Bicentennial Man

• Bicentennial Man follows the life and times of Andrew (Robin Williams), a robot programmed to perform menial tasks, but who displays uncharacteristically human emotions, curiosity and creativity. Andrew soon discovers what it truly means to be a human being with the help of Little Miss (Hallie Kate Eisenberg) and his understanding owner (Sam Neill). Andrew is no ordinary robot! System Requireme

From the acclaimed director of MRS. DOUBTFIRE, Academy Award(R)-winner Robin Williams (1997, Best Actor, GOOD WILL HUNTING) stars in a delightfully heartwarming comedy about one extraordinary android who just wants to be an ordinary guy! It doesn't take long for the Martin family to realize Andrew (Williams), who was purchased as a mere "household appliance," is no run-of-the-mill robot! Funny, incredibly lifelike, and possessing an astounding level of creativity, this special machine soon takes on a l! ife of his own -- and eventually begins a centuries-long quest to achieve true humanity! A crowd-pleasing comedy hit -- everyone is sure to love this touchingly entertaining movie treat!Bicentennial Man was stung at the 1999 box office, due no doubt in part to poor timing during a backlash against Robin Williams and his treacly performances in two other, then-recent releases, Jakob the Liar and Patch Adams. But this near-approximation of a science fiction epic, based on works by Isaac Asimov and directed, with uncharacteristic seriousness of purpose, by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire), is much better than one would have known from the knee-jerk negativity and box-office indifference.

Williams plays Andrew, a robot programmed for domestic chores and sold to an upper-middle-class family, the Martins, in the year 2005. The family patriarch (Sam Neill) recognizes and encourages Andrew's uncommon characteristics, particularly his artist! ic streak, sensitivity to beauty, humor, and independence of ! spirit. In so doing, he sets Williams's tin man on a two-century journey to become more human than most human beings.

As adapted by screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, the movie's scale is novelistic, though Columbus isn't the man to embrace with Spielbergian confidence its sweeping possibilities. Instead, the Home Alone director shakes off his familiar tendencies to pander and matures, finally, as a captivating storyteller. But what really makes this film matter is its undercurrent of deep yearning, the passion of Andrew as a convert to the human race and his willingness to sacrifice all to give and take love. Williams rises to an atypical challenge here as a futuristic Everyman, relying, perhaps for the first time, on his considerable iconic value to make the point that becoming human means becoming more like Robin Williams. Nothing wrong with that. --Tom Keogh

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Homecoming (Tillerman Cycle)

• ISBN13: 9780689863615
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Dicey began to panic. The four of them had been waiting in the car for hours now. Why wasn't their mother back? Why had she just walked off like that? What would they do if she never came back? Dicey had known for a while that something was not right with her mother. There wasn't anything she could put her finger on, but when Mamma said goodbye to them that day in the supermarket car park, Dicey knew that she wasn't coming back. And so Dicey, as the eldest, plans to lead the three others halfway across America to their aunt -- on foot. And the story of how they reached their destination and what they found there is one of the most gripping in children's literature; it is the story of one child's coura! ge against impossible odds, and of a determination to find a home that never lets up. Homecoming, the first in a series of seven wonderful novels, is a must for any reader, young or old.

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Dave Chappelle's Block Party - 27x40 Original Poster

• High Quality Product
• Great Collectible
• Great Wall Décor
• Brand New Item

Filmed shortly before Dave Chappelle's infamous sudden departure from his Comedy Central series, director Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind") captured the acclaimed comedian preparing an impulsively organized (and free) music and comedy concert in Brooklyn. In part a celebration of his new $50 million contract and in part rebellion to being crowned one of entertainment's highest-paid stars, Chappelle's live show boasts an all-star cast, including Mos Def, Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, and many others. AKA: "Block Party." Unrated version; 111 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English (SDH), French, Spanish; bonus footage; deleted scenes; "making of" featurettes.Few movies, documentary or otherwise, capture the relaxed exuberance of Dave C! happelle's Block Party. This is Chappelle's first project since his show on Comedy Central received so much popular and critical attention that he apparently had a psychological meltdown and fled to Africa to escape. You can still see a hint of weariness and wariness in his eyes--but even more you can see his relief to be launching a project that bears no expectations. Funded by his own money and free to all who attended, Chappelle set up a secret concert location in Brooklyn and pulled together a musical lineup of stellar acts, including Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Mos Def, Jill Scott, Common, the Roots, Dead Prez, and the reunion of the Fugees, all of whom give vibrant performances. But Block Party doesn't just capture the show; at least a third of the movie is Chappelle wandering around Brooklyn or the Ohio neighborhood where he lives and interacting with the people he meets, many of whom he gives free tickets for the show. These scenes, combined with footage of ! the performers rehearsing or just gassing around before the sh! ow, offe r a sense that for Chappelle performing is just an extension of his everyday life; that he takes just as much pleasure from goofing around with one person as he does goofing around in front of hundreds or thousands. Putting together this event becomes a unique self-portrait as well as an experience that rejuvenated Chappelle. If you surrender to the vitality of the show and Chappelle's loose comic jazz, you may find it rejuvenating too. --Bret FetzerThe Dave Chappelle's Block Party soundtrack spotlights comedy superstar Dave Chappelle in all-new freestyle standup material, and also one-time-only performances by Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Common, Dead Prez, Jill Scott, Talib Kweli and the Roots, among others. The soundtrack captures the unprecedented combination of comedy and music, and was recorded on location as Mr. Chappelle threw a party in downtown Brooklyn, inviting local residents to experience these exclusive performances by the most progressive cutting edge ! urban artists in the music scene today.Don't you wish you were Dave Chappelle? The guy is funny as hell--and rich and famous for it. What's more, he's socially conscious and has impeccable taste in music. Thanks to Michel Gondry's triumphant, uplifting film, we got to see Chappelle live out his personal fantasy--a "block party" in Brooklyn's Bed-Stuy 'hood. The comedian handpicked his favorite hip-hop and R&B artists to participate, and the roster includes some of the most significant names of the past 10 years of "urban" music, including the Roots, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, and Common. Unfortunately, the CD omits the Fugees reunion that formed the climax of the film and it also leaves out a stirring performance by Kanye West, the biggest rap star of the day. That said, the music that is here is often scintillating, especially by Badu and Scott, who kill with their own tracks and spice up many of the rap tracks to boot. The one new cut (not in the film)! , Blackstar's "Born & Raised," keeps the quality high. Not sur! prisingl y, the soundtrack simply can't reconstruct the positive vibrations and powerful messages of the movie, but it's still a worthwhile document of the magic that happened on a rainy September 2004 day at the corner of Downing and Quincy. --Marc Greilsamer27x40 Original Poster

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Original Penguin Men's Box Swim Short, True Black, 34

• 3 inch inseam
• 13 inch outseam

Earl olid trunk with contrasting piping

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Rob Zombie 3-Disc Collector's Set

• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC.
• Language: English.
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1.
• Number of discs: 3.

HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES - DVD MovieROB ZOMBIE BOXSET - DVD Movie

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The East Is Red: Swordsman III (HD Remastered Edition) DVD

• 1 disc package (region 0 NTSC)
• HD Remastered Edition
• English and Chinese (removable) subtitles

Here's the hilarious, good-time comedy about two bachelors who were having the time of their lives… until their father started picking their wives! For George "Genghis" Khan (Om Puri), life is a never-ending struggle to teach his kids traditional family values. His modern, fun-loving sons Tony (Jimi Mistry) and Abdul (Raji James), on the other hand, think they have everything figured out! So when the boys discover that dad has secretly arranged their marriages, youthful rebellion rules the day! Named "Best Picture of the Year" by the London Film Critics' Choice- you'll laugh along with this outrageous look at waht happens when two cultures clash in one family!

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

A young Japanese seaman jumps ship off the coast of Georgia and washes ashore on a barrier island inhabited by a strange mix of rednecks, descendents of slaves, genteel retired people, and a colony of artists. The result is a sexy, savagely hilarious tragicomedy of thwarted expectations, mistaken identity, love, jealousy and betrayal. "An absolutely stunning work, full of brilliant cross-cultural insights."--The New York Times Book Review.Re-issue of this intensely likeable best-selling comedy to coincide with extensive nationwide tour from Sept 05 to April 06. In Salford 1970: the Khan children, caught between bell-bottoms and arranged marriages, are buffeted this way and that by their Pakistani father's insistence on tradition, their English mother's laissez-faire and their own wish to be citizens of the modern world. Successfully filmed, after a rags-to-riches stage career that began in Birmingham in 1996, went on to a London premiere at the Royal Court, and culmi! nated in the West End, "East is East" is a firm favourite with! schools and theatres alike. It is one of NHB's top ten best-selling plays.

Is the idea of the "Middle East" simply a geopolitical construct conceived by the West to serve particular strategic and economic interestsâ€"or can we identify geographical, historical, cultural, and political patterns to indicate some sort of internal coherence to this label? While the term has achieved common usage, no one studying the region has yet addressed whether this conceptualization has real meaningâ€"and then articulated what and where the Middle East is, or is not.

This volume fills the void, offering a diverse set of voicesâ€"from political and cultural historians, to social scientists, geographers, and political economistsâ€"to debate the possible manifestations and meanings of the Middle East. At a time when geopolitical forces, social currents, and environmental concerns have brought attention to the region, this volume examines the very definition and geographic and cultural boun! daries of the Middle East in an unprecedented way.

With nearly 20 Bible prophecy books published, Mark Hitchcock has distinguished himself as a trustworthy and solidly biblical prophecy teacher.

Middle East Burning helps make sense of the bewildering firestorms raging in the Arabic-Israeli world. Widespread revolutions in multiple Arab nations. New powers rising to challenge entrenched despots and ruling bodies. Bitter new conflicts further enflaming the many already in place. And a pall of uncertainty over how it will all play out.

Indeed the Middle East is burning. How can we make sense of it all? At first glance the many hotspots may seem without a pattern, without rhyme or reason. But a look at Scripture helps paint a clear picture of what’s taking place, giving insight on current events in Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Syria, and more.

A riveting and timely survey of things now and things to come!

Asia the Invincible! , the demon who metamorphosized into a woman in Swordsman II, ! was thou ght dead at the end of the previous adventure. Navy Official Koo discovers her in her old hideout, and tells her that many have been assuming her name and forming cults. Knowing this division will destroy the country, she vows to destroy them all. She finds that her former lover, Snow, is also one of the imposters. What begins as a patriotic endeavor soon becomes a bloodbath as her destructive nature consumes her. Unable to control her fury, she unleashes her powers on Snow and Koo. In her final battle with Koo, she kills him as well as Snow. Once again, she retires from the world.

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Cabin Fever

• Used - Like New

Greg Heffley is in big trouble. School property has been damaged, and Greg is the prime suspect. But the crazy thing is, he’s innocent. Or at least sort of.

The authorities are closing in, but when a surprise blizzard hits, the Heffley family is trapped indoors. Greg knows that when the snow melts he’s going to have to face the music, but could any punishment be worse than being stuck inside with your family for the holidays?

Amazon Exclusive: A Q&A with Jeff Kinney

Question: Given all the jobs that you have--game designer, fatherhood, Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie work, etc.,--do you h! ave a certain time that you set aside to write?

Kinney: I still treat writing like a hobby, working mostly at night and sometimes on weekends. But when a deadline looms my hobby time gets extended into the wee hours of the night. It's not uncommon for me to work until 4:00 a.m., and I'm usually back at work by 9:00 a.m.

Q: Did you get to choose which character you would play in the Wimpy Kid films (Mr. Hills)? What do you enjoy most about working on the movies?

Kinney: I never any real desire to appear in the Wimpy Kid films, but one day my wife encouraged me to be an extra in one of the crowd scenes. So I walked onto the set, ready to ask the assistant director to put me somewhere in the back. It happened that right at that moment the director was looking for someone to play the role of Mr. Hills, Holly Hills's father. What I didn't realize was that I'd be front and center in the church scene, and in the new movie, I'm even! more prominent. I'm incredibly self-conscious so appearing on! -camera was a real stretch for me.

Q: In 2009 Time magazine named you as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World--what’s the first thing you did after you found out?

Kinney: I thought it was a practical joke, so I tried to track down the source of the joke. I eventually reached a voicemail of a reporter who said they worked for Time, and at that point I thought it was just a well-planned practical joke. It took me a while to realize it was for real. It was a big honor, but I don't take it very seriously. I'm the fourth most influential person in my own house.

Q: Would you ever consider making Wimpy Kid into a newspaper comic strip or creating another one? Do you have any favorite comic strips that you currently read?

Kinney: I've considered it. I set out to become a newspaper cartoonist but failed to break in. But I like the freedom books give me, so it would be tough to cram my ideas into t! hree or four panels.

Q: What is (or could be) you motto in life?

Kinney: I was inspired to write by a Benjamin Franklin quote: "Well done is better than well said." But I always encourage kids to "create something great," because the tools to create something original and find an audience are available to them like never before.

Q: What was your favorite year in school, and why?

Kinney: Fifth grade was my favorite year. I had a great teacher, Mrs. Norton, who encouraged me to be funny and challenged me to be a better artist and joke-teller than I was. I liked it that she didn't coddle me.

Q: Kids now ask for a book that is “like Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” and with this series you’ve created a whole new subset of books for young readers--how does it feel to be the person behind such massive book enjoyment, reaching reluctant readers, and spawning any number of titles that aspire to be “the! next Wimpy Kid?”

Kinney: I'm happy t! hat kids are reading. I think graphical books reach kids who might otherwise see books as work. Books should be fun!

A modern Waldenâ€"if Thoreau had had three kids and a minivanâ€"Cabin Fever is a serious yet irreverent take on living in a cabin in the woods while also living within our high-tech, materialist culture.
 
Try to imagine Thoreau married, with a job, three kids, and a minivan. This is the serious yet irreverent sensibility that suffuses Cabin Fever, as the author seeks to apply the hermit-philosopher’s insights to a busy modern life.
 
Tom Montgomery Fate lives in a Chicago suburb, where he is a husband, father, professor, and active member of his community. He also lives in a cabin built with the help of friends in the Michigan woods, where he walks by the river, chops wood, and reads Thoreau by candle light.
 
While he divides his time between suburbia and the cabin, Fate’s point is not to draw a line between th! e two but to ask what each has to say about the other. How do we balance nature (picking blackberries) with technology (tapping BlackBerrys)? What is revealed about human boundaries when a coyote wanders into a Quiznos? Can a cardinal protecting chicks from a hungry cat teach us anything about instincts and parenting? Fate seeks a more attentive, deliberate way of seeing the world and our place in it, not only among the trees and birds but also in the context of our relationships and society.
 
A seasonal nature memoir, Cabin Fever takes readers on a search for the wild both in the woods and within ourselves. Although we are often estranged from nature in our daily lives, Fate shows that we can recover our kinship with the earth and its other inhabitants if we are willing to pay attention.
 
In his exploration of how we are to live “a more deliberate life” amid a high-tech, material world, Fate invites readers into an interrogation of their ow! n lives, and into a new kind of vision: the possibility of eno! ugh in a culture of more.

 

Love isn’t something she thinks she needs…until it lands right on her doorstep.

 

Genevieve Boden is a witch and doesn’t care who knows. The townspeople’s fear of her keeps away those who have hurt her beforeâ€"like the local men of authority. Besides, a life of exile deep in the woods of West Virginia is due punishment, she figures, for the part she played in her mother’s death. If she’s alone, no one need know that the trauma took away her powers.

 

Then she finds a bloody, fatally wounded man slumped on her porch. In an instant, her healing ability reawakensâ€"and that’s not all. He stirs a hunger beyond her wildest dreams. But a relationship with the new chief of police? Not a chance.

 

Alex Rivera isn’t sure how he survived, but he’s certain his beautiful savior did more than just bandage his wounds. Captivated by this wary angel and stunned! by the depth of emotion he feels for her, he vows to discover her secrets. After all, thanks to the raging snowstorm, they have nothing to do but share body heat.

 

Their sizzling attraction goes straight to their hearts. So could a killer’s bullet…once whoever shot Alex finds them.

 

Warning: Contains a convenient snowstorm that throws together two wounded characters who happen to be wildly attracted to each other, a drool-worthy hero, a shotgun-toting heroine, mattress sex, shower sex, couch sex, armchair sex, some light bondage, and a really good cup of hot cocoa.

 

 

A log cabin in the woods is one of America's most cherished icons -- a dream shared around the world. As the stress level of city life rises, more and more of us are imagining our own cottages far away from traffic lights and urban distractions. Cabins in the wilderness have never gone out of style, because the rustic l! ife is a simple, rewarding one rooted in the traditions of the! great o utdoors.

Featuring rustic interiors as well as North Woods architecture, Cabin Fever visits more than two dozen charming retreats old and new, large and small, in the mountains and along the water, from the wilds of New York out to the wild, wild West. Author Rachel Carley explains where our love for the rustic comes from and shows the amazingly varied guises in which it appears today.

After serving as settlers' cabins, log homes enjoyed a phenomenal popularity in the late nineteenth century. Wealthy families such as the Vanderbilts, Guggenheims, and Carnegies summered in areas as remote as they could find, building what were euphemistically called camps. Those less affluent, following the era's prescription for fresh air and simplicity, traveled to even more rustic hotels and vacation cabins to get their share of the refreshing woods. Cabin Fever presents some of the best of these old lodges and private cabins, along with striking new homes that give a! contemporary twist to the ideal of the rustic life.

To help fill a cabin, a whole camp, or even an apartment with the latest in rustic style, the book's catalogue shows where to find home furnishings from twig bedsteads to Hudson Bay blankets to Adirondack chairs. Brimming with exceptionally creative ideas for achieving this truly American look, this enchanting guide to living with the rustic style will cure every variety of cabin fever.The craze for "getting away from it all" in buildings of log, stone, and unpainted lumber has been a part of American life since the 1800s. From the Gilded Age retreats of the Catskills and Adirondacks to the rugged Wild West lodges of Yellowstone and Yosemite, Cabin Fever celebrates the architectural elements that make cabin style unique: gleaming hand-peeled and polished logs, cowhide sofas, and river-rock fireplaces. Some are large, old, and built as public lodgings, like Putnam Camp, the Adirondack summer retreat found! ed by philosopher William James, which still has the cheerful! austeri ty it had when Freud and Jung mingled there with Harvard academicians. Others, like the grand hunting lodge nestled on the edge of a marsh, are more recent monuments to quirky private visions of the perfect rustic retreat. Rooms in both are accessorized with animal heads, native American blankets and art, snowshoes, antler chandeliers, and willow twig furniture. The book's appendix includes catalog sources for everything from small wooden summerhouses to buffalo-plaid blankets, and a list of hotels in the grand old style (like Yosemite's Ahwahnee and the Grand Canyon's El Tovar). Even if you can't have a piece of the wilderness to call your own (and the burl furniture to match), you can still enjoy the rustic yet substantial comforts of Cabin Fever.CABIN FEVER - DVD Movie

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Journey to the End of the Night

• ISBN13: 9780811216548
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.

This book is another sterling recommendation from the Saltzman workshop. The under-appreciated Fante's second outing details the adventures of his alterego, Arturo Bandini! , as the struggling young writer tackles Los Angeles in the late 1930s. And take it from personal experience, tackling L.A. as a destitute young scribe some decades later isn't much different. In other words: Fante gets it right and sets it down in his Chianti-steak-and-potatoes style, with prose both simple and rich. This Black Sparrow edition has a bonus: Charles Bukowski's great preface on how Fante stacks up against writers that were at once more famous--and far more anemic.

I had a lot of jobs in Los Angeles Harbor because our family was poor and my father was dead. My first job was ditchdigging a short time after I graduated from high school. Every night I couldn’t sleep from the pain in my back. We were digging an excavation in an empty lot, there wasn’t any shade, the sun came straight from a cloudless sky, and I was down in that hole digging with two huskies who dug with a love for it, always laughing and telling jokes, laughing and smoking bitter tob! acco.

Colin Farrell is Arturo Bandini, a young would-be wr! iter who comes to Depression-era Los Angeles to make a name for himself. While there, he meets beautiful barmaid Camilla (Salma Hayek), a Mexican immigrant who hopes for a better life by marrying a wealthy American. Both are trying to escape the stigma of their ethnicity in blue-blood California. The passion that arises between them is palpable â€" if they could only set aside their ambitions and submit to it. Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne (Chinatown) directs this outcasts’ tale of desire in the desert, co-starring Donald Sutherland (Pride and Prejudice).Adapted from the acclaimed 1939 novel by John Fante, Ask the Dust represents a 30-year labor of love for Robert Towne, the Oscar®-winning screenwriter of Chinatown. It's easy to see why Towne was drawn to Fante's classic tale of ill-fated romance in Depression-era Los Angeles: It's a tenacious, hard-scrabble valentine to Towne's beloved city, to the lonely craft of writing, and to the elusive whims of l! ove. Towne must have been inspired by the challenge of capturing the inner life and outer environs of Fante's literary hero, struggling writer Aturo Bandini (played by Colin Farrell), as he arrives in L.A. circa 1932, sells occasional stories to legendary American Mercury editor H.L. Mencken (heard only in voice-overs provided by film critic Richard Schickel), lives in the seedy Alta Loma hotel in the dusty neighborhood of Bunker Hill (where a fellow resident is played by Donald Sutherland), and falls into a stormy relationship with Camilla (Salma Hayek), a Mexican waitress who shares Bandini's immigrant dreams for a better life in sunny California. There are good times and bad in this passionately combative romance (and Hayek has never been more sensuously appealing onscreen), and Towne has done a perfect job of capturing an arid combination of hope, depression, and artistic ambition, working in fruitful collaboration with celebrated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The! Black Stallion) on meticulously authentic Depression-era ! sets bui lt on location (of all places) in South Africa. Ask the Dust never fully succeeds as an emotionally involving drama (the lives of writers are notoriously difficult to translate to film), but there's something undeniably seductive about this curious and great-looking film... and we're not just talking about Farrell and Hayek cavorting naked in the ocean. Even that memorable scene is infused with the threat of broken dreams, as if Towne were reminding us (and himself) that nothing good comes without sacrifice.--Jeff Shannon

He came along, kicking the snow. Here was a disgusted man. His name was Svevo Bandini, and he lived three blocks down that street. He was cold and there were holes in his shoes. That morning he had patched the holes on the inside with pieces of cardboard from a macaroni box. The macaroni in that box was not paid for. He had thought of that as he placed the cardboard inside his shoes.

Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by a! n influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.

This book is another sterling recommendation from the Saltzman workshop. The under-appreciated Fante's second outing details the adventures of his alterego, Arturo Bandini, as the struggling young writer tackles Los Angeles in the late 1930s. And take it from personal experience, tackling L.A. as a destitute young scribe some decades later isn't much different. In other words: Fante gets it right and sets it down in his Chianti-steak-and-potatoes style, with prose both simple and rich. This ! Black Sparrow edition has a bonus: Charles Bukowski's great p! reface o n how Fante stacks up against writers that were at once more famous--and far more anemic.

Ask the Dust is a virtuoso performance by an influential master of the twentieth-century American novel. It is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is extinguished when Camilla has a nervous breakdown and disappears . . . and Bandini forever rejects the writer's life he fought so hard to attain.

The dark side of On the Road: instead of seeking kicks, the French narrator travels the globe to find an ever deeper disgust for life.

Louis-Ferdinand Celine's revulsion and anger at what he considered the idiocy and hypocrisy of society explodes from nearly every page of this novel. Fill! ed with slang and obscenities and written in raw, colloquial language, Journey to the End of the Night is a literary symphony of violence, cruelty and obscene nihilism. This book shocked most critics when it was first published in France in 1932, but quickly became a success with the reading public in Europe, and later in America where it was first published by New Directions in 1952. The story of the improbable yet convincingly described travels of the petit-bourgeois (and largely autobiographical) antihero, Bardamu, from the trenches of World War I, to the African jungle, to New York and Detroit, and finally to life as a failed doctor in Paris, takes the readers by the scruff and hurtles them toward the novel's inevitable, sad conclusion.When it was published in 1932, this th! en-shocking and revolutionary first fiction redefined the art! of the novel with its black humor, its nihilism, and its irreverent, explosive writing style, and made Louis-Ferdinand Celine one of France's--and literature's--most important 20th-Century writers. The picaresque adventures of Bardamu, the sarcastic and brilliant antihero of Journey to the End of the Night move from the battlefields of World War I (complete with buffoonish officers and cowardly soldiers), to French West Africa, the United States, and back to France in a style of prose that's lyrical, hallucinatory, and hilariously scathing toward nearly everybody and everything. Yet, beneath it all one can detect a gentle core of idealism.

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