Customer Reviews (1)

Great Book about a Bad City
Once in a while I come across a writer who is so dexterous, so acute, that I am willing to follow him to whatever depths of depravity to which he chooses to descend.

Tim Willocks is such a writer, and in Bad City Blues, he has elected to visit a deeper place than I have gone before.The setting is a Louisiana hotter, dirtier and uglier than the one I have visited and it is peopled with demons disguised as policemen, addicts, thugs and men of the cloth.These creatures are violent and vengeful, heaping pain and indignities upon one another with an abandon that should chill and repel the reader, but the spare beauty of the language keeps us hanging on through the worst of it.

There are only seven characters in Bad City Blues and in lesser hands such paucity of interaction might seem cramped and claustrophobic, but it's clear that Willocks requires every one of the books 245 pages to bring them to life and could probably have done with another hundred or so.

As with most of stories of human nature, Bad City Blues is about two brothers.It is a logical way for a writer to start - two men who have had the same upbringing and background should turn out roughly the same way, yet one goes bad, the other goes worse.Cicero and Luther Grimes (Grimes - dirty, besoiled, low - even the names are evocative) are white trash who haven't spoken in years due to an unnamed wrong committed by Luther on Cicero.Luther spends most of his time in South America, training death squads and dealing drugs, while his brother elected to go to medical school.Cicero could have been a successful doctor, but instead now lives in a broken-down firehouse in a broken-down part of town and tends to the afflicted, often free of charge.Does this make him a good man?No, not really.Violence and retribution boil just below the surface of his calm demeanor.Though the "good" Grimes does not uncork his rage, the bloodlust surges through him and is as ugly as the acts perpetrated by the other characters.

Separated by years and miles, the brothers are pulled together by Callie Carter, a former hooker and current addict, who is on the run with a million dollars stolen from the bank where her husband is a Vice President.The husband, Cleve Carter, is also a television evangelist who sparks through his brief appearance in this book like a high-voltage wire chewed through by wild nutria.

Clarence Jefferson is a crooked cop who destroys or befouls everything he touches, including his sweet and unassuming Baptist wife.He catches wind of the million dollar heist and sets out to claim his piece of it, leaving a wake of bloodied and broken humanity behind him.

Bad City Blues is a ferocious and extraordinary book that will be enjoyed by fans of Chuck Palahniuk and James Lee Burke and burned in horror by fans of Agatha Christie and Joan Hess. ... Read more

Product Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to bone up for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary figure?

Turn to "Dictionary of Literary Biography" for the finest literature reference material. Brought to you by the Gale Group--the world's leading source of reference information--this e-doc contains a biographical essay written by a noted literary expert as well as extensive primary and secondary bibliographies. ... Read more

Product Description
Hard-edged and iconoclastic, the new wave of Scottish writers and their godfather, Irvine Welsh, write a darkly funny brand of fiction about people on the fringes--junkies, soccer hooligans, ravers, working-class youth. This anthology of six full-length novellas features raw and exciting works by Welsh and such up-and-coming authors as Alan Warner, James Meek, Gordon Legge, and Laura J. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Introduction to "New" Scottish Writing
An excellent introduction to "new Scottish writing" this collection features one short story each from Irvine Welsh (Filth, Trainspotting, Ecstacy Club, Maribou Stork Nightmare), Alan Warner (MorvernCallar, These Demented Lands,The Sopranos), Gordon Legge (The Shoe, InBetween Talking About the Football), James Meek (Drivetime), Laura Hird,and Paul Reekie. Gordon Legge's "Pop Life" is a gruffly tenderportrait of three friends who've grown up and apart. Alan Warner's"After the Vision" is typically long on tone and atmosphere as itfollows a stranded raver trying to find a place to sleep until the morningtrain. James Meek's "Brown Pint of Courage" amusingly depicts atrio of parking ticket writers who blow off their job. Paul Reekie's"The Submission" was perhaps the lesser of the six stories,written as a long rambling letter to a friend. The most "sexy"story is by the lone female entrant, Laura Hird, whose "The DilatingPupil" is about a middle-aged teacher and a female student who havedesigns on each other which are derailed in a night of booze and drugs.Irvine Welsh's "The Rosewell Incident" is the shallowest, butpossibly funniest read of the lot. It throws together alien abduction and"lads" in an unholy alliance to rule the world. A bit silly butfun. The collection as a whole is well worth checking out if you want tosee what the Scottish kids are up to. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

What's Your Story?
While the What's Your Story? collection is a great collection of stories, I doubt many people actually used the stories as postcards. I would imagine most bought their copies for the same reason I did--J.K. Rowling's little HP-Prequel-That-Isn't. While I enjoyed the stories, I have to say, my enjoyment was severely limited by some of the authors' atrocious handwriting (YES, JKR, I am looking at you!). If you're going to write a widely-hyped story, make it legible, won't you? I was highly surprised by some of the other stories. Rowling's was great, but so was say, Lauren Child's. I'm not familiar with any of her other work, but her mini "story" was adorable, and a postcard that one could easily see themselves sending. Most amazing of all, dare I say more amazing than Rowling's Marauderlicious tale, were the Waterstone's employee/customer submitted ones. While the others were good stories, these were the ones that really had me laughing and crying and rolling madly on the floor.

Rating: 4/5

wonderful collection of very short stories on postcards
This limited edition book was only available from Waterstone's in the UK. It contains postcards with very short stories (some illustrated) on the front, suitable for mailing should you choose to pull them out. It was done as a fund raiser for two charities, Dyslexia Action and English PEN.

Included are original, new stories from best selling authors such as JK Rowling and Neil Gaiman (and many more), and also winners from Waterstone customers and booksellers.

The stories vary from funny to sad - it was hard to pick a favorite although Lisa Appignanesi's effort about a woman who got what she thought she wanted in love would probably be it if forced. My sole complaint on this is that some of the handwriting is hard to read. I guess it makes me feel better about my own penmanship - at least I have one thing in common with some incredible authors.

Enjoyable to read and for a good cause, this collection of short stories is well recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
Eight authors, eight countries, eight unforgettable stories.

Authors Tim Butcher, Xiaolu Guo, Joanne Harris, Kathy Lette, Henning Mankell, Deborah Moggach, Marie Phillips and Irvine Welsh visited eight different countries and spoke to young women and girls about their lives, struggles and hopes. The result is an extraordinary collection of writings about prejudice, abuse and neglect, but also about courage, resilience and changing attitudes. ... Read more

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As Hallward tries to make sense of his creation, his epigram-happyfriend Lord Henry Wotton encourages Dorian in his sensual quest withany number of Wildean paradoxes, including the delightful "Whenwe are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are notalways happy." But despite its many languorous pleasures, ThePicture of Dorian Gray is an imperfect work. Compared to the two(voyeuristic) older men, Dorian is a bore, and his search for ever newsensations far less fun than the novel's drawing-roomdiscussions. Even more oddly, the moral message of the novelcontradicts many of Wilde's supposed aims, not least "no artisthas ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is anunpardonable mannerism of style." Nonetheless, the glamour boygets his just deserts. And Wilde, defending Dorian Gray, had it bothways: "All excess, as well as all renunciation, brings its ownpunishment." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (391)

Where is the famous preface?
The preface is missing which is a critical to the book! Print it out from some other source if you are going to buy this edition. The story is amazing otherwise!

Re-read
I grew up reading the classics, and as a young child this story terrified me.I re-read it and enjoyed it again!

Read it once, but only once
The most disappointing part of this book is that it read more like a non-fiction philosophy book than a story or novel. I would say 70% of the pages were portrayed as thoughts of a character or a speech of a character contemplating life, women, how we are suppose to live, etc.

The actual story was hidden throughout the book, but you have to drone on through many pages to find it. The story itself is highly predictable and yet still has many missing parts to it. Many years of Dorian Gray's life is missing where it is hinted to that he commit's the most awful sins. I think reading of those sinful actions was to be more entertaining than the rabbit trails that Wilde goes on.

Despite these facts, I am glad that I read the book once. It held my attention enough and was brilliant enough that I did learn something from the book, which is a great accomplishment in itself, to teach a reader a few principals that may slightly help or change on any small level, the readers actions. So I do recommend this book if you have no more pressing serious books on your reading list.

On a side note, I do disagree with all the reviews I have seen on this book where the reader says that they can not relate to Dorian Gray's sins and that his sins are outdated. His chief sins in the book are (SMALL SPOILER ALERT) murder, drug use, pride, treating others harshly and without respect, using women in many ways, etc. are all sins practiced today even if they are not practiced exactly the way they are in the book. If you can relate to none of those sins in any way, then you are a better person than I, or suffer from foolish pride which is the chief sin in the book.

The Picture of Dorian Gray
I am pleased with my shipping and the product is how it was described. Fast shipping.

Well written, but not enjoyable
I read this book as a child (around 11) in Russian. Finally decided to re-read it in English. I was astonished as to how differently I perceived it this time around. Without a question, Wilde is a master of words, but the subject of this book was questionable. It appeared to me, that Wilde was set on pushing his own philosophy and views of life and self onto others, and, as I read it, I found myself rejecting it with every fiber of my being. I was rather surprised to have such a strong reaction to this piece of literature. Would not read again and would not recommend it to others either. Just my two cents. ... Read more