and ultimately mere maintaince of critical city functions like schools, rapid transit, EMS, police and garbage were often denied. And denied to the end of creating largely ineffectual highways that required the displacement of 250,000 people. The highways also spread blight where there was none, and expanded the city into the low-density suburbs that stretched the need for city services to the utter extreme. Those who could not afford cars could not afford private schooling as there was no way to escape the heinous public schools. Even using the subways were not realistic, as they never had regular service given that no money was there to maintain them. Caro dramatically illustrates the state of affairs, “When Robert Moses came to power in 1934, the city’s mass transit was probably the best in the world. When he left power in 1968, it was quite possibly the worst.” (pg. 933) The poor and minorities were even denied busing access to his parks and the city by his bridges which were too low for buses to pass under.
“You know” he said, “we’ve had cases where buses mistakenly got on a parkway--we had this on the Grand Central Parkway several times, I remember--buses from a foreign state I suppose, and the first bridge stopped them dead. One had its roof rolled up like the top of a sardine can.” Sid Shapiro, former Moses associate reflecting on Moses to Caro (pg. 952)

Not only did Moses physically block access to the poor, he ultimately blocked access to the middle class on Long Island by refusing to expand rapid transit services on the center mall of his biggest highway. His highway could move 4,500 people in one hour, all six lanes of it. One rapid transit line could move 40,000 people in one hour. 215,000 people commuted from Long Island to NYC everyday yet Moses refused to let the city use the center of his highway, open and ready space, to construct rapid transit. “He could do as much for Long Island by spending $20,000,000 as by spending $500,000,000--if he spent it on rapid transit.” According to Caro (pg. 947) At this point, the arrogance of Moses no longer allowed him to listen to reason and only served to advance what was his adulterated vision. But nothing could be done to remove Moses. His twelve public positions meant he could bring stifling pressure on opponents, pressure so powerful it often succeeded in its mere threat of use. The press also adored and idolized Moses, and all his polices were considered perfect in their view. Even some Presidents were piteously thrown aside like rag dolls against his overbearing might when they frought Moses publicly. In essence, all public attacks failed against him, attacks that would have shattered lesser men to oblivion, these attacks were only destroyed in a pathetic fashion against this towering monolith of man and power. Even one of the most powerful presidents in our history, FDR, at the very crest of his zenith, was, as Caro describes,
There, suddenly spotlighted before the public, stood the President of the United States of America--caught in a most unbecoming posture. . . . .the faithful public servant(Moses, insert here mine)was seen as a man standing alone without a single ally and fearlessly fighting for his rights against the two most powerful men in the country. . . (pg. 431)
Robert Moses was a terrible, modern Colossus that had held the city prostrate and helpless before him, and he bestrode it without concern for its welfare.
If Robert Caro is not qualified to write, then by God, no one is! The back section on “Author” has the statement,
Robert A. Caro was graduated from Princeton University and was for six years an award-winning investigative reporter for Newsday. . . .To create The Power Broker, Caro spent seven years tracing and talking with hundreds of men and women who have worked with, for or against Robert Moses, and examining mountains of files never opened to the public.

Every word that is not Caro’s is footnoted and indexed in the “Notes” section of the book. This book has won many prizes, as listed on http://www.robertacaro.com]http://www.robertacaro.com]www.robertacaro.com, 1974: Pulitzer Prize, Francis Parkman Prize, Washington Monthly Best Political Book award, 1986: Award in literature, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 2000: Selected as one of the 100 best books of the twentieth century by Modern Library. The critics are unified in declaring this one of the greatest books ever written, but for some the writing style leaves much to be desired. Dick Netzer with his flaming rapier of a pen writes “The writing in this book is painfully bad, with no visible evidence of an editor” Book Review Digest, pg 186-87.However, PS Prescott rises eloquently and delivers a slashing riposte of a rebuttal to Dick with the statement “Caro combines the research of a historian with the florid prose of an investigative journalist; in his descriptions of New York subways or the Long Island Rail Road at rush hour he reaches a almost Dickensian state of excitement. So skillful is he at narrative that he can make the passage of a bill through the state legislature seem engrossing.” Book Review Digest, pg 187. RC Wade, unfortunately, is not a New Yorker and is a bit jaded concerning the works of Moses. “Nor does he explain why every major American city was doing much the same thing as New York at the same time without a Moses.” Book Review Digest, pg 187. Personally I hardly agree with that statement as the sheer immensity of these public works in the largest and greatest city in the world merits special notice, moreso given as they were all spearheaded by the same man. As for the writing style, I suppose that something as rich, eloquent and wordy as Caro’s particular dialect of English is an acquired taste. Some people probably just will not bite into such things. However, Caro has asserted Robert Moses as the Fafner of Wagners famous opera, the dragon that was ultimately slewn by the Seigfried of Nelson Rockefeller. He has made the Hudson the dramatic Rhine with the castles of the mighty Robber Barons on its bank, and protected by the great maidens of Moses bridges. He has transformed mundane state legislature into divine stages of confrontation situated only on mount Olympus. This is the single greatest biography I have ever read.

Caro has accomplished his mission of informing the reader of Moses exceeding puissance that challenged the glory of all Caesars, his empire and the awesome scepter he held of power, the mammoth Coliseums of public works that he built, and their elephantine impact on community and politics. He has shown that Moses was an arrogant emperor who played his fiddle of power while NYC burned, who implemented policies that harmed the city more than they helped, and saddled it with his own selfish interests. However, Caro has made me give momentary pause to answer who created more, Moses and his mighty minions of men or the Lord Almighty flanked by His all-conquering angels. Caro has lifted Moses from the thick fog of obscurity to the outer realm of Divinity itself, in this modern saga of history. This author has also given rich and abundant life to one of the greatest unknown historical figures of world, in one of the most richly written and sweeping biographies that has ever been written.

Works Cited

Caro, Robert. The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York. New York: Random House Inc., 1975.

Caro, Robert. “The Power Broker, Robert Moses and the Fall of New York.” Robert A. Caro Homepage, November 2003. <http://www.robertacaro.com/powerbroker.html>.

Samudi, Josephine. Book Review Digest, 1974. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1975.

Morris · 2004-08-13 21:46:19

I'm re-reading "The Power Broker; Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" for the third time. I LOVE the book a lot.

Thanks for posting this. Biographies like this are always fascinating to me.

Palomar · 2004-08-31 06:54:57

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de … eviews]The Preacher's Son

*Actually, that should be plural. If you like true crime, check this book out. Once in a while I'll pick up a murder story (usually Ann Rule). This one caught my attention because of the victim involved especially. A few years younger than me, similar background, etc. Books I can't hardly put down are few and far between, but this has been one of them.

The author is excellent; she truly introduces the reader to the victim, Patricia Blakley-Kimble, and her family and friends. Also stark portraits of Patricia's murderer and the man who paid the murderer to kill her. Very poignant and tragic story.

--Cindy

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#101 2004-03-08 16:22:52

Re: Good books you've just read

#102 2004-03-08 16:34:51

Re: Good books you've just read

#103 2004-03-08 19:23:46

Re: Good books you've just read

#104 2004-03-09 02:47:55

Re: Good books you've just read

#105 2004-03-09 07:42:22

Re: Good books you've just read

#106 2004-03-20 19:19:59

Re: Good books you've just read

#107 2004-03-21 03:16:13

Re: Good books you've just read

#108 2004-03-21 10:03:48

Re: Good books you've just read

#109 2004-03-21 13:05:50

Re: Good books you've just read

#110 2004-03-21 19:02:39

Re: Good books you've just read

#111 2004-05-30 11:56:21

Re: Good books you've just read

#112 2004-05-30 14:51:17

Re: Good books you've just read

#113 2004-06-04 08:32:07

Re: Good books you've just read

#114 2004-07-18 07:56:07

Re: Good books you've just read

#115 2004-07-18 10:12:24

Re: Good books you've just read

#116 2004-07-18 10:47:40

Re: Good books you've just read

#117 2004-07-19 06:37:11

Re: Good books you've just read

#118 2004-07-20 19:07:48

Re: Good books you've just read

#119 2004-08-13 02:18:31

Re: Good books you've just read

#120 2004-08-13 03:14:53

Re: Good books you've just read

#121 2004-08-13 08:29:40

Re: Good books you've just read

#122 2004-08-13 16:32:29

Re: Good books you've just read

#123 2004-08-13 17:41:42

Re: Good books you've just read

#124 2004-08-13 21:46:19

Re: Good books you've just read

#125 2004-08-31 06:54:57

Re: Good books you've just read

Board footer