Download or read book I Know This Much Is True written by Wally Lamb and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-06-03 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.

Download or read book The Significance of Sibling Relationships in Literature written by JoAnna Stephens Mink and published by Popular Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the significance of sibling relationships, or the lack of them, as portrayed in literature. Many of the 13 essays compare two or more novels, most of which are from the Victorian era or the 20th century. Paper edition (613-X), $14.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Strange Natures written by Nicole Seymour and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2013-05-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Strange Natures, Nicole Seymour investigates the ways in which contemporary queer fictions offer insight on environmental issues through their performance of a specifically queer understanding of nature, the nonhuman, and environmental degradation. By drawing upon queer theory and ecocriticism, Seymour examines how contemporary queer fictions extend their critique of "natural" categories of gender and sexuality to the nonhuman natural world, thus constructing a queer environmentalism. Seymour's thoughtful analyses of works such as Leslie Feinberg's Stone Butch Blues, Todd Haynes's Safe, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain illustrate how homophobia, classism, racism, sexism, and xenophobia inform dominant views of the environment and help to justify its exploitation. Calling for a queer environmental ethics, she delineates the discourses that have worked to prevent such an ethics and argues for a concept of queerness that is attuned to environmentalism's urgent futurity, and an environmentalism that is attuned to queer sensibilities.

Download or read book Emerging Perspectives on Chinua Achebe written by Ernest Emenyo̲nu and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chinua Achebe's influence on contemporary African literature is as much in evidence in his art of the novel as his theory of African literature and literary criticism. ISINKA (Igbo term for artistic purpose') establishes Achebe's legacy as a literary theorist and critic. In these essays scholars from around the globe assess and establish how much Achebe's extra-fictional ideas about African literature and literature in general are justified in his own creative works.'

Download or read book Pudd nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins written by Mark Twain and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a story of a sober kind, picturing life in a little town of Missouri, half a century ago. The principal incidents relate to a slave of mixed blood and her almost pure white son, whom she substitutes for her master's baby. The slave by birth grows up in wealth and luxury, but turns out a peculiarly mean scoundrel, and perpetrating a crime, meets with due justice. The science of fingerprints is practically illustrated in detecting the fraud. The title character is the village atheist, whose maxims doubtless express much of the author's own disillusion.

Download or read book Fiction Folklore Fantasy Poetry for Children 1876 1985 Titles awards written by Beverly Lamar and published by New York : Bowker. This book was released on 1986 with total page 1174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Brother of a Hero written by Ralph Henry Barbour and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2021-11-05 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Brother of a Hero" by Ralph Henry Barbour. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Download or read book The Popol Vuh written by Lewis Spence and published by New York : AMS Press. This book was released on 1908 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Discreet Hero written by Mario Vargas Llosa and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2015-03-10 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A successful insurance company owner whose two lazy sons want him permanently out of the way crosses paths with a blackmail victim in Peru.

Download or read book The Artist written by and published by . This book was released on 1884 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Oxford Companion to World Mythology written by David Leeming and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-11-17 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cave paintings at Lascaux, France and Altamira, Spain, fraught with expression thousands of years later; point to an early human desire to form a cultural identity. In the Oxford Companion to World Mythology, David Leeming explores the role of mythology, or myth-logic, in history and determines that the dreams of specific cultures add up to a larger collective story of humanity. Stopping short of attempting to be all-inclusive, this fascinating volume will nonetheless be comprehensive, opening with an introduction exploring the nature and dimensions of myth and proposing a definition as a universal language. Briefly dipping into the ways our understanding of myth has changed from Aristotle and Plato to modern scholars such as Joseph Campbell, the introduction loosely places the concept in its present context and precedes articles on influential mythologists and mythological approaches that appear later in the Companion. The main body of Leeming's work consists of A-Z entries covering all aspects of mythology, including substantial essays on the world's major mythological traditions (Greek, Native American, Indian, Japanese, Sumerian, Egyptian), mythological types and motifs (Descent to the Underworld, the Hero, the Trickster, Creation, the Quest), mythological figures (Odysseus, Zeus, Osiris, Spider Woman, and Inanna) as well as numerous interrelated subjects such as fairly tales and legends. The Companion also locates myth in our lives today, relating it to language patterns, psychology, religion, politics, art, and gender attitudes. Many of the better-known and more significant myths are vividly retold in this volume that will be illustrated with maps, more than 70 black and white images, and eight pages of color highlighting the central role art has often played in the transmission and perpetuation of myth. Following the entries, a rich section of appendices will include family trees of the major pantheons, equivalency charts for the gods of Greece and Rome, Babylon and Sumer, as well as other traditions, an extensive bibliography, and an index.

Download or read book The Publishers Weekly written by and published by . This book was released on 1913 with total page 2236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Twelve Labors of Hercules written by Robert Newman and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2014-12-30 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To marry the woman he loves, Hercules must complete twelve challenging tasks Hercules, son of Zeus, is known as the greatest hero Greece has ever seen. But it takes more than a godly parent to create a hero. This is the tale of how one man becomes a hero and that hero becomes a god. Soon before Hercules’s birth, Zeus, ruler of the gods, declares that his son will one day be the high king of Mycenae. When his jealous wife, Hera, tricks Zeus to ensure that Hercules will never be king, Zeus decrees that his son will perform deeds so glorious that his name will be remembered forever. As Hercules grows up, however, Hera is always one step ahead. To rid Hercules of the consequences of Hera’s spite, he is tasked with completing twelve labors by the person he dislikes most in the world—Eurystheus, the ruler of Mycenae, who stole Hercules’s birthright to become king. Hercules is determined to finish the twelve labors so he can marry the princess he loves. But Eurystheus, resentful of Hercules’s fame, is just as intent on making the tasks impossible to complete. Hercules believes he is up to the challenge, but it may cost him everything he holds dear.

Download or read book Herald and Presbyter written by and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 882 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Atlantis in America written by Lewis Spence and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Married Middlebrow and Militant written by Teresa Mangum and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the life and work of this daring nineteenth-century author and women's rights advocate

Download or read book Journal of Religion in Africa written by and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 632 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: