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In the 1760s a group of amateur experimenters met and made friends in the English Midlands. Most came from humble families, all lived far from the center of things, but they were young and their optimism was boundless: together they would change the world. Among them were the ambitious toymaker Matthew Boulton and his partner James Watt, of steam-engine fame; the potter Josiah Wedgwood; the larger-than-life Erasmus Darwin, physician, poet, inventor, and theorist of evolution (a forerunner of his grandson Charles). Later came Joseph Priestley, discoverer of oxygen and fighting radical.

With a small band of allies they formed the Lunar Society of Birmingham (so called because it met at each full moon) and kick-started the Industrial Revolution. Blending science, art, and commerce, the Lunar Men built canals; launched balloons; named plants, gases, and minerals; changed the face of England and the china in its drawing rooms; and plotted to revolutionize its soul.

Uglow's vivid, exhilarating account uncovers the friendships, political passions, love affairs, and love of knowledge (and power) that drove these extraordinary men. It echoes to the thud of pistons and the wheeze and snort of engines and brings to life the tradesmen, artisans, and tycoons who shaped and fired the modern age.

• Sales Rank: #786187 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-01
• Released on: 2003-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.50" h x 1.39" w x 5.50" l, 1.25 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

Amazon.com Review
In the late 1700s, five gifted inventors and amateur scholars in Birmingham, England, came together for what one of them, Erasmus Darwin, called "a little philosophical laughing." They also helped kick-start the industrial revolution, as Jenny Uglow relates in the lively The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the World. Their "Lunar Society" included Joseph Priestley, the chemist who isolated oxygen; James Watt, the Scottish inventor of the steam engine; and Josiah Wedgwood, whose manufacture of pottery created the industrial model for the next century. Joined by other "toymakers" and scholarly tinkerers, they concocted schemes for building great canals and harnessing the power of electricity, coined words such as "hydrogen" and "iridescent," shared theories and bank accounts, fended off embezzlers and industrial spies, and forged a fine "democracy of knowledge." And they had a fine time doing so, proving that scholars need not be dullards or eccentrics asocial.

Uglow's spirited look at this group of remarkable "lunaticks" captures a critical, short-lived moment of early modern history. Readers who share their conviction that knowledge brings power will find this book a rewarding adventure. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
This hefty volume combines prodigious research with an obvious fondness for the subject matter. Uglow, an editor at U.K.'s Chatto & Windus publishing house, garnered praise for her incisive book on the life and images of William Hogarth as well as for her biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and George Eliot. Here, Uglow details the wild inventions of the 18th century, with the turbulent changes in the Georgian world as backdrop, and so delivers a complete, though at times ponderously detailed, portrait of the men who formed the Lunar Society of Birmingham. The society was a kind of study group for the nascent Industrial Revolution, which would transform England in two generations. Among the lunar men were toy maker Matthew Boulton, James Watt of the steam engine, potter Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen, and physician and evolutionary theorist Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather. As Uglow writes, its members met on the full moon (to facilitate travel at night), "warmed by wine and friendship, their heads full of air pumps and elements and electrical machines, their ears ringing with talk, the whirring of wheels and the hiss of gas." Each was accomplished in his profession, and yet each applied boundless reserves of energy and inventiveness to outside interests, from the practical, such as canal-building, herbal medicines and steam-propelled water pumps, to the outright bizarre, such as Erasmus Darwin's fantastic mechanical talking mouth. Uglow's writing has great breadth of subject and character-along with the occasional bawdiness, too.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Uglow, editor at Chatto & Windus and author of Hogarth: A Life and a World, has written a lively account of a remarkable group of individuals, in 18th-century England, when men's clubs proliferated. The clubs not only offered a forum in which individuals with like interests could gather for discussion, but members offered each other physical protection afterward when they left the coffee house, tavern, or private home that served as their meeting place. In the 1760s, in the English Midlands, a group of amateur experimenters came together to form a club called the Lunar Society of Birmingham-so-called because the club met at each full moon. The members included James Watt, inventor of the steam engine; Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin and an inventor and evolutionary theorist in his own right; Josiah Wedgwood, the potter; Joseph Priestly, discoverer of oxygen; Matthew Boulton, the toymaker; and others who would make remarkable contributions to science and industry. The author makes a convincing case for the importance of this talented group, whose efforts, especially James Watt's work with steam engines, would help kickstart the Industrial Revolution. Although the publisher compares this multiple biography with Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club, the Lunar Society men bore greater resemblance to capitalist doers than philosophers. This work is recommended for public and academic libraries.
Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Most helpful customer reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Seeking William Smith
By Leanne Jump
I was dismayed when I discovered that William Smith, the veritable inventor of geology is not even mentioned in Ms Uglow's book. So, maybe Smith was not one of the Lunar Men. But she could have at least mentioned his name. He was a contemporary of the Lunar Men and a designer/builder of many canals. His exploits are detailed in the excellent book, "The Map That Changed the World." I wonder, Smith's discoveries shook the foundations of creationism's 6,000 year old world. The fossils he found were obviously much older than the believed age of God's world. Surely, Ms Uglow didn't leave reference of Smith out for that reason. I think it is sad that her omission tarnishes an otherwise very interesting work.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
First Rate Book on Intellectual History
By A Customer
Excellent book on a fascinating group of men. It is interesting the realize the close connection between these brilliant people, and it is interesting learning about the lesser known members of the circle, who made important contributions in the history of science.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Great Idea...The Construction is Lacking
By Andrew Desmond
There is much to enjoy about Jenny Uglow's "The Lunar Men". Here, we have the tale of a group of men, known to each other, who truly helped shape the modern world. The names are a "whose who" of early Industrial Age science and industry: James Watt, Erasmus Darwin (yes, the grandfather to Charles), Josiah Wedgewood and Joseph Priestley amongst others. It would have been marvelous to have been in the company of these men; to have been a fly on the wall at their meetings.

Yet, for all the wonder that these names invoke, Jenny Uglow's work fails to provide the reader with a true sense of understanding. The book's theme or direction is not clear. She seems to jump about without explanation and the reader is left to catch up. This is a great shame. Indeed, if the events could have been more succinctly tied together, "The Lunar Men" could have been a great book. As it is, the concept is great but the follow through is lacking.

My recommendation to readers is that the book be read (albeit only with luke warm encouragement) but beware that a theme is missing and no one character stands out. This is a pity as the concept behind the book is grand.

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## PDF Ebook Ways of Going Home: A Novel, by Alejandro Zambra

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A brilliant novel from "the herald of a new wave of Chilean fiction" (Marcela Valdes, The Nation)

Alejandro Zambra's Ways of Going Home begins with an earthquake, seen through the eyes of an unnamed nine-year-old boy who lives in an undistinguished middle-class housing development in a suburb of Santiago, Chile. When the neighbors camp out overnight, the protagonist gets his first glimpse of Claudia, an older girl who asks him to spy on her uncle Raúl.
In the second section, the protagonist is the writer of the story begun in the first section. His father is a man of few words who claims to be apolitical but who quietly sympathized―to what degree, the author isn't sure―with the Pinochet regime. His reflections on the progress of the novel and on his own life―which is strikingly similar to the life of his novel's protagonist―expose the raw suture of fiction and reality.
Ways of Going Home switches between author and character, past and present, reflecting with melancholy and rage on the history of a nation and on a generation born too late―the generation which, as the author-narrator puts it, learned to read and write while their parents became accomplices or victims. It is the most personal novel to date from Zambra, the most important Chilean author since Roberto Bolaño.

• Sales Rank: #188668 in Books
• Published on: 2014-01-14
• Released on: 2014-01-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 7.13" h x .44" w x 4.92" l, .30 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* Readers will find it hard to believe that an author can describe two lives, the philosophy of writing, and a true picture of a historical time, all in 139 pages, but Chilean poet and novelist Zambra accomplishes this with seeming ease and grace. In four sections, he alternates between the life of the unnamed main character of a novel and that of the novel’s author. Beginning with an earthquake in Pinochet’s Chile, the tale shows a nine-year-old boy meeting the intriguing Claudia, who comes back into his life when he is in his thirties. Interchanging the two stories supports the authorial musings on his own life and marriage as well as his ruminations on the parallels with the novel in progress. The writing is poetically charged, and Zambra’s use of the metafiction format allows the author to paint a broad picture of Chile’s history over more than 30 years and to describe quite fully the lives of the protagonist and the narrator. The subtle, masterful novel will transcend regional interest and appeal to a broad spectrum of literary readers. --Ellen Loughran

From Bookforum
Ways of Going Home elevates Zambra to the status of living writers we "simply must read," like Denis Johnson, Lydia Davis, and Mary Gaitskill. His voice is as natural and intimate as Roberto Bolaño's, an obvious but healthy influence, and his subjects—love, memory, death, and guilt—are as big as he can find. —Clancy Martin

Review

“Even IKEA doesn't make so much of so little space as does this young Chilean novelist. His latest book revolves around a quartet of chapters, woven around one thread about a young boy growing up in the Pinochet years and another of the novelist writing his story. In many ways, the book recalls the miniature roominess Philip Roth achieved in his great novel, The Ghost Writer. The stories we tell imagine us as much as us them, Zambra reminds, with the power and intensity of a writer who grew up in the shadow of a terrible war.” ―John Freeman, The Boston Globe

“Funny, contemplative, and quietly moving, Ways of Going Home pulls off the intoxicating trick of making the world feel smaller in its familiar touchstones found in a time of unique tragedy.” ―Chris Barton, The Los Angeles Times

“[Zambra's novels] are written with startling talent. And Zambra's latest novel represents, I think, his deepest achievement . . . 'We go home,' Zambra writes, 'and it's as if we were returning from war, but from a war that isn't over.' This is the giant, poignant condition staged by the novel's playful doubleness--the way the best conjuring trick is the one where you're shown how it's done, which in no way contradicts your belief that what you've seen is magic.” ―Adam Thirlwell, The New York Times Book Review

“A fascinating reflection on historical complicity, translated with restrained elegance by Megan McDowell.” ―The Financial Times

“I read all of Alejandro Zambra's novels back-to-back because they were such good company. His books are like a phone call in the middle of the night from an old friend, and afterward, I missed the charming and funny voice on the other end, with its strange and beautiful stories.” ―Nicole Krauss, author of Great House

“In Alejandro Zambra, the poet and novelist are organically fused. Nearly every line startles in one way or another, always propelling the story forward toward a complete emotional journey. Ways of Going Home is compact, intimate, but also sweeping--and Zambra is amazing!” ―Francisco Goldman, author of Say Her Name

“Alejandro Zambra is one of the writers of my generation whom I most admire. Never a wasted word. Never a false note. His is an utterly unique voice, one I go back to again and again.” ―Daniel Alarcón, author of Lost City Radio

“I envy Alejandro the obvious sophistication and exquisite beauty of the pages you are about to read, a work which is filled with the heartfelt vulnerability of testimony. I loved it and I read it with the great joy of anticipation that one has reading a writer one hopes to read more and more of in the future.” ―Edwidge Danticat, Granta

“Alejandro Zambra belongs to that rare species of writer who brings language back to life. The strength of Ways of Going Home, its potency, is in the way it unfolds language in order to place its readers at that almost ungraspable intersection between individual and collective history.” ―Valeria Luiselli, author of Faces in the Crowd

“Complex yet sophisticated, [Ways of Going Home] places Zambra at the spearhead of a new Chilean fiction and sets him alongside other Latin American writers such as Colombia's Juan Gabriel Vasquez, who weave some of the continent's most difficult historical themes into an exciting modern art form.” ―Mina Holand, The Observer

“Ways of Going Home manages, in its sparse, moving, constantly smoking cool-eyed Chilean way, to add up to a stark and timely study of fiction, truth, memory, family, revolution, secrets, lies, sex, Pinochet and death . . . A wonderful book.” ―Stuart Hammond, Dazed & Confused

“Rising through the ranks of Latin American literature is Alejandro Zambra, a writer from Chile who has won over critics with his captivating work . . . Thought-provoking and inspiring, [Ways of Going Home] also echoes some of the author's own nostalgia of growing up during that turbulent time.” ―Abi Jackson, Manchester Evening News

Most helpful customer reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Homeward Bound
By Book Dork
I'm not sure how I even heard of this novella but Alejandro Zambra, but it was definitely an interesting piece.

Going home... to a warm bed, nice people, and homemade dinner:
- I loved the blurred lines of author, narrator/writer, and character. It's the quintessential question that good fiction should bring up: what is true and what is not?
- I appreciate the length- I think that people may complain about the lack of depth in the characters or plot, but one must remember that it is a novella. Zambra tells us what we need to know- a sort of trust is necessary when dealing with shorter works.
- It's story about going home- when do we need to, how do we get there, and most importantly, what does staying entail (physically and mentally)?
- It's also a story about a break up, on two levels (both in real life and in the book he writes; in a way it is just one, though). It isn't a highly emotional break up with pages of laments, but instead one that is hauntingly sad and simplistically complicated.

Going Home... to your friend's couch, ramen, and a cat who hates you:
- I had hoped for a little more of Chilean history to matter, to impact. I felt like it was set up in the beginning to be more of a force, but it really hung in the background.
- I thought some of the tie-ins and connections towards the end were a little sloppy.

I thought this was a quick, interesting read, but, to be honest, I'd wait until it comes into paperback- the price is pretty steep for what it is.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
need a real 'earthquake' to shake this book
By Luzviminda
I found the characters interesting, especially the narrator - he has a lot of wise things to say about mundane as well as important things - like parent-children relationships, etc. but i was not engaged in the narrative which is a series of visits to former homes and neighborhoods, meeting girlfriends, relatives, friends and just chatting over the past. True, there is a little mystery thrown and the narrator gets a chance to be an unpaid 'spy' but it's just a little game this girl, Claudia, wants to play; it's not enough to grip me. Excellent translation, though.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Short but lovely new novel by Alejandro Zambra
By Cassandra
This brief, 160-pages long novella looks at the recent past of Chile's Pinochet years, through the point of view of a now-adult who grew up in the 80s. I find it fascinating, this question of how we consider the recent past: too long ago for us to be directly implicated in it; too near for us to be unaffected.

The key character in `Ways of going home' (Zambra's 3rd novel) is a Chilean man (the narrator) who looks back at his childhood years in Santiago, at the time the Pinochet regime was in full swing. Time is the central theme of this book, as well as the parallel, shifting points of view of adults and children: what did the boy understand as a child about his parents' stance in terms of the dictatorship? How does he look back at events (e.g. adult discussions) as an adult now himself? Zambra creates a thought-provoking world where the child and adult perspectives and memories overlap at times, while at other times they take different directions.

The story begins during an evening when there's a strong earthquake in Santiago, bringing the boy together with a neighbourhood girl, Claudia, who guides him in directions that will stay with him for life. Years later, Claudia, after being lost from him for a long time, reappears into his life and the reader is left with questions about reality and fantasy. Indeed, `Ways of going home' can be seen precisely as this: some thoughts about what's really true and what's true only in our minds; some thoughts about how to deal with the past when it turns out it's unthinkable and we didn't know it; some thoughts about complicity, being a bystander and innocence or not-knowing. How do you answer the question of complicity when you--as I read somewhere the author feels--were not one of the primary victims of a tragedy and yet you end up feeling implicated by default, through your parents or through your mere presence in the country at the time? The other question the novel asks is about how we frequently end up being supportive actors, with little influence in the life of, first, our family, but also, more widely, the community we live in.

Despite its brevity, `Ways of going home' is charming and insightful, bursting at the seams with ideas that I think beg for more space. It has an interesting (although perhaps not that original anymore) structure--alternating between past and present, narrator and fictional character. I suppose that puts it in the field of a postmodern novel, although I'm not too keen about these sorts of labels.

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American Prometheus is the first full-scale biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer, “father of the atomic bomb,” the brilliant, charismatic physicist who led the effort to capture the awesome fire of the sun for his country in time of war. Immediately after Hiroshima, he became the most famous scientist of his generation–one of the iconic figures of the twentieth century, the embodiment of modern man confronting the consequences of scientific progress.

He was the author of a radical proposal to place international controls over atomic materials–an idea that is still relevant today. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb and criticized the Air Force’s plans to fight an infinitely dangerous nuclear war. In the now almost-forgotten hysteria of the early 1950s, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup, and, in response, Atomic Energy Commission chairman Lewis Strauss, Superbomb advocate Edward Teller and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover worked behind the scenes to have a hearing board find that Oppenheimer could not be trusted with America’s nuclear secrets.

American Prometheus sets forth Oppenheimer’s life and times in revealing and unprecedented detail. Exhaustively researched, it is based on thousands of records and letters gathered from archives in America and abroad, on massive FBI files and on close to a hundred interviews with Oppenheimer’s friends, relatives and colleagues.

We follow him from his earliest education at the turn of the twentieth century at New York City’s Ethical Culture School, through personal crises at Harvard and Cambridge universities. Then to Germany, where he studied quantum physics with the world’s most accomplished theorists; and to Berkeley, California, where he established, during the 1930s, the leading American school of theoretical physics, and where he became deeply involved with social justice causes and their advocates, many of whom were communists. Then to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he transformed a bleak mesa into the world’s most potent nuclear weapons laboratory–and where he himself was transformed. And finally, to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which he directed from 1947 to 1966.

American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury, a new and compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man profoundly connected to its major events–the Depression, World War II and the Cold War. It is at once biography and history, and essential to our understanding of our recent past–and of our choices for the future.

• Sales Rank: #261868 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-05
• Released on: 2005-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.53" h x 1.63" w x 6.79" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 721 pages

Amazon.com Review
In American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin delve deep into J. Robert Oppenheimer's life and deliver a thorough and devastatingly sad biography of the man whose very name has come to represent the culmination of 20th century physics and the irrevocable soiling of science by governments eager to exploit its products. Rich in historical detail and personal narratives, the book paints a picture of Oppenheimer as both a controlling force and victim of the mechanisms of power.

By the time the story reaches Oppenheimer's fateful Manhattan Project work, readers have been swept along much as the project's young physicists were by fate and enormous pressure. The authors allow the scientists to speak for themselves about their reactions to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, avoiding any sort of preacherly tone while revealing the utter, horrible ambiguity of the situation. For instance, Oppenheimer wrote in a letter to a friend, "The thing had to be done," then, "Circumstances are heavy with misgiving."

Many biographies of Oppenheimer end here, with the seeds of his later pacifism sown and the dangers of mixing science with politics clearly outlined. But Bird and Sherwin devote the second half of this hefty book to what happened to Oppenheimer after the bomb. For a short time, he was lionized as the ultimate patriot by a victorious nation, but things soured as the Cold War crept forward and anti-communist witchhunts focused paranoia and anti-Semitism onto Oppenheimer, destroying his career and disillusioning him about his life's work. Devastated by the atom bomb's legacy of fear, he became a vocal and passionate opponent of the Strangelovian madness that gripped the world because of the weapons he helped develop.

Twenty-five years of research went into creating American Prometheus, and there has never been a more honest and complete biography of this tragic scientific giant. The many great ironies of Oppenheimer's life are revealed through the careful reconstruction of a wealth of records, conversations, and ideas, leaving the clearest picture yet of his life. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Though many recognize Oppenheimer (1904–1967) as the father of the atomic bomb, few are as familiar with his career before and after Los Alamos. Sherwin (A World Destroyed) has spent 25 years researching every facet of Oppenheimer's life, from his childhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side and his prewar years as a Berkeley physicist to his public humiliation when he was branded a security risk at the height of anticommunist hysteria in 1954. Teaming up with Bird, an acclaimed Cold War historian (The Color of Truth), Sherwin examines the evidence surrounding Oppenheimer's "hazy and vague" connections to the Communist Party in the 1930s—loose interactions consistent with the activities of contemporary progressives. But those politics, in combination with Oppenheimer's abrasive personality, were enough for conservatives, from fellow scientist Edward Teller to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, to work at destroying Oppenheimer's postwar reputation and prevent him from swaying public opinion against the development of a hydrogen bomb. Bird and Sherwin identify Atomic Energy Commission head Lewis Strauss as the ringleader of a "conspiracy" that culminated in a security clearance hearing designed as a "show trial." Strauss's tactics included illegal wiretaps of Oppenheimer's attorney; those transcripts and other government documents are invaluable in debunking the charges against Oppenheimer. The political drama is enhanced by the close attention to Oppenheimer's personal life, and Bird and Sherwin do not conceal their occasional frustration with his arrogant stonewalling and panicky blunders, even as they shed light on the psychological roots for those failures, restoring human complexity to a man who had been both elevated and demonized. 32 pages of photos not seen by PW. (Apr. 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist who oversaw the creation of the atomic bomb, was lauded as a patriot after the United States dropped the bomb on Japan, but nine years later he was disgraced, accused of Communist sympathies and "substantial defects of character." This commanding biography, the result of twenty-five years of research, reëvaluates that character, and delivers the most complex portrait of Oppenheimer to date: a brilliant but insecure child prodigy who became a charismatic leader; a polymath who learned Sanskrit just so he could read the Bhagavad Gita; an aesthete who mixed infamously strong Martinis; a one-time fellow-traveller who was almost willfully naïve about politics. Drawing on thousands of pages of F.B.I. surveillance records, the authors contend that the scientist was never a member of the Communist Party.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Most helpful customer reviews

113 of 122 people found the following review helpful.
A Sharp, Lucid Look at Oppenheimer
By R.F.Bauer
Kai Bird's and Martin J. Sherwin's biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a deeply researched, carefully judged and well-written examination of the life and politics of the man who directed the development of the atom bomb. The story is a complex one of murky motivations and large consequences, and to the credit of the authors, who offer their own point of view on central questions, they do not evade the complexity of the questions or the possibility that others would answer them differently. They have done the hard and thorough work on which first-rate biography depends: they have located and reviewed the primary source documents, mastered the secondary literature, and interviewed scores of those with personal knowledge and information to offer. The story they tell is of a man with huge intellectual-and as it turned out, organizational-gifts, and faults of a comparable magnitude. The book is first-rate.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
A Cold Warrior
By Dennis Thomas
Well written, researched! Having lived through the Cold War & actually been stationed at SAC Headquarters (Dr. Strangelove), the book was an eye opener concerning the politics of using the bomb on Japan, twice, and by denying Russia (our WWII ally) the technology, we unwittingly created an arms race and the Cold War.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
One of the most captivating books I have read!
By PaddyVA
Hard to put down, ending in tears at the tragedy of Robert and his family., and enraged by the injustices of Lewis Strauss, Joseph McCarthy, and the Republican Party!

Twenty five years of research in the writing of this book. A great historical and human document. Don't miss reading it!

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* PDF Ebook The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage, by Frederick P. Hitz

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In this fascinating analysis, Frederick Hitz, former inspector general of the Central Intelligence Agency, contrasts the writings of well-known authors of spy novels—classic and popular—with real-life espionage cases. Drawing on personal experience both as a participant in “the Great Game” and as the first presidentially appointed inspector general, Hitz shows the remarkable degree to which truth is stranger than fiction.

The vivid cast of characters includes real life spies Pyotr Popov and Oleg Penkovsky from Soviet military intelligence; Kim Philby, the infamous Soviet spy; Aldrich Ames, the most damaging CIA spy to American interests in the Cold War; and Duane Clarridge, a CIA career operations officer. They are held up against such legendary genre spies as Bill Haydon (le Carré’s mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), Magnus Pym (in le Carré’s A Perfect Spy), Tom Rogers (in David Ignatius’s Agents of Innocence), and Maurice Castle (in Graham Greene’s The Human Factor).

As Hitz skillfully weaves examples from a wide range of espionage activities—from covert action to counterintelligence to classic agent operations—we see that the actual is often more compelling than the imaginary, and that real spy case histories present moral and other questions far more pointedly than fiction.
A lively account of espionage, spy tradecraft, and, most of all, the human dilemmas of betrayal, manipulation, and deceit.

• Sales Rank: #1223780 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-20
• Released on: 2004-04-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.64" h x .84" w x 5.91" l,
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This compact study contrasts the fictional treatment of espionage with its real life machinations, and manages to be both informative and entertaining in spite of its modest size. The author, a former CIA officer now teaching at Johns Hopkins, focuses particularly on how living a double life affects the players’ personalities. Each part of the actual spies’ career—from recruitment (or recruiting others) to arrest or retirement—is studied in terms of how differing character traits often lead to different sets of decisions in the construction of a shadow self, and how spies re-train their physical and emotional instincts so that their new personalities feel natural. Such alterations are part and parcel of "tradecraft"; CIA traitor Aldrich Ames and the famous Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky may have been deadly, but they were sloppy in keeping their spy personae and actions consistent, while FBI mole Richard Hanssen was exquisitely careful except where one woman was concerned. (Yes, sex is a part of many espionage scenarios—though Hitz suggests that that these arrangements are more complex than any a novelist would dare create.) Hitz then goes on to analyze fictional spies, giving John Le Carre’s creations high marks, as well as Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden, based on the author’s WWI experience with British intelligence. Hitz also has good things to say about Tom Clancy’s characters, notably Marko Ramius of Red October. As for the future of spying, Hitz believes that satellite-based snooping will exist alongside "human intelligence," but that even the office technocrats behind the controls will have tics that affect their work—and the information they gather.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Hitz, who has had a lengthy career in the Central Intelligence Agency, expounds in varied and interesting ways on how the literature of espionage compares with its actual practice. Copiously quoting from classics ranging from Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901) to W. Somerset Maugham's Ashenden (1928) to the cold war convolutions of Graham Greene and John le Carre, Hitz concludes that in most instances truth is more surprising and peculiar than fiction. Breaking the espionage trade into its components, such as recruiting spies, Hitz discusses the rarity with which recruitment pitches succeed in real operations; typically, spies are not seduced but voluntarily offer their services (e.g., Oleg Penkovsky and Robert Hanssen). Yet counterexamples, such as the Soviets' recruitment of mole Kim Philby, present models that le Carre crafted into his novels about mole-hunter George Smiley. Hitz feels that such creations, while reflecting the psychology of this secretive world, cannot keep up with the motivations that lie behind real-life betrayals and deceptions. Perfect for spy-story fans who crave an insider's assessment of the reality behind the entertainment. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“A lucid overview of 20th-century espionage that says more about the great game as it was played by Americans and their allies and adversaries than just about anything else ever published.” –The Washington Post Book World

“Absorbing . . . A hit for the avid spy-fiction reader. . . . A can’t miss for Clancy fans.” --Detroit Free Press

“Hitz . . . shows [that] nothing is certain in the shadow world of spies and betrayals, not even the truth.” --The New York Times

“Hitz is at his best when he reveals juicy details of intelligence lapses. . . . He has genuine insight into the inner workings of intelligence bureaucracy.” --San Francisco Chronicle

“A good read and good fun and quite informative. . . . By weaving together reality and image, the author provides insights into espionage unlikely to be obtained elsewhere.” –James Schlesinger, former secretary of defense and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency

“A delightful little jewel of a book. . . . A steady stream of insdier’s reflections, including details regarding American traitors, makes this not only a smooth and entertaining read, but a handy reference work.” –The Roanoke Times

“Hitz is a strong researcher who can turn a nifty phrase. . . . Enjoyable and useful.” –St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“Informative and entertaining.” –Publishers Weekly

“Perfect for spy-story fans who crave an insider’s assessment of the reality behind the enetertainment.” –Booklist

“A slender but rich–and quite entertaining–introduction to the shadowy world of spy vs. spy. . . . A perfect companion for fans of John le Carr?.” –Kirkus Reviews (starred)


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Most helpful customer reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Spy Fact, Spy Fiction
By Rob Hardy
If you are a fan of spy films and fiction, you will appreciate the countless times double agents are integral to their plots, and how often the Americans, say, would dangle rewards to recruit Soviet spies to come over to the other side. It worked in fiction; it never worked, not once, in any significant way, in actual spying. Frederick P. Hitz, who has a long history of service with the CIA, knows this and says it is confirmed by former CIA director Robert M. Gates and case officer Dwight Clarridge. In _The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage_ (Knopf), Hitz gives an overview of 20th century spying, comparing fiction to the real thing. It will be a book best appreciated by those who are familiar with the work of such authors as le Carré and Graham Greene, but it can be appreciated not just for the comparisons between fact and fiction, but for the many observations of fact about the spying game.
Rather than recruitments, there were walk-ins by Soviets; a spy (or potential spy) literally walked in to an embassy and offered his services. Changing sides comes from diverse motivations. Some Soviet walk-ins disliked the repression of the Soviet state. Others needed money. Aldrich Ames walked into the Washington Soviet embassy in 1985 with what he estimated was $150,000 in CIA and FBI secrets, ready to sell because he had a lot of bills for his extravagant way of living. Frequently spies have resentment towards their own bureaucracies and failures to rise in them. Sometimes people are tricked into spying. Even the James Bond novels describe a specific sort of "honey pot" entrapment, whereby the sexual liaison would be filmed and the victim forced to spy if he wanted to avoid exposure. The Soviets could apparently insist to attractive female workers that their bodies belonged to the state and had duties as lures, not the sort of order that western countries could make to their female employees. It is interesting that honey pots did not work in the opposite direction for another reason. Entrapped westerners would fret about exposure, but when such entrapment was tried on Soviets, they "...would invariably laugh off the threat of exposure as not very compelling in their country." Gadgets so beloved by the movies are downplayed here. There have been, for example, extraordinary advances in miniaturization of microphones and transmitters, but a cat equipped with a microphone makes too many sounds of its own; thus the "Acoustic Kitty" of the Technical Support Division "died a deserved death as technically infeasible."
Spy reality has affected spy fiction. Where the heroes used to be unsung good guys doing their patriotic duties, after Vietnam and Watergate, novelists like le Carré and Clancy wrote about obsessives, misfits, and power freaks who were interested in playing the spy game for itself rather than for national interest. The end of the Cold War and the effect of terrorism have potential for bringing back the hero spy. Perhaps we have hero spies now and Hitz simply is not able to sing their praises because they are still spying. His book is good at giving details of such things as the treasons of Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen, and also the contributions of Soviet double agents to the information Kennedy needed to decide on the Cuban blockade. It is in giving these inside stories that Hitz succeeds in conveying his thesis: leaving aside the more fantastic Bondian conceits, "...real espionage cases are often more bizarre, more deserving of a place in Ripley's than the fictional accounts."

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Amusing, Inaccurate, Silly, Not Informative -- Doubtful That The Author Ever Met Or Recruited A Spy
By David M. Dougherty
I bought this book hoping to read an intellectual treatise of the reality faced by spies and their handlers as contrasted to fictional representations in spy novels. In short I expected an expose` of what really goes on (which is pretty mundane) as compared to riveting and thrilling adventures. What I read was a silly half-baked comparison of fictional spy characters from Ashenden to The Hunt For Red Oktober" (not really spies) to ten well-known and exposed spies, five Brits, two Soviets and two Americans (Ames and Hanssen.) There was little to learn, and what there was was well-hidden.

The author brings interesting bureaucratic credentials to the table having served in the CIA, Departments of State, Defense, and Energy, and finally as inspector general of the CIA. However, although his first position was as an "operations officer" (note the does not use the term "case officer"), he may have spent his entire 18 years at Langley, and all those after his first stint in positions requiring a lawyer. In short, his bio indicates he was the ultimate Washington bureaucrat rather than an intelligence operative. Nonetheless, one would think at least he would know something about spies from osmosis, but this book failed to display any insider knowledge, or indeed, anything that could not be gleaned from reading the fictional works referenced and widely published books by others on the real spies he used for comparisons. The best that can be said for this standard product of an Ivy League school (Princeton) and Harvard Law School is that he can write fairly well, although repetitiously.

Hitz points out that the CIA failed to penetrate the Soviet Union, was unable to ferret out Soviet agents in the CIA itself, and has become increasingly inept, bureaucratic and bureaupathic (my word.) Two statements were telling. One, that Americans were "too nice" to be successful in an inherently dirty game, and two, that meaningful contact between American case officers in diplomatic cover and Soviet targets was non-existent so that recruitment of Soviet agents was precluded. Unfortunately, Hitz fails to point out the obvious. The solution to the first problem is to stop recruiting socially acceptable personnel from Ivy League schools who cannot function outside diplomatic cocktail parties, and the second is solved by moving case officers to non-official cover where life becomes personally dangerous and have them recruit indigenous spotters and assessors. Oh wow, that means the Agency has to hire non-elite personnel who will be willing to take risks.

Hitz never discusses what makes up a good spy (access and motivation) or an effective case officer (in his term "spy-runner.") Frankly I prefer the MI term "agent handler", but spy-runner will do. Allow me to make up for what Hitz omitted. The first requirement for an agent handler is fluency in the host language. Requirements two through nine are fluency in the host language. Tenth is the willingness to take risks to accomplish the mission, eleventh is an understanding of people, and twelfth is political adeptness in handling the home office.

There are many errors in this book such as his statement that the Venona Project was not publicized during the forties and fifties due to the "sensitivity" of the project. This is a red herring since the project had already been betrayed to the Soviet Union by a Soviet Agent William Weisband in 1946 (or 1948). If there was any sensitivity it was that the American people were not ready to hear that several hundred Soviet agents were active in the Federal Government, most notably the State Department. McCarthy was actually almost spot on, leading some analysts to surmise that McCarthy had been tipped off to Venona by someone on the project. Hitz mentions the Soviet spies confirmed through Venona such as the Rosenbergs, Hiss, Currie and White, but fails to mention those spies who were not brought to trial like Ted Hall. This and other errors makes it seem like Hitz possesses little knowledge beyond what has already been published and widely accepted.

In addition, given that the CIA has become increasingly bureaucratic and incompetent, one wonders what part the author played in inhibiting or enhancing this trend as the CIA's inspector general for eight years. If this misbegotten book is any indication, Hitz does not figure prominently among the good guys.

In short, this book is amusing, but has little otherwise to offer. It will only appeal to literary types who have no personal experience in intelligence activities and can readily confuse reality with fiction. It does not present the reality of life in positive intelligence gathering that one might have expected -- rather Hitz confuses some arcane reality in his own mind with myths contained in spy books.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A pretty good book
By Joseph Biskup
I enjoyed this book, though it has several frustrations. It is a relatively small book, and a relatively quick read. Overall, the text is very approachable and the subject matter broad but not deep. Each chapter is for a particular aspect of spying such as: sex, tradecraft, gadgets, recruitment, betrayal, retirement, etc. Each chapter is presented in an artificially independent manner; rarely does one chapter refer back to a reference in another chapter. I suppose this can help keep things straight, but it makes it more difficult to create a continuous thread of understanding through the whole book.
Throughout the book, Hitz compares his experiences (rarely explicitely said or rarely a specific incident cited) to about 10 fictional accounts and about 5 true-life books previously written. There are many extended quotes followed by a short interpertation by Hitz. Most of the book focuses on what the author deems an accurate (versus inaccurate) portrayal. If you are not familiar with most of the sources he uses then you may have a difficult time keeping keeping the references straight throughout the book (as I did).
I had a difficult time deciding whether to give three or four stars. The book is a nice read, but not to deep. I felt myself constantly looking for more; wondering what Hitz was leaving out, what he couldn't say and what is still classified "secret" by the government. In the end, I am not a spook so I have to give Hitz the benefit of the doubt and assume he is relatively thorough and honest.

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Supernatural Love: Poems 1976-1992, by Gjertrud Schnackenberg

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The poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg, whom William Logan once called "the most talented American poet under the age of forty," published her first book of poems in 1982. She has since become one of our most respected authors of verse.

Schnackenberg's first three books, collected in Supernatural Love, show the thrilling evolution of a unique voice in today's letters. From an early mastery in which precision and heartbreak are inseparable, her poetry accelerates book by book through the searching, dense, and metaphysical imagery--as well as the cascading syntax--which have become her signature. Whether we are witnessing her classic portrait of Darwin in his last year or discovering the vertiginous brillance of her elegy for the Byzantine monuments of Ravenna, we find in Schnackenberg gemlike poems offered as visionary documents, unmistakable in their glittering range and passion--and never the same twice.

• Sales Rank: #148422 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-16
• Released on: 2000-10-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.50" h x .65" w x 5.50" l, .75 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Library Journal
Schnackenberg does not write the intimate little odes so dear to the hearts of many of today's current writing instructors. Grand and imposing, her poems storm through civilization, paying homage to art's greatest figures in language that is formal, articulate, and cool and glittering as a knife. Even when she touches on personal issues her neighbors, her father's death she works large. This year, she coupled a fine selected works with a new book-length poem that plunges back into Greek myth, ultimately investigating the tension between art and life. Decidedly different reading.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“[Schnackenberg] submits the claims of aesthetic form to a searing interrogation . . . a visionary encounter with 'the source of poetry.'” ―Rosanna Warren, The New Republic

“Profound, sweeping, emotional . . . One thinks of Blake's insight, 'Eternity is in love with the productions of time.'” ―Stephen Yenser, The Yale Review

“A dazzler . . . Rich, even ornate at times, [Schnackenberg's] poetry carries its weight as if it were no weight at all, by its thematic intensity and by the sheer beauty of its imagery.” ―Richard Eder, Los Angeles Times

About the Author

Gjertrud Schnackenberg was born in Tacoma, Washington. She graduated from Mount Holyoke, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from that college in 1985. She has also received the Lavan Younger Poets Award (judged by Robert Fitzgerald) from the Academy of American Poets, and the Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
POWERFUL,PURPOSEFUL,PENSIVE,PERSONAL POETRY!
By Brentley
If you enjoy the poetry of Thomas Hardy, W.B.Yeats, Robert Frost, Tennyson,Longfellow, John Masefield, Wilfred Owen, Phyllis McGinley, C.S.Lewis, Walter de la Mare, W.H.Auden, E.A.Robinson, A.E.Housman, Calvin Miller, Richard Wilbur, A.E.Stallings, you will revel in this collection of a lifetime's oeuvre.
In the words of Auden: In the eyes of every author,/ His past work falls into four classes:/ First, pure rubbish he regrets/ Ever having given bother/ To conceive. Second, mixed masses-/ For him, most painful - mongrel pets/ Of good ideas which impatience,/ Incompetency brought to nil/ (Fair notions fatally injured). Third,/ Lacking importance par creations:/ These three, bulk of the oeuvre which skill/ Plied. Fourth, poems worth the warmest word/ Of honest gratefulness from him,/ In volume depressingly slim.
Gjertrud's collection has few of Auden's first three classes. The best verse is the epitome of organizational skill in bringing together meaningful, moving elements into a whole greater than the sum of its parts that 'arrives', 'fulfills' and reaches the reader in a memorable way. Like all good poets, she attempts to amplify what she sees and experiences by probing for correspondences that relate dissimilarities. Through rhymed communication, she invites inquirers to share her discoveries and reveries. Poetic worth is never dependent on sheer quantity, contrary to what Stalin once said about the quality of his armed forces arrayed against Hitler ('quantity has a quality all its own'); Poetic value depends on importance,interest, stimulability, and depth of exploration. Too much poetry published these days is a pretty pond a mile wide and an inch deep. Gjertrud invites us to probe the depths off shore while heading to the surface for appropriate breathing stops. The final merit of a body of poetry is: will it stand the test of time and be referred to again and again, still speaking fresh and anew to each generation as many of the above-mentioned masters. I would suggest that 'Supernatural Love', her most powerful poem to date, achieves the following standard: efficient and effective symbiosis between form, sound, imagery, theme, motion, emotion, thought, music, substance, color, tone, texture, connotatively rich rhyming and spiritual importance. In this magnificent masterpiece, all aspects of poetry cross-pollinate each other in a mysterious, indefinable perichoresis(mutual interpenetration and enhancement creating a whole greater than the mere sum of parts). They are inseparable and,as here displayed, prove that a good poem cannot be said in any other way in any other words. Bravo! A tour de force to be welcomed on all new-formalist poetry shelves.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
transcend now
By holly hunt
Okay, I am saying it now for all the world to read, every little bug and bird that zips into this review. This is the book that should win every award flying around us in the known universe, and maybe the unknown universe, too. I hereby nominate this book for the Pulitzer and if the publisher doesn't do it he/she is missing out on one of the few times in his/her life that the action should be taken for the redemption and the welfare of the art itself. There are lots of ultra-chic poets out there writing some kind of dulled down intellectual psuedo crapola and this poet is not one of them. For capturing the true glittering moment in a psychic dream and letting it grow and develop into an unforgettable poem that changes the way the reader perceives the world and human interaction, this poet does it at least four times in every book she has written. When opening a book written by another poet, I am usually brimming with a little jealousy: here is somebody who has a few books, right? I am usually all set to tear apart whatever verse is there and measure myself, my voice, my vision against it. It takes a pretty original kind of imagination to sweep me away and make me forget my original, super-critical intent. But it happens with this poet, it happened. I am very grateful for the beauty and insight that was seeded and grew into living entities in these poems. In short, I am wowed. So I may well be Nobody, like Emily said everybody should be, but I say this book is transcendental all right; the book transcends the meaning of money and I am happy I had the good sense to buy it and recommend it to my friends who are just as critical as me.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Such amazing writing
By monsieurw1
This is a treasure trove. Even those who do not think that they are interested in contemporary poetry, or in poetry at all, will find something to admire in these brilliantly crafted poems, at once cerebral and visceral, beautiful and honest. Brava!

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^^ PDF Ebook Holy Cow: A Novel, by David Duchovny

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A rollicking, globe-trotting adventure with a twist: a four-legged heroine you won't soon forget

Elsie Bovary is a cow, and a pretty happy one at that--her long, lazy days are spent eating, napping, and chatting with her best friend, Mallory. One night, Elsie and Mallory sneak out of their pasture; but while Mallory is interested in flirting with the neighboring bulls, Elsie finds herself drawn to the farmhouse. Through the window, she sees the farmer's family gathered around a bright Box God--and what the Box God reveals about something called an "industrial meat farm" shakes Elsie's understanding of her world to its core.

There's only one solution: escape to a better, safer world. And so a motley crew is formed: Elsie; Jerry--excuse me, Shalom--a cranky, Torah-reading pig who's recently converted to Judaism; and Tom, a suave (in his own mind, at least) turkey who can't fly, but who can work an iPhone with his beak. Toting stolen passports and slapdash human disguises, they head for the airport.

Elsie is our wisecracking, pop-culture-reference-dropping, slyly witty narrator; Tom--who does eventually learn to fly (sort of)--dispenses psychiatric advice in a fake German accent; and Shalom, rejected by his adopted people in Jerusalem, ends up unexpectedly uniting Israelis and Palestinians. In Holy Cow, David Duchovny's charismatic creatures point the way toward a mutual understanding and acceptance that the world desperately needs.

• Sales Rank: #83477 in Books
• Published on: 2016-04-05
• Released on: 2016-04-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.27" h x .63" w x 5.43" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review

“*Starred review* "[Duchovny's] debut novel is a charming fable about dignity and tolerance, complete with anthropomorphized animals and replete with puns, double-entendres and sophisticated humor . . . Between the book's sly humor, gently humanist (animalist?) message and wry illustrations by Natalya Balnova, this is a pseudo-children's book that smart adults should greatly enjoy. An offbeat adventure that reads like Bill Willingham's Fablesdirected by Ralph Bakshi.” ―Kirkus Review

“Wide-eyed and playfully juvenile . . . [Holy Cow] is refreshing to read.” ―Matt Haig, The Guardian

“[Duchovny's] zany, madcap first novel, Holy Cow . . . is a seriously entertaining fable that doesn't take itself too seriously . . Duchovny is a witty writer, and he's especially good at conjuring these oddball voices.” ―John Wilwol, The Washington Post

“Who knew a cow's view of the world was so funny yet so honest and true? Holy Cow is silly and fun from the opening page.” ―Jeff Ayers, The Denver Post

About the Author

David Duchovny is a beloved television, stage, and screen actor; as well as a screenwriter
and director. He lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Most helpful customer reviews

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful.
Holy Cow is a whimsical tale about friendship, religion and the human race as seen through the remarkably insightful eyes of a c
By Z. de Ruiter
Holy Cow is a whimsical tale about friendship, religion and the human race as seen through the remarkably insightful eyes of a cow by the name of Elsie Q. (and communicated to her cow-author, American actor David Duchovny).

Elsie is a fairly happy cow living on a farm in the US. She spends her days getting milked, sleeping, eating and gossiping with her BFF Mallory about the bulls, which they feel increasingly interested in. Though her mum disappeared, she knows that all cow mums do so at some stage and she's otherwise pretty content with her unremarkable life. Until The Event.

In a bout of curiosity, Elsie wanders up to the farm house and through the window she watches a shocking documentary on the Box God about the meat industry, which makes it horrifyingly clear what has really happened to her mum and what will happen to her as well if she stays on the farm.

Elsie realises that the only way to escape her terrible fate of being turned into burger patties is to travel to India, where cows are worshiped rather than slaughtered. Several other animals on the farm - a Jewish pig, who refers to himself as Shalom, and a anorexic turkey called Tom - find out about Elsie's plan and decide to join her pilgrimage to escape similar fates. They don human disguises, practice walking on two legs and head for the airport.

It all sounds absolutely mad and it certainly is, but the story is also incredibly clever. Interspersed with remarkably spot on cow-humour and a heavy dose of pop culture references, Holy Cow provides a brutally honest insight into the human perception of the world and our privileged place at the top of the food chain. It managed to make me think and that wasn't what I was expecting from a story focused on a trio of farm animals on a bonkers mission to escape the barbeque.

On top of that, this is one of the funniest books I have ever had the pleasure to read. I gigglesnorted my way through the first few chapters on the train - receiving some interesting looks from fellow passengers - after which the story did became a more serious social commentary, but it never lost the charming, comical voice of Elsie. Who knew that actor David Duchovny could channel a cow so accurately? That's some X-Files right there.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
Readable
By Dan Thompson, Author
What a quick read; I hardly noticed the pages slip by. I must admit, a few pages in and I thought: OK, I'm not sure I'm going to get into this, but you know what, I did. I lapped up Elsie's moralistic yarn of animals discovering what humans do to farm animals.

I questions the audience though - Duchovny points out numerous times in the narrative that this book can appeal to all ages, but I disagree. Circumcision and expletives are enough cause for concern, but a child would simply miss the political and religious undertones that run throughout the novel.

I also found the book overly Americanised. Despite being set on an American farm, the speech was too clichéd and suffered from too many one-liners. Wit is great when used for effect, not when it appears on every page. I also found the constant references to American pop culture a little heavy and an easy way to disengage foreign markets, such as over here in the UK.

Saying that, Holy Cow made me laugh in places, and once you get past the whole animals dressing up in disguises, faking German accents and using iPhones and Google maps, it turns out to be an easy, enjoyable read. An almost modern fairytale. It isn't brilliant storytelling, but by the end, very readable.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful.
Deep, Thoughtful and Hilarious
By albion
WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!

Its been a while since I've been excited enough for a book to participate in a pre-order. (Deathly Hallows.)I wanted this book the day it came out and not a moment later. Initially my interest was sparked by the author, I'm not going to lie. I'm a long time fan of Duchovny. That being said, with all the excitement I knew I had to be hard on this book for that very reason.

I need not have worried.

The premise of the novel, the three animals searching for an escape from their inevitable fate as dinner (among other things)for humans, seems simple enough. However this story is really anything but simple. On the surface "Holy Cow" is a hilarious, irreverent allegory that pokes fun and stretches the imagination (case in point, Tom the turkey flying a plane). The story, I believe is targeted for all ages, was an easy read and I would not hesitate to allow my kids to read it.

There were several 'laugh out loud' moments for me, including Joe/Shalom's delightfully impertinent observation that "Jews are just Christians with longer sideburns. And a better sense of humor". The pop culture references (and the explanation thereof) and the fact that Mallory the cow has the vocabulary of a teenage girl were highly amusing, especially when read out loud to my co-workers.

If one wished to, one could leave it at that and chalk this novel up to a delightful, witty and outlandish talking animal story, and keep going.

I, personally, found many parts of this novel to actually be deep, philosophical, political, environmental and cultural. The underlying notion that indeed animals are more than just mindless masses who exist only to feed, clothe and amuse the human race really gets you thinking. As does Elsie's description of the "Box God" and the way the whole human family is mesmerized by it, "What a strange god that instead of bringing people together, divides them.". Through Elsie's eyes, humans look like heartless, selfish greedy and pathetic creatures and I'm not so sure I disagree with her bovine view of the world. Elsie, Shalom, Tom and even Joe the camel really don't pull any punches about humans and how we consume everything we touch. There really is no end to our cruelty.

I think for me, the moment where Elsie realizes that her lost mother was actually taken off to be slaughtered and butchered really hit home, the fog of depression she finds herself in, the horror she feels, the pain and the loss. It's written simply but it hurts to read it. The banging of her head against the wall, her inability to really even comprehend the horror of her future, and her inability to do anything about it is a hard hitting moment.

The fact that by an "accident" Joe and Shalom begin a peace process between Palestine and Israel may seem a little far fetched, but they do have a point. Coming together against a common enemy or hatred is something that humans excel at, for better or worse. In this case that common factor just happens to be poor Shalom.

Tom's moment in the plane, looking out the window really got to me, his tears as he looked at the ground far below. His dream to fly has come true, though not in the way he expected. This was perhaps one of the most poignant moments in the book. This also seems to be another theme running through the story, these animals dream of a better life and they get what they wanted, but its not quite what they expected or perhaps, in the end, even wanted. Shalom's realization that he doesn't want to live safe but reviled, and Elsie's that she doesn't want to compromise her ideals in order to be worshipped after all really drive that point home. There's a strong "the grass isn't always greener" lesson to be learned here.

I think my favorite part in the entire book is the scene on the beach in India with the "Goddess Cows" and the "Silly Cows" (there is mention of drug use here but its pretty mild and would probably go over the heads of most younger audiences). This part was honestly so profound it moved me to tears. The fact that Elsie saw all people/animals as the same. To her, religious differences didn't exist, she wasn't better or different because of a religious belief and neither was anyone else, animal or human. Her unfaltering loyalty to her friends in the face of the "Goddess Cows" and their superiority really moved me. And her unwavering response to all of this _ "I. Am. An. Animal."

Aren't we all?

Buy, borrow, do what you can, but read this book! You won't regret it.

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