Customer Reviews (1)

TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION...
I first read this book approximately twenty-five years ago, when it was first published. I remember that I had very much enjoyed the glimpse that it offered into the fascinating lives of nineteenth century conjoined twins, Chang and Eng, the original "Siamese Twins". Having recently read the novel, "Chang and Eng", by Darin Strauss, my interest in these twins was piqued, and I decided to re-read this book.

Time has not diminished the capacity of this biography to captivate and hold the interest of the reader. Truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction. The authors provide the reader with a well-researched look at the interesting and unusual lives led by conjoined twins, Chang and Eng. Born in Siam, which is now known as Thailand, on a houseboat on the Mekong River in 1811, Chang and Eng were conjoined at the chest by a band of fleshy cartilage. It was this small band of flesh that would bind them in life, making the two as one.

Being forced to be together by their conjoinment, even in those most intimate of moments, did not prevent Chang and Eng from living full lives. Leaving Siam as eighteen year old adolescents, Chang and Eng were to travel to America under the care and guidance of a Captain Coffin, who saw the commercial possibilities inherent in Chang and Eng's conjoinment and fully intended to exploit them. In America, people clamored to view Chang and Eng, as they were considered curiosities. They would also travel abroad to Europe, where they were to cause a sensation. Chang and Eng were the international celebrities of their day.

When they reached majority, Chang and Eng disassociated themselves from Captain Coffin and his business partners and became their own men. They took charge of their own destinies and later became American citizens, adopted the surname of Bunker, married two sisters, Adelaide and Sarah Yates, collectively had twenty-one children, and settled down in North Carolina, where they became slave-owning, gentleman farmers. Still, they did not wholly give up touring and exhibiting themselves for profit. In later, leaner years, they would do so with some of their children in tow as part of the exhibit.

As they grew older, their togetherness seemed to cast a pall over their lives, as Chang was a more phlegmatic sort of personality, while Eng was much more contemplative in nature. Moreover, Chang took to heavy drinking, and though Eng abhorred it, there was little he could do about it. He was forced, therefore, to suffer the consequential effects and indignities of Chang's drinking. These personal differences would cause them both to mull over the possibility of separation. There was, however, little medical support for such, except in the event of life or death, as surgical procedures were still quite primitive in those days.

Chang and Eng would die in their early sixties. Chang died first, while Eng, who was otherwise healthy, would die within hours, possibly from fright and shock at being tethered to the lifeless body of his brother. As they were together in life, so were they together in death. They left behind two grieving widows, a multitude of children and grandchildren, and an unending, world-wide interest in their lives. Never before and never since, has a set of conjoined twins so captured the imagination of the general public more than Chang and Eng, the original Siamese twins.

This is a very well-written, well-researched biographical treatment of the lives of Chang and Eng. Their lives were, indeed, fascinating, and those who enjoy biographies will find much to like about this book. It is also an intriguing look at nineteenth century life in the context of the lives of Chang and Eng. The book also has sixteen pages of wonderful black and white photographs and illustrations, which will add to the reader's enjoyment of this book. ... Read more

Product Description
* A Literary Guild Main SelectionCan love survive a shattering loss? A grief-stricken widower learns to open his heart again in LaVyrle Spencer's touching and emotionally charged new novel. Late summer, Browerville, Minnesota, 1950: Life is just about perfect for Eddie Olczak. A devoted husband and father, a man of unshakable faith, he derives intense pleasure from the life he's built with his beloved wife, Krystyna, and their two daughters, and is the dedicated handyman for St. Joseph's, the Catholic church that is the cornerstone of Browerville life. But when a tragic accident cuts Krystyna's life short, Eddie is sure his heart is broken forever. Krystyna was everything to him--his true companion.As friends and relatives rally around the family in the dark days and weeks that follow, there is one person who is unable to express what the loss of Krystyna means to her. Sister Regina, the girls' teacher at St. Joseph's school, has always felt a special affinity for the family. Yet her religious vows prevent her from becoming too close to them, even in their time of need. In the past, Sister Regina had bristled under the constraints of the order, but always reaffirmed her commitment through prayer and contemplation. Now the strict rules of the Benedictine sisterhood, which once gave her life a sense of meaning, chafe at her more insistently.Time passes, and Sister Regina and Eddie Olczak continue to cross paths. Deep inside, they realize there is something between them--more than a kinship, a connection that somehow goes beyond their shared love of Krystyna and the girls. Thrilled--and secretly frightened--they both must summon the courage to look within their hearts and make their own choices.Powerful, moving, and deeply affecting, Then Came Heaven is a celebration of love and tenderness, a book LaVyrle Spencer's fans are sure to cherish long after the last page is turned. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (85)

A bit shocking..
I feel it was a bit shocking that this widower would so quickly fall in love with another woman. I mean, just a few weeks after burying his beloved wife he's ogling the nun. And the nun is falling for him before his wife is cold in her grave?Well written, yes, but the storyline is a bit unbelievable.She should have placed the romance a couple of YEARS after the death of Krystyna, not just a few days.

Then Came Heaven - Book Review
I read Then Came Heaven many years ago, and for some reason the name of the book just came to me out of the blue.I hunted for it and found it through Amazon.Easy!The book was as good as I remembered it, though I had forgotten a lot of the story, so I thoroughly enjoyed it all over again!If you are looking for a good story with heart that portrays everyday life in detail, you will probably love it too.

A stunningly beautiful book
This story has so many kinds of love on so many levels that it's truly wonderful.So much respect is paid to each character and to each person's beliefs and trials that I am amazed by the author's skill.
Imagine a man whose wife has died and left him with two little girls to raise, a sister-in-law who hopes to take her place, and a nun who falls in love.I believe this is one of Spencer's best books.

Then Came Heaven by LaVyrle Spencer
I especially enjoy LaVyrle Spencer's writing and this book, "Then Came Heaven," was wonderful.She writes of real life situations and portrays the characters in a way so that we really know them inside and out.A wonderful love story about people who are caring, respectful and moral.It was very uplifting to read about such people.I'm passing this book around to friends and family.

"Then Came Heaven" an absolute delight
I've read this book multiple times, but keep losing it, so I bought another copy through Amazon.It's a gentle story of death and the life of the deceased loved ones' that followed.LaVyrle Spencer weaves reality into her stories.She always leaves me wanting more! ... Read more

Product Description
Nine CDs / 10 hours

In its 75 successful years, The New Yorker has set the standard for feature-length magazine biography.In fact, the magazine owns a copyright to the title Profiles.No other periodical has brought to this kind of biographical reporting more distinguished writers or more wide-ranging subjects, and none has achieved more incisive and revealing results.

The compilation includes telling, subtle, and often funny portraits of figures that come from every field of human endeavor and accomplishment:Ernest Hemingway, Legs Diamond, Thomas Edison, Roseanne Barr, Queen Mary, Julia Child, Marlon Brando, Adolf Hitler, Benjamin Cardozo, Edith Warton and Hillary Clinton.The contributors' names also speak for themselves:Ian Frazier, Janet Flanner, Joseph Mitchell, Lillian Ross, Mark Singer, Dorothy parker, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Truman Capote.

Profiles are the jewel in The New Yorker's nonfiction crown.They not only display the riches of a great magazine, but shed light on many of the great figures who have helped to shape the world we live in.Amazon.com Review
Way back in 1926 the founding editor of The New Yorker suggestedthat the title Profiles be registered with the copyright bureau. HaroldRoss had ample reason, for though he didn't invent the word itself, hecertainly invested it with new significance. Over the years, NewYorker Profiles came to represent a new kind of biography: concise,well-researched, and impeccably written sketches of personalities who wereoften famous--but just as often not. Take for example "Mr. Hunter's Grave,"Joseph Mitchell's 1956 Profile of George H. Hunter, the 87-year-oldchairman of the board of trustees of the African Methodist church on StatenIsland. This delightful piece leads off a select group of Profiles culledfrom The New Yorker's first 75 years and collected in LifeStories, edited by David Remnick. More a study of a place and a way oflife than of a particular man, Mitchell's Profile stretched the parametersof the form.

The very next piece, Mark Singer's "Secrets of the Magus," is aprime example of what The New Yorker does best. In Ricky Jay,"perhaps the most gifted sleight-of-hand artist alive," Singer has hit on aquirky, eccentric, and fascinating subject--one that offers plenty of scopefor writer and reader alike to dip into an arcane and little-known worldof magicians, mountebanks, card handlers, and confidence men. Alva Johnstonachieves similar success in "The Education of a Prince," his 1932 Profileof con man Harry F. Gerguson, who spent years masquerading as the lostPrince Michael Alexandrovitch Dmitry Obolensky Romanoff:

The Prince had a glittering career in New York, Boston, Newport, on LongIsland, in high-caste settlements along the Hudson, and among thearistocracies of a dozen American cities. Twice he swept over Hollywood ina confetti shower of bad checks. He was repeatedly exposed, but exposuredoes not embarrass him greatly. He is widely admired today, not for histitle but for his own sake. He has convinced a fairly large public that agood imposter is preferable to the average prince.

But where is that famous Profile of the sea by Rachel Carson, you ask?Pauline Kael's piece on Cary Grant or Janet Malcolm's controversial studyof psychoanalyst Aaron Green? In his introduction Remnick acknowledges themany great Profiles that did not make it into this volume, explaining thathe decided to publish pieces only in full. "I wanted the reader to get thereal thing--no excerpts, no snippets," he writes. "As a result the readerwill have to go elsewhere for a range of long or multipart Profiles."What's here is choice, though, and die-hard New Yorker aficionadoswho turn to the Profiles even before perusing the cartoons won't bedisappointed by what they find. All in all, Life Stories makes afine 75th anniversary bouquet for the magazine's many devoted readers.--Alix Wilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

I got through only 4 stories

I very much enjoy profiles of interesting people and had high hopes for this book, but it's awful. In fact, I gave up on about the fourth tape.

I managed (with great difficulty) to get through part of the article on Richard Pryor but the vulgar language made me stop. Granted, that might be appropriate for a piece about Pryor, but I think it would be possible to write an interesting biographical sketch without it.

The article on Ernest Hemingway was the most boring and meaningless piece of tripe I've ever read. How could ANYONE make Hemingway seem deadly dull? By recounting an almost minute by minute, blow by blow, excursion in New York to buy a coat. What was the author thinking????

The short article on Katharine White was okay, but nothing special and actually more about the writer than her subject.

The article on Mr. Hunter's Grave, which was a 'non celebrity' piece, was overly long and exceedingly dull, with very poor narration.

That's when I decided life is too short to spend listening to books like this. If this is the best The New Yorker can do, it's no wonder I don't subscribe!

A Book with Character
If you are a fan of biographies but are intimidated by 1,000-page tomes, Life Stories is a great choice. Some say the New Yorker invented the "profile," and though it does seem the magazine was the first to call its biographical pieces by that name (amazing, considering how ubiquitous the term is today), editor David Remnick is quick to assert that they hardly invented the style. What they have done for decades is find the most interesting people and have the best writers provide illumination. Nearly every profile here is profound and nearly every one of them is short enough to read in a single (long) sitting. And while it's a treat to learn intimate details of some of the most famous people of the 20th century, it's the profiles of the lesser-known people that shine: from Joseph Mitchell's encounter with an aging churchman with a penchant for baking tothe story of the Chudnovsky brothers, Russian emigres who built a supercomputer in their apartment from salvaged parts. Fantastic reading from start to finish.

Great stories, Great story tellers
The writing is beautiful. The story telling is beautiful.The stories are amazing.Five Stars.

A terrific collection
This is a collection of prime examples of the long gone "profile" piece in The New Yorker magazine.They just don't write 'em like this anymore!

Choose Truman Capote's profile of Marlon Brando, or Lillian Ross' profile of Ernest Hemingway, or any of the 20-some other profiles in this book.You will read some of the best writing about some of the most exciting people in 20th Century history.

Is there a second volume in the works?I hope so!

Delightful and Revealing Profiles
Hemingway, Baryishnikov, and Henry Luce are the subjects of some of my favorite celebrity profiles in this wonderful book. But topping my list is "Man Goes to See a Doctor", the awesome Adam Gopnik's sweet and funny rendering of his shrink. Here's a snippet: "Your problems remind me of" - and here he named one of the heroes of the New York School. "Fortunately, you suffer from neither impotence nor alcoholism. This is in your favor." Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
4 VHS Video Set! Follow star-crossed lovers Ash (Ben Cross) and Anjuli (Amy Irving) in this haunting love story set in the India of the British Raj against the spectacular and epic sweep of battle, treachery and intrigue. From the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas to the fabled palaces of Bhithor, M.M. Kaye's evocative novel is brought to life in this stunning and lavish production. The first happy day in the adult life of Anjuli (Amy Irving) is the day her husband's body is set on fire. Her rich and powerful husband, the Rana of Bhitor (Rossano Brazzi), is ritually immolated in a lavish ceremony where his other wife, Anjuli's half sister, is expected to commit ritual suttee. Only after she is released from her marriage is Anjuli free to follow her heart. Based on M.M. Kaye's beloved novel, The Far Pavilions tells the haunting love story of Anjuli and Ash (Ben Cross) against the spectacular backdrop of mid-19th-century colonial India, replete with accurate historical and cultural details. Full of battle, treachery, intrigue, passion, and prejudice, the film brims with stunning sights, from the peaks of the Himalayas to the famed palaces of Bhitor, remarkable battle scenes, and royal pageantry, including a lavish, several-day-long traditional Hindu wedding where the groom enters on an elephant. The all-star cast, including Omar Sharif, Sir John Gielgud, and Rupert Everett, truly brings the novel to life. ... Read more

Product Description
6 cassettes - 10 hoursA collection of profiles published in "The New Yorker" ... Read more

Product Description
With Saint Joan, Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc (canonized in 1920), but unhappy with "the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition," he presents a realistic Joan: proud, intolerant, naïve, foolhardy, always brave-a rebel who challenged the conventions and values of her day.Amazon.com Review
Joan of Arc, born in 1412, was burned at the stake in 1431, canonized by the Catholic Church in 1920, and, like most saints, whitewashed byhistory. Canonization tends to strip a saint of supposedlyun-Christian attributes such as rebelliousness, pride, and intolerance. And Joan, despite having been a stubborn, haughty, naive, even foolishgirl, has for much of history been remembered only as a pious martyr. However, George Bernard Shaw's play, Saint Joan, completed in 1925,began the modern rehabilitation of the icon as a fully human, falliblecharacter--not to mention a poster girl for teenage rebellion and feminism.Shaw's Joan, like the real Maid of Orleans, leads the fight to drive theEnglish out of her native France, insists on direct communication with herGod instead of submitting to the mediation of Catholic priests, and refusesto dress, speak, or act according to traditional notions of how women wereexpected to behave. Until the closing scene of Shaw's play, however,neither Joan nor her foes are cast in neatly heroic terms. Both areearnestly pursuing their partial visions of the truth. In the play'sfamous epilogue, Shaw suggests that even 400 years later, most ofus are so limited by our own perspectives that we are unable to tell thedifference between a saint and a heretic. "O God that madest thisbeautiful earth, when will it be ready to receive Thy saints?" Joan asks,preparing for her death. "How long, O Lord, how long?" --Michael JosephGross ... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Too smart, apparently, for some
"Cauchon: If you dare do what this woman has done - set your country above the holy Catholic Church - you shall go to the fire with her."

So speaks a more engaging, complex executioner of the legendary young soldier put forth by Bernard Shaw in "Saint Joan." Even if the Bishop put Joan to death for political reasons he likely believed that her execution was just. The Catholic Church's problems with Joan lingered for nearly 500 years. Her active assertion of nationalism as a holy endeavor intuited by her own judgment undermined the Catholic church's political authority, and yes, presaged the Reformation, even if Joan was not a Protestant (Shaw labels her "anti clerical").

And she willingly asserted a non-traditional feminine role (soldiering and politicking), which by its nature required non-traditional feminine behavior and dress.Reviewers who say that Joan wore armor to keep from being raped are half right, since Joan's soldiering included such occupational hazards, as with being wounded.But she did and thrived at it anyway. In fact, I agree with Shaw that the voices spurring her on were Joan's own subconcious, but that is another debate...

Those who are skeptical of Shaw's ideas would do well to consider the year of her Canonization: 1920. It's no accident that a year after the Great War, in which the world's powers successfully mobilized against each other in the name of Nationalism (the churches providing prayers and getting out of the way), that Catholicism threw up its hands and recognized the genius of the young French teenager. This too as women had been called on in support roles like nurses and ambulance drivers, and were being enfranchised by their European and American nations.

The play itself is typical Shaw - bright, smart, very worthwhile.None of the play's acts goes on too long.None is weak, except for Act III on the eve of the battle of Orleans, but Shaw is Shaw and seems embarassed by the warlike bluster. Joan herself, as others have observed, often speaks in lines that are taken directly from the trial transcripts.When she doesn't it's usually to give her a flash of wit that rarely seems contrived. This is Joan for grown-ups.And it is Joan for the 21st century: post-modern, the old sentiments put aside.

Also reccomended: Regine Pernoud's books. If you need to hear what a pretty, chaste, tear-provoking, goody goody of a girl Joan was buy Mark Twain (I myself donated that volume to the public library when I was 17).

Shaw's Joan of Arc story knows no border on Earth
Shaw's keen understanding of French Patriotism as illustrated in Joan of Arc story transcends borders, cultures, languages and skin colors. The legacy of Joan's heroism, her vision and her love of humanity and her country still haunts both Western and Eastern civilizations in each individual's effort to fulfill his "duties" in life.

Saint Joan on audio tape
Audio recordings of plays are usually done with different actors reading the roles as in a radio play.This is the first time I have listened to a play being read by only one reader.It is not at all the same experience, but better than one might expect.The reader uses a neutral American accent for the French characters, but a slightly British one to differentiate the English characters.There was a recording on Caedmon of the play with Siobhan McKenna repeating her famous performance, but it is not available.(Some libraries still have it on vinyl, but that doesn't help me pass the time while commuting.)

Shaw's play is intriguing, coming as it did so soon after Joan's canonization and Ireland's war for independence ("France for the French"), but there is no denying that is rather untheatrical, save for the climactic scene. Joan confesses to her supposed sins to save her life, but then withdraws the confession, choosing execution and martydom.I had never realized how much Arthur Miller owed to Shaw; I was reminded of the scene in The Crucible when John Proctor confesses to a lie and then recants, preferring an honorable death.These scenes are both based on historical events, of course, but the resemblance in the way they are dramatized is striking nonetheless.Here's a potential trivia topic: How many plays and movies can you think of that use the device of a false confession followed by an even more dramatic retraction?

Shaw never misses a chance to make a good point.
I have seen this performed, I have read it and I have heard it on a tape from Books on Tape for the Blind and Disabled.I loved it every time.I agree fully with Shaw that the Catholic Church has gotten a bad rap over Joan.When you listen to her words she was espousing overt Protestant beliefs -- God can, should and will speak to one person, individually and doesn't require a mediator like the Pope or Mary or any of the saints.

I actually got the most out of this play by hearing it on a tape from Books on Tape for the Blind and Disabled.I was able to speed the tape up and suddenly the wimpy, silly voices of the court officials came out perfectly.The farce inside the tragedy revealed itself clearly.

Shaw is brilliant and astute -- but no one needs me to tell them that!

Drama Instead of History
This is George Bernard Shaw's most important work.A successful drama that has enjoyed continuous popularity for nearly eighty years is worth a read.Most audiences find it very satisfying.Shaw has a gift for lucid dialogue that brings a centuries old story to life.This is one of the most approachable of the great English language plays.

Why then does "Saint Joan" fall short of five stars?

Fictional accounts of Joan of Arc's life are numerous and seldom accurate.Shakespeare makes her a witch.Voltaire makes her an idiot.Schiller makes her admirable - and gives her a magical helmet that protects her from harm until she falls in love.

In a rare exception to his usual satirical style, Mark Twain spent months in France researching her life and published a fictional biography.Readers who enjoy accurate historical fiction would do well with Twain's "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc."Twain considered this - not "Huckleberry Finn" - to be his finest work.

Shaw pays far more attention to accuracy than most fictionalizations.Several lines in the play are Shaw's own translations from her trial transcript.Shaw's long introductory essay aspires to be history as well as drama.Most scholars agree with his assessment of Joan of Arc's socioeconomic background.Shaw acknowledges a few dramatic economies: he combines the historical Jean d'Orleans and Duke Jean d'Alencon into a single character.What causes problems are Shaw's unacknowledged deviations from the factual record.

Shaw argues that Joan of Arc was a forerunner of Protestantism who got a fair trial.Among serious scholars this argument gains no credibility.A surviving letter from the English government that financed the trial guaranteed her execution even if the court found her not guilty.Joan of Arc never rejected the Roman Catholic Church: she rejected the authority of politically biased judges bent on discrediting her and, by inference, on discrediting the king she had crowned.Twenty-four years after her death the Pope reopened the case.The appeals court not only found her innocent but discovered such extensive violations of proper court procedure that it accused the late Bishop Cauchon of heresy.

Shaw's choice works as drama rather than as history yet he advocates it on historical grounds.He might be sincere but he is certainly not honest.To an academic scholar who has explained the facts to umpteen Shaw enthusiasts the difference can be infuriating.This is why "Saint Joan" collects a handful of scathing reviews.

A reader who understands this little shell game with history should have a lively time with the drama.If this is your first reading of "Saint Joan" then I envy you.Nothing quite equals the first encounter. ... Read more