Rabu, 24 September 2014

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

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The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead



The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

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Little is what it seems to be in a leafy Savannah neighborhood as members of an afternoon cocktail and dog walking club mourn a neighbor’s death. Jealousies surface when friends vie for the widower running for mayor. An old woman with an infamous uncle plots to avenge a wrong. Memories haunt a once successful children’s writer. And a model has won the trip of a lifetime.

But a killer lurks and secrets unfold, as does a web of deceit. Is anyone really who he or she seems to be? A mysterious South American, a young Italian count, and a charitable nephew add suspicion and intrigue, as do an enigmatic organization linked to organized crime, a handsome firefighter, and three widows with hidden agendas. What’s a retired accountant’s secret, and why did a former showgirl really have plastic surgery?

The plot thickens, the Georgia temperature rises, and someone is destined for an early unmarked grave. The truth contorts to a climax that leaves readers breathless.

The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #4679302 in Books
  • Published on: 2015-09-15
  • Formats: Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 6.75" h x .50" w x 5.25" l, .18 pounds
  • Running time: 8 Hours
  • Binding: MP3 CD
The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

Review

Winner of the 2013 Reader's Favorite International Book Award and Gold Medalist

"A real page turner that is perfect for anyone who enjoys a story filled with secrets, mystery and devious characters. Even though I loved the ending I can only hope that Mr. Whitehead will continue this story with a sequel; after all there are three more jobs to be completed! On a scale of one to five I would give this book a six because it is just that good!" —Readers Favorite

"Doggone it, whodunnit? Readers of The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club will just have to read to the end of the novel to find out. The thriller was written by Duncan Whitehead, who seems to have more in common with Ian Fleming than his idol, Agatha Christie. —The Savannah Morning News

About the Author The life of Duncan Whitehead, winner of the 2013 Reader’s Favorite International Book Award and Gold Medalist, is as quirky as his works. Born in 1967, he served in the Royal Navy in embassies across South America and was an amateur boxer. He worked as a purser on some of the world’s largest super yachts and visited many exotic places. He’s also an instructor of English as a foreign language, fluent in Spanish, and a children’s soccer coach. Duncan retired to Savannah, Georgia, to pursue his passion ― writing. Mindful that we all harbor secrets and inspired by the locale’s odd characters, he wrote The Gordonston Ladies Walking Club, a dark comedic mystery. In 2011, Duncan spent six months in Brazil before settling in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His interests include cooking, the Israeli self-defense art of Krav Maga, and Dim-Mak, a pressure-point martial art. He has written over two thousand comedy news articles for US and UK websites, and The Reluctant Jesus, a comedic novel set in Manhattan.


The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, by Duncan Whitehead

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128 of 133 people found the following review helpful. A brilliantly plotted page-turner By Mary Fan The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club opens on a lovely morning in Savannah, Georgia, with your friendly neighborhood contract killer preparing to execute his latest job. Rewind the clock by about a week. The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club, a group of older women with a shared fondness for canines and cocktails, sigh about the impending death of one of their own. Thelma is on the verge of succumbing to cancer. Two of the ladies, former Vegas showgirl Carla and wholesome housewife Cindy, already have their eye on Thelma's soon-to-be widower, mayoral candidate Elliott. We are also introduced to the club's queen bee, an eighty-something-year-old named Heidi, and to several of their neighbors, including Kelly and Tom--a young couple with Hollywood good looks--and newlyweds Veronica and Doug. And then there's the neighborhood villain: an old man who fails to clean up after his dog during his walks in the park.Each member of this idyllic suburban neighborhood harbors a dirty little secret. Or, if they don't at the beginning of the novel, they do by the end. The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club follows each member of the community through their intertwining lives. Picture perfect on the outside, not so much behind closed doors. One of them is the contract killer's victim, and one of them the employer. But who? And why? With everything that's going on in Gordonston, everyone is fair game.Whitehead successfully employs the third person omniscient perspective in his novel to give the reader insights into each character's thoughts and motivations, often within one scene. In an era where first person and limited third are in fashion, using the omniscient voice is a daring yet highly effective move. Although Whitehead writes with a distinctive lilt, the narrator for the most part seems invisible, a mere camera through which the reader watches the characters, none of whom is exactly what they appear. Whitehead wastes no words, somehow keeping the prose fluid and tight at the same time. As a result, the pages fly by while at the same time allowing a reader to become immersed in the language and descriptions. Honestly, this book contains some of the finest examples of the omniscient voice I've seen in contemporary literature.Whitehead seamlessly integrates the various intertwining storylines. The cast is large, yet each character is so unique that it's easy to keep track of who is who. Whitehead deftly guides the reader through the secrets, mysteries, and multiple plots, making The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club an easy, relaxing read. There is so much going on, and yet everything feels straightforward with the way Whitehead tells it.In addition to his plotting abilities and knack for creating memorable characters, Whitehead also possesses a real talent for descriptions. It's easy to picture the locations described in the novel, be it a town in Argentina or the luxuries of Paris. His writing style is mesmerizing, hypnotic even, and it's easy to get lost in the locations and the lives of the characters. My one criticism would be that he doesn't always let the reader know where in the timeline they are (for instance, there's no indication that the first chapter, with the hit man, actually takes place after the bulk of the book until you get close to the end).The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club is a garden of irony, a brilliant suburban satire on par with the popular American TV show Desperate Housewives. Part thriller, part drama, the multitude of questions hanging in the air make it a gripping page-turner, especially toward the second half, where the plot really thickens. It's a relatively short book, and I ended up reading the whole thing in a single day. With all the juicy details and shocking revelations, I just couldn't put it down.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful. Surprisingly Clever By P. Creeden Surprisingly clever. I started this book late last night, and read until 2 am. Then got up this morning and started again. I usually do not like books that are written in omniscient point of view, but this one may have changed my mind a bit. The prose was smooth and reminded me of Hemmingway, while the sweeping descriptions and characterizations reminded me a bit of Steig Larsson and then the clever twists and turns of the plot, of Oscar Wilde. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, highly recommend it, and would read more from this author!

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful. A movie waiting to be made By Grady Harp Author Duncan Whitehead is, among other assorted hobbies and jobs, a standup comedian and it shows. Not that this book as a comedy (well, in many instances it is a droll comedy at that) - it is billed as a thriller and there are indeed enough acts of derring-do played out in this wild assortment of characters and enough instances of death and killings and even the opening chapter is an elegy for a gravedigger/to become killer to be slotted as such.But the setting is a rather wonderfully silly shallow group of ladies who walk their dogs in the park in Savannah GA in and around a rich neighborhood called Gordonston. The story isn't all that startling but it is entertaining and there are enough faux pas situations that nearly backfire the plot - until you realize that is precisely what the author is trying to do.Others have commented on the plot, and enough is enough. What this novel pleads to be is a dark comedy on film. And hopefully the author is stepping out of his home in Savannah far enough to encounter a potential producer/director/screenwriter to make it happen. Read it, and you'll be able to cast it easily enough. This is a dandy little escapist novel for an evening's enjoyment. Grady Harp, February 13

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Senin, 15 September 2014

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton



The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a novel written by G. K. Chesterton in 1904, set in a nearly-unchanged London in 1984. Though the novel deals with the future, it concentrates not on technology nor on totalitarian government but on a government where no one cares what happens, comparable to Fahrenheit 451 in that respect. The dreary succession of randomly selected Kings of England is broken up when Auberon Quin, who cares for nothing but a good joke, is chosen. To amuse himself, he institutes elaborate costumes for the provosts of the districts of London. All are bored by the King's antics except for one earnest young man who takes the cry for regional pride seriously – Adam Wayne, the eponymous Napoleon of Notting Hill. While the novel is humorous (one instance has the King sitting on top of an omnibus and speaking to it as to a horse: "Forward, my beauty, my Arab," he said, patting the omnibus encouragingly, "fleetest of all thy bounding tribe"), it is also an adventure story: Chesterton is not afraid to let blood be drawn in his battles, fought with sword and halberd in the London streets, and Wayne thinks up a few ingenious strategies; and, finally, the novel is philosophical, considering the value of one man's actions and the virtue of respect for one's enemies. Notice: This Book is published by Historical Books Limited (www.publicdomain.org.uk) as a Public Domain Book, if you have any inquiries, requests or need any help you can just send an email to publications@publicdomain.org.uk This book is found as a public domain and free book based on various online catalogs, if you think there are any problems regard copyright issues please contact us immediately via DMCA@publicdomain.org.uk

The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

  • Published on: 2015-09-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 11.00" h x .37" w x 8.50" l, .86 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 160 pages
The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

About the Author Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England, in 1874. He went on to study art at the Slade School, and literature at University College in London. Chesterton wrote a great deal of poetry, as well as works of social and literary criticism. Among his most notable books are "The Man Who Was Thursday", a metaphysical thriller, and "The Everlasting Man", a history of humankind's spiritual progress. After Chesterton converted to Catholicism in 1922, he wrote mainly on religious topics such as "Orthodoxy" and "Heretics". Chesterton is most known for creating the famous priest-detective character Father Brown, who first appeared in "The Innocence of Father Brown". Chesterton died in 1936 at the age of 62.


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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. but with Chesterton you just don't know If you can think like he does By Joseph M. Davis It is perhaps a little dated, but with Chesterton you just don't know If you can think like he does. He has such a brilliant mind. One could ponder over a single sentence for some tims

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Am Thoroughly Confused With This One By Don Kidwell I ordered "The Napoleon of Notting Hill (Illustrated)" only to receive the non-illustrated "The Complete Father Brown Stories" by G. K. Chesterton published February 15, 2016. While it is a fair trade, I'd be sure to open up this kindle book first thing so the window to return it free of charge doesn't elapse in event "The Napoleon of Notting Hill" is the one you are really wanting to purchase.

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Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner

Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner

Day Of Atonement, By Jay Rayner. Learning to have reading routine is like learning how to try for eating something that you really don't desire. It will need more times to aid. Moreover, it will also bit make to serve the food to your mouth and also ingest it. Well, as reading a publication Day Of Atonement, By Jay Rayner, sometimes, if you should review something for your brand-new tasks, you will certainly feel so dizzy of it. Even it is a book like Day Of Atonement, By Jay Rayner; it will make you feel so bad.

Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner

Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner



Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner

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Ingredients: It is the early Sixties. Down the side of a dilapidated synagogue in North-west London, a great partnership is born. Apart, Mal Jones and Solly Princeton are two teenage no-hopers scrabbling about in the dirt. Together they are dynamite: a world-beating team who turn a company selling chicken-soup machines to the Jewish mothers of Edgware into an international hotel and leisure empire. But success is never simple. Before long pressures draw them away from the comforts of their roots. They find themselves cutting corners, taking risks and breaking the law. Finally Mal has to confront his life, his friendship with Solly and where their very different ambitions have led them. Thirty-five years later as sunset ushers in the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, Mal, his fortune gone, picks over the ruins of his past with his niece, Natasha. He tells her the story of the Sinai Corporation, of his best friend and business partner, Solly, and at last begins to ask himself: how far must you go before you lose faith in yourself?

Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #186622 in eBooks
  • Published on: 2015-09-13
  • Released on: 2015-09-13
  • Format: Kindle eBook
Day of Atonement, by Jay Rayner

About the Author Jay Rayner is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster who now writes for The Observer. His first novel, The Marble Kiss, was published in 1994. He is married and lives in London. Jay presents The Kitchen Cabinet, a foodie panel show for BBC Radio 4, is the food reporter for BBC1’s One Show and is a regular critic on Britain's Masterchef. As well as Day of Atonement, he is the author of seven other books including, most recently, A Greedy Man In A Hungry World and the novel The Apologist, also available in eBook from Studio 28.


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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. The story combines a little from all genres - romance ... By Ryan Broser The story combines a little from all genres - romance, drama, detective noir, erotica - while still presenting an original and engaging story.

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Rabu, 10 September 2014

The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville

The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville

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The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville

The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville



The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville

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At sunrise on a first of April, there appeared, suddenly as Manco Capac at the lake Titicaca, a man in cream-colors, at the water-side in the city of St. Louis. His cheek was fair, his chin downy, his hair flaxen, his hat a white fur one, with a long fleecy nap. He had neither trunk, valise, carpet-bag, nor parcel. No porter followed him. He was unaccompanied by friends. From the shrugged shoulders, titters, whispers, wonderings of the crowd, it was plain that he was, in the extremest sense of the word, a stranger.

The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville

  • Published on: 2015-09-08
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 9.00" h x .80" w x 6.00" l, 1.05 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 354 pages
The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville

Review "I love the book, more than Moby-Dick, more than any native novel I can think of. Melville is the muse of my America, and The Confidence-Man is my vade mecum. I ve read it over and over, and sometimes tried to imitate it. And yet. . . . Is there a more lighthearted and amusing tale that s meaner and more misanthropic?" --Jim Lewis, Conjunctions"Melville took an awful licking. He was bound to. He was an original, aboriginal." --Charles Olson"The oddities of thought, felicities of expression, the wit, humor, and rollicking inspirations are as abundant and original as in any of the productions of this most remarkable writer." --New York Times

From the Inside Flap "In "The Confidence-Man," writes John Bryant in his Introduction, "Melville found a way to render our tragic sense of self and society through the comic strategies of the confidence game. He puts the reader in the game to play its parts and to contemplate the inconsistencies of its knaves and fools." Set on a Mississippi steamer on April Fool's Day and populated by a series of shape-shifting con men, "The Confidence-Man is a challenging metaphysical and ethical exploration of antebellum American society. Set from the first American edition of 1857, this Modern Library paperback includes an Appendix with Bryant's innovative "fluid text" analysis of early manuscript fragments from Melville's novel.

From the Back Cover Herman Melville's The Confindence-Man: His Masquerade was the tenth, last, and most perplexing book of his decade as a professional man of letters. After it he gave up his ambitious effort to write works that would be both popular and profound and turned to poetry. The book was published on April 1--the very day of its title character's April Fools' Day masquerade on a Mississippi River Steamboat.


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73 of 76 people found the following review helpful. An American Classic on the Nature of Trust By Charles Hugh Smith Why read a book from 1857 which flopped so badly as commercial literature that Melville stopped writing and ended his career as a customs official? Because this book masterfully explores the entire nature of trust, confidence and cons. Though the setting is a riverboat on the Mississippi River just before the U.S. exploded into Civil War, its insights cross cultural boundaries.This is not an easy book to read for several reasons. First, it is undoubtedly one of the first "post-modern" novels which breaks from traditional narrative storytelling. ( Another example: Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground.) The Confidence-Man is a collection of 45 conversations between various people on the riverboat--beggars, absurdly dressed frontiersmen, sickly misers, shysters, patent medicine hucksters, veterans (of the Mexican-American War) and the "hero" in the latter part of the book, the Cosmopolitan.In typical Melville fashion, you also get asides--directly to the reader, in several cases, as if Melville felt the need to address issues of fiction outside the actual form of his novel. The lack of structure, action and conclusion make this a post-modern type book, but if you read each conversation as a separate story, then it starts to make more sense.For what ties the book together is not a story but a theme: the nature of trust and confidence. In a very sly way, Melville shows how a variety of cons are worked, as the absolutely distrustful are slowly but surely convinced to do exactly what they vowed not to do: buy the "herbal" patent medicine, buy shares in a bogus stock venture, or donate cash to a suspect "charity."In other chapters, it seems like the con artist is either stopped in his tracks or is conned himself. Since the book is mostly conversations, we are left to our own conclusions; there is no authorial voice wrapping up each chapter with a neatly stated ending. This elliptical structure conveys the ambiguous nature of trust; we don't want to be taken, but confidence is also necessary for any business to be transacted. To trust no one is to be entirely isolated.Melville also raises the question: is it always a bad thing to be conned? The sickly man seems to be improved by his purchase of the worthless herbal remedy, and the donor conned out of his cash for the bogus charity also seems to feel better about himself and life. The ornery frontiersman who's been conned by lazy helpers softens up enough to trust the smooth-talking employment agency owner. Is that a terrible thing, to trust despite a history of being burned?The ambuiguous nature of the bonds of trust is also explored. We think the Cosmopolitan is a con-man, but when he convinces a fellow passenger to part with a heavy sum, he returns it, just to prove a point. Is that a continuance of the con, or is he actually trustworthy?The book is also an exploration of a peculiarly American task: sorting out who to trust in a multicultural non-traditional society of highly diverse and highly mobile citizens. In a traditional society, things operate in rote ways; young people follow in their parents' traditional roles, money is made and lent according to unchanging standards, and faith/tradition guides transactions such as marriage and business along well-worn pathways.But in America, none of this structure is available. Even in Melville's day, America was a polyglot culture on the move; you had to decide who to trust based on their dress, manner and speech/pitch. The con, of course, works on precisely this necessity to rely on one's senses and rationality rather than a traditional network of trusted people and methods. So the con man dresses well and has a good story, and an answer for every doubt.The second reason why Melville is hard to read is his long, leisurely, clause upon clause sentences. But the book is also peppered with his sly humor, which sneaks up on you... well, just like a good con.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful. Quite an Original By Michael J. Connor Quite an OriginalThe Confidence-Man: His MasqueradeI am specifically reviewing the Northwestern University Press edition of Melville's "The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade."There is a Norton Critical Edition of this novel edited by Hershel Parker, but it doesn't seem to be offered by Amazon.com. It is offered at at W.W. Norton's website... The Hendricks House edition edited by Elizabeth Foster is another good edition, but it seems to be out of print at the moment.On November 12, 1856 Herman Melville and Nathanial Hawthorne took a walk among the sandhills near Liverpool, England. They smoked cigars, and Hawthorne wrote about a week later that Melville spoke of Providence and futurity, and he, Melville, had pretty much made up his mind to be annilated."The Confidence-Man" is the last novel that Melville published during his lifetime. I agree with Newton Arvin, who called "The Confidence-Man" "one of the most infidel books ever written by an American; one of the most completely nihilistic, morally and metaphysically."About 150 years after the book was first published, and about fifty since the book was first taken seriously by literary critics, The Confidence-Man is not a settled matter. In fact there remains excessive discord among readers and critics about the worth of this novel. Some compare it to Swift's "Tale of the Tub," others will tell you that this book is static and formless.The idea is simple enough. On April 1 a devil in the guise of a deaf mute goes aboard a Mississippi river steamboat, and begs for charity. In rapid succession he transforms himself into a crippled Black man, a man with the weed, the man in the grey coat , the gentleman with the big book, the man with the plate and finally the Cosmopolitan. In these different guises he gulls and diddles people. He asks for trust. He is not always successful, but he can take solace in his failures. The reason for the devil's failures is the cyniscim, mistrust and mysandry of his marks. It is their human failings that accounts for his failures. And that's not so bad for the devil.Melville's control of his material was never greater. I recommend the Northwestern Newberry edition because it contains draft fragments of chapter 14. You can see how carefullly Melville wrote this novel. The blandness of the prose is deliberate. If you read the surviving drafts you will see how Melville purposedly silenced and muted his message. Perhaps Melville was too successful for even close readers get lost sometimes.At the end there is an increase of seriousness. An old man closes his Bible and asks for a life preserver. The Cosmopolitan hands the old man a chamberpot which appears to be full, and calls it a life preserver. The Cosmopolitan then extinguishes the lamp, and then leads the other into the darkness.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful. A Classic Exploration of Trust and the Con By Charles Hugh Smith Why read a book from 1857 which flopped so badly as commercial literature that Melville stopped writing and ended his career as a customs official? Because this book masterfully explores the entire nature of trust, confidence and cons. Though the setting is a riverboat on the Mississippi River just before the U.S. exploded into Civil War, its insights cross cultural boundaries.This is not an easy book to read for several reasons. First, it is undoubtedly one of the first "post-modern" novels which breaks from traditional narrative storytelling. ( Another example: Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground.) The Confidence-Man is a collection of 45 conversations between various people on the riverboat--beggars, absurdly dressed frontiersmen, sickly misers, shysters, patent medicine hucksters, veterans (of the Mexican-American War) and the "hero" in the latter part of the book, the Cosmopolitan.In typical Melville fashion, you also get asides--directly to the reader, in several cases, as if Melville felt the need to address issues of fiction outside the actual form of his novel. The lack of structure, action and conclusion make this a post-modern type book, but if you read each conversation as a separate story, then it starts to make more sense.For what ties the book together is not a story but a theme: the nature of trust and confidence. In a very sly way, Melville shows how a variety of cons are worked, as the absolutely distrustful are slowly but surely convinced to do exactly what they vowed not to do: buy the "herbal" patent medicine, buy shares in a bogus stock venture, or donate cash to a suspect "charity."In other chapters, it seems like the con artist is either stopped in his tracks or is conned himself. Since the book is mostly conversations, we are left to our own conclusions; there is no authorial voice wrapping up each chapter with a neatly stated ending. This elliptical structure conveys the ambiguous nature of trust; we don't want to be taken, but confidence is also necessary for any business to be transacted. To trust no one is to be entirely isolated.Melville also raises the question: is it always a bad thing to be conned? The sickly man seems to be improved by his purchase of the worthless herbal remedy, and the donor conned out of his cash for the bogus charity also seems to feel better about himself and life. The ornery frontiersman who's been conned by lazy helpers softens up enough to trust the smooth-talking employment agency owner. Is that a terrible thing, to trust despite a history of being burned?The ambuiguous nature of the bonds of trust is also explored. We think the Cosmopolitan is a con-man, but when he convinces a fellow passenger to part with a heavy sum, he returns it, just to prove a point. Is that a continuance of the con, or is he actually trustworthy?The book is also an exploration of a peculiarly American task: sorting out who to trust in a multicultural non-traditional society of highly diverse and highly mobile citizens. In a traditional society, things operate in rote ways; young people follow in their parents' traditional roles, money is made and lent according to unchanging standards, and faith/tradition guides transactions such as marriage and business along well-worn pathways.But in America, none of this structure is available. Even in Melville's day, America was a polyglot culture on the move; you had to decide who to trust based on their dress, manner and speech/pitch. The con, of course, works on precisely this necessity to rely on one's senses and rationality rather than a traditional network of trusted people and methods. So the con man dresses well and has a good story, and an answer for every doubt.The second reason why Melville is hard to read is his long, leisurely, clause upon clause sentences. But the book is also peppered with his sly humor, which sneaks up on you... well, just like a good con.

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