Book Description
In this daring and provocative literary parody which has captured the interest and imagination of a nation, Alice Randall explodes the world created in GONE WITH THE WIND, a work that more than any other has defined our image of the antebellum South. Taking sharp aim at the romanticized, whitewashed mythology perpetrated by this southern classic, Randall has ingeniously conceived a multilayered, emotionally complex tale of her own - that of Cynara, the mulatto half-sister, who, beautiful and brown and born into slavery, manages to break away from the damaging world of the Old South to emerge into full life as a daughter, a lover, a mother, a victor. THE WIND DONE GONE is a passionate love story, a wrenching portrait of a tangled mother-daughter relationship, and a book that "celebrates a people's emancipation not only from bondage but also from history and myth, custom and stereotype" (San Antonio Express-News). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (223)

An Opportunity Wasted
I understand parody to contain humor of some fashion - there is nothing humorous about self-conscious, bad writing.Were we supposed to roll over laughing, holding our sides, at the conceit of calling Rhett Butler "Debt Chauffeur?"I hope not, because it's only an unsatisfying use of a thesaurus.Alice Randall had some interesting premises here:The idea that Ashley may have had a male lover in his past, or that Ellen O'Hara may have had a black person in hers... This could have been fascinating and such a page-turner, but in Randall's hands it's just self-satisfied show.

I would have been thrilled to read a version of Gone with the Wind from the perspective of the slaves on the plantation.I'm a big fan of everything GWTW and have enjoyed, to some degree, all of the works that take the story as their starting point.Unfortunately, using it just to get publicity for a book which would never have been published without the connection is a disservice to reader, and other writers.

Burn It!!!
I love books and have read my favorites 10-15 times.I can honestly say that this book is one of the the most dreadful I have ever read.I don't have a problem with the author taking an American African point of view.I have a problem with the stardard of writing and the story line.Talk about someome making money off someone else.If you want to read a great book about the war from an American African stand point read "Jubilee" by Margaret Walker.This book should never have been printed.

Excellent depiction of a portion of southern culture that is often ignored
I loved this book!!!This book was an excellent depiction of the culture that existed in the south that is too often ignored. This book finally gives the black mistress a voice.It is well documented that many wealthy white southerners not only had black mistresses but would even have two families.In many cases there true love was actually their black significant other and not their white legal wife.However a white man being in love with a black woman was not socially acceptable. I think anyone that is offended by this book is offended that the antebellum south isn't being depicted in the light they would like it to be.

Beyond horrible!
It's obvious that the author didn't think much of "Gone With the Wind".This book is a slap in the face to a classic American novel.First of all, the author pretty much re-writes the history that we all love in "GWTW".The lead character is supposed to be a love-child of Gerald O'Hara and Mammy, REALLY?This book just goes down hill from the first page.They never really refer to any of the "GWTW" characters by name.Like Scarlett is "Other", Rhett is "R", Gerald O'Hara is "Planter".Even Tara is referred to as either Tata or Cotton Farm.Which kinda makes things a bit confusing trying to remember the characters from "GWTW".

THE most important part of "Gone with the Wind" is Scarlett O'Hara.The Wind Done Gone makes her seem like this ugly broken down pathetic old maid.Not the stubborn and strong opinionated woman fans have grown to love.Even Rhett seems weaker and more pathetic in this book.

If you're worried about tarnishing the image you have of "Gone with the Wind" don't read this book.If you're just interested in reading a train-wreck excuse of fan fiction, assuming the auther is a fan, then go ahead.It might be good for a few laughs.

I think I need to re-read "Gone with the Wind" to wipe my mind of this travesty!

Won't the wind ever go?
When I heard of this book for the first time just a few days ago I couldn't wait to get ahold of it.Sadly, it's one of the worst things I've ever tried to read.How can one "repair" or "correct" another's fiction?The impersonal narrator of GWTW told us everything we needed to know about the families involved and now the first person narrator of TWDG tells us it's all false.Ashley is gay and in love with a dead slave boy, Melanie didn't die from a miscarriage but in child birth and her child survived (when she was so newly pregnant that it didn't even show? please), Prissy killed Melanie as Mammy killed the three O'Hara sons (why didn't she just kill Ellen and be done with it, since Gerald loved her so much?), and on and on.And of course she gave Tara columns.God's nightgown!

It's really past time for people to stop trying to rewrite GWTW and just tell their own stories instead.A lot of good novels tell about the Civil War from the slave's perspective and, even better, there is a lot of non-fiction on the subject as well.Black Women in White America has the benefit of being true, as well as heartbreaking, and is an excellent place to start.

While I'm sure we all appreciate Ms. Randall's desire to make the slave characters deeper and more three demensional, turning them all into scheming murderers might not have been the best way to go.It actually made me pity the poor white folks who were the unknowing pawns of their evil slaves and that's not a feeling I like.It's too much like what the white supremicists say. ... Read more

Book Description
Word count: 2522. ... Read more

Book Description
Windsor Armstrong has a problem: her brilliant boy, Pushkin X, has become a football superstar and is planning to marry a Russian lap dancer. In Windsor's opinion, Pushkin is throwing away every good thing she has given him. When she was an unwed teen mother, Windsor attended Harvard, leaving her shady Detroit roots behind. She raised her son to be fiercely intelligent, well-spoken, and proud. Now he lives for pro football and a white woman of no account. Outraged by her son's decisions but devoted to loving him right, Windsor prepares to give up her last secret: the identity of Pushkin's father. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

That which is most vehemently denied is often most inescapably true.
"...And my parents did not give me a Russian name, for, other than a few dedicated Communists in the thirties and forties, what black parents ever did?"

That comment, posed by a fictional character in another novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park,is answered here by Alice Randall in the persona of this story's most significant presence, Windsor Armstrong, a Harvard-educated professor of Russian Literature at Vanderbilt University. We meet Windsor as she is about to commence an epoch of self-reflection and introspection brought on by the impending marriage of her son Pushkin to a Russian- born, blond-haired stripper with, as the story unfolds, the ironic name of Tanya.

Over a plate of grilled cheese and French fries in a seedy country western bar, over the next 200 pages or so, the reader is a rapt observer to intellectual self-vivisection as the professor examines exactly why she has arrived at this point of estrangement from her son, brought on by her palpable disenchantment with her son's choice of spouse as well as prior decisions (college choice, career) that failed to correlate to her aspirations for him, never mind the fact he has far exceededthe dreams most parents would ever entertain for their children. Circumstances are further complicated by the secret of Pushkin's parentage as Windsor has historically deflected, or just ignored any and all entreaties from her son regarding the name of his birth father.

Randall has infused enough thematic discourses to support a Doctorate thesis in American studies however, at the core this is a parent's paean to a child-man, an independent thinking and acting adult who has absorbed all of the lessons and knowledge any parent would hope to pass down but one who, while respectful of his elder, will not be hamstrung by any implicit requirement to live his life in accordance with another's vision.

Pushkin and the Queen of Spades is a tour de force exhibiting Ms. Randall's inestimable talents. Whereas her previous novel,The Wind Done Gone: A Novel, brought to mind the prose and style of Zora Neale Hurston, in this work one feels the influences of Joyce, Morrison, and Giovanni.WDG posed the question, "where were the mulatto children of Tara?""Pushkin..." asks the question, "What are the consequences of our inculcated values?"She demonstrates visceral aplomb in the style of the classicists, post- modernists, or rhythmic fluidity of the urban patois. Whilst the path of introspective reflection allows her to examine the psyche, cultural patterns and distinctiveness of Black Americans in a multiplicity of circumstance and to address the often conflicting objectives of inclusiveness and individuality, Ms. Randall unfolds a story that should foment personal assessment of how we interact with our children and what messages we send to them via our thoughts and actions, whether verbalized or implied.

"Tis time, my friend, tis time!
For rest the heart is aching;
Days follow days in flight, and every day is taking
Fragments of being, while together you and I
Make plans to live. Look, all is dust, and we shall die."
Alexander Pushkin

Alice Randall's "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades", is a terrific novel. Beginning with the double entendre of its title the book is rife with meaning and food for thought. The issues addressed in the book, our internal and external lives at the intersection of race and culture and the long term impact that our relations with our parents have on our own children are often discussed in solemn, ponderous and often overly contentious tones. Randall will have none of that. Rather, she embarks on a graceful, biting and often hilarious tour de force that should leave the reader laughing out load while at the same time soaking in the powerful ideas set out neatly inside the pearls of laughter. Mary Poppins once said a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down. In this instance a while lot of sugar and down right great writing helps open our minds to the sometimes provocative issues she sets out.

The story line itself is simple. Windsor Armstrong is an African American woman, graduate of Harvard, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the holder of a PhD in Russian literature. Her son Pushkin X is named after the great Russian poet and playwright, Alexander Pushkin (author of a famous book The Queen of Spades) whose own African ancestry formed the emotional basis of his work and life including his tragic death in a duel. Pushkin X has dashed Windsor's hopes that he would follow in his mother's academic career. He turned down Harvard and played football, at the University of Michigan. Even worse, Pushkin's football skills have resulted in his becoming a star in the NFL. The book's plot is revealed in the opening paragraph, perhaps one of the funniest opening paragraphs I have read in recent memory. Brief excerpts follow:

"Look what they done to my boy! . . . Fifty million people have watched him on a single Monday night. He has given a Russian girl a diamond ring. He means to get married. My son is a football player engaged to a Russian-born lap dancer, a girl named Tanya who danced at a club call Mons Venus. There is a God and he's punishing me. This much bad luck cannot happen by accident."

It soon becomes apparent that Pushkin X has withdrawn his mother's invitation to his wedding after she expresses opposition to the marriage and, more importantly, after she once again refuses to reveal the identity of Pushkin X's father, long a source of contention between mother and son. The rest of the book is devoted to Windsor's internal dialogue in the days leading up to the wedding. She touches on her early childhood in Detroit up to 1968 and the impact of her relationship with her father, whom she adored, and her mother, whom she did not adore, who took her away from Detroit and her father to D.C. They arrive in D.C. soon after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Despite her unhappiness in D.C. the city (and her mother) provides her with the opportunities that take her on her life's journey to Harvard, to Russia and a career as a scholar. Her internal dialogue continues. Like a river, her dialogue takes many twists and turns. Randall's words emerge as a beautiful stream of consciousness that leads us to many new and unexpected destinations. She is never boring and often profound. She is also funny and downright sassy at times as she embarks on riffs that touch on such diverse topics as her sex life, Malcolm X, `the souls of black folks', and writers such as Colson Whitehead and others. She touches on the meaning of being a mother and how the love of a mother (or father) for a child can bring more pain than we sometimes think we can endure. Simply put, in a context that Windsor Armstrong might enjoy - Curtis Mayfield may have had Windsor Armstrong in mind when he wrote the words "the woman's got soul".

The identity of Pushkin X's father and the nature of his conception gradually emerge as the book reaches it climax. That climax includes Windsor's wedding gift to Pushkin X - which gift is worth the price of the book standing alone.

In many respects the structure of Randall's dialogues are reminiscent of James Joyce's Ulysses. This is not to compare Randall to Joyce necessarily but I think it is no small compliment to the power of Randall's writing to even be thought of with Joyce in the same paragraph. As Christopher Hitchens once said about a writer once compared to Tolstoy, to be even compared to Tolstoy (or Joyce in this instance) is no small achievement even if one hasn't quite reach that stature (yet). I enjoyed the book tremendously and encourage anyone with an interest in good books to pick this up and read it. It is a book to be enjoyed and savored.
... Read more

Book Description

Containing 100 recommended playlists for downloading, this book is the best and most unique way to explore the Country music genre in a modern, easy, convenient way. Each playlist walks you through the history, culture, and relevance of Country music, revealing the authenticity and raw truth that represents Country.

Amazon.com
The unacknowledged boom in African-American fiction continues with Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, a second novel from Alice Randall, author of the nearly banned Gone with the Wind parody, The Wind Done Gone.Windsor Armstrong is a Harvard-educated professor of Russian literature whose son, Pushkin--named after the great Afro-Russian poet--defied all her hopes for him by becoming a star football player. Any other mother would be proud, Windsor reflects.But she had wanted her son to transcend the narrow roles allotted to him as a black man in America. She had wanted more for Pushkin--a place in black bohemia, a place carved out by the writings of Dubois and others. And now, he rejects her again by choosing a Russian lap dancer as his wife.

Windsor's musings--by turns angry, conflicted, wistful, and eccentric--are among the most penetrating comments on race and mother love in contemporary fiction. She recalls her Motown childhood; her cruel, self-hating mother's climb through white society in Washington, D.C.; and the refuge she found at Harvard, slowly uncovering the roots of her racism and her shock and sadness that Pushkin has fallen in love with a woman who does not look like her. And what does Pushkin want from Windsor?Only the truth about who his father is.

Though the novel is a little longer than it needs to be, readers who stay with Randall through the switchbacks and cul-de-sacs of her narrative will be rewarded with stylistic fireworks and an unparalleled examination of black racism.--Regina MarlerBook Description
Windsor Armstrong is a polished, Harvard-educated African American professor of Russian literature.Her son, Pushkin X, is an exceedingly famous pro football player, an achievement that impresses his mother not at all.Even more distressing, however, her beloved son has just become engaged to a gorgeous white Russian migr who also happens to be a lap dancer.For Windsor this predicament is no laughing matter.Determined to get to the bottom of it, she embarks on a journey into her own rich past: to her Motown childhood, where the Temptations danced across the stage and love came disguised as a sharply dressed gangster; to Harvard, where she endured the humiliation of being an unwed black teen mother; to St.Petersburg, where the verses of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, great-grandson of an African slave, moved through her head as she made love to her own white Russian.The urge to protect her son has been Windsors only goal, but as she draws ever closer to the secret that has cast a shadow over her life, the identity of her son's father, she discovers that the half-lies she has fed her boy dont add up to the beauty of the truth.Balancing sharp-witted humor with profundity, sexiness with psychological depth, this is an exhilarating ride straight through the racially divided heart of contemporary America, which also probes the universal question of what it means to be a good mother.Pushkin and the Queen of Spades is a provocative, enormously entertaining novel that will change the landscape of literary fiction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Long, Boring and annoying
I have to admit that I gave up on this book at the half-way point. I just could not read any more, although I was mildly curious to find out who Pushkin X's father was. It wasn't worth the pain, though, so I gave up.

In the first place, the book is written somewhat in the manner of Toni Morrison's "Beloved", with one big difference-Morrison is a great writer and Randall is not (based on this book, at any rate). The result is that this book goes on and on in circles. It's deadly dull.

Second, I developed a hearty dislike for the protagonist. Instead of coming off as sympathetic, having had a tough childhood and adolescence, the protagonist comes off as self serving and selfish. Her disappointment in her son, with whose conduct and life I could find little fault, irritated me to the point that I simply could not stand another moment of the protagonist's harangues against him and his girlfriend (who struck me as an intelligent and thoughtful women and no weirder than the mother!).

Third, the idea of connecting the author Pushkin's life and works to contemporary black life is very intriguing (and was the reason I launched into the book in the first place), but the author does nothing with it. She skims over the clichés of Pushkin's life, but never digs into any original connections between him and black identity.

Fourth, what does this book really say about black identity? Granted, I am not black, so there may be some subtle message I am missing, but I learned nothing about black life in the US. The protagonist's life, in any case, is atypical, since she is a professor - hardly mainstream either in black or in white culture. Her childhood struck me as far from typical also.

I really found nothing in the first half of the book to suggest that I ought to invest the effort into reading the second half; so I didn't.

A mother's love
After her controversial debut The Wind Done Gone, a parody of Gone With The Wind, Alice Randall is back on the literary front with PUSHKIN AND THE QUEEN OF SPADES, a work of art presenting deeper observations on race, classism, interracial relationships, motherhood, family, and love.Embedded in these themes are strands of humor, literary references, and a mother's love and frustration in protecting her son from the realities and cruelties of the world.

Windsor Armstrong is a professor of Russian literature and has named her son Pushkin X after Alexander Pushkin, the Afro-Russian poet and Malcolm X.She raised Pushkin with the hopes that he would one day follow in her footsteps, as an intellectual, not boxed in the same stereotypical class of many other black men.Unfortunately, Pushkin has his own ideas and goals in life.He excels in football, turns down a scholarship to Harvard, and eventually advances to the NFL, to the horror of Windsor.When he announces his marriage to a white Russian lap dancer, Windsor finds herself lost in a myriad of emotions.

"Pissed" would be the forefront emotion as she takes his announcement personally, wondering why he didn't choose a black woman, why he chose the life he lives, and how she can continue to love him, considering all of the issues she finds with him.Tossing back and forth from the past to the present, she relives her life, her troubles, pain, and happiness, as she creates a wedding gift for Pushkin -- a narrative of her life.Through the revelation of her disappointments, we're able to further understand her anger and the love she has for Pushkin.In addition, we're given a multifaceted view of her character and her past.

PUSHKIN AND THE QUEEN OF SPADES is an exploratory journey for Windsor as she searches for identity and reconciliation. It is at times moving, hilarious at others, but, nonetheless, adeptly addresses many concerns faced by parents.It is definitely a book to be read slowly, up close and afar, to catch exactly what's going on throughout the pages. It is an exciting look into contemporary fiction with a literary edge.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Top Draft Pick of 2004
In Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, Alice Randall mixes a spicy gumbo of Russian literature, Motown, and hip-hop that glides across the palate of the mind to rave culinary reviews.It's funky, hip, and sexy, yet sophisticated, cosmopolitan, and righteously poetic.When a Harvard-educated professor's football superstar son decides to marry a Russian lap dancer, her life becomes a retrospective of "where did I go wrong as a single black mother?"Windsor Armstrong thought she had raised her son, Pushkin X, to be a perfect reflection of herself: educated, erudite, and worldly, and sees his taste for the common as a direct rejection of everything she has ingrained in him, including her place in his life.Rather than retreat and wait for him to come to his senses, she writes a hip-hop elegy of epic proportions as a wedding gift in hopes of culling his forgiveness while desperately trying to respect his choices.

Informative, thought provoking and entertaining
Randall's latest novel, "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" covers a lot of territory. On one level, it's the story of a mother's love for her son and her attempt to protect him from a truth that she feels may crush him.Windsor and Pushkin X - mother and son - are the focal characters in the novel.When Windsor learns of her son's plans to marry a Russian lap dancer, she is forced to reckon with aspects of her past that she has tried desperately to forget. Not only must she find a way to accept her future white daughter-in-law, but she must also find a way to tell her son who his father is.Within this story line, the author demonstrates the current and historical complexities of black/white racial relationships.

On another level, the story examines class and culture conflicts within the African American community.Windsor comes from a family with "all of the vices except those that are unforgivable and none of the virtues except those that are absolutely necessary".It is within this context that Randall explores the difficulties that Windsor has with integrating all facets of her life after a legitimate shift in class and cultural status.". . . Negroes who survive to thrive exhibit highly original adaptations to life", Windsor tells Pushkin X; and she adapts by compartmentalizing her life in an effort to keep the criminal and abusive aspects of her family background from bleeding into the highly intellectual and academic life she now has as a Russian studies professor at Vanderbilt University. Is it possible to jettison what was then for what is now?Is it necessary?I found this aspect of the novel comparable in many ways to my life experience and the author captures the character's psychological conflicts with apt clarity and clinical insight.

Then there's the literary relationship between the text of Randall's novel and the work of Alexander Pushkin.Although I wasn't familiar with Pushkin's work I had heard of him at some point during my academic career.What I don't recall hearing is that he is of African descent. This bit of knowledge did for me on a small scale what it did for Windsor enormously - it sparked an interest to know more about the African-Russian.It's because of Randall's work that I've recently read Pushkin's "The Queen of Spades", that I've read a little biographical information about the author and his work, and that I will read "The Negro of Peter the Great."There is nothing more beautiful, more powerful, than a novel that entertains, uplifts, and educates; "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" does all three.

And then there's the rhythm of the story, the beat.Poetic passages and skillfully crafted phrases reflect the author's command of language and knowledge of literary history. "Pushkin and the Queen of Spades" is a monumental accomplishment.Randall packs the story with African-American history and tradition as well as literary creativity and complexity.You'll have to put your thinking hat on for this one but its well worth the effort.

A Great American Novel
Alice Randall's Pushkin and the Queen of Spades, is, simply put, a great novel.Beginning with the hilarious double entendre of its title the book is rife with meaning and food for thought.The issues addressed in the book, our internal and external lives at the intersection of race and culture and the long term impact that our relations with our parents have on our own children are often discussed in solemn, ponderous and often overly contentious tones.Randall will have none of that.Rather, she embarks on a graceful, biting and often hilarious tour de force that should leave the reader laughing out load while at the same time soaking in the powerful ideas set out neatly inside the pearls of laughter.Mary Poppins once said a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.In this instance a while lot of sugar and down right great writing helps open our minds to the sometimes provocative issues she sets out.

The story line itself is simple.Windsor Armstrong is an African American woman, graduate of Harvard, a professor at Vanderbilt University and the holder of a PhD in Russian literature.Her son Pushkin X is named after the great Russian poet and playwright, Alexander Pushkin (author of a famous book The Queen of Spades) whose own African ancestry formed the emotional basis of his work and life including his tragic death in a duel. Pushkin X has dashed Windsor's hopes that he would follow in his mother's academic career. He turned down Harvard and played football, at the University of Michigan.Even worse, Pushkin's football skills have resulted in his becoming a star in the NFL.The book's plot is revealed in the opening paragraph, perhaps one of the funniest opening paragraphs I have read in recent memory. Brief excerpts follow:

"Look what they done to my boy! . . . Fifty million people have watched him on a single Monday night.He has given a Russian girl a diamond ring.He means to get married.My son is a football player engaged to a Russian-born lap dancer, a girl named Tanya who danced at a club call Mons Venus.There is a God and he's punishing me. This much bad luck cannot happen by accident."

It soon becomes apparent that Pushkin X has withdrawn his mother's invitation to his wedding after she expresses opposition to the marriage and, more importantly, after she once again refuses to reveal the identity of Pushkin X's father, long a source of contention between mother and son. The rest of the book is devoted to Windsor's internal dialogue in the days leading up to the wedding.She touches on her early childhood in Detroit up to 1968 and the impact of her relationship with her father, whom she adored, and her mother, whom she did not adore, who took her away from Detroit and her father to D.C.They arrive in D.C. soon after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.Despite her unhappiness in D.C. the city (and her mother) provides her with the opportunities that take her on her life's journey to Harvard, to Russia and a career as a scholar.Her internal dialogue continues.Like a river, her dialogue takes many twists and turns.Randall's words emerge as a beautiful stream of consciousness that leads us to many new and unexpected destinations.She is never boring and often profound.She is also funny and downright sassy at times as she embarks on riffs that touch on such diverse topics as her sex life, Malcolm X, `the souls of black folks', and writers such as Colson Whitehead and others.She touches on the meaning of being a mother and how the love of a mother (or father) for a child can bring more pain than we sometimes think we can endure.Simply put, in a context that Windsor Armstrong might enjoy - Curtis Mayfield may have had Windsor Armstrong in mind when he wrote the words "the woman's got soul".

The identity of Pushkin X's father and the nature of his conception gradually emerge as the book reaches it climax. That climax includes Windsor's wedding gift to Pushkin X - which gift is worth the price of the book standing alone.

In many respects the structure of Randall's dialogues are reminiscent of James Joyce's Ulysses.This is not to compare Randall to Joyce necessarily but I think it is no small compliment to the power of Randall's writing to even be thought of with Joyce in the same paragraph.As Christopher Hitchens once said about a writer once compared to Tolstoy, to be even compared to Tolstoy (or Joyce in this instance) is no small achievement even if one hasn't quite reach that stature (yet). I enjoyed the book tremendously and encourage anyone with an interest in good books to pick this up and read it.It is a book to be enjoyed and savored. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

AN EYE OPENER!
EVERYONE WHO IS AGAINST THE USE OF MARIJUANA SHOULD READ THIS BOOK.THIS HAS THE STRAIGHT FACTS AND IS A PAGE TURNER.IT DESCRIBES A COUPLES FIGHT FOR A RIGHT TO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE.I FIRST STUDIED THE SUBJECT FOR APROJECT IN MY HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH CLASS.IT SEEMED LIKE A TOPIC TO ALMOSTLAUGH AT, BUT I CAN SEE NOW THAT IT IS ONE OF THE MOST SERIOUS CASES INHISTORY.

Why the public needs to read this book!
In the war against drugs, the people that have been hurt and whosuffort the most are patients..Glaucoma, MS, Auto immune dieases, HIV,AIDS, Cancer..too many to list!! Robert Randall and Alice O'Leary have written ofthe twenty + years of fighting the "demon", and the the DEA andthe ill advised government agencies that control the destiny of millions ofpeople. People that are dying, living in intracable, horrific pain.All inan flawed effort to Stop the "drugs" The "War on Drugs"has become the war on the least of us, the sick, the poor, the pain rackedcitizen's. Marijuana Rx The Patients Fight for Medical Pot gives us a rarelook inside the lives of two people that found themselves up against themost powerful men in our government. The fight has taken them all over theworld.It is brilliantly written, part fact, part personal history. Alltrue and a guide for today! The fight Must be won!! Robert and Alice havefound a way to tell their story that is concise, even humorous at times. Astory of a man that has faced death and won, for now. A woman that hasstood by him every step of the way. It should be required reading for everymedical student in every university in this country! There is a time foreach of us to stand and be counted. I will be counted. Read and understandthe flawed and cruel policies of a govenment too embarassed to admit theyare wrong. Medical use of marijuana is a shining tool that is helpingchronically and terminally ill patients all over the world.It is time theGovernment of this country and the DEA stop trying to "pass the buck,denying hundreds of studies that Marjiuana Works. Robert and Alice tell agripping story of the fight of their lives. It must be recongized and read.For all those namesless, faceless patients that are staking their lives onthe use of "Pot". ... Read more

Book Description
I No Longer Dance reveals an athlete's devastating physical and emotional struggle of enduring a painful and crippling disease.

"So here I am
Crying
Dying in pain
My body
My soul
BLEEDS
Hear my spine cry" ... Read more

Book Description
*HA02, Departures: A Reader for Developing Writers, Randall L. Popken, Alice A. Newsome, M. Lanell Gonzales(all of Tarleton State University), H6249-0, 350 pp., 6 x 9, 0-205-16249-5, paperbound, 1995, $16.50nk, October*/Departures offers developmental writers a fresh, unique anthology to complement their writing courses. The readings are drawn exclusively from popular media and are chosen for their ability to interest students. Departures examines questions of immediate importance in modern American life, choosing topics that also have academic significance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

People get paid money for books like this?!?!?!?!?
If you want a collection of essentially op-ed pieces for students to read this is fine. The problem with aiming to be as topical as this reader is is that it goes out of date so quick. And, who wants their students to bewriting op-ed pieces anyway? It's amazing that people get contracts forbooks like this: almost anyone could gather up a collection of shortpieces, come up with some study questions and paper topics like this in aweekend. I just don't get it. (Although I wouldn't mind getting apublishing contract if the stipulation for overall content was as weak asthis.) ... Read more

Book Description
Citation Details


Distributed by ProQuest Information and Learning ... Read more