This highly elliptical novel, set in England after World War II, deals with a sedate, bored lower-class couple -- Michael and Margaret Banks -- who are lured into fronting a racehorse scheme. Michael Banks is befriended by William Hencher, a well-meaning but lost soul who fell into association with a ruthless gang during the war. After his mother''s death, Hencher wants to repay the Bankses for their allowing him to rent a room in their home, where he lived with his mother twenty years prior. Knowing Michael likes horses, Hencher invites him to the heist of the racehorse Rock Castle -- which goes awry, leading to Hencher''s death. The gang members then keep Michael under wraps. Realizing that Margaret is becoming suspicious of Michael''s absence, they force Michael to call and tell her to meet him at a party. In order to ensure that Michael will front as the owner of the stolen stallion, they kidnap Margaret while distracting Michael with two women, both sexual predators. The heavy of the gang, Thick, beats Margaret mercilessly with a truncheon after she attempts to escape; then, Larry, the seemingly invincible kingpin of the gang who orchestrates the novel''s events, slashes and rapes her. Meanwhile, in a brutally ironic contrast, Michael finds delirious pleasure in a femme fatale, Sybilline, the mistress of Larry -- and two other women, as well. Having been badly beaten in a street fight with a constable, Michael attempts to redeem himself from both criminal activity and infidelity by thwarting the race, which has been set up in order to allow Larry to retire to America in comfort. Plot, though, is decidedly subordinate in Hawkes'' fiction to intense imagery and a nightmarish, hallucinatory atmosphere. Many details of the plot can only be inferred, and many narrative questions cannot easily be answered. The narrative parodies detective thrillers, particularly through the final presentation of two baffled detectives in bowler hats who, having discovered Hencher''s corpse during a heavy rain, set out "separately on vacant streets to uncover the particulars of this crime." In some sense, these figures may be taken as representatives of the reader, who is left to make coherent sense out of the novel''s fragments. Some readers have found the novel''s events highly disturbing, but the ultimate meaning and value of the work are irreducible to incident; instead, they inhere in the vividly impressionistic style through which these sordid events are both presented and transfigured.

The Lime Twig

The novel is written in the third-person with flashbacks to specific events in the life of Simón Bolívar, "the General". It begins on May 8, 1830 in Santa Fe de Bogotá. The General is preparing for his journey towards the port of Cartagena de Indias, intending to leave Colombia for Europe. Following his resignation as President of Gran Colombia, the people of the lands he liberated have now turned against him, scrawling anti-Bolívar graffiti and throwing waste at him. The General is anxious to move on, but has to remind the Vice-President-elect, General Domingo Caycedo, that he has yet to receive a valid passport to leave the country. The General leaves Bogotá with the few officials still faithful to him, including his confidante and aide-de-camp, José Palacios. At the end of the first chapter, the General is referred to by his full title, General Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios, for the only time in the novel. On the first night of the voyage, the General stays at Facatativá with his entourage, which consists of José Palacios, five aides-de-camp, his clerks, and his dogs. Here, as throughout the journey that follows, the General''s loss of prestige is evident; the downturn in his fortunes surprises even the General himself. His unidentified illness has led to his physical deterioration, which makes him unrecognizable, and his aide-de-camp is constantly mistaken for the Liberator. After many delays, the General and his party arrive in Honda, where the Governor, Posada Gutiérrez, has arranged for three days of fiestas. On his last night in Honda, the General returns late to camp and finds one of his old friends, Miranda Lyndsay, waiting for him. The General recalls that fifteen years ago, she had learned of a plot against his life and had saved him. The following morning, the General begins the voyage down the Magdalena River. Both his physical debilitation and pride are evident as he negotiates the slope to the dock: he is in need of a sedan chair but refuses to use it. The group stays a night in Puerto Real, where the General claims he sees a woman singing during the night. His aides-de-camp and the watchman conduct a search, but they fail to uncover any sign of a woman having been in the vicinity. The General and his entourage arrive at the port of Mompox. Here they are stopped by police, who fail to recognize the General. They ask for his passport, but he is unable to produce one. Eventually, the police discover his identity and escort him into the port. The people still believe him to be the President of Gran Colombia and prepare banquets in his honor; but these festivities are wasted on him due to his lack of strength and appetite. After several days, the General and his entourage set off for Turbaco. The group spend a sleepless night in Barranca Nueva before they arrive in Turbaco. Their original plan was to continue to Cartagena the following day, but the General is informed that there is no available ship bound for Europe from the port and that his passport still has not arrived. While staying in the town, he receives a visit from General Mariano Montilla and a few other friends. The deterioration of his health becomes increasingly evident—one of his visitors describes his face as that of a dead man. In Turbaco, the General is joined by General Daniel Florencio O''Leary and receives news of ongoing political machinations: Joaquín Mosquera, appointed successor as President of Gran Colombia, has assumed power but his legitimacy is still contested by General Rafael Urdaneta. The General recalls that his "dream began to fall apart on the very day it was realized". The General finally receives his passport, and two days later he sets off with his entourage for Cartagena and the coast, where more receptions are held in his honor. Throughout this time, he is surrounded by women but is too weak to engage in sexual relations. The General is deeply affected when he hears that his good friend and preferred successor for the presidency, Field Marshal Sucre, has been ambushed and assassinated. The General is now told by one of his aides-de-camp that General Rafael Urdaneta has taken over the government in Bogotá, and there are reports of demonstrations and riots in support of a return to power by Bolívar. The General''s group travel to the town of Soledad, where he stays for more than a month, his health declining further. In Soledad, the General agrees to see a physician for the first time. The General never leaves South America. He finishes his journey in Santa Marta, too weak to continue and with only his doctor and his closest aides by his side. He dies in poverty, a shadow of the man who liberated much of the continent.

The General in His Labyrinth

With some similarity to Nevil Shute''s 1951 novel, Round the Bend, Richard Bach''s mystical adventure story revolves around two barnstorming pilots who meet in a field in midwest America. The two main characters, who are doing what each one really wants to do, take on a relationship of teacher-student about the illusions that make reality. If that sounds like the point where Jonathan left off, it could be true: for Illusions may reflect what has been going on in the author''s mind since the phenomenal success that changed his life. Illusions is a companionship and enlightenment story. Donald Shimoda is one of the two main characters in Illusions. He is a messiah who leaves his job of being a messiah (and also of being a mechanic at a garage) after deciding that people value the showbiz-like performance of miracles and want to be entertained by those miracles more than to understand the message behind them. He meets Richard, a fellow barn-storming pilot and begins to pass on his knowledge to him, even teaching Richard to perform "miracles" of his own. Donald and Richard go on a talk show at one of their stops, and Donald answers most of the questions. People listening to him don''t like his speaking, and Richard gets a little worried. Of the lessons taught Richard by Don, one of the most important is that reality is based on perspective. The novel features quotes from the "Messiah''s Handbook", owned by Shimoda, which Richard later takes as his own. A most unusual aspect of this handbook is that it has no page numbers. The reason for this, as Shimoda explains to Richard, is that the book will open to the page on which the reader may find guidance or the answers to doubts and questions in his mind. It is not a magical book; Shimoda goes on to explain that one can do this with any sort of text. The messiah''s handbook was released as its own title by Hampton Roads publishing company, inc. The book itself mimics the one described in Illusions, along with more quotes based on the same philosophies displayed in Illusions, (ISBN 1-57174-421-5) (ISBN 978-1-57-174421-0).

Illusions

The plot centers on Nina Leeds, the daughter of an Ivy League professor, who is devastated when her adored fiancé is killed in World War I, before they have a chance to consummate their passion. Ignoring the unconditional love of the novelist Charles Marsden, Nina embarks on a series of sordid affairs before determining to marry an amiable fool, Sam Evans. While Nina is pregnant with Sam''s child, she learns a horrifying secret known only to Sam''s mother: insanity runs in the Evans family and could be inherited by any child of Sam''s. Realizing that a child is essential to her own and to Sam''s happiness, Nina decides on a "scientific" solution. She will abort Sam''s child and conceive a child with the physician Ned Darrell, letting Sam believe that it is his. The plan backfires when Nina and Ned''s intimacy leads to their falling passionately in love. Twenty years later, Sam''s "son" Gordon Evans is approaching manhood, with only Nina and Ned aware of the boy''s true parentage. The meaning of the title is suggested by the aging Nina in a speech near the end of the play: "Our lives are strange dark interludes in the electrical display of God the Father!"

Strange Interlude

During one of the periodic disagreements Wolfe has with Archie, a young woman with a suitcase rings Wolfe''s doorbell. Wolfe is busy in the plant rooms, so she meets with Archie but refuses to identify herself. She asks to rent a room and remain incommunicado at the brownstone for a week. So as to annoy Wolfe, Archie grants her request, contingent on Wolfe''s approval, and locks her and her suitcase into a third floor bedroom. After Wolfe returns to the office, Archie fills Wolfe in. As expected, Wolfe not only refuses to grant the young woman''s request but tells Archie to put her out immediately. Archie gets Wolfe to allow her to remain for dinner, which she eats upstairs. After dinner, a lawyer named Perry Helmar arrives at the brownstone, without an appointment. He wants to hire Wolfe for $10,000 to find one Priscilla Eads: Helmar is her guardian and she has disappeared. Helmar needs to locate her before her 25th birthday, which is one week away. Archie immediately suspects that she''s upstairs and, asking Helmar for her photograph, confirms his suspicion and surreptitiously alerts Wolfe. Wolfe shoos Helmar without committing himself to the job, and finally speaks with Miss Eads. He gives her the choice of renting the room for one week for $10,000 – the amount he would forego if he turns Helmar down – or leaving the brownstone immediately – in that case, Wolfe will accept Helmar''s job but will give her until the next morning before he starts looking for her. Miss Eads opts to leave. The next morning, Inspector Cramer arrives and informs Archie that his fingerprints have been found on luggage belonging to Priscilla Eads and – Miss Eads having been found murdered in her apartment – wants to know what his fingerprints were doing there. The body of Miss Eads'' maid, Margaret Fomos, has also been found, in a vestibule 35 blocks away. It appears that Miss Eads was the murderer''s main target, and that Mrs. Fomos was killed to get the keys to Miss Eads'' apartment. With no fee in sight, Wolfe refuses to involve himself. Archie, infuriated by Wolfe''s attitude, storms out of the brownstone. He blames himself for the Eads death, and resolves to start his own investigation. Archie crashes a meeting of the officers of the Softdown corporation – Miss Eads had been scheduled to inherit a controlling interest in Softdown''s stock on her birthday, so Archie starts there. He allows the officers to assume he''s a police detective and starts gathering information. Among other items, Archie learns that the corporation''s officers will receive title to the stock that would have gone to Miss Eads had she lived. Just then, Archie''s local bête noire, Lieutenant Rowcliff, arrives, discovers Archie, and arrests him for impersonating a police officer. Rowcliff goes much too far, though, when he arrests Wolfe as a material witness and brings him to the District Attorney''s office. Wolfe, in a rage, bullies the DA and the police into releasing both him and Archie, whom Wolfe now claims as his client. Proceeding with the investigation, Archie encounters Sarah Jaffee, a young widow, a childhood friend of Miss Eads'', another significant stockholder in Softdown, and self-described nut. Archie earns her gratitude by removing her dead husband''s hat and coat from her apartment – Mrs. Jaffee has been unable to do so since his death in Korea a year earlier. Wolfe makes use of her gratitude by convincing her to enjoin the Softdown officers from exercising ownership of the stock before it is determined that none of them obtained the stock by committing a crime – specifically, the Eads and Fomos murders. Mrs. Jaffee would prefer to have nothing to do with Softdown, but considers herself in Archie''s debt and therefore agrees. Wolfe uses the threat of the injunction to force the corporate officers to meet with him at the brownstone. Mrs. Jaffee attends the meeting. So does Miss Eads'' ex-husband, Eric Hagh, and his lawyer; it turns out that Hagh has a credible claim on Miss Eads'' inheritance. Later that night, well after the meeting has adjourned, Mrs. Jaffee phones Archie from her apartment to ask if her keys have been found in Wolfe''s office – she''s lost them and had to have the doorman let her in. Archie is immediately worried, because of the role played by apartment keys in the Eads and Fomos murders. He tells Mrs. Jaffee to put the phone down but leave the line open, and to flee her apartment right away. Archie doesn''t hear her leave, so he rushes to her apartment and finds her dead, strangled in the same fashion as were Miss Eads and Mrs. Fomos. Feeling guiltier yet, Archie assists the police in their ongoing search for the murderer. The police finally decide that their best course is to re-enact the meeting of the corporate officers at Wolfe''s office. Wolfe agrees to cooperate, but uses the occasion to his own purpose: the exposure of the murderer and the murderer''s motives.

Prisoner''s Base

Tara meets Prince Gahan of Gathol, and is initially unimpressed, viewing him as something of a popinjay. Later she takes her flier into a storm and loses control of the craft, and the storm carries her to an unfamiliar region of Barsoom. After landing and fleeing from a pack of ferocious Banths (Martian lions), she is captured by the horrific Kaldanes, who resemble large heads with small, crab-like legs. The Kaldanes have bred a symbiotic race of headless human-like creatures called Rykors, which they can attach themselves to and ride like a horse. While imprisoned, Tara manages to win over one of the Kaldanes, Ghek, with her lovely singing voice. Gahan, who has fallen in love with Tara, sets out to find her, only to find himself caught up in the same storm, and he falls overboard while attempting to rescue one of his crew. He stumbles upon Bantoom, realm of the Kaldanes, and manages to rescue Tara, and together with Ghek they flee in Tara''s crippled flier. Tara doesn''t recognize Gahan as the prince she met earlier, as he is worn from his ordeals and no longer dressed in his fancy clothes. In light of her earlier reaction to him, Gahan decides to keep his identity secret, and identifies himself instead as a Panthan (warrior) called Turan. The three of them manage to reach the isolated city of Manator. Gahan ventures into the city seeking food and water, but is tricked and taken prisoner by the inhabitants. Tara and Ghek are also captured. In Manator, captives are forced to a fight to the death in the arena, in a modified version of Jetan, a popular Barsoomian board game resembling Chess; the living version uses people as the game pieces on a life-sized board, with each taking of a piece being a duel to the death.

The Chessmen of Mars

The book opens with the Swallows, Amazons and Captain Flint in an unnamed port in the South China Sea, apparently the Hundredth Port of a round-the-world voyage aboard the Wild Cat, the small green schooner which featured in Peter Duck. They are warned to stay away from the Chinese coast because of pirates. On the next stage of their voyage, they encounter a dead calm. Their monkey, Gibber, causes a fire which burns the Wild Cat to the waterline so she sinks. They all escape aboard the Swallow and Amazon which are being used as ship''s boats. However, the boats are separated in the night when a strong wind blows up. The crew of the Amazon, the Blackett sisters and their uncle, is picked up by a junk, which turns out to be a pirate vessel. The Swallows make their own way to shore, where they eventually meet the Amazons, who are being held by Taicoon Chang, one of the Taicoons who rule the Three Islands. Captain Flint is kept under much stricter guard by the Taicoon, as he hopes to ransom him, as he claims to be the Lord Mayor of San Flancisco. The children are sent to Missee Lee, the leader of the pirates. She turns out to be a frustrated academic from Camblidge, who had been sent to England for her education, only to have to return to rule the Three Islands when her father died. She starts to give the children Latin lessons, at which Roger surprisingly excels. Captain Flint is also bought from Taicoon Chang who has threatened to chop off his head. The pirates are concerned that if the Royal Navy were to learn their position, a gunboat might be sent to destroy them, so when Captain Flint is later seen by the other Taicoon, Wu, with a sextant, they are only saved from having their heads chopped off by Missee Lee''s intervention. As they consider that they are still in danger of execution and are also becoming fed up with the Latin lessons, they plan an escape. During the Dragon festival, they set sail aboard Missee Lee''s junk, the Shining Moon. With the help of Missee Lee, who has decided to leave her responsibilities on the Three Islands and go back to study at Camblidge, they take a daring and dangerous passage through a gorge to evade capture. However, when Missee Lee hears fighting begin between the various islanders, she decides that she owes it to her people to return and unite them again. The Swallows, Amazons and Captain Flint return to England aboard the Shining Moon.

Missee Lee

The novel takes place along the Georgia coastline in 1837, where the prosperous Montrose plantation continues to yield a rich harvest of cotton each year, which is gathered by the slaves of the plantation. The elderly owner of the plantation, Colonel Montrose, has died of old age, leaving his son to manage the plantation and tend to his slaves. However, with the onset of the Panic of 1837, Young Montrose faces bankruptcy unless he is able to maintain the plantation efficiently and keep it working properly. With the aid of his Christianized slave Daddy Cato, Young Montrose sets to work on getting the plantation back up to speed, but his efforts come under the scrutiny of a usurer named Uriah Goldwire, who is employed by a group of devious capitalists from the North who wish to see the Montrose plantation ruined in order to keep their own pockets filled. Montrose and Cato eventually begin to fight against the efforts of Goldwire to sabotage their work, even going so far as to quell a pro-abolitionist riot intended to force the Montrose slaves into running away from their homes in Georgia to the North.

The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good

A young woman, described as "the Parisian maiden", is due to marry Lelio without having ever met him. She decides to introduce herself to him as a Knight and become his friend. Lelio confides in the Knight his troubled situation. He is promised to a Countess he seduced, in addition to the young Parisian maiden. He would choose to marry the richest of the two, that is the heroine, if he had not already signed a contract with the Countess, which would make him lose a large sum of money if he broke his engagement to her. Lelio thus challenges the Knight to seduce the Countess, so that he could marry the Parisian maiden without paying the sum. The plan seems to work at first, the Countess falls for the Knight and forgets Lelio. But information of the Knight''s real sexual identity leaks among the servants, and even if she refuses to disclose her name, the Parisian maiden has to admit her sex. She disguises herself as a servant and manages to get hold of the contract. At the end of the play, she tears it in the presence of Lelio and the Countess, and both are disappointed by her deception. The young Parisian maiden finally discloses her identity, and justifies her actions by asserting her independence.

La Fausse Suivante

The Soldiers of Halla begins with the eleven Travelers, meeting in a crumbling wasteland of a city. They are immediately attacked by a helicopter, forcing them to seek refuge in the buildings. Bobby and Loor are trapped in a pit and watch as a colony of people are caught by the helicopters in a nearby building. When the helicopters leave, however, the Travelers gather back together. The first generation of Travelers quickly appear, such as Osa, Loor''s mother, and Seegen, Kasha''s father, and lead the other Travelers away. Bobby is met by his family again, who tell him that the wastleand was in fact the New York City zoo on Third Earth. His family leads Bobby to another place, that is filled with dark clouds and crumbling, gray earth. They confess that they know all that has transpired in Halla so far, including Bobby''s murder of Alexander Naymeer on Second Earth. Moreover, they tell him that Solara is indeed the essence of Halla and thus the ten territories. Each victory and defeat inflicted by the Travelers and Saint Dane is reflected in the overall health of Solara. All of the souls of Halla are transferred to Solara after they pass on in Halla. As the exiles are in Eelong and the klees(cats that are the senitent species of the jungle like territory of Eelong) are going to attack them and the gars(humans that are not quite as intelligent as the klees.)The travelers defeat them and the travelers go back to Solara. Uncle Press then proposes that they should protect the exiles as they are the only positive energy that keeps Solara running. Bobby proposes that Uncle Press''s plan would only delay defeat. He thinks they should make a portal and transport the travelers to the Ravinians and defeat them. Bobby gets into a fight with Saint Dane, and as he uses up all of his power, the foe dies. As the Travelers are victorious, all of Halla is saved from a fatal disaster.

The Soldiers of Halla

O''Brien takes the reader through a typical day in the life of a soldier in Vietnam. We are briefly introduced to a small number of fellow ''grunts'' and the commanding officer of Alpha Company, the rifle company O''Brien was assigned to, one Captain Johansen. (Names and physical characteristics depicted in the book were changed.) Rather than proceed chronologically, O''Brien takes the reader back to the beginning of his induction into the US Army. The reader learns about the author''s home town, Worthington, Minnesota and to which O''Brien moved when he was 10 years old. We are led through his childhood, playing various army games, and learning about World War II from returned veterans and the Korean War which was taking place at the time. The story of his tour itself continues to unfold while the reader is simultaneously taken through O''Brien''s training at Fort Lewis, Washington, where he acquaints a man of similar situation named Erik. Together, the two decide to engage in a psychological resistance against the government. After debating over the idea of desertion, O''Brien arrives in Vietnam in 1969 and spends a week at a base in Chu Lai (home to the Americal Division from approximately 1967 until 1971), receiving last-minute training such as mine sweeping and grenade throwing as well as the essential do''s and don''ts of jungle warfare, before being sent to Landing Zone Gator in Quang Ngai Province where he is assigned to Alpha company, 5th Battalion of the 46th Infantry, 198th Infantry Brigade. O''Brien describes his time in Alpha Company and the various events that took place during his time there, as well as some of the people he encountered. Among the scenarios O''Brien describes is one about the various mines that are encountered by the infantrymen, and the indiscriminate way that these devices disfigure and maim both combatants and civilians. Not long after the accidental shelling of a lagoon village by the A Battery, 1st Battalion, 14th Field Artillery Regiment, that Alpha Company was protecting (near an American firebase), O''Brien is offered a job at the rear and is airlifted away from the fighting, where he encounters a rear echelon officer, Major Callicles (battalion executive officer), who deals with the investigation into the My Lai Massacre committed by the Charlie Company of the same battalion. The memoir ends with O''Brien being flown home.

If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

Bonsels'' original book contains fewer than 200 pages. The storyline is centered on the relation of Maya and her many adventures. Maya is a bee born in a bee hive during internal unrest: the hive is dividing itself into two new colonies. Maya is raised by her teacher, Mrs. Cassandra. Despite Mrs. Cassandra''s warnings, Maya wants to explore the wide world and commits the unforgivable crime of leaving the hive. During her adventures, Maya, now in exile, befriends other insects and braves dangers with them. In the climax of the book, Maya is taken prisoner by hornets, the bees'' sworn enemies. Prisoner of the hornets, Maya learns of a hornet plan to attack her native hive. Maya is faced with the decision to either return to hive and suffer her due punishment, saving the hive, or leaving the plan unannounced, saving herself but destroying the hive. As may be expected, Maya, after severe pondering, makes the decision to return. In the hive, she announces the coming attack and is, totally unexpectedly, pardoned. The forewarned bees triumph over the hornet attack force. Maya, now a heroine of the hive, becomes a teacher, like Mrs. Cassandra and shares her experiences and wisdom with the future generation. The original book from 1912 was a fable with a political message, analogously to Jean de La Fontaine''s or Ivan Krylov''s work. Maya represents the ideal citizen, and the beehive represents a well-organized militarist society. It has also elements of nationalism and racism. Maya gets angry in two instances. First, a grasshopper fails to distinguish between bees and wasps. Maya''s vicious verbal attack includes calling the wasps "a useless gang of bandits" [Räubergeschlecht] that have no "home or faith" [Heimat und Glauben]. Second, a fly calls Maya an idiot, which prompts Maya to shout that she''s going to teach "respect for bees" and to threaten the fly with her stinger. This is analyzed such that respect is based on the threat of violence. Collectivism versus individualism is also a theme. Maya''s independence and departure from the beehive is seen as reproachable, but it is atoned by her warning of the hornets'' attack. This show of loyalty restores her position in the society. In the hornet attack part of the story, the bees'' will to defend and the heroic deaths of bee officers are glorified, often in overtly militarist tones. In the post-WWII adaptions, the militarist element was naturally toned down considerably, the hornets'' role reduced, and the character of Willy, a lazy and quite un-warlike drone bee, was introduced (he does not appear in the novel). In the cartoon series, the briskly marching, but ridiculously incompetent ant armies provide a parody of militarism.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

The Lime Twig

By John Hawkes

The General in His Labyrinth

By Gabriel García Márquez

Illusions

By Richard Bach

Strange Interlude

By Eugene O''Neill

Prisoner's Base

By Rex Stout

The Chessmen of Mars

By Edgar Rice Burroughs

Missee Lee

By Arthur Ransome

The Lofty and the Lowly, or Good in All and None All Good

No Author Listed

La Fausse Suivante

By Pierre de Marivaux

The Soldiers of Halla

By D.J. MacHale

If I Die in a Combat Zone: Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

By Tim O''Brien

Maya the Bee

By Waldemar Bonsels