All reviews copyright 1984-2009 Evelyn C. Leeper.
NOT SO FUNNY WHEN IT HAPPENED edited by Tim Cahill:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 04/18/2003]
Time to play catch-up. It's actually been a couple of weeks since I read NOT SO FUNNY WHEN IT HAPPENED, edited by Tim Cahill. This is a collection of "travel humor and misadventure," and is certainly more light-hearted than the Granta book I mentioned earlier. The first story was about how the Vietnamese ask travelers personal questions. The most common are "Are you married?" and "How many children do you have?" followed by "What is your salary?" or "How much did your camera/shoes/whatever cost?" But more than that, they are very disturbed if you are not married or have no children. So the advice is to say something like, "We have no children yet." (This advice, I have to say, is not very helpful when you are fifty or so.) John Wood was divorced and his attempts to conceal this led to the story, "How I Killed Off My Ex-Wife." There are also pieces by well-known humorists Bill Bryson, Dave Barry, David Sedaris, and Douglas Adams, and some travel cartoons as well. (Disclaimer: even though Mark's writing has been published in another book in the "Travelers' Tales" series, we have no other connection to them.)
To order Not So Funny When It Happened from amazon.com, click here.
PECKED TO DEATH BY DUCKS by Tim Cahill:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 08/01/2003]
Tim Cahill's travel essays are also cynical, though with more of a touch of humor (at least at times). In PECKED TO DEATH BY DUCKS, the first few essays, having to do with war, are less humorous (perhaps surreal is a better word), but it comes through in the rest. I'm not talking about rolling-on-the-floor-laughing funny, or even funny at the level of Bill Bryson, but a recognition of the basic ridiculousness of the situations Cahill finds himself in.
To order Pecked to Death by Ducks from amazon.com, click here.
THEY RANG UP THE POLICE by Joanna Cannan:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 02/06/2009]
THEY RANG UP THE POLICE by Joanna Cannan (ISBN-13 978-0-915230-27-3, ISBN-10 0-915230-27-5) is another 1930's mystery in the Agatha Christie vein. The sleuth in this (and its sequel DEATH AT THE DOG) is Inspector Guy Northeast, unusual for the time in that he was not an upper-class toff, or even a person of Sherlock Holmes's or Hecule Poirot's class (whatever that would be called), but more an Inspector Lestrade or Chief Inspector Japp. (Someone more familiar than I with the British class system might be able to express this better.)
(And was Joanna Cannan named on a day that the typewriters at Somerset House had only five working keys?)
To order They Rang Up the Police from amazon.com, click here.
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 11/28/2003]
I recently bought, but haven't yet read, the two boxed sets of Canongate Bible books. Yes, I already have a copy of the King James Bible, but these have introductions written by people such as E. L. Doctorow, A. S. Byatt, and the Dalai Lama. It's a bit confusing, because the first boxed set has different introductions for about half of the books, depending on whether one has the British or American editions. Will Self wrote an introduction for "Revelation", but it was apparently so outrageous that even Grove Press refused to run it, and ran another by Kathleen Norris instead. The same happened with Louis de Bernieres's introduction to "Job", replaced by one by Charles Frazier. On the other hand the replacement of E. L. Doctorow for evolutionist Steven Rose ("Genesis"), Francisco Goldman for A. N. Wilson ("Matthew"), Barry Hannah for Australian rock star Nick Cave ("Mark"), Thomas Cahill for Richard Holloway, Bishop of Edinburgh ("Luke"), and Darcey Steinke for Blake Morrison ("John") probably had more to do with switching to American authors than any content problems.
To order the Canongate Bible: Genesis from amazon.com, click here. To order other volumes, search there on your own--there are too many to list here. The boxed sets appear to be out of print.
MIDDLE PASSAGES: AFRICAN AMERICAN JOURNEYS TO AFRICA, 1787-2005 by James T. Campbell:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 12/19/2008]
MIDDLE PASSAGES: AFRICAN AMERICAN JOURNEYS TO AFRICA, 1787-2005 by James T. Campbell (ISBN-13 978-0-143-11198-6, ISBN-10 0-143-11198- 1) is about African-Americans' trips to Africa--some returning after having been kidnapped and sold as slaves, others visiting for the first generations after their ancestors were brought to America. Campbell does not present any sort of idealized picture. For example, several one-time slaves who were freed and then returned to Africa bought slaves of their own there, or even became slave traders. He writes how Liberia was funded before the Civil War by whites who hoped to get rid of "Free Blacks" so that the slaves would not have any role models to encourage them to aspire to freedom, and there would be no evidence for any argument that blacks were equal to whites intellectually et al. And the resulting society in Liberia was no "light unto the nations" either--the descendents of the emigrants from the United States set themselves up as a ruling class and the native Africans as basically, well, slaves.
The climax of all this is the reaction of Keith Richburg in the present who, after watching bodies from the Rwandan massacre floating downstream, said that while he realized the horrors of slavery, a part of him would be forever grateful to whoever brought his ancestors "out of Africa" to America and saved him from what Africa is like now.
Clearly, there is much to debate in Campbell's book, but his range, from the 17th to the 21st century, covering some of the best-known people in African-American history, is impressive and the book is certainly worth reading.
To order Middle Passages from amazon.com, click here.
THE BLACK STAR PASSES by John W. Campbell:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 01/16/2009]
I mentioned THE BLACK STAR PASSES by John W. Campbell (ISBN-13 978-1-557-42931-5, ISBN-10 1-557-42931-6) a few weeks ago as an example of early 1930s techno-babble. I read this (and its two sequels) when I was in high school--I'm not sure which year, but I can even remember where I bought the books. Arcot, Wade, and Morey were the quintessential nerds, who kept discovering new elements that somehow fit into previously unknown holes un the periodic chart, and could whip up invisibility devices or destruction rays overnight.
Of course, re-reading it I notice all sorts of negative aspects I had missed when I was younger. For example, they go to Venus (a Venus of oceans and only about 150 degrees) and find a giant airship attacking a city. Now they don't know anything about the two sides fighting or what the issues are, but because the city is so pretty, they decide to attack the airship and save the city. I guess I'm glad they didn't decide to show up while we were bombing Tokyo.
And do I need to mention that there are no women in the book-- anywhere?
I can't really recommend this book except for those who already know they like 1930s techno-babble hard science fiction. (If you're really into this stuff, the sequels are ISLANDS OF SPACE and INVADERS FROM THE INFINITE.)
To order The Black Star Passes from amazon.com, click here.
THE CRYSTAL CITY by Orson Scott Card:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 02/20/2004]
Orson Scott Card's THE CRYSTAL CITY is the sixth of his "Alvin the Maker" series. The premise of this series is that the Aztecs defeated the Spaniards and the Puritans remained in power in Britain. It does an even worse job of standing alone [than MIDWINTER NIGHTINGALE], since apparently the first three chapters were removed to become the novella "The Yazoo Queen" in Robert Silverberg's anthology LEGENDS II. The result is that there are not just references to previous books which manage to be explained enough for new readers, but references to things in the first three (now missing) chapters that *aren't* explained. This will be particularly annoying to readers who buy all seven books (there's one more to come), and then discover that they still don't have a whole coherent story.
To order The Crystal City from amazon.com, click here.
ENDER'S SHADOW by Orson Scott Card:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 12/19/2003]
My library science fiction discussion group read Orson Scott Card's ENDER'S SHADOW, a parallel book to ENDER'S GAME. Though people say it stands alone, I'm not convinced of that. (I read ENDER'S GAME years ago, so I can't completely judge.)
To order Ender's Shadow from amazon.com, click here.
PASTWATCH: THE REDEMPTION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS by Orson Scott Card (Tor, ISBN 0-312-85058-1, 1996, 348pp, hardback):
There is a really interesting philosophical question here. Unfortunately, Card manages to side-step it entirely.
In the future (our future), a time machine has been invented, but it's not a chronoporter, it's a chronovisor. That is, you can't travel to the past, just view it. (I found myself asking the same question of this that I asked of Queen Tikka's television in Phantom Empire: where were the cameras and microphones that were sending these pictures?) Tagiri, one of the watchers, begins to think they should go back and fix history to be better. (Why does she think this when everyone is sure that time travel is impossible?) One day Diko, her daughter who is also a watcher, sees a vision appear to Columbus telling him to sail west. Convinced that the vision is really a traveler from another timeline (even though everyone has rejected the idea that there are many parallel worlds), Diko manages to convince the project that 1) they can build a time machine and 2) they should send her back to change history. What about the fact that changing history will wipe out there world? Card neatly postulates an eco-disaster that will leave everyone dead in a few years anyway, so what the heck. (I guess the lives of all those who lived in the mean time don't count.)
In other words, Card raises the issue of whether changing the past is ethical, given that doing so will cause the annihilation of millions of people. And then he drops it. Oh, his characters spend time talking about how much better the world will be for the (as yet non-existent) people in the new world, without talking very much at all about the fate of the currently existing people in the old.
Card also makes a few other slips, On page 171, for example, he claims that plagues sweeping through Americas wouldn't cause a Tlaxcala empire to fall any more than plagues in Europe caused the fall of empires there, but he overlooks the fact that the plagues in Europe didn't kill 90% and the plagues in America would. (Later, Card gets around this by having Diko spread a milder version of everything to create an immunity.)
Card also has a devout Muslim say, "I spit on your Christ." Devout Muslims consider Jesus a prophet and would never say such a thing. It could be that Kemal is not a true Muslim, but since he is portrayed as one, a little more accuracy and fairness would be nice.
I also thought it ironic that, given that one of Diko's co-travelers thinks the native American cultures superior, he nonetheless makes a speech (on page 183) about how mating without marriage is a repudiation of the community. The Americans he is so eager to save didn't necessarily feel this way. Why does Card insert this? To preach at the reader. Which is why I find the thoughts (on page 187) of a character thinking about the expulsion of the Jews from Spain particularly ironic: "No, the Jews had to be expelled because as long as the weaker Christians could look around them and see unbelievers prospering, see them marrying and having children and living normal and decent lives, they would not be firm in their faith that only in Christ is there happiness. The Jews had to go." I wonder how many other readers realize that Card has hit on the real reason that many people are against same-sex marriages. I wonder if Card realized it.
Unfortunately, most of what Card is pushing is that the Europeans were almost entirely evil, and that the native Americans were almost entirely good, except for a few minor details like human sacrifice. Card seems to have jumped on the political correctness bandwagon here, overlooking the possibility that the lower technological level in the Americas was what kept the native Americans from being as successfully oppressive as the Europeans. By giving the Americans a technology on a par with the Europeans, it's quite possible that the time travelers could have created a world in which the Americans conquered and enslaved the Europeans. (Of course, Card wrote the book so they didn't. Heinlein was good at this sort of thing also.)
And one final note: Card lists the sources that he used in researching this book. The one source that seems to me the most obvious and necessary he doesn't even mention: the letters of Columbus himself, written to Ferdinand and Isabella and reporting on his four voyages. It is available in a bilingual edition from Dover Books.
To order Pastwatch from amazon.com, click here.
EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY edited by John Carey:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 06/22/2007]
Our book group chose selections from EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY edited by John Carey (ISBN-10 0-380-72968-7, ISBN-13 978-0-380-72968-5) for this month's discussion. After much debate we decided on pages 1 through 174, along with the introduction. (This brought us up to the founding of Jamestown in 1607, which seemed a good cut-off point. We try to keep the page count per month under 300 pages.) The introduction was added at the last minute, when I realized that it provided a fair amount for discussion, as Carey talks about the history and philosophy of reportage. For example, he cites Ben Jonson's 1626 play "The Staple of News" as using "the self-evident absurdity of news-gathering as an activity. History has not supported Jonson's judgement." He also discusses the science fiction novel THE TIN MEN by Michael Frayn (ISBN-10 0-006-54102-X, ISBN-13 978-0-006-54102-8).
To order Eyewitness to History from amazon.com, click here.
PAST IMPERFECT edited by Mark Carnes:
NOVEL HISTORY edited by Mark Carnes:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 12/23/2005]
In 1996, Mark C. Carnes edited PAST IMPERFECT (ISBN 0-8050-3760-8), in which historians wrote essays about various (historical) films. For example, Jonathan D. Spence wrote about SHANGHAI EXPRESS, and (as an example of the broad definition of "history" used) Stephen Jay Gould wrote about JURASSIC PARK. Now Carnes is back, with NOVEL HISTORY (ISBN 0-684-85765-0), in which historians write about historical novels. And this time the novelists (well, most of them) are given a chance to respond. Part of what this means is that you can be reasonably sure that none of the living authors are going to be completely trashed. On the other hand, it probably would not be worthwhile to spend time writing essays on bad books anyway. The one problem is that if you are not familiar with the book being discussed, then the discussion is not very meaningful. (This was less of a problem in PAST IMPERFECT, as the movies chosen were far more widely known.)
To order Past Imperfect from amazon.com, click here.
To order Novel History from amazon.com, click here.
THE ITALIAN SECRETARY by Caleb Carr:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 06/03/2005]
Caleb Carr's THE ITALIAN SECRETARY (ISBN 0-7867-1548-0) is a straightforward Holmes story. The "Italian secretary" of the title is David Rizzio (music teacher to Mary, Queen of Scots), who was killed three hundred years ago. But his ghost may or may not be involved in some very strange murders in Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. There are a couple of problems with this novel. One is that Carr, although an historian, has no ear for the use (or mis-use) of ahistorical words. So in the first dozen or so pages, we run across such words as "odds-on", "sonic", and "electronic" scattered among the supposedly Victorian prose, and each time it's like tripping over a concealed rock. And I find the use of the supernatural in Holmes stories problematic in general. At the end either it turns out that there *are* supernatural goings- on (which to my mind is completely contrary to the spirit of the Sherlock Holmes canon--no pun intended), or there aren't, in which case the reader feels they have been led down the garden path. (Yes, in some of Doyle's stories, a ghost is suggested, but Holmes immediately discounts that idea. I'm talking about stories in which he is not so adamant.) Somehow, I just can't recommend this book.
To order The Italian Secretary from amazon.com, click here.
ALIAS SIMON HAWKE: FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK by Philip Carraher:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 04/30/2004]
Philip Carraher's ALIAS SIMON HAWKE: FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NEW YORK (ISBN 1-4033-6992-5, 1st Books Library) is another collection of mystery stories, in this case a novella and three short stories set during a time when Sherlock Holmes was incognito in New York after the incident at Reichenbach Falls. Carraher tries, and his evocation of 1890s New York is a reasonable substitute for Victorian London, but I miss Watson's narrative style.
To order Alias Simon Hawke from amazon.com, click here.
CONSTANTINE'S SWORD: THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS by James Carroll:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 10/03/2008]
CONSTANTINE'S SWORD: THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS by James Carroll (ISBN-13 978-0-618-21908-7, ISBN-10 0-618-21908-0) covers an important topic--the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church towards Jews through the ages. Unfortunately, it seems completely unfocused. Carroll will talk about some historical period, then veer off into a description of how he met Pope John XXIII, or seeing some Catholic ceremony in Germany when he was a child, or being in the anti-(Vietnam)-war movement. I can't help but feel that he should have written two books: one a memoir of his life and the other a history of anti-Semitism in the Church.
This anti-Semitism went through several phases. At times, the belief that the Jews must remain to witness the final days was a dominant factor. Other times, the drive to convert Jews was based on the idea that if they just heard the "truth", they would convert. A particularly counter-productive phase was the belief that the Jews *knew* that Jesus was the Messiah, but refused to convert out of contrariness and/or wickedness. (I find it ironic that a few years ago I heard a variation of this argument from a Jew, who argued that gays and lesbians *knew* that what they were doing was wrong, but did it anyway out of wickedness.)
One of the digressions was actually fairly apt in its depiction of how people turn history to their own ends. Carroll was constantly told about his great-uncle in Ireland for whom he was named. "It was the year of the Rising against the British, and he died an Irish hero," his mother would say. So when Carroll went to Ireland, he went to his ancestral town, and asked about whether his great-uncle was buried there. Sure enough, he was directed to the churchyard. "I pushed away high the grass away to read the inscription: 'James Morrissey, RIP.' Sure enough, the date of his death was 1916. [But] I now made out before his name the letters 'Pvt.,' and below it was the seal of the British Empire. I read the words 'Killed in France.' I was confused only for a moment. Private James Morrissey 'died an Irish hero in the year of the Rising against the British,' but instead of as an Irish Republican Brotherhood rebel, he died as a British soldier, fighting for the king in the Great War."
To order Constantine's Sword from amazon.com, click here.
TOP DOG by Jerry Jay Carroll (Ace, ISBN 0-441-00368-0, 1996, 330pp, trade paperback):
William Bogart Ingersol awoke one morning to discover he had been turned into a giant dog.
Well, maybe not giant, but definitely a dog. This is where the resemblance to Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis ends, unless one considers Ingersol's attempts to deal with his new body as paralleling Gregor Samsoe's efforts. In fact, the rest of the story is a more traditional fantasy, with wizards and magic and such. But the conceit of having the main character a corporate magnate transformed into a canine and transported into a magic world gives this a new level that other such stories often lack. I am not generally a high fantasy fan, but this (in my opinion) walks the line between high fantasy and ... well, it's not low fantasy, but whatever other sort of fantasy one finds. (Urban fantasy, just a bit?) If you're looking for a fantasy that stands out for its originality, I would recommend Top Dog.
To order Top Dog from amazon.com, click here.
REMARKABLE CREATURES: EPIC ADVENTURES IN THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF SPECIES by Sean B. Carroll:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 04/17/2009]
REMARKABLE CREATURES: EPIC ADVENTURES IN THE SEARCH FOR THE ORIGINS OF SPECIES by Sean B. Carroll (ISBN-13 978-0-151-01485-9, ISBN-10 0-15101-485-X) pointed out what a remarkable anniversary year 2009 is. Most people who follow this sort of thing are aware that it is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. But it is also the 150th anniversary of the publication of ORIGIN OF SPECIES, the 100the anniversary of the discovery of the Burgess Shale, and the 50th anniversary of the first hominid finds by the Leakeys in east Africa. (And it is apparently the 30th anniversary of when Luis and Frank Alvarez, Frank Asaro, and Helen Michael wrote their paper on the Chicxulub asteroid extinction at the end of the Mezozoic, since it was published in the June 1980 issue of SCIENCE.)
To order Remarkable Creatures from amazon.com, click here.
ABC FOR BOOK COLLECTORS by John Carter, revised by Nicolas Barker:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 12/28/2007]
ABC FOR BOOK COLLECTORS by John Carter, revised by Nicolas Barker (ISBN-13 978-1-584-56112-5, ISBN-10 1-584-56112-2) is a delightful book that covers all the terms a serious book collector needs. The problem for the rest of us is that we may not have as much interest in the fine distinctions among types of leather binding as serious collectors. Personally, when I am describing my collection of science fiction paperbacks, the terms "crushed Morocco" and "Levant leather" rarely arise. However, there is enough to make flipping through it worthwhile for people who love books even if the books are not two hundred years old, bound in leather, and inscribed. For example, Carter (or Barker) has a clear opinion on the question of whether advance copies are the true first editions: "But they do *not* (as is sometimes suggested) represent a first or early *issue* in the proper sense of the word; nor can the existence of fifty advance copies of a book prejudice in any way the firstness of the first edition as issued on the day of publication." He refers to this preference for an advance copy as "the chronological obsession", of which he says, "if a slightly acid note is discernible in the comments offered [in various entries] in this book on the more extreme manifestations of priority-consciousness, it must be set down to the conviction that all extremes are a bore." Of deckle edges, he says (or they say--it is not always clear what is Carter and what is Barker), "They have, certainly, a sort of antiquarian charm, ..., but they collect dust and, being technically obsolete for a century and a half, hardly avoid a self-conscious air. In books of reference they are intolerable." The item on dos-a-dos binding says that it is usually done on "service books or works of piety" but does not even mention Ace Doubles. Carter (or Barker) does not suffer fools gladly. Of "else fine" he says, "A favourite phrase with the never-say-die type of cataloguer, used in such contexts as 'somewhat wormed and age- stained, piece torn from title, headlines cut into, joints repaired, new lettering-piece, else fine.'" And of "excessively": "An adverb of enthusiasm, frequently and irritatingly mis-used with the adjective 'rare'. Rarity may be extreme, notorious, ultimate, even legendary; but it cannot be excessive." One of the best things about this book, though, is that it labels all its parts with the correct terms. So the loose endpaper has "loose endpaper" printed on it in small capitals, the righthand edge of it has "fore-edge", and so on. The only parts not so labeled are the outside of the dust jacket. [This was true of the Seventh Edition; I assume it will continue in future editions/printings as well.]
To order ABC for Book Collectors from amazon.com, click here.
PLATO AND A PLATYPUS WALK INTO A BAR: UNDERSTANDING PHILOSOPHY THROUGH JOKES by Tom Cathcart and Dan Klein:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 11/30/2007]
PLATO AND A PLATYPUS WALK INTO A BAR: UNDERSTANDING PHILOSOPHY THROUGH JOKES by Tom Cathcart and Dan Klein (ISBN-13 978-0-8109-1493-3, ISBN-10 0-8109-1493-X) gives a very sketchy outline of such topics as metaphysics, logic, ethics, and so on. Each aspect of the topic is illustrated with jokes so, for example, a paragraph on utilitarianism is followed by a joke illustrating (or refuting) it. My problems with the book are that the philosophy is fairly superficial, and the jokes fairly old. It is clearly intended as a book intended to make people feel they are reading something edifying, while not taxing them too much. There is a brief (humorous) glossary, but no index. This is okay for a quick read, but don't mistake it for a useful text on philosophy.
To order Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar from amazon.com, click here.
REVISITING NARNIA: FANTASY, MYTH AND RELIGION IN C. S. LEWIS' CHRONICLES edited by Shanna Caughy:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 08/17/2007]
The BBC ran an adaptation of C. S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia"--all seven books, running about twenty-four hours in total. We listened to this (over several days), and I also read REVISITING NARNIA: FANTASY, MYTH AND RELIGION IN C. S. LEWIS' CHRONICLES edited by Shanna Caughy (ISBN-13 978-1-932100-63-1, ISBN-10 1-932100-63-6). This is a collection of essays about the Narnia books from various perspectives. For example, in "Greek Delight" Nick Mamatas explains how Lewis's theology is very Roman Catholic and often completely at odds with the Greek Orthodox view of God and Jesus. (And also how if you want to recreate the taste of Turkish Delight, you should "find a well-worn sliver of fragrant soap, dip it in confectioner's sugar, and eat it."
Naomi Woods's "God in the Details" makes a lot of points I agree with. Woods says that at times it seems as if Aslan had created Narnia for the benefit of children from Earth, so that they could come there and learn spiritual/religious lessons. Also, all the good children seem priggish, possibly because what Aslan teaches is blind obedience to him. Lewis at times uses characters' looks to signal that they are not the "good guys": "prim dumpy little girls with fat legs" or boys who look like pigs. Eustace's love of informational books and his parents' vegetarianism are considered negative qualities, and the Calormenes embody all the negative stereotypes of the Arabs.
There are two essays on the "correct" reading order for the books. They agree that the correct order is that in which they were written, but for completely different reasons.
My own observation is that in THE LAST BATTLE, Shift (the ape) deceives everyone by telling them that they cannot speak to Aslan directly, but only through him. This sounds to me very much like the traditional Catholic view that the priest is needed to intercede between God and man, and I was a bit surprised to see Lewis show that as such a negative thing and prone to abuse.
And if the end of THE LAST BATTLE is "the beginning of the real story", what kind of story can it be, with no conflict and no change? "The term is over; the holidays have begun." But what is the purpose of a never-ending holiday? It may be enjoyable, but as a story, it is not very interesting.
To order Revisiting Narnia from amazon.com, click here.
24 FAVORITE ONE-ACT PLAYS edited by Bennett Cerf and Van H. Cartmell:
[From "This Week's Reading", MT VOID, 03/07/2003]
I also finished 24 FAVORITE ONE-ACT PLAYS edited by Bennett Cerf and Van H. Cartmell. These may be *their* favorite plays, but many of them are completely fprgotten today. Then again, one-act plays don't lend themselves to the sort of theater one finds today, except maybe in pairs or trios by a local theater group. There was even a Lord Dunsany play ("The Jest of Hahalaba"). (I looked this up on amazon.com and discovered that the same collection is now listed as edited by Van H. Cartmell as the primary editor.)
To order 24 Favorite One-Act Plays from amazon.com, click here.