Book Description
David Thompson is a former Vietnam War conscientious objector in Paris on a quest to find himself in the early days of 1977. When he befriends an Iranian and an Afghan and is invited to return with them to their countries, his quest slowly becomes a descent into his own personal hell.On the road from Europe to the East he encounters Kurdish bandits in the eastern mountains of Turkey, becomes involved with an underground group opposed to the Shah in Iran, escapes to Afghanistan, and later suffers extreme sickness on the streets of Delhi and Calcutta. Although continually searching for the happiness and identity he could not find in the U.S., he cannot easily shed his American past. Throughout the journey he is hounded by the demons of memory, particularly that of his father, a World War Two hero who disowned David and died while David was still in prison. The journey itself becomes a physical manifestation of his struggle to achieve reconciliation with his own conscience. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Dull as ditchwater
The only reason I finished this book was because someone had recommended it to me and I didn't want to disappoint them. The protagonist is a cardboard cutout, the lone Good American among hordes of Nasty Americans who have not achieved his level of enlightenment. The Afghans, Iranians, et al whom he meets on his travels could all be interchangeable, and everyone spends far too much time yammering self-rightous screeds and not actually doing anything.

The sad thing is that with the settings and time period, this novel could have been fascinating. But the author has taken golden material and turned it into junk - reverse alchemy, if you will. I'm sure that this book was fascinating to live, but unfortunatelythat fascination was not translated onto the printed page. Don't waste your time.

One star.

Good travelogue and personal philosophy story
American David Thompson is a Vietnam War conscientious objector. After spending a year in military prison, during which time he became estranged from his family, he travels around Europe, not really sure where he's going or what he's doing. In Paris, he meets a man named Hasan, who encourages David to accompany him back to Iran, his homeland. David is assured that plenty of jobs for foreigners are available. Their paths diverge for a while, and they meet up again a few weeks later, and undertake a harrowing journey to Iran by way of southeast Europe and Turkey.

The mountains of southeast Turkey are full of the sort of people who shoot first and don't bother with asking questions later. The two pass many disabled vehicles along the way, but don't even think of stopping; the philosophy is "every man for himself." They eventually reach Teheran, the Iranian capital. It's a dirty, noisy, congested place, like a city that's grown up too quickly. They continue to Mashad, Hasan's hometown, a much cleaner and nicer place.

David is invited to a meeting of an informal group of young people to discuss political philosophy; they have heard about his political rebellion. It's during the reign of the Shah, whose secret police, the SAVAK, are everywhere, so many precautions are needed. A few days later, the leaders of the group are arrested, and David is told to leave Iran immediately. He continues on to Afghanistan.

While there, he meets some Westerners who are more interested in drugs than in getting a different perspective of the world around them. He is told that he must continue on to India, to experience it first hand. Emotionally, it will hit him harder than anything in his life, but it's something he must do. Throughout his whole trip, and expecially in India, he experiences great kindness from total strangers. He also witnesses poverty and misery on a scale inconceivable to the average American.

This book is short, but it works on several levels. It's a good travel story, it's a good political and personal philosophy story, and it's a fine tale of an average person looking for his place in the world. It's well worth reading. ... Read more

Book Description
The Kobe-Osaka area in 1983. A 33-year-old American drifter and Vietnam War veteran has just arrived in Japan seeking one more adventure and an escape from his past. A promiscuous, rebellious, 23-year-old Japanese woman has just returned from a two-year homestay in a Canadian mission, where she was sent by her parents to cure her suicidal behavior. A snobbish, upper-class, 22-year-old Japanese woman who cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality is about to graduate from university and enter the frightening world of adulthood. Three people searching for a place to belong. Three people dancing on a psychological highwire. Three people about to become enmeshed in a relationship that will change each of their lives forever."Goes beyond the gaijin experience...evokes the rootlessness felt by young Japanese uncertain about their future."--The Japan Times"Crafted in excellent style and patiently honed...the Japanese characters are wholly convincing."--Kansai Time Out MagazineDownload Description
Toraware is a special novel that takes a penetrating look at the obsessions, suspense, grief, misunderstandings, and joys of people from very different cultures and backgrounds who are brought together by fate to find the separate life paths they must follow. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Beautiful Examination of Self Discovery
Human emotions, dark pasts, trials & tribulation, and complicated relationships are nothing new in literature. These are all common themes in countless novels and we've seen the same scenario play out time and time again. Every now and then, an author comes along and makes these themes special though and strikes the right notes with his or her readers. Robert W. Norris has done this with his novel Toraware.

Toraware is the story of three people living in Japan trying to find their place in the world. Harlan is a writer and a Vietnam War veteran in his early thirties who is unsure what he wants exactly out of life. He has come to Japan to teach English and to experience a new culture. While there he's met two women who are also trying to find themselves and each has become connected to Harlan. Sachiko has fallen for Harlan and his writing but her feelings are not reciprocated. Sachiko has her own dark past and her own issues to work through and has a hard time dealing with rejection. Yoshiko and Harlan have a much closer relationship, but Harlan will not open up to her. Yoshiko is also fairly promiscuous, has an alcohol problem and also has a dark past stemming from psychological issues.

Toraware is the tale of a universal need for acceptance. As I mentioned before, we've seen these themes in other works, but they are presented beautifully here. Norris' words match the beauty of the Japanese landscapes that he describes. You can tell that Norris has spent quite a bit of time in Japan as reading the novel is somewhat of a study in the culture of Japan. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the novel as Japan has always had a fascinating culture to me. Norris relates to his audience that through language barriers, culture barriers, and gender barriers, we can all relate at the core of what it is to be human.

This book was a great surprise and I look forward to getting to know Norris' work a little bit better. He's published a few other books, one of which is actually used to teach English to Japanese students. It's title is The Many Roads to Japan. Toraware was a book that could be extremely tedious if written by the wrong person seeing as there's not much action in the book. The book's main aesthetic is very voyeuristic. The reader is simply a fly on the wall as we experience the characters sorting out their lives. In Norris' hands, the book is a huge success and a pleasure to read. 4.5/5

Splendid
One of the most amazing books I have ever read. The story is set in Osaka Japan. I picked up this book and was hooked after the first chapter. I ended up finishing it the same day. Too bad it is not available anymore. ... Read more

Book Description
The Many Roads to Japan tells the story of the adventures of a conscientious objector who had to follow many twists and turns in his life journey before finding his niche in Japan. Suitable for low intermediate level and above ESL students. An excellent resource for peace education studies, too."The Many Roads to Japan influenced my students a lot, not only in studying English but also in searching for their own identities and thinking about how to live their lives." -- Kazuyo Yamane, Peace Studies lecturer at Kochi University"Norris's story of a symbolic life is a gift from his own experience, and it gives us something good, meaningful, and inspiring.... The comprehension questions, exercises, and discussion/essay questions are quite useful in helping Japanese students to think in English and in encouraging them to express themselves in English as well. This is the ideal textbook." -- Professor Kazushige Sagawa, Aoyama Gakuin University ... Read more

Book Description
An hallucinogenic mid-life crisis/adventure, and homage to Malcolm Lowry and Hermann Hesse. An American expatriate and his Japanese wife set out on a journey to Europe to retrace a path from his youth. What lies ahead--a trip through the Magic Theater, a sudden death, an encounter with Lowry's ghost, and a descent into the Capuchin Crypt in Rome--will change their lives irrevocably."A journey in miles and of states of mind. The reader travels through Europe with an American expatriate who recapitulates his past in a transcendental and evocative fashion.... An insightful and very enjoyable read."--David Echt, author of Messenger from the Summer of Love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

More revealing than expected!
Reviewed by Beverly Pechin for Reader Views (7/06)

"Autumn Shadows in August" is truly a novel that brings one through the course of a life, with an ending that may be much more revealing than expected.This is the story of a man who spent the early years of his life constantly searching for a place to fit in, yet never truly finds it, and takes you along the deep and uprooted path of his previous years.

His early life is filled with drugs and hallucinogenics that may have upset the world as we know it, but may have led the main character, David Thompson, to the path he was destined.As he and his beloved wife travel through Europe, they seem to find the meaning of their own life within the experiences of many countries.Kaori, Thompson's wife, is a Japanese woman who was always lost too, until later in life she seemed to blossom into a comfort zone which included her husband.Thompson, referred to by his wife Kaori as "honey-chan", was never sure where he was destined to end up in life.Being hit with the normal trials of mid-life, he and his wife have other issues they have faced that perhaps help to give them a better perspective on life.She is a cancer survivor and he is bearing the medical problems of hepatitis. They come to grips with the realization that they not only are older, but have found a way to realize the comforts they have always searched for in life.

A combination love story and mid-life coming of age fiction, Robert Norris seems to be able to share the outside influences of this exceptional couple and the inner most, deepest feelings that are sometimes enhanced by hallucinogens.They not only find their own, individualized purpose in life through a travel of the past, but they find the soul touching need and care for each other as a couple.Meeting many people from David's past, Kaori and the reader gain a sense of self worth from the intense friendships David has formed with people throughout Europe.

This absolutely breath taking novel brings the reader to a whole new level of understanding life.It will not only stir your own realizations of where your life has taken you, but perhaps open your mind and heart to new adventures.

A timeless tale from the depths of an unhappy life in Japan to the hot pursuit of an aging ghost and an overall remarkable story
Autumn Shadows In August by Robert W. Norris is an engaging and entertaining novel about David Thompson, an American teaching at a Japanese University and his dealing with hepatitis C. As Thompson an his wife realize the significance of their lives and what they've entirely done, Autumn Shadows In August begins its story through the retracing of a once young man's journey through Europe from Germany to Rome, replete with intriguing twists and adventurous intricacies. Autumn Shadows In August is very strongly recommended for all general fiction readers for its evocative telling and unique style and presentation of a timeless tale from the depths of an unhappy life in Japan to the hot pursuit of an aging ghost and an overall remarkable story.

Traveling the landscapes of the mind
Autumn Shadows in August in an extraordinary and enjoyable kunstlerroman or artist's novel.The protagonist, David Thompson, is a writer who is influenced by and identifies with two master novelists, Hermann Hesse and Malcolm Lowry.From the surreal prologue to the final page, Autumn Shadows in August is packed with direct and veiled allusions to the lives and works of both authors.In fact, the novel's plot somewhat mirrors that of Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, Lowry's final novel.

Thompson is an American expatriate living in Japan.When several crises converge upon Thompson and his wife, Kaori, they decide to travel across Europe, repeating a journey that Thompson made twenty-six years earlier.They are planning to meet a friend from Thompson's past.In Amsterdam, Thompson meets a mysterious, other-worldly stranger who hands Thompson a box containing the key to the Magic Theater (readers of Hesse's Steppenwolf will instantly recognize this stranger).Thompson eats what he finds in the box and embarks upon a psychedelic journey where his memories condense and replay like scenes in a drama.Through this sequence, the reader learns why Thompson is an expatriate and begins to see the parallels between Thompson's life and the lives of Hesse and Lowry.

Thompson's journey continues as he travels through Germany (where he finds that the friend he has traveled so far to see has just died), Switzerland and Italy.As Thompson makes his way across Europe, Lowry's shape-shifting ghost occasionally stops by to check up on Thompson and offer guidance.

Author Robert Norris's writing style is rich in symbolism.Norris tends to intersperse his narrative with expository writing - a technique employed with great effect by yet another expatriate pacifist writer, Aldous Huxley. Autumn Shadows in August reminds me of Huxley's later novels in other ways as well, in particular for the protagonist's almost mystical detachment and sense that he and his loved ones are part of something greater than themselves.By the novel's end, the reader has glimpsed the forces and obstacles that shape an artist and compel him to write.I am looking forward to reading other works by this author.

A Thought Provoking Masterpiece!
This is one of the best novels I've ever read!
It's an inspiring, meaningful story of a journey through the mind of an enlightened and experienced soul; at the same time it's an exhilarating and humorous adventure, an exploration of great art, literature, and architecture, and a beautiful, emotionally enthralling romance.
But this book is far more than the sum of its parts, and my feeble literary reviewing skills can do no justice to this eloquent and multifaceted tale.
This book is highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Wilderness Medical Society Anthology tries "to encourage, foster, support, and conduct activities or programs concerned with life sciences which may improve the scientific knowledge of the membership and the general public in matters related to wilderness environments and human activities in these environments." ... Read more

Product Description
KEYWORDS: apple cultivar; virus-free; virus-infected; pawpaws; tetraploids; polypoid genetics; fogging; retard blooming; opalescent apple; gooseberry; grafting-northern style; fall-bearing raspberries; figs; LSU purple; kiwis; scab resistance; chestnut; mayhaw; etc., etc. 76pp. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, published by Thomson Gale on November 1, 2005. The length of the article is 8536 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: An innovative methodology for analyzing digital visibility images in an urban environment.(Clean Air Act)
Author: Dhruv S. Raina
Publication: Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 55Issue: 11Page: 1733(10)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Mexican fishes
This book is for aquarist or professional ichthyologist. If you are just a beginner in aquarium fish, this book is not for you. If you are a serious aquarist and you are interested by fish from Mexico, buy the book. It's a well of information.

Fishes of Mexico
Excellent book for the experenced and the novice.Great information on Goodeids that is hard to find in the regular aquarium books. ... Read more

Book Description
Since publication of the first edition in 1918, A History of the Christian Church by Williston Walker has enjoyed outstanding success and recognition as a classic in the field. Written by an eminent theologian, it combines in its narrative a rare blend of clarity, unity, and balance. In light of significant advances in scholarship in recent years, extensive revisions have been made to this fourth edition. Three scholars from Union Theological Seminary in New York have incorporated new historical discoveries and provided fresh interpretations of various periods in church history from the first century to the twentieth. The result is a thoroughly updated history which preserves the tenor and structure of Walker's original, unparalleled text.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Easy and Complete Text
This has been an excellent additon to my library and helped me immensely during my seminary studies on ancient and medieval church history.Look up any subject, from Iranaeus to Arianism, and you will find several pages that sum up the topic beautifully.

One caution is to remember the book was written at the beginning of the 20th century and so may be lacking recent scholarship.Nevertheless I recommend it as a good second text on the subject of church history.As the intro says, it is a book noted for its "clarity, compactness, and balance."

Good Stuff
Although I am not completely finished with this book, I find it a helpful and interesting source for the class I purchased it for. It seems a little redundant at first, but one finds out that this is to emphasize important facts and events. I definitely recommend this book for History of Christianity courses or the like.

A Recognized Classic in the Field of Christian History
This is one of the most comprehensive and thorough single volume works of Christian Church History that I have ever read. Originally published in 1918 by Yale University's 'Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History,' Williston Walker, this work has been 'updated' or revised through the years by three Union Theological Seminary Professors based on new discoveries, insights, data, uncovered archaeological evidence, and historical discoveries.

The subsequent revised versions included a final section on 'Modern Christianity.' So much of what happen in the 20th century was added to later editions. The book is nicely divided into seven (VII) periods. These seven periods are:

Period I - The Beginnings to the Gnostic Crisis. This period covers the first two centuries of Christianity from Christ's time to the apologists ending in the second century.

Period II - From the Gnostic Crisis to Constantine. This is one of the better sections or 'Periods' marking the growth of the Church, the formation of Catholicism, and the development of theology.

Period III - The Imperial State Church. This section covers controversies which arose (Arianism, Pelagianism, etc.). It also covers the division which occurred between the East and the West, Augustine of Hippo, the Growth of the Papacy, etc.

Period IV - The Middle Ages to the Close of the Investiture Controversy. This section covers the expansion of Christianity into Europe, The Greek Church, the Papacy and the Ottoman Empire, and much more.

Period V - The Latter Medieval Ages. This is another excellent section covering the rise of Scholasticism and its thinkers (Anselm, Aquinas, etc.). The rise of Orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, etc.) The effects/theology of mysticism, Wyclif and Hus, and into the Italian Renaissance (and much more).

Period VI - The Reformation. This sections covers every aspect of the Reformation from beginning to end in as much detail as can be allowed in about 150 pages.

Period VII - Modern Christianity. This section covers the end of the Middle Ages to the current day. Christianity in America, Britain, the rise of Protestantism, the Great Awakenings, Deism, Pietism, the Puritans, Colonial discoveries and the spread of Christianity to North America, etc. are all covered in this section.

One of the best features of this work is the bibliography. The compilers have actually created a bibliography for every period mentioned above. So if the reader wants to do more specific research on any given period or thinker, there is a very detailed reference/bibliography section that is 21 pages long. This makes for excellent research sources and further study.

Overall, this work is very well balanced, very well written in such a short space. It covers nearly every detail from major to minor(with the exception of a few things that were left out that should have been included - e.g. Louis de Molina is not included, and thus Molinism is left out). It is quite easy to read, and is systematically put together in a nice chronological order (as history actually unfolded).

If you are looking for a detailed but somewhat brief (709 plus pages) Christian History text, then I recommend this one.

Irritating at times, but overall well-done
I understand that I am differing with other reviewers in giving Walker 5 stars, and at times I found Walker's passe divorcing of "faith and history" annoying, nevertheless, he knows his history and how to write it.

The editors at the beginningmake note of how Walker was indebted to the fruits of German scholarship--that becomes evident really quick in the book.In examing the early years of Chrisitanity (Christ through the rise of Docetism), Walker, although I disagree with parts of his methodolgy, has cogent arguments for the development of Christological thought.His contribution to early Trinitarian thought is outstanding.He outperforms himself in the times Jan Hus to the Reformation.Although I had a good grip on the Reformation, I found myself re-reading those chapters simply because they are so good.

This is a well-researched book.However, I was shocked when I saw the price.Nevertheless, and the bigger the checkbook the better, this book is well-worth the horrendous price (ok, I understand there is a reason for the price).Tolle Legge!

Informative but can be too detailed
This is a very detailed book covering many years and topics regarding the history of the mainstream Christian church.It does tend to meander back to Catholicism most of the time, but they are the leading Christian group.
Overall, a very worthwhile book if you try not to get bogged down with all the dates and names put forth.From my limited experience, I think this is also a very thorough book which has gone through several revisions to keep it current.
Except for the fact I needed this for a class, I would not have purchased it at full price, or close to full price. ... Read more