Product Description

Customer Reviews (21)

morally and ethically thought provoking
I'm not sure when this was actually published, but i read the newly minted paperback. Surely over a decade. I was mesmerized by the prose that wrapped its' way around the slowly revealed facts and the viewpoints. The actual premise sickens me to think of it, even as my children could actually hurt someone. They are after all, Adults. Fabulous. Couldn't put it down. And now in my later life, nothing to compare to this (no death, but my work life is ruined)..... and I question....

Grabbed Me and Held Me
When Jacob Reiser, a teenager in New Hampshire, kills his girlfriend, his parents Ben and Carolyn are forced to think about their values and their morals as well as their relationship. They would like things to go back to the way they'd been before the murder, but it can't be. This story grabbed me and held me.

Heart wrenching
The plot of is simple, like its title, "Before and After." Into the stable routine of an affluent happy family drops a bombshell which rips them asunder and throws them together. Carolyn and Ben Reiser's 17-year-old son, Jacob, is accused of a brutal murder.

Chapters alternating between Ben, Carolyn and their pre-adolescent daughter, Judith, explore their reactions and, through memory, yearn for the way life had been.

Brown's themes are anything but simple. Love is central but around it swirl murky questions of alienation, moral choice, duty, forgiveness, good, evil and truth.

At first shock brings the Reisers together. New Yorkers transplanted to bucolic New Hampshire, they are instantly outsiders again. Jacob has vanished, leaving only questions. The future yawns like the unimaginable black hole. Hope -- kidnappers, maniacs -- is to be clung to.

Then time works its magic. Jacob's whereabouts still a mystery,Carolyn grows restless, considers returning to her work as a pediatrician. Ben, a man of action who destroyed evidence in Jacob's car without hesitation, recoils from thoughts of "normal" activities. Judith goes back to school and endures the taunts of her peers in silence. Tension simmers at the surface, obscuring darker roilings beneath.

Finally even the reader grows impatient. Get on with the story so they can go on -- somehow -- with their lives.

And, at last, Jacob is found. Ben, however miserable, is in his element, taking charge, wholly committed to his son. It's more difficult for Carolyn. She can't forget the murdered girl. She wonders how well she ever knew her son. Ben is passionate and focused, Carolyn is sensitive and tortured by the rigors of soul searching. Judith cleaves to a world where right and wrong are simple truths.

Brown's ("Civil Wars," "Tender Mercies") exploration of character is riveting. Her characters' memories and struggles seem as real as our own. Almost too real. Heart-wrenching truths cut close to the bone, leaving no room for the comfort of "It can't happen here."

One minor complaint -- New Hampshire has no death penalty and too much of the story depends, unnecessarily, on the fiction that it does. Life in prison is horror aplenty.

The Darker Side of Human Decision Making
Caught in a seen where a decision must be made to either preserve the family or betray their son, the family faces a moral decision. Telling the decision from their own words and their own perspectives, the novelist explores the darker side of human decision making.

Very emotional.

The movie does not follow the book. In the movie, the son's murder is an accident. In the book, it's intentional. The producers of the movie thought it might be a better story if the murder was unintentional with the outward appearance of guilt than an actual intentional murder.

A welcome twist to the crime novel.
The setting is small town New Hampshire. The secret girlfriend of high school student Jacob Reiser is found dead in the snow and all of the clues point to Jacob.

"Before and After" is a crime novel with a big twist. Rather than following a policeman or the fleeing criminal, it follows the family of the accused and what they go through. The book's title refers to life before and after the crime and how the seemingly perfect family is ripped apart.

It is told in the first person from the perspectves of mom, dad and sister (interestingly, never from Jacob's point of view). The brother and son they thought they knew is now a stranger.

At times, this book is an emotionally abusive roller coaster, but it would be an interesting read for a discussion group concerning the reactions of the family, especially the father and his criminal acts to cover up evidence and his obsession to help his son.

I'll give this book a "B+" for finding an interesting way to add a welcome twist to the crime novel.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

morally and ethically thought provoking
I'm not sure when this was actually published, but i read the newly minted paperback. Surely over a decade. I was mesmerized by the prose that wrapped its' way around the slowly revealed facts and the viewpoints. The actual premise sickens me to think of it, even as my children could actually hurt someone. They are after all, Adults. Fabulous. Couldn't put it down. And now in my later life, nothing to compare to this (no death, but my work life is ruined)..... and I question....

Grabbed Me and Held Me
When Jacob Reiser, a teenager in New Hampshire, kills his girlfriend, his parents Ben and Carolyn are forced to think about their values and their morals as well as their relationship. They would like things to go back to the way they'd been before the murder, but it can't be. This story grabbed me and held me.

Heart wrenching
The plot of is simple, like its title, "Before and After." Into the stable routine of an affluent happy family drops a bombshell which rips them asunder and throws them together. Carolyn and Ben Reiser's 17-year-old son, Jacob, is accused of a brutal murder.

Chapters alternating between Ben, Carolyn and their pre-adolescent daughter, Judith, explore their reactions and, through memory, yearn for the way life had been.

Brown's themes are anything but simple. Love is central but around it swirl murky questions of alienation, moral choice, duty, forgiveness, good, evil and truth.

At first shock brings the Reisers together. New Yorkers transplanted to bucolic New Hampshire, they are instantly outsiders again. Jacob has vanished, leaving only questions. The future yawns like the unimaginable black hole. Hope -- kidnappers, maniacs -- is to be clung to.

Then time works its magic. Jacob's whereabouts still a mystery,Carolyn grows restless, considers returning to her work as a pediatrician. Ben, a man of action who destroyed evidence in Jacob's car without hesitation, recoils from thoughts of "normal" activities. Judith goes back to school and endures the taunts of her peers in silence. Tension simmers at the surface, obscuring darker roilings beneath.

Finally even the reader grows impatient. Get on with the story so they can go on -- somehow -- with their lives.

And, at last, Jacob is found. Ben, however miserable, is in his element, taking charge, wholly committed to his son. It's more difficult for Carolyn. She can't forget the murdered girl. She wonders how well she ever knew her son. Ben is passionate and focused, Carolyn is sensitive and tortured by the rigors of soul searching. Judith cleaves to a world where right and wrong are simple truths.

Brown's ("Civil Wars," "Tender Mercies") exploration of character is riveting. Her characters' memories and struggles seem as real as our own. Almost too real. Heart-wrenching truths cut close to the bone, leaving no room for the comfort of "It can't happen here."

One minor complaint -- New Hampshire has no death penalty and too much of the story depends, unnecessarily, on the fiction that it does. Life in prison is horror aplenty.

The Darker Side of Human Decision Making
Caught in a seen where a decision must be made to either preserve the family or betray their son, the family faces a moral decision. Telling the decision from their own words and their own perspectives, the novelist explores the darker side of human decision making.

Very emotional.

The movie does not follow the book. In the movie, the son's murder is an accident. In the book, it's intentional. The producers of the movie thought it might be a better story if the murder was unintentional with the outward appearance of guilt than an actual intentional murder.

A welcome twist to the crime novel.
The setting is small town New Hampshire. The secret girlfriend of high school student Jacob Reiser is found dead in the snow and all of the clues point to Jacob.

"Before and After" is a crime novel with a big twist. Rather than following a policeman or the fleeing criminal, it follows the family of the accused and what they go through. The book's title refers to life before and after the crime and how the seemingly perfect family is ripped apart.

It is told in the first person from the perspectves of mom, dad and sister (interestingly, never from Jacob's point of view). The brother and son they thought they knew is now a stranger.

At times, this book is an emotionally abusive roller coaster, but it would be an interesting read for a discussion group concerning the reactions of the family, especially the father and his criminal acts to cover up evidence and his obsession to help his son.

I'll give this book a "B+" for finding an interesting way to add a welcome twist to the crime novel.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

morally and ethically thought provoking
I'm not sure when this was actually published, but i read the newly minted paperback. Surely over a decade. I was mesmerized by the prose that wrapped its' way around the slowly revealed facts and the viewpoints. The actual premise sickens me to think of it, even as my children could actually hurt someone. They are after all, Adults. Fabulous. Couldn't put it down. And now in my later life, nothing to compare to this (no death, but my work life is ruined)..... and I question....

Grabbed Me and Held Me
When Jacob Reiser, a teenager in New Hampshire, kills his girlfriend, his parents Ben and Carolyn are forced to think about their values and their morals as well as their relationship. They would like things to go back to the way they'd been before the murder, but it can't be. This story grabbed me and held me.

Heart wrenching
The plot of is simple, like its title, "Before and After." Into the stable routine of an affluent happy family drops a bombshell which rips them asunder and throws them together. Carolyn and Ben Reiser's 17-year-old son, Jacob, is accused of a brutal murder.

Chapters alternating between Ben, Carolyn and their pre-adolescent daughter, Judith, explore their reactions and, through memory, yearn for the way life had been.

Brown's themes are anything but simple. Love is central but around it swirl murky questions of alienation, moral choice, duty, forgiveness, good, evil and truth.

At first shock brings the Reisers together. New Yorkers transplanted to bucolic New Hampshire, they are instantly outsiders again. Jacob has vanished, leaving only questions. The future yawns like the unimaginable black hole. Hope -- kidnappers, maniacs -- is to be clung to.

Then time works its magic. Jacob's whereabouts still a mystery,Carolyn grows restless, considers returning to her work as a pediatrician. Ben, a man of action who destroyed evidence in Jacob's car without hesitation, recoils from thoughts of "normal" activities. Judith goes back to school and endures the taunts of her peers in silence. Tension simmers at the surface, obscuring darker roilings beneath.

Finally even the reader grows impatient. Get on with the story so they can go on -- somehow -- with their lives.

And, at last, Jacob is found. Ben, however miserable, is in his element, taking charge, wholly committed to his son. It's more difficult for Carolyn. She can't forget the murdered girl. She wonders how well she ever knew her son. Ben is passionate and focused, Carolyn is sensitive and tortured by the rigors of soul searching. Judith cleaves to a world where right and wrong are simple truths.

Brown's ("Civil Wars," "Tender Mercies") exploration of character is riveting. Her characters' memories and struggles seem as real as our own. Almost too real. Heart-wrenching truths cut close to the bone, leaving no room for the comfort of "It can't happen here."

One minor complaint -- New Hampshire has no death penalty and too much of the story depends, unnecessarily, on the fiction that it does. Life in prison is horror aplenty.

The Darker Side of Human Decision Making
Caught in a seen where a decision must be made to either preserve the family or betray their son, the family faces a moral decision. Telling the decision from their own words and their own perspectives, the novelist explores the darker side of human decision making.

Very emotional.

The movie does not follow the book. In the movie, the son's murder is an accident. In the book, it's intentional. The producers of the movie thought it might be a better story if the murder was unintentional with the outward appearance of guilt than an actual intentional murder.

A welcome twist to the crime novel.
The setting is small town New Hampshire. The secret girlfriend of high school student Jacob Reiser is found dead in the snow and all of the clues point to Jacob.

"Before and After" is a crime novel with a big twist. Rather than following a policeman or the fleeing criminal, it follows the family of the accused and what they go through. The book's title refers to life before and after the crime and how the seemingly perfect family is ripped apart.

It is told in the first person from the perspectves of mom, dad and sister (interestingly, never from Jacob's point of view). The brother and son they thought they knew is now a stranger.

At times, this book is an emotionally abusive roller coaster, but it would be an interesting read for a discussion group concerning the reactions of the family, especially the father and his criminal acts to cover up evidence and his obsession to help his son.

I'll give this book a "B+" for finding an interesting way to add a welcome twist to the crime novel.
... Read more

Product Description
Tragedy thrusts married Lefties Jessie and Teddy Carll into the role of parents when Teddy's rich, bigoted sister and her husband are killed in a car accident and his sister's children move into their home. Reprint. NYT. LJ. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Interesting but long
I read this book some time ago, and its issues and characters still stand out in my mind, which seems the sign of a good story.On the other hand, I thought about a third of the book could have been cut.If you are interested in white people's involvement in the civil rights movement or current racial issues in the deep South or marriage and parenting issues, there's something in this book for you. Its worth reading, though there might be parts to skim.

Long and Drawn Out
I had to convince my mind that the story line would lead to something interesting. Boy, was I wrong.Lots of distractions with no climax.

Wonderful
One of my favorite books of all time. Sorry to see it's not in print right now.

The Worst Book I've Ever Read
This had to be the dryest, dullest novel that I have ever read.The characters are very unrealistic and difficult to relate to.Although the idea of the civil rights movement is important, this novel portrays this subject in the dry manner.For anyone looking to be bored out of their minds this summer, pick up this book.For anyone who wants a good read, select any other title at random--it has to be better that this one! ... Read more

Product Description
"All the stories in this remarkable cycle of stories are assigned an address. Each is also a separate life, yet part of the larger life that a neighborhood is; [this book] is an artist's inhabiting of other lives out of love, compassion, anger, and pain. Like the neighborhood, the stories are various. The mother of a damaged child tells us, 'I know how he dreams me. I know because I dream his dreams.' A male bureaucrat laments, 'I am too bored to move. No man can leave his wife for reasons like these....' In these stories, Rosellen Brown is Anglo, Puerto Rican, African American, Caucasian, male, female, parent, child. That is the artist's responsibility, the being of so many. Furthermore, it is a brilliantly written book that, in a period of fiction sniffing and snorting at itself, reminds us how the first rate will not go away."—from the foreword by Frederick Busch ... Read more

Product Description
A moving story about estrangement and intimacy, race and privilege, identity and belonging from the bestselling author of Before and After

Miriam Vener feels trapped in the comfortable white middle-class life she leads with her family in Houston during the 1980s. That life suddenly shatters with the appearance, after almost eighteen years, of Veronica (Ronnee), her biracial daughter born in Mississippi in the sixties when Miriam was a civil rights activist. Hot tempered, sensitive, manipulative and deeply hurt at her mother’s disappearance from her life, Ronnee has been raised by her father, a formerly brilliant college professor who forbade her to see her white mother. Half a Heart charts the emotionally fraught terrain of the mother and daughter’s reunion and Ronnee’s divided sense of self and loyalty. With which family, and which race, does she identify? How does all this affect her relationships with her newly discovered half-sister, her white boyfriend, and the father she is rebelling against? Half a Heart is a searingly honest novel of public and private ideals betrayed and hopes reignited by one of our foremost novelists.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

A Woman Meets her Bi-racial Daughter for the First Time
This is a very interesting novel by one of my favorite authors.She uses her usual technique of utilizing internal self-consciousness to create emotional collisions throughout the story.

The novel begins in the 1960's when a young white woman participating in the civil rights movement gets pregnant by a black man.She feels coerced to surrender the baby to its father. She proceeds with her life and has nothing to do with her daughter.Many years later this woman, now ensconced as an upper middle class matron in Houston, Texas, meets her daughter for the first time.

This book is carried along by Ms. Brown's great writing.It is mysterious, enlightening, and difficult to put down.The reader is transported fromthe past to the present in this fine novel.

Best I've Read in a While
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I picked it up at my daughter's yard sale; a friend of hers brought it to sell -- a lucky find for me.

This book helped me identify something in myself that has not served me well all my life -- specifically the way I try to "save the world." Miriam was like a plaintiff without "standing" to sue the world for its hideous acts of racial discrimination but with a passion to change the lives of those suffering from it.

Raised in the south when "colored" had separate water fountains and entered the doctor's office through the back door, I witnessed racial discrimination first hand; even in my own family. In the early 70's while in high school a black friend wanted to date me -- my mother (a preacher's wife) told me "you've got three older brothers to make sure that 'boy' has nothing to do with you." Miriam was able to offer herself as a willing participant in the fight for equality; ashamedly, I gave in to the "social rules" of the times.

As the other reviewers mentioned, I also wondered why Miriam waited 17 years to look for her daughter. Perhaps it was a change in the world for which she was waiting; a change in those "social rules." Back in the 60s, just having a baby without being married was enough to get you sent away to "care for a sick aunt for several months," so imagine if that baby were bi-racial. I honestly believe a reader would have had to live in those times to completely understand this story.

Do not waste your money
I have just finished Half a Heart and I was very disappointed w/this novel.First, the book seemed to drag on and on. It seemed that Ms. Brown took up 3 paragraphs to say something that could have been said in 3 sentences! Also Miriam comes off as a stupid woman. How unrealistic to give up your baby because of politics and an impractical fear.This book could insult white mothers who bore mixed heritage children, as if they are not capable of raising their children to be strong and proud of both cultures....Also the book stated the year was 1986 which meant Ronee was born in 1968. During the flashbacks Miriam seemed too naive, bland and unsexy during the free-love,hippie,Black power period.What in the world even attracted Eljay to her. That was never fully explained in the novel.Also after reuniting w/Ronee she seemed distanced and foolish. It seemed like she did not even try to get to KNOW her daughter. For instance what was the big deal w/Ronee going to Houston in the 1st place. If I had not seen my child in over 17yrs you think I would leave her to see my mom in the hospital. No! Ronee should be there it was HER family.Also once Ronee stated she was going to Stanford one of the first issues Miriam should have asked her about was money! As for Ronee she comes off as your typical know-it-all teenager. But something was weird about how Ms Brown described her physically. She kept giving an unattractive physical description (i.e. large size, ugly clothes, bad hairstyle) but men in the book found her attractive. Go figure. All in all check the book out @the lib. do not buy it.

A disappointing book from a good writer.
This novel disappointed me deeply because it started out so good, with so much potential. A white woman gives birth to the child of a black man in 1960s Mississippi. She leaves the child to be raised by the father, but eighteen years later, still haunted by the daughter she lost, she goes looking for her. That premise has potential for melodrama, of course, but also for an interesting exploration of what it means to be a mother, as well as some complicated racial issues.

For the first hundred pages, I thought this novel would probe those issues in a sensitive and intelligent way. The two main characters Ð Miriam, the mother who left her daughter behind, and Ronnee, her bi-racial child Ð start out as intriguing characters. The pain of Miriam, who has a good life, but canÕt appreciate it because of the hole left by her absent child, is palpable. And Ronnee is a beautifully written character. We learn early on that she agrees to meet with her mother mainly because sheÕs hoping for some money to finance her way to college. And yet she doesnÕt come across as a greedy villain, but rather as an intelligent, ambitious and complex young woman.

But once Rosellen Brown goes into flashback to tell the story of MiriamÕs affair with RonneeÕs father, the novel goes astray. The biggest problem is that the author doesnÕt seem to know what to make of MiriamÕs lover, Eljay. She begins with a promising portrait of a charming and intelligent man, somewhat edgy and resentful because of all he has had to suffer to get where he is. But then, out of nowhere, he gets involved with a group of black separatists who seem to take over his personality. Suddenly heÕs a different, incomprehensible, man. Because we never get inside EljayÕs head, but only see him from MiriamÕs point of view, the change in him seems weird. I have the feeling Rosellen Brown was merely trying to make the point that black racism can be just as bad as white racism, but her political point gets in the way of the story. It would have been a lot more interesting to see what Afrocentrism meant to a man like Eljay. Dismissing his point of view seems like a betrayal of a potentially fascinating character.

And the novel goes downhill from there, with one clichŽ after another. Almost all the characters, black and white, are bigots, and the bigotry is so blatant and obvious, so crude, that it makes the novel seem anachronistic. God knows racism has not disappeared, but the author seems unaware that it usually takes subtler forms than it did in 1960.

Rosellen Brown is obviously a talented writer, and this novel had a lot of potential, but unfortunately the promise remained unfulfilled.

An emotionally rewarding answer to the question "what if?"
As the mother of several grown children, I've often wondered who my children would have been without my influence...who I would have been without them at the center of my life.This wonderful story explores those "What if" questions in an engrossing and authentic way.By creating a mother and daughter who are desperate to compensate for a lifetime of seperation, this book pays beautiful tribute to the amazing power of parenthood.As is always true of Ms. Brown's books, the writing is lush and lovely. ... Read more

Product Description
Civil liberties lawyer Gerda Stein must contend with a whole new set of problems when her daughter, Renata, reenters her life after an eight-year absence and brings with her her child. Reprint. NYT. ... Read more

Product Description
Laura and Dan Courser are a less than perfect, but deeply passionate couple with two young children and lots of plans. Until Dan, displaying the boyish bravado that made Laura fall in love with him, takes the tiller of a boat he can't handle and causes the accident that shatters their lives.

Suddenly there are no more ordinary days or nights. And, in a story filled with astonishing revelations, we witness two people wrestling with a marriage in which all the rules are changed, confronting the guilt and anger, devotion and desire that don't merely survive...but can help heal the wounded heart.

Rosellen Brown creates a compelling portrayal of a family torn apart--and perhaps put back together again--by love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

How Much Guilt is Needed to Destroy a Good Marriage?
This is a tragic novel dealing with the aftermath of an accident that leaves a woman
paralyzed.How much does it take to destroy a good marriage?

The husband inadvertently turns his wife into a quadraplegic by making messing
around with a boat that he really can't operate.His guilt and her bitterness are the
baggage that is ever present in their marriage.

This book is depressing and tragic but very well-written.

Textual Vomit
I really do not like the execution of this book at all.And this is mostly on account of one reason:I don't believe it.The voices of the characters are disingenuous--aint nobody talk or think like that.I mean, come on, Brown features scenes with catheters and spasms and then I am supposed to believe that the characters, in spite of all this grotesque reality around them, still live in this flowery level in their heads?
Laura's voice is much, much too poetic to be taken seriously at all.And Brown has a habit of talking about some mysterious, mystic "it" and goes on for sentences at a time without the reader knowing what she's talking about--kind of like this sentence itself.This is the biggest sin in relationship writing.
Also, very, very little HAPPENS in this story, and most of what does is not interesting.
There is also too much sex going on with Dan--and by this I mean that you can actually see Brown trying to construct the male persona, which makes it unbelievable.
I give it two stars because there are some good points--interesting concept, attempt to capture disability through caregiver experience, one or two well written paragraphs--that can be seen through all the textual vomit.

Dissapointing indeed
I mistakenly purchased this book at a friend's recommendation.However, I only LATER found out I had gotten the TITLE wrong!

But having bought the book, I proceeded to read it.Talk about a dissapointment! There is enough guilt and depression in life without another story that offers no "hope" or reconcilliation in broken relationships. You can watch soap operas and get the same result!If you want a challenging and uplifting book, try the one that I was originally SUPPOSE to read!"A Severe Mercy" by Sheldon Vanauken.Now THAT book makes you think about what is TRULY important in life!I won't be the same person after reading it!

Disappointed fan of Rosellen Brown
I bought this book and eagerly awaited its arrival having loved Civil Wars and Before and After.This book has an anticipatory depressing premise:a spouse accidentally injures his spouse catastropically.The accident hasalready occured when the book opens and the family is leaving New York Cityfor the tranquility of their small town, one year after the accident andone year after extensive rehab.This book never has an uplifting moment. Sure, the guilt Dan experiences and the anger of his wife over the accidentis expected.But where is the reconciliation?The two kids seem like theyare on the periphery throughout the book and despite her injuries, themother never reaches out to her children.I read this book through hopingit would get better.The Wellseley wife lives this injury solelyintellectually.The distance between the husband and wife is palpable yetnever breached.I was very disappointed in this book, regretfully so,because I usually adore Ms. Brown's books.Unfortunately, I cannotrecommend this one.

Tender Mercies
This is a lovely, well written, and intimate story of a family in a very difficult situation. It is a thoughful reminder of what is important in living any life. ... Read more

Product Description
A collection of stories--several of which were O. Henry Award-winners--which allrown's point of view is never merely spectatorial; . . . one has a powerful sense of receiving knowledge about the complex substance of her characters' everyday experience--as they themselves perceive it."--Saturday Review of Literature. ... Read more

Product Description
Anyone who has faced the daunting process of finding a publisher knows what an asset a good literary agent can be. In this valuable guide Debby Mayer explores the characteristics of a successful agent-writer relationship, and explains the agent's role in: *matching the author with an appropriate publishing house and editor *interpreting legal papers and royalty statements *collecting funds and selling subsidiary rights *giving advice on market trends The latest edition of Literary Agents also offers information on the hows and whys of finding and working with a literary agent, and includes real conversations with authors and agents on such current issues as small presses and electronic publishing. With an updated annotated list of agents, this book serves as the ultimate resource for writers ready to embark on the journey toward publication.

•This fifth edition has a completely new chapter based on conversations with agents and authors and a foreword by Rosellen Brown.Amazon.com Review
"An agent," says Joe Regal (who is one), "isone-third lawyer, one-third editor and one-third schmoozer, with alittle bit of psychologist thrown in." In addition to providingannotated listings for 120 of the 290 agencies that are members of theAssociation of Authors' Representatives (in which some agencies evenadmit to accepting queries by telephone!), this fifth edition ofLiterary Agents contains up-to-date information about the roleof the literary agent in a writer's life. Author Debby Mayer cautionsthat it can be as difficult to sign on with an agent as with apublisher, but she also warns writers not to jump at just anyoffer. "A bad agent can be worse than no agent," shesays. To help you find an effective agent, Mayer provides a list ofquestions to ask potential agents, a sample agent-writer agreement,information about how to approach agents, and examples of the manydifferent roles agents can assume in a writer's life. Most interestinghere are Mayer's interviews with a handful of agents, all ofwhom--lest we forget--got into the business in the first place for thelove of reading. --Jane Steinberg ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Lots of fluff that you can figure out with common sense.
Lots of talk about what annoys agents.If you are smart enough to not call your prospective agent 5 times a day, and mentally healthy enough not to blow up at the slightest criticism, then you know the contents of this book.You are better off buying "2001 Guide to Literary Agents" and "2002-2003 Writer's Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents."If you buy those two books, you'll get as much distilled info about lit agents as you need WHILE AT THE SAME TIME getting the contact information you need.

Without this book I think I would have given up !!!
I think that this book was one of the most useful books I have ever read.It is written so that you know exactly what is being relayed to you..I have just finished writting my first book and I was so lost.I did not knowwhat direction to turn as far as getting it published. Everything wasexplained in such a manner that you did not have to second guess what to donext..Thank you Debby Mayer for writting such a fine book... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

My Current Favorite Collection
I love this book. There was a profound sinking in my belly when I finished it - what, no more? Then, I devoured the acknowledgements, the back cover - there must be more. Coshnear is an amazingly gifted writer - from the heart, from the head, his prose is sensitive without being superficial, gritty without being showy, colorful without trying too hard. A well-balanced collection of short stories that will sit on my favorite shelf in a permanent position, I have no doubt. While reading, I had this feeling of honor - to be privy to such emotional openness and with such a deft hand. A gorgeous piece of art that the cover does not provide adequate justice. Read it yourself and while you do, I'll be envious that you're reading Coshnear for the first time.

Extraordinarily good collection: sincere, funny, unpretentious, and richly human
Daniel Coshnear's brilliant gifts as a short-story writer are various and in abundance in Jobs and Other Preoccupations.I read these stories a couple of years ago, and then again more recently, and as is consistent with the most enduring fiction, they refract new beauties and poignancies with a second reading.The clarity and precision of Coshnear's language make for direct, unpretentious prose.But it is his astonishing skill with character and narrative that distinguishes these stories from other first collections I've read recently.He has a keenly observant eye for psychological detail, an unerring ear for dialogue, and a compassionate humor that never, ever feels forced or manipulative.His characters are seekers of truth in themselves and each other, but the endings are never contrived epiphanies.The resolutions linger and always subtly honor human complexity.

The stories investigate madness, many kinds of love, the work-day life, family (nuclear and otherwise), personal desperation, and coming of age.Always close by is Coshnear's eloquent empathy.He is adept at sustaining a unique and intelligent humor.What I admire again and again is the way in which he effortlessly entertains with such precision and skill and then guides the reader into the surprising reaches of his characters' true pathos.

The stories' structures are also inventive: "How We Remember You," is told through the collective journal entries that a staff of a group home writes to themselves and each other.The architecture of the story challenges the reader to follow the emotional routes of each character, and finally shows how each responds to a sudden, tragic event.It's heartbreaking and human.

In that story as in many others Coshnear also often reveals in a single, focused brushstroke what it would take lesser writers many pages to show."The Amateur Ventriloquist" demonstrates his ability to illuminate the sorrow and regret of a relationship in just a few paragraphs.

At least half a dozen of these stories brought me tears."The Full Six" tells of failure and yearning in a young wrestler's life and ends with a pain that carries within it beautiful sorrow, dignity, humanity, and longing.

The collection shows great range, wisdom, and formidable talent.Coshnear is a remarkably gifted writer.Some passages in this book are as affecting and true as anything I've read lately in contemporary fiction.I eagerly await whatever Coshnear will do next.This is one of the best short-story collections I've read in years.It re-invents and redeems the art.It was awarded the 2000 Willa Cather Fiction Prize, selected by Rosellen Brown, and it indeed deserves to be read for decades to come.

Short, but sweet
I picked this up on a whim from the local library, and was intrigued by the back cover.Given the short length, I was finished in a few day, but even so, I didn't feel that the stories lacked substance.There are a lot of stories in this volume, and as such the longest isn't more than 10 or 15 pages.By and large the stories are well thought out, little slices of life of a wide variety of people.One story in particular that grabbed me was "How We Remember You," especially in the way it was told, through the notes and charts of a group of employees at a homeless shelter.The first story in the book, about a young veterinarian performing her first house call euthanasia, is particularly touching.My least favorite of the bunch was "The Resolution of Nothing," mentioned in the editorial review above.

Despite some of the stories lacking any real punch or direction, most of them are very well-written, with characters that reach out and grab you, make you care about them for five or ten pages.I would recommend this to anyone interested in a short but very substantial read, or to anyone interested in realistic fiction.

Cheers!

Short, but sweet
I picked this up on a whim from the local library, and was intrigued by the back cover.Given the short length, I was finished in a few day, but even so, I didn't feel that the stories lacked substance.There are a lot of stories in this volume, and as such the longest isn't more than 10 or 15 pages.By and large the stories are well thought out, little slices of life of a wide variety of people.One story in particular that grabbed me was "How We Remember You," especially in the way it was told, through the notes and charts of a group of employees at a homeless shelter.The first story in the book, about a young veterinarian performing her first house call euthanasia, is particularly touching.My least favorite of the bunch was "The Resolution of Nothing," mentioned in the editorial review above.

Despite some of the stories lacking any real punch or direction, most of them are very well-written, with characters that reach out and grab you, make you care about them for five or ten pages.I would recommend this to anyone interested in a short but very substantial read, or to anyone interested in realistic fiction.

Cheers! ... Read more

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An amazing themed book of poetry
I first read this book in college in 1977, and I still have my same dog-eared copy.It's an amazing journey through a life and marriage and family that defies better desctiption (at least from me). Its simple bareness of style is haunting, and has stayed with me through all these years.One of my favorite books of poetry.If you like writers such as Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood, you should love this book. ... Read more

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One of the Best
This is one of his best books. I may have said that about his other stuff, but I was lying. This is his best book.

Holy Cow, you don't own this book yet!
Jeezle Pete, this is a real good book. Keith's images move deep under the surface. This book is Keith at the height of his powers. Keith probes the spritual world of his home waters with a poet's eye.The only hang-up Ihave with the book is when he photos are cropped and don't show borders. Ifhe wanted them that way, he'd make borderless prints. Oh well, there'reworse things to complain about. These pictures move deep. There is sometough imagery here. You won't get it on the first swing but keep with it .Like night, Mojo reveal's it's secrets to you around 3 a.m..Listen. ... Read more

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Subtle, Quiet, Powerful
The narrator of Cora Fry's Pillow Book, Cora Fry, is a housewife who suffers from an unhappy, unfulfilling marriage and who watches her children grow old and move away with a sense of desperate melancholy. The book is set up as a series of poems, but really, to understand them, you need to read the book in the order it's presented because it's a story of this woman's life. Overcast with imagery from New England, minor characters, and flashbacks to her childhood, Cora Fry's Pillow Book made me examine the parts of my life I found the most haunting and empowered me to instill change where I felt dissatisfied. Who wants to live a life like Cora Fry? ... Read more

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"Vividly rendered...haunting....[Paula Fox] writes with silken ease and a sensitivity to nuance."—NewsdayIn 1941, twenty-three-year-old Helen Bynum leaves home for the first time and sets out from ruralNew York to find her Aunt Lulu, an aging actress in New Orleans. There she finds a life of passion and adventure, possibilities and choices. Falling in with a bohemian group of intellectuals, shediscovers romance and sex, friendship and risk,her world mirrored by the steamy mystery of theFrench Quarter. ... Read more

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This is a masterpiece
Fox is a great writer and The God of Nightmares is a masterpiece. I loved everything about it.

Excellent writing and characters, not so great plot
I enjoyed Fox's memoire "Borrowed Finery" very much. This book, written before the memoire, covers much of the same territory, but the effort to turn what clearly are parts of Fox's own life into fiction doesn't work all that well. I had to laugh when I discovered Fox giving her own childhood to one of the characters.

All of the characters in "The God of Nightmares" are weird in one way or another, except the main character, Helen, who tells the story. She seems pretty ordinary until the last chapter when Fox tries to show us Helen isn't so nice after all. I didn't like this last chapter, which takes place more than 25 years after the main story. Fox tries too hard to tie things up and tell us what happened to each of her characters. I was especially irritated by the way she changed the husband -- but I won't say more about that as it comes as something of a surprise. ... Read more

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Winner of the 2001 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction

"This novel’s poignancy, I think, comes from the paradoxical confrontation between innocence and experience these Asian strivers are caught in—at the same time that they are rendered childlike by ignorance of their new culture, we know they have been singed and seared, and therefore secretly toughened. Immigration is such a significant phenomenon right now that this tension between competency and confusion, maturity and infantilization is an enormously fecund subject for a novelist with a well-developed sense of irony."—From the Foreword by Rosellen Brown

In an essay written for his ESL class, a young student describes his flight from Vietnam at the age of 12, in a fishing boat with three friends. They were beaten by Thai pirates, fell faint with hunger and pain, until they were "pushed to the kind shore by a finger of God." The phrase evokes an overriding metaphor for this resonant first novel by Kate Gadbow, in which a community of Vietnamese and Hmong refugees struggles to maintain balance between the world they fled and the one they are currently negotiating in Missoula, Montana. Gadbow meshes the lives of these refugees with that of the book’s narrator Janet Hunter, a teacher struggling to manage contemporary life, with a failed marriage and a string of disappointments haunting her own past.

In a deceptively simple prose style that reads like easy conversation, and with an admirable lack of sentimentality, Kate Gadbow has written a remarkable novel depicting the clash of cultures and the difficult realities inherent to a world given only to constant change, where the harbor of a kind shore seems frustratingly out of reach.

Kate Gadbow directs the Creative Writing Program and teaches undergraduate fiction classes at the University of Montana in Missoula, where she lives with her husband, journalist Daryl Gadbow.

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The culture shock of immigration...
Blending hope and heartbreak, Pushed to Shore delves fearlessly into the nature of loneliness, both cultural and personal, and, at the same time, opens a window on the commonality of humanity without regard for racial differences. Janet Hunter is a teacher in an ESL (English/Second Language) class of relative-sponsored Vietnamese and Hmong high school students in Missoula, Montana.

Montana in winter is covered with snow and nothing like the verdant homeland these young people have left, and they must adapt to this entirely different and unfamiliar terrain. Unlike the other students in their high school, who are a jumble of enthusiastic adolescents on the cusp of adulthood, Hunter's special students are subdued and introverted, many with life experiences far exceeding their teenage peers. In their short lives, they have already known abandonment, violence and deprivation, with little comfort, luxury or leisure time for childish adventures. Unaware of her own personal deficiencies, Hunter feels emotionally drawn to her students, willing to lend her skills to help mold their futures in this unfamiliar land.

Acculturation is a difficult process, at best. Hunter is keenly aware of her shortcomings as a teacher, unable to pronounce or understand more than a few phrases of her student's dialects. She clumsily attempts to master language skills that seem beyond her reach and can only imagine their frustration without the English phrases necessary to communicate with fellow students. A lack of language skills is a primary obstacle to success. Hunter takes her job seriously; she must conscientiously prepare her students for economically feasible futures and it is her goal to help them graduate with the required level of education. As she interacts with her students, Hunter becomes aware of their subtle, yet critical differences. Gadbow avoids categorizing these young Southeast Asians, concentrating instead on their variety, the traits and idiosyncrasies that make each student a distinct individual. For all their ethnic similarities, each has a definitive personality, a variety of goals and ambitions.

At the same time, Hunter becomes aware of her lack of a personal life. In a sense, she realizes the extent of her self-obsession and self-protection, finally prepared to join the world around her, buoyed by the daily courage of her students. Like Sleeping Beauty, Hunter awakens to the real necessity for developing more extensive friendships and interests, with or without a man. When the opportunity presents itself, she begins a relationship, the first since a painful divorce eight years ago. Because of her willingness to engage in the new affair, Hunter gains some valuable insight into the real difficulties inherent in any risk, let alone a complete change of life-style.

With incredible perseverance, the students work diligently in their adopted country and Hunter is amazed at the enormous fortitude and courage they exhibit along with their indomitable will to survive. The clean, spare story describes the difficulty of merging cultures and the unceasing commitment involved, undertaken here with the courage and spirit of the early immigrants who first came to the distant shores of America.. Luan Gaines/2003. ... Read more

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Upon its first appearance in 1895, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure shocked Victorian critics and readers with a frank depiction of sexuality and an unbridled indictment of the institutions of marriage, education, and religion, reportedly causing one Angli-can bishop to order the book publicly burned. The experience so exhausted Hardy that he never wrote a work of fiction again.

Rich in symbolism, Jude the Obscure is the story of Jude Fawley and his struggle to rise from his station as a poor Wessex stonemason to that of a scholar at Christminster. It is also the story of Jude’s ill-fated relationship with his cousin Sue Bridehead, and the ultimate tragedy that causes Jude’s undoing and Sue’s transformation. Jude the Obscure explores man’s essential loneliness and remains one of Hardy’s most widely read novels.

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Unrelentingly bleak
This novel is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions and if you're looking for happy endings, this isn't the story for you. The central theme surrounds the defiance of cultural norms and the consequences of same. Sue is the love of Jude's life. The main obstacle: Sue's flightly, unpredictable and unconventional nature. It's her liberal critical thinking that attracts Jude to her, but it's also his (and her) ultimate undoing.

As a reader, I found Sue's actions maddening: she leads Jude on, then spurns him, then leads him on again. She leaves her husband for him...yet she refuses to marry Jude for fear that the conventions of marriage would sully thier "pure form" of love. This see-saw relationship goes on for hundreds of pages. I knew I was engaged in the book when I shouted at Jude for not waking up and running away from this obvious kook of a woman. Then again, his willingness to put up with her unbearable behavior made me think they were made for each other: two loons together in a world of stiflingly normative behavior.

As if this wasn't unsatisfying enough, Hardy really pours on the tragedy in the last 100 pages. I won't ruin it by spreading the details here, but you'll basically be begging the author to let you off of the emotional wrestling mat by page 450. In the end, I conclude that the author's point is that (1) don't buck the system too strenuously lest you be smacked down, and (2) life's miserable; don't go thinking that you can escape it because your love is powerful or your mind is open. That's Great English Literature for you, right there. ... Read more