AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Personals: Dreams and Nightmares from the Lives of 20 Young Writers by Thomas Beller ISBN: 0-395-85796-1 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $13.00

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3.29 (7 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: The art of the personal essay
Comment: Personal essays are the bane of many a college career. Often tedious, or stupidly confessional, or arch, most personal essays are a drag. The essays here in Personals aren't. Yes, many of them are from New York writers, and their appeal is primarily aspirational, but even these essays are polished and intriguing. Others, detailing the first daily newspaper in Cambodia or brother-sister roadtrip or a Kentucky election campaign are superlative.

Check it out. You'll be hearing from many of these writers again.

Rating: 5
Summary: Getting "Personal"
Comment: Thomas Beller compiles a strikingly honest, painfully earnest collection of essay with "Personals: Dreams and Nightmares from the Lives of Twenty Young Writers." In a time when overly indulgent fits of angst are all the rage, Beller and his writers present a tempered, wise view of their youths. Yes, there is regret, there are growing pains, there are the travails of young love, but somehow they seem different in this light. These writers know themselves and they know the time in which they live. This allows them to write with such an incisive nature and clear-eyed depth of character, that one cannot help but be compelled by their tales. Some are humorous, some are painfully morose, but all are little life lessons worth paying attention to.

Rating: 4
Summary: Who are these people?
Comment: I'm not talking about the people featured in this book, but the people who are ripping it to shreds under the cover of assumed names and email addresses. Just try emailing [email protected], for example. If you feel your opinion is so valid or important, at least use your real name. Or just be anonymous for god's sake. Or find something better to do with your time. Amazon has become the elementary school bathroom wall for failed writers to vent their frustrations....too bad. The reader reviews here used to actually seem to mean something.