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Customer Reviews (3)

"Maybe, her heart was of stone, icy and unyielding..."
It is 1945: the horrors of the war are subsiding, yet devastation, poverty and fear are far from over for a young mother and her child.The urgency to fleewest is paramount; all Germans have to leave Stettin ... Helene and her son Peter having finally succeeded in boarding an overcrowded train, leave for Berlin. At a small transfer station, Peter is asked to wait for his mother on the platform... She never returns.Julia Franck's novel, BLINDNESS OF THE HEART (in German: DIE MITTAGSFRAU) could not have started more dramatically with this Prologue.The author, captivated by her own father's childhood experience and trauma, took the search for possible explanations for her grandmother's behaviour, as a starting point for her book.The resulting novel has turned into a fictional, wide-ranging psychological portrait of a complex and emotionally shattered young woman, who lived through two world wars and, for her not less dramatic, the time in between.

Franck's novel is a thought-provoking and, at times, unsettling and disturbing story of one person's deep love and loss, loneliness and rejection, responsibility and neglect, and the desperate, sometimes incomprehensible, will to survive. While primarily focusing on the portrayal of Helene, and her difficult relationships to her family and close surroundings, the author, nevertheless, reaches beyond the private and individual sphere into the depiction of sections of a society in chaos and upheaval. This applies especially to the Berlin's "Golden Twenties".Franck goes into some length in bringing to life the exuberant, careless and, with hindsight, totally naive behaviour of the bourgeois middle class. Any political events or references to changing economic conditions, that give the reader a sense of passing time, are only hinted at obliquely.In her description of individuals and scenarios, the author doesn't shy away from a certain amount of stereotyping.For her, Helene remains the silent observer as she feels increasingly alienated and retreats more and more into herself. Until she meets her great love, Carl, but even in this relationship one can detect certain clichés. While their happiness takes on the shape of a fairytale, the reader knows full well, given the events recounted upfront in the Prologue that some drama will destroy whatever hope Helene had for a happier life...

Why does Helene stand out among the many young women of that time?From her early childhood she had learned that she was different: Walking around town with her father, everybody greeted them, commenting on the girl's pretty blond complexion; when accompanying her mother, the stunningly beautiful dark haired Selma, they were shunned.Selma was treated as a foreigner who one wanted to avoid at all cost.Reality was difficult and Helene didn't know how to formulate her burning questions about the two religions, her parents' deep affection for each other, or her mother's growing remoteness. Instead she retreated into silence, totally rejected by her mother and, eventually, abandoned by her father; she clings closely to Martha, her older sister."[Selma's] heart is blind from all the pain" explains Martha.Are there parallels to Helene's "heart of stone?

Reading BLINDNESS OF THE HEART as a psychological portrait of one young woman, half-Jewish, intelligent and beautiful, whose circumstances may not have been unique, but were by no means common, I could relate to and empathize with Franck's central character most of the time.As an illustration of the total disintegration of sectors of German society in the twenties and thirties, in particular, I found the novel lacking in depth and specifics.For a German reader, many place names, such as Bautzen, Stettin, Pirna (where Selma is taken for treatment), etc. have strong historical connotations. Bautzen, where Helene grew up, is synonymous with brutal imprisonment, whether during the Nazi regime or later, until the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Stettin (Szczecin), where Helene lived until her flight to the West was, during the Third Reich, a centre for forced labour and prison transports into nearby concentration camps. Pirna is known for its "Sanatorium" where thousands of inmates were murdered during the early 1940s. However, Franck gives no indication as to the realities surrounding Helene, nor that her heroine was to any degree aware of such realities.

BLINDNESS OF THE HEART is Julia Franck's fourth novel and winner of the German Bookprize 2007.It is her first, though, to be translated into English and by the outstanding Anthea Bell.Frank's language is somewhat unusual, not only has it a touch of the old fashioned stories from the Eastern regions of Germany, it is at times, and in contrast with the event described, poetic in its choice of words and expressions.The complete absence of any punctuation in direct speech, is unusual, yet eventually, it makes the text flow and creates immediacy beyond speech. [Friederike Knabe]

Right Into The Heart of Darkness
In the original German version, so I've been told, the title of this book is Die Mittagsfrau, or "The Noonday Witch". According to legend, the witch appears in the heat of day to spirit away children from their distracted parents. Those who are able to engage the witch in a short conversation find that her witch-like powers evaporate.

In Julia Franck's brilliant English version (translated by the very talented Anthea Bell), Helene gradually retreats into silence and passivity, losing her ability to communicate effectively.We meet her in the book's prologue as the mother of an eight-year-old boy, leading her son towards a packed train in the direction of Berlin.Before the train arrives she tells him a white lie, abandoning him at a bench, never to return.In the succeeding 400 pages, the reader gains a glimpse as to what drove Helene to this most unnatural act.

Helene is born into a family that defines the word "dysfunction".Her charismatic, morphine-addicted older sister Martha engages her in an incestuous relationship.Her mentally unbalanced "foreign" (i.e., Jewish) mother is unable to connect with her two daughters, totally distancing from them when their father goes off to fight the Great War and becomes grievously injured. When the two sisters gain the chance to flee to Berlin, they grab it and train as nurses, exposing them to the pain of their patients and also giving them ready access to drugs.

Martha fits right into the debauchery and frantic partying of a decaying Berlin with her enlightened free-thinking friend and physician-lover, Leontine, but Helene is far more circumspect and sensitive.Her one enduring love is a philosophy student named Carl who also feels deeply and tells her, "The God principle is built on pain. Only if pain were obliterated from the world could we speak of the death of God."When he is gone from the scene, she is unable to protect herself from victimization, occurring time and time again, with sexual predators and the cruel man she eventually marries.

As readers, we watch helplessly as Helene becomes increasingly detached, her heart becoming cold and numb.So it is no surprise when she concludes of her son,"...she had nothing more for him, her words were all used up long ago, she had neither bread nor an hour's time for him, there was nothing of her left for the child."

As the book progresses, the reader is forced to adapt an omnipotent stance; we know the consequence of some of the characters' decisions and the genocide that will soon follow, but we are powerless to guide the characters through. Julia Franck instructs through omission as much as she does the details.When Helene calls Berlin to speak to Martha and gets no answer, we as readers are reasonably sure what has occurred.But it is never confirmed.As a result, as Helene goes numb, we begin to understand.And we gain some compassion for an act that virtually all mothers would consider unforgiveable.

There is a menacing quality that pervades the book, become more and more pronounced as Hitler rises in power.There is no black-and-white morality or easy outcomes; there are simply all kinds of loss - loss of one's sanity, loss of innocence, loss of love, loss of the natural order of things, loss of hope.The more the characters lose, the more they must abandon. In many ways, we know they are already as good as gone.

"The future's at our feet, we won't think just of ourselves, we'll think of the common good..of the people, of our German land."
The Blindness of the Heart, a prize-winning novel by Julia Franck, spans the period of the two world wars in Germany, focusing on the effects of these wars on seemingly ordinary German citizens.In the dramatic Prologue, which takes place in 1945, a young boy and Alice, his mother, arrive at a train station hoping to escape the post-war horrors.For the boy, however, the horrors are just beginning.His mother abandons him at the station, without any warning, leaving behind written instructions on where to deliver him.

The theme of abandonment pervades the novel during its thirty-year time span.Many of the characters, abandoned by people they love, abandon others, in turn, avoiding responsibility on many fronts.Part I changes focus and time completely, from the time of the Prologue back to pre-World War I.The personal stories of several members of the Wursich family, often told in flashbacks, form the backbone of the novel, with the focus on Helene, the youngest daughter of Selma, a housewife with a Jewish background, and Ernst, the owner of a printing company.Helene, nine years younger than her sister Martha, is always an outsider in the social action of the family.Her mother has become a voluntary invalid, and her father, drafted to fight in World War I, returns crippled and half-blind.

When Martha and Helene, feeling abandoned by their parents, in turn abandon their home and move to Berlin with their aunt, Martha finds her escape from the troubles of the times by seeking the high life. Helene seeks academic opportunities and eventually falls in love with a philosophy student, familiar with the theories of Hegel, Kant, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Cassirer.Helene, who has often wondered about the religious differences between between her parents, is now exposed also to the philosophies which her lover is studying, and she has no firm grounding in values which will enable her to deal with the coming Nazi menace.

The economic downturn and the inflation that comes with it, the growing prejudice against the Jews, the increasing search for meaning through theology and philosophy, the difficulties for women who want to achieve highly but have few financial resources on which to draw, and the everyday problems of caring for a child and working full-time make Helene a kind of "Everywoman," but her lack of feeling toward her child makes her a difficult protagonist to like or understand.

Critics have praised this novel for its visions of everyday life in Germany during the most difficult times in its history, but the success of the novel depends on the reader's ability to fully accept that the Wursich family--Helene, Martha, Helene's own lovers and husband, and her son--are, in fact, ordinary, everyday people.While the author carefully establishes the physical circumstances that might lead a character to abandon responsibilities, she is less successful in her ability to show genuine emotional conflicts, and some characters fail to inspire sympathy, their actions challenging credulity.The author has created a family with an almost gothic exaggeration of its many weaknesses, and while these characters certainly wring the heart, they are so twisted and damaged--so ready to abandon responsibility--that they are difficult to see as paradigms of everyday German life.Ultimately, I found myself wondering how much of value an individual may abandon and still be considered human.Mary Whipple ... Read more

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And yet in the midst of all this horror Saramago has written passages ofunsurpassed beauty. Upon being told she is beautiful by three of hercharges, women who have never seen her, "the doctor's wife is reduced totears because of a personal pronoun, an adverb, a verb, an adjective, meregrammatical categories, mere labels, just like the two women, the others,indefinite pronouns, they too are crying, they embrace the woman of thewhole sentence, three graces beneath the falling rain." Inthis one womanSaramago has created an enduring, fully developed character who serves bothas the eyes and ears of the reader and as the conscience of the race.Andin Blindness he has written a profound, ultimately transcendentmeditation on what it means to be human. --Alix Wilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (418)

Reading with Tequila
I saw and loved the movie Blindness before even realizing it was based on a book. It's an amazing story. While the movie lacked the depth of the book, I think the movie was easier to understand and get into. My problem with the book stems from the writing style. The book is a collection of run-on sentences filled with commas. There isn't a quotation mark to be found. Most correct punctuation rules are completely disregarded. I found it very difficult to tell who was speaking, which wasn't helped in the least by the lack of names. The blind need no names, the book claims. Characters are defined by a distinguishing characteristic - the doctor, the first blind man, the boy with the squint, etc.

The story is self-explanatory. The city goes blind. Mayhem ensues. While seemingly basic, the way the story unfolds in truly terrifying. The blindness isn't the enemy. The other people are. When put into a this type of situation, people's true (and often horrific) colors show. Saramago goes beyond surface concerns and manages to get at the core of the issue. He throws every horrendous possibility at his characters, making them truly earn their survival.

Blindness offers one of the strongest female characters I've everencountered - the doctor's wife. This book deals with the very worst ofmankind's treatment of one another. The things she witnesses andexperiences would break anyone and yet, this unnamed women isinspirational in her ability to carry on.

As a modern American reader, I found myself asking the obvious questions. Why weren't the soldiers wearing bio hazard suits? Why wasn't the government working on a cure as opposed to this poor attempt at quarantine? Things of that nature.

Very few books could survive this type of formatting nightmare, but the story manages to shine through the mess. Blindness is an amazing tale of surviving when all hope is lost.

Blindness by Jose Saramago
The stoplight turns green. It is at this moment, replicated throughout the world and symbolic of man's universally subconscious desire for movement, that movement begins to cease as an everyman becomes inexplicably blind. The phenomena is at first local, spreading through a handful of people with the slightest contact. The government picks up on this and places them in a hurried quarantine, but this doesn't do the slightest to staunch the epidemic and soon everyone throughout the world is struck blind, save a kindly doctor's wife who leads her group through the inhumanity of the quarantine and into society of their own.

The book excels in its bleakness, its stark depiction of man's essential character, its detached tone as it describes the most brutal of circumstances, and in its ultimate salvation. There is a light (no pun intended) at the end of this tunnel, but in order to get there the reader has to face countless times Saramago's view that modern man's id is inherently primitive, which isn't necessarily innovative but comprehensible here due to the book's beautiful sense of nuance and in the myriad of moments of grace that suspend its funereal tone. Ultimately it is one long, phantasmagorical allegory on man's vices and inabilities, and for the skill in which Saramago translates that to the reader the book alone is a triumph. I don't think I'm going to hurry to re-read it anytime soon, though.

The Beauty in Blindness: A Story of Human Struggle
If you took away everything--your career, your possessions, your loved ones, and even your sense of being in the world--what is left?
The answer is chaos. Stripped to the bare bones of life, the characters in this book prove to you what it means to be human.
What a beautiful, masterful book. No wonder Saramago has been so highly praised; he more than deserves it.
As a side note, if possible, buy the original version, without the movie tie-in...who needs preconceived information about the characters before you even meet them? Let your mind create them using the guidelines given in the book. :)

Blindness
The premise of this book was amazingly done.Jose Saramago's blindness is about an unknown city where one day, someone suddenly goes blind.

Its not the normal blindness however, he sees only a milky white.And soon it is found that it is contagious.In the beginning days the people going blind are rounded up and put into an old insane asylum in hopes that the contagion will not spread. There they become the nameless, only known by what they once were like a taxi driver, or a girl with dark glasses.

While there, only one person, an Opthamalogist's wife, still retains the ability to see.She pretends to be blind to stay with her husband and as the asylum gets fuller she helps those in her area.The biggest fear is the guards outside who prevent anyone from leaving, by force if necessary.

Another obstacle is a blind man with a gun and the members of his ward.Holding hostage the food, he demands valuables, and eventually women in exchange for not starving.Even the seeing woman must bow to his wishes so that he does not shoot anyone.The scenes in this area of the book are very graphic.There is no hesitation in describing bodily functions, rape, and violence.

Trying to survive the worse extremes and filth, the group in the Doctor's wife's ward stick together until then end.A fire at the asylum allows everyone to leave, but the world they return to is not the world they left.Most everyone around is blind and with no running water or electricity, the streets are filthy and full of excrement.People rove around searching for food and attacking those who might even have a small piece of moldy bread.

It is up to the one seeing person to lead her group to safety and try to ensure that they don't all die of disease or starvation.

While I loved the idea of this book, I was very turned off by the writing.I've seen it described that reading his writing was very much like being blind and trying to see.That he was trying to bring you in to the blind person's world, and for that he won a Nobel prize.My thought is that his writing is very much like an artist creating a masterpiece, and then covering it with a sheet in the exhibition.While it might be clever to do something like that, what is the world missing by not being able to see the true work of art?I found myself skimming several lines at a time just because of the lack of breaks and paragraphs.I could handle the different people all talking at once with no designators for the most part, but the lack of paragraphs killed this book for me.

Overall I'd say that this book was just average for me.I would have enjoyed it a great deal more if it were easier to read.Wonderful idea, not so wonderful execution.

Blindness
Copyright 1995
293 pages

Eat the weak
More about the author's interpretation of human nature than an actual plot about losing vision."This is the stuff we're made of, half indifference and half malice."(p. 32)
In the plotline, domesticated animals apparently did not lose their sight, although they were quickly forced into a feral lifestyle. But, with the exception of the doctor's wife, the entire ebb and flow of a benign organized society descended into scatological foraging, a chaos in which a few members seized whatever advantage they could over the rest for survive and to satisfy their baser desires.The end of public utilities brought the scatological theme to a crescendo. Yuck!
I still ponder the conscience of the doctor's wife who could not bring herself to kill more of the bad boys, take their gun, and share the food more equitably.Instead, her conscience brought about a conflagration which killed many more good and evil alike.
Even the doctor's wife's altruistic efforts to feed her small group brought about more death and destruction.
Frankly, I found the dog of tears to be the most sympathetic character.
My attorney said it all turns out okay in the end, but in reality the total breakdown of an effective government, destruction of the food delivery system, disruption of public utilities, and the deaths in the various strata of society, could spell a likely outbreak of violent anarchy.
Oh, well...Maybe it does turn out alright.We'll just have to read "Seeing," the apparent sequel, to find out.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Deconstruction minus the jargon
In this book, Paul de Man examines major European literary theorists of the twentieth century like Blanchot, Poulet, Lukacs, etc. and shows through his incisive insights, how each theorist while trying to explain the origin of the 'work' or of literature remained blind to what lies outside the purview of his thoeretical system, because the very logic of theorization always excludes something. Of particular interest is his critique of readings of Rousseau. Accordingly, some of the theorists he discusses are mainly Rousseau scholars.

Not de Man's best work
This book is a good introduction to Paul de Man's writing. I'm not unbiased, since he was one of my instructors at Yale in the 70s. I am aware of the controversy surrounding him because of his personal life and collaboration with the Nazis in occupied Belgium, but that is extraneous to this book.

The strength of the book is its accessibility. De Man was reaching out to a more general audience than in the works published later in his life and posthumously by his many admirers and students. That having been said, it lacks some of the impact and depth of his other writings. Still, for someone looking to find out what all the fuss is about Deconstruction, this is the place to start.

A Boring and Pedantic Book
by a soulless man. De MAn understands nothing about the texts he reads, adn the reason for this is that it is clear that he has no real love of literature.

de man
I must confess a sympathy for de man. He usually gets pilloried by the right and everyone who is for truth, justice and the american way, but his readings of texts are very precise. There is a certain mathematicism in de man, such that his interpretations can be stated very quickly and don'trequire the accumulation of much detail. For instance, his discussion ofthe second discourse as an allegory and the contrast of painting to musicis very interesting, although I suspect that he borrows alot from Benjamin(who I have not read). The structure of the 2nd discourse is the argumentof the 2nd discourse--very elegant and precise. Ultimately wrong, but thereyou go. Unfortunately, the precision has the effect of reducing texts totheir form. For instance, if we know that "leonine Achilles" is ametaphor, and then think the structure of metaphor, we know nothing aboutwhy Achilles is compared to a lion, we know nothing more about Homer or theIliad. De man is ultimately precise but dull. ... Read more

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I only saw the movie
i want to read the play because i think it will probably be a lot better than the film which i was really looking forward to and did enjoy, but not as much as i thought i would. Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis are two very great actresses and they prove this again in this film, but the writing of the screenplay and the direction lacked something... Im excited to read the actual play though. ... Read more

Product Description
Many people believe that merely by opening their eyes, they seeeverything in their field of view. In Inattentional Blindness,Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is noconscious perception of the visual world without attention to it. Thephenomenon of inattentional blindness has theoretical importance forcognitive psychologists studying perception, attention, andconsciousness, as well as for philosophers and neuroscientistsinterested in the problem of consciousness. ... Read more

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This never before published memoir by the author of Black Like Me is an extraordinary chronicle of the triumph of the human spirit. ... Read more

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Scattered thoughts
Griffin has an interesting story to tell, but the memoir he wrote is all over the place.Heavily based on journals he kept for the ten years after the World War II injury that caused him to go blind, this book is not just about living without sight --Griffin is unfocused, also treating in detail classical music, Gregorian chant, monastic life, Catholicism, fiction writing and his longing for a family. For me, these topics were only of mixed interest.Perhaps if he'd had time to edit it himself before his death, the organization would have been better, but the prose is chronically unexciting.

As a blind man, Griffin resisted the overtures of pity offered to him by the world, but he comes off as stuck in his own head -- not self-pitying exactly, but fixated on the religious faith that helped him learn to accept his disability. Griffin knows that his sin is pride, but he never seems to do anything about it, and none of the other people who appear in the book, blind or sighted, seem real because ultimately, he seems interested only in his own inner life.(This is bad news for a novelist!)When he writes about his novels, which met with censorship and limited commercial success, he is clearly working out a grudge, and it's boring to read.

I picked up this book because I have a progressive eye disease myself and I'm interested in books about the experience of blindness, but Griffin's story is so narrowly personal that I didn't learn a thing. He writes that being disabled taught him a lot and made him concentrate on the important things in life, blah blah blah, but in the final section, when he miraculously regains his eyesight, he seems to take it all back as he rhapsodizes about the beauties of seeing.I found this depressing and felt a little betrayed.

If you are considering buying this book, I recommend reading the first ten pages first and seeing if you like them.Because it certainly doesn't get any better.

Get this book!
This is a book for that special bookshelf of about a dozen classics that burn with relevance and can be read again and again.John H. Griffin was not only a skilled author, but he lived one of the most amazing lives of the 20th century, aptly described by Robert Bonazzi in the book's introduction.Of course, Griffin is well known for dying his skin, posing as a negro, and reporting on his experiences in the book Black Like Me.Amazingly enough, Black Like Me is only one episode in an improbable life.Scattered Shadows covers Griffin's developing blindness, and eventual recovery.Griffin reflects upon music, literature, and religion as his sight departs as a result of a World War II injury.The author has been underappreciated since his death.Hopefully Scattered Shadows will rekindle interest in Griffin, a person worth knowing ... Read more

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Blindness-Complete Summary & Analysis

Students' Academy

About Jose Saramago 6
About “Blindness” 16
Literary Style 18
Summary in Brief 20
Characters 22
Major Themes 28
Summary and Analysis 40
Part I 40
Analysis 41
Part II 44
Analysis 45
Part III 47
Analysis 47
Part IV 50
Analysis 51
Part V 54
Analysis 55
Part VI 57
Analysis 57
Part VII 60
Analysis 61
Part VIII 63
Analysis 64
Part IX 66
Analysis 67
Part X 70
Analysis 71
Part XI 73
Analysis 74
Part XII 77
Analysis 78
Part XIII 80
Analysis 81
Part XIV 84
Analysis 85
Part XV 87
Analysis 88
Part XVI 91
Analysis 92
Part XVII 94
Analysis 95
..................

Print ISBN: 978-0-557-67881-5
... Read more

Product Description
Children are often curious about blindness, but are told that it is impolite to pose their questions to a blind person. Not so, says Sally Hobart Alexander, who lost her sight at the age of twenty-six. In this informative book, illustrated with photos of Sally and her family, the author answers thirteen thought-provoking questions that children have asked her, for example, "If your eyes don't see, do they work at all?" "How do you write?" and "Has being blind changed you?"

"This book is sure to interest young people curious about how the blind interact with their world." (Booklist)

"A witty, wise, inspiring book." (Kirkus Reviews, pointer review) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Honest answers to good questions about blindness
Kids sure ask better questions than adults a lot of the time!Good thing that Mrs Alexander is prepared to answer them in an informative way.

She explains how she lost her sight completely in her mid twenties because of a mysterious disease causing blood vessels in her retinas to bleed.Sally doesn't gloss over the grieving she went through and the difficulties she faced, and the need for constant concentration even now.But the book has an optimistic tone, explaining how she met her husband on a blind date (she notes with irony), and how her life as a wife, mother, writer and even gardener is very fulfilling.

There are interesting insights how blind people function in a sighted world, e.g. accessing information through Braille, talking books or the Optacon (optical-tactile converter), travelling with a cane or guide dogs, cooking, choosing clothes, and much else.She even discusses her visit to a school for deaf kids and whether it's better to be blind or deaf, and the effect of blindness on her religious faith (increasing it) and that of her loved ones (the opposite effect).

Learn About Blindness
Author Sally Hobart Alexander does remember the color blue because she lost her sight completely at age 26.In this book, she answers 13 questions children have asked her about going blind.Alexander's honesty and wit discussing how she met her husband, ways her two sighted children played tricks on her and how she handles day to day activities, allows the reader to understand how a blind person lives a happy, fulfilling life. A good choice for a 4th or 5th grader. Included in this book is an activity, "What does it feel like to be blind?"also a note about blindness, a list of resources and an index.The black and white photographs of Alexander, her family and innovative gadgets are set on black, white or gray backgrounds.

A Parallel Universe
You know that you're not supposed to be nosey and ask questions about someone's disability. But Sally Hobart Alexander, the author of this book, travels around the country giving talks to people about her experience with her blindness. She invites, and receives, a lot of questions from childrenand teens, and in this book she tries to answer some of them.In somerespects, it is a very satisfying book, because it calls attention to themillions of little details of ordinary life that usually require eyesight.How do you know what's in the refrigerator? How do you know what clothesmatch? Many of us don't consider that you need to face the person you aretalking to, or where to extend our hands for a handshake. Because Alexanderwas not born blind (she lost her sight gradually over two years, when shewas in her twenties), she is aware of all of the differences, and she isgenerous in sharing her experiences. But this is not just a book aboutthe details of living without sight. This book also shares some of theemotional experience of losing vision--the frustration, disappointment, andanger Alexander had to work through. And then the positive feelings oftriumph, as she learned that happiness and success do not depend on theability to see with your eyes. Basically an upbeat, interesting story, Ifound the writing a little weak. But I would recommend this book stronglyfor anyone who is struggling with any kind of disability, or anyone who issimply curious about blindness, because it is truly inspirational andfrank. ... Read more

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Most intellectuals agree that Christianity had influenced Western culture. Members from different cultures experience many aspects of the world differently. This title serves as a theoretical study of both culture and religion in the West. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Never, in all her days, had she imagined herself in a position like this. Vivid fantasies aside, Rachel had never considered acting on the impulses that invaded her thoughts throughout the day. They were private affairs stored only in some scurrilous recess of her mind. Yet her mind interacted with other minds, and often, there werefragments of information to be had in often ironic ways.Doctor Bass, for instance, listened to her confession of thescandalous gearshift penetration mirage, and fantasy bondage scenarios and produced a copy of the bondage magazine.While not something Professor RachelLeeds believed would qualify as a "literary device," it was nonetheless pivotal in the events in which she was now participating. Namely, being on her way to a hardware store to find something to use as a whip on the girl who lay naked and bound in hotel room number 66, the Mark-of-the-Almost-Beast. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Intelligent and classy book
Being a straight married female, I wasn't sure what to expect as I began reading this novel. I am accustomed to anything labeled "erotica" being seedy and withoutplot. This book was a welcome surprise! It is written with intelligence and class. Any awkward feelings I felt as a "straight" person as I began reading this-my first example of "gay erotica"-immediately paralleled the awkwardness being felt in the first few pages by the main character which allowed me to relate, as it should anyone, gay or straight, and keep reading. These characters are so real anyone should be able to identify with them. I loved the clever dialogue! Combine this great characterization with a compelling plot and it becomes about the story, not the sex. However, for those of you interested in the sexual encounters, they are such that would make any couple envious!
In the end, what I found was a very intelligent,witty,and compelling love story about the kind of fulfilling relationship that everyone searches for yet few rarely find in their lifetime. No matter who the lovers may be, no one should ever condemn true love. A truly great read written by an obviously intelligent and witty author! Kudos, Jae Baeli! ... Read more

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Blinded in an accident on his way home from boarding school, John Haye must reevaluate his life and the possibilities for his future. His stepmother--worried that, blind and dependent, he'll spend the rest of his life with her--wants to marry him off to anyone who will take him, provided she's of the "right" social class. Contrary to her hopes, John falls in love with the daughter of the town drunk (who is also the town parson). She whisks him off to London, where in this strange city he is confined to a room above a major thoroughfare while she gets on with her life.

BLINDNESS was first published when Henry Green was an undergraduate at Oxford. Highly praised as a master of high-modernism, Green went on to write eight other novels, including CONCLUDING and DOTING. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Promising.
John Haye, a rich adolescent in his final year at an English boarding school is accidentally blinded. He returns to his country home to live with his stepmother. He befriends Joan, who lives with her alcoholic ex-minister father. His step-mother dispproves of Joan. They split up.
The description of the unlikely accident and the medical details are sparse and show no evidence of research or firsthand knowledge. (This was written in 1926 and writers didn't bother much with research then). I got the impression that Green had decided philosophically how someone would react to blindness and made his character's reaction fit that preconception.
It's the sort of English novel in which the only people with jobs are servants. Joan and her father live in abjects poverty (partly because of his expenditure in gin) but no one ever mentions the w- word.
I think you need some previous familiarity with English writing of the period to enjoy this. The first few chapters are set in an upper class boarding school, then the scene changes to a great country house with lots of servants around. It's Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell territory.
There are some great characters. The monstrous step-mother, blind in her own way, is a wonderful comic creation.The Prospero/Miranda relationship of Joan and her father is touching. The descriptions of rural scenes are wonderful.

Those who will not see
This is a very simple story about a pretty ordinary young man from the English gentry class who loses his eyesight in a tragic accident.Poor guy.Fortunately for the reader of _Blindness_, this accident does not turn John Haye into a saint.

Now, you've all seen books and articles and TV shows about unfortunate victims who adjust to their new state and become an inspiration to all about them - lead them to victory or clarify their understanding of the good life or something like that.If that's your cup of tea, _Touched by an Angel_ is on soon.

Rather, this novel is for those who are interested in what blindness might actually be like, with or without eyes.Indeed, John starts out this novel with his sight intact, and uses it mostly to make foolish or cruel judgments about his fellow students, his dormitory manager, his family and his schoolwork.After his accident his powers of observation actually improve as far as his sensitivity to his environment is concerned, but his knowledge of himself and his fellow human beings remains pretty sparse.

His opinion of his stepmother changes every few seconds, whether she's with him or not.He meets a girl named Joan, falls hard for her, and tells himself the entire story of her life - all the while insisting upon calling her by the wrong name.He considers his country home desperately boring until he gets to London, by which time that same country home turns in his mind to a virtual paradise.This kid is a mess.

While John is thus kidding himself, of course, the characters who can see are doing just the same thing.John's stepmother can't make up her mind from moment to moment whether to marry John off or keep him with her, or what to do with him - or herself, for that matter.John's old nurse doesn't seem to realize whether or not John has changed at all from the time he was an infant.John's would-be girlfriend Joan, daughter of an alcoholic former parson, thinks of the local men as the more attractive if they look as though they could hurt her, and can't make up her mind whether she admires her father or loathes him.As for that alcoholic father himself - well, you get the idea.None of these people, even those with eyes, can see anyone as they are.

But the novel is more than just an exercise in cheap irony.Henry Green drew high praise from all of his contemporaries for at least one very important reason; he described life as exactly and honestly as possible.He may have created in John Haye a bit of a bonehead, and a self-indulgent bonehead at that, but he also created an amazingly clear world for him to live in and a beautiful way of describing it.And eventually, it's that same gift for genuine observation and sensitivity that saves John Haye from a completely self-pitying life and seems to give him some kind of redemption.In short, this is the story of a bonehead who learns to quiet his mind and just watch the world.

So Green restricted himself to plain facts - accurate description of the physical world, his characters' inner thoughts - and refrained from any authorial judgment of any of his people.He gave us true portraits of men and women from all social classes, with all their virtues and all their shortcomings.And in limiting his writing to mere reportage, he successfully guided his readers through a blind man's world and showed us the true meaning of blindness itself.No mean feat for a college undergraduate.

Benshlomo says, To see the facts is the beginning of wisdom. ... Read more

Product Description
Long before the devastation of September 11, 2001, the war on terror raged. The problem was that only one side, radical Islam, was fighting it as a war. For the United States, the frontline was the courtroom. So while a diffident American government prosecuted a relative handful of “defendants,” committed militants waged a campaign of jihad—holy war—boldly targeting America’s greatest city, and American society itself, for annihilation.

It is the jihad that continues to this day. But now, fifteen years after radical Islam first declared war by detonating a complex chemical bomb in the heart of the global financial system, former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy provides a unique insider’s perspective on America’s first response.

McCarthy led the historic prosecution against the jihad organization that carried out the World Trade Center attack: the “battalions of Islam” inspired by Omar Abdel Rahman, the notorious “Blind Sheikh.” In Willful Blindness, he unfolds the troubled history of modern American counterterrorism. It is a portrait of stark contrast: a zealous international network of warriors dead certain, despite long odds, that history and Allah are on their side, pitted against the world’s lone superpower, unsure of what it knows, of what it fights, and of whether it has the will to win.

It is the story of a nation and its government consciously avoiding Islam’s animating role in Islamic terror. From the start, it led top U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to underestimate, ignore, and even abet zealots determined to massacre Americans. Even today, after thousands of innocent lives lost, our eyes avert from harsh reality. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Read this and then buy the sequel.This true life story would make a great movie!
I absolutely enjoyed reading this book.The author, who became blind as an adult, writes honestly and movingly about adjusting to life as a blind woman in a sighted world.The reading level is written for grades 7-12, but adults would also enjoy reading this autobiography.



I wish the author would publish a new edition of this book and combine it with her second autobiography, which was published two years later, in 1997.The sequel, which I read first, made far more sense once I was able to locate this book - Taking Hold: My Journey Into Blindness, which is out of print and difficult to find.

It Took Hold
Sally Hobart Alexander touched the lives of twenty-four reluctant readers in a Connecticut high school English class. My class spent much of this spring exploring a variety of human challenges. Alexander's book was one of our sources, and the class was completely consumed by her story.Theauthor drives home the idea that her loss of sight was the beginning of apowerful and personal journey that took her to the edge of human discovery.Never maudlin or self-indulgent, Alexander stares adversity square in itsfrightening face and wins! The book is a celebration of love and hope, andboth students and teachers were inspired.

It Took Hold
Sally Hobart Alexander touched the lives of twenty-four reluctant readers in a Connecticut high school English class. My class spent much of this spring exploring a variety of human challenges. Alexander's book was one ofour sources, and the class was completely consumed by her story.Theauthor drives home the idea that her loss of sight was the beginning of apowerful and personal journey that took her to the edge of human discovery.Never maudlin or self-indulgent, Alexander stares adversity square in itsfrightening face and wins! The book is a celebration of love and hope, andboth students and teachers were inspired. ... Read more

Product Description
Have you ever looked at the stars and wondered who created and designed them? Get ready to be transformed from spiritual blindness to a new vision of God, your intelligent Designer! "All creatures must respond to their creator. A true relationship with God starts with the acknowledgement and appreciation of the miracle and majesty of God's hand within the 60 trillion cells and DNA blueprint that comprise your own human body," says Dr. Gills. Come, see your Creator as you have never see Him before: *in all of His majesty *in all of His gloryNOT JUST ALL AROUND YOUR LIFE, BUT IN IT! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: F.A. Davis in 1905 in 153 pages; Subjects: History / General; History / General; Medical / Ophthalmology; Medical / Optometry; ... Read more