BOOK REVIEWS

Books and tapes to buy!

Edited by Rabbi Burns

Key: (F) = fiction; (NF) = non-fiction

Books, books, lovely books! Do you love books? I do. I like to buy them and sniff their lovely pages, and rub them on my big naked belly! And then of course I read them. Lots and lots of them. And they feed my mind, and my imagination, and slowly I am transformed by them - by the minds I am encountering within their pages - and that strikes me as some strange kind of alchemy, and I wonder how tiny squirts of ink on paper can do this thing, and, hours later, I suddenly realise I desperately need a wee, and it's off I rush! Oh dear! it's too late again. But never mind - I've got a washing machine and spare trousers, so where's the problem?

Want to recommend something? I'm not promising anything, but if you send me your recommendation and review - and you're not naughty - I might just send you a prize. E-mail: Rabbi Burns

The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien

A new colour that drives men mad, the vital statistics of celestial aquatics, the love between a man and his bicycle . . . This is a fine pancake of a book - a veritable conundrum of inscrutable potentialities - a snorter. "Strange enlightenments are vouchsafed to those who seek higher places . . ." Like Lewis Carroll with baroque Irish knobs on. Simply fantastic. Why hasn't Terry Gilliam made it into a film yet? Come on man, get on with it.(F)

Cosmic Trigger 1 - Final Secret of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson (1977) Bob's first volume of autobiography is dedicated to my friend Ken Campbell, and the Science Fiction Theatre of Livepool who mounted the first stage production of Illuminatus!. Details Bob's spiritual/intellectual quest: Aleister Crowley, communication with Sirius, coincidences, tragedy, comedy, wisdom and bizarreness. This book help launch me on a lifelong pursuit of knowledge and experience. An inspiration. Essential.

War with the Newts by Karel Capek

The curious and stylish story of a species of giant talking salamander discovered off the coast of Sumatra which eventually over-runs the world. More masterly satire from the man who brought us the word 'robot.' A hugely entertaining, intelligent, funny and provocative read. An inspiration to Vonnegut, Orwell and others. Simply brilliant. There are several editions in print. The Penguin is the oldest and most charming. (F)

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

Neurologist Oliver Sacks takes us on a fascinating journey into the lives of his patients, whose struggle to accommodate startling afflictions within their lives is both chastening and an inspiration. A scientist with a literary imagination, Sacks is erudite and humane. His accounts of the transforming power of illness are often moving -and because he explores issues of memory and identity, his work ultimatley strikes at the heart of what it is to be human. All Sacks' books are highly recommended, but you simply must read this one.(NF)

Turn Off Your Mind: The Mystic Sixties and the Dark Side of the Age of Aquarius by Gary Valentine Lachman

"Rips Flower Power out by the roots to reveal the demented, psychedelic nightmare seething below the surface." - Jerry Stahl.

How did a decade that dawned with the Age of Aquarius end in Altamont and the Manson Family bloodbath? Gary Lachman (who as bass player Gary Valentine was a founder member of Blondie) skilfully examines the roots of 60s revolution in a perennial fascination with the occult and exotic. An excellent read. (NF) Try his other books too: New York Rocker: My Life In the Blank Generation ; A Secret History of Consciousness; The Dedalus Book of the Occult: A Dark Muse.

Click here to read Jack Phoenix's exclusive Fortean Times interview with Gary Lachman

Them: Adventures with Extremists by Jon Ronson

At times his naïvety and lack of fundamental research are simply breath-taking. However, he is so intelligent and charming that you quickly forgive him as he puts himself in increasing danger in pursuit of the guys who run the show, various extremists, and the conspiracy theorists who chase them: the Bilderbergers, David Icke, Ian Paisley, Omar Bahkri Mohammed, Randy Weaver, Big Jim Tucker, Alex Jones, Thom Robb and the Klu Klux Klan, and a memorable encounter with Bilderberg founder Dennis Healey. Balanced and sane, funny and chilling. (NF)

Dictionary for Dreamers by Tom Chetwynd

One of the best books on dream significance and interpretation around. Draws heavily on Jung, but also Freud. Very useful if you're at all creative or imaginative. And if you're not, what do you think you're doing here? (NF)

A Dictionary of Symbols by Tom Chetwynd

The author draws from the collective wisdom of the great psychologists, particularly Jung, to create a guide to the language of symbols. Just as we dream without being necessarily aware of our dreams, so our waking life is full of symbolism operating on an unconscious level. This book describes the major characteristics that recur in all symbolic material. By identifying them, readers may identify patterns and processes at work in their own minds, and in doing so learn to explore, develop and transform their psyches. A wonderfully useful tool for imaginative people. (NF)

Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Yogananda was the first great master of India to live in the West for an extended period, during which he introduced thousands of students to the science of yoga. This autobiography tells his story, interwoven with his reflections on the religious foundations of both Eastern and Western cultures. It's magical, whimsical, touching and enlightening. What more do you want? (NF)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (F)

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Three book editors, jaded by reading far too many crackpot manuscripts on the mystic and the occult, are inspired by an extraordinary conspiracy story told to them by a strange colonel to have some fun. They start feeding random bits of information into a powerful computer capable of inventing connections between the entries, thinking they are creating nothing more than an amusing game, but then their game starts to take over, the deaths start mounting, and they are forced into a frantic search for the truth. Let me warn you now that this is a big book, but very addictive. Oh, and if you want to know what all the words mean you'll need a very large dictionary and a great deal of patience. The Name of the Rose is also excellent. (F)

'Brilliant...A novel that is deeper and richer than The Name of the Rose' New York Times

'Brilliant, funny, encompassing everything you ever wanted to know about practically everything (including numerology, James Bond's foes, and the construction of sewers), this book is both extraordinarily learned and well plotted' Sunday Times

'Endlessly diverting...Even more intricate and absorbing than his international bestseller The Name of the Rose' Time

'An intellectual adventure story, as ensational, thrilling and packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Count of Monte Cristo' Washington Post Book World

'Umberto Eco is literature's great magician...He offers us many passages of brilliance, and treats us to a Shakespearean alternation of paroxysm and intimacy, madness and wisdom. There is something here for everyone. His genius affords his readers a selection of delights that will make their heads spin' Le Monde

A Short Survey of Surrealism by David Gascoyne

Reprint of the 1935 edition of a study that balances the different manifestations of surrealism in order to see it whole, not just as an art movement backed up by ideas. Gascoyne (poet, author, translator, and early champion of Surrealism) also includes the movement's ancestors, such as Dada. Gascoyne (1916-2001) spent the last years of his life on the Isle of Wight. (NF)

Slaughterhouse 5 or The Children's Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a fourth-generation German-American now living in easy circumstances on Cape Cod [and smoking to much], who, as an American infantry scout hors de combat, as a prisoner of war, witnessed the fire-bombing of Dresden, Germany, "The Florence of the Elbe," a long time ago, and survived to tell the tale. This is a novel, somewhat in the telegraphic schizophrenic manner of tales of the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from. Peace.

Through the character Billy Pilgrim, Kurt Vonnegut recalls his time as a soldier in Dresden during World War II whilst the Brits decided to bomb the city to HELL. It's a ficionalized account, disorientating, heartening, appalling - the only way he could find to deal with this experience, which so obviously changed him fundamentally. If you don't laugh and cry, you are probably dead - see a doctor. This is a mad book about mad things. It makes me weep. You really ought to read it. (A historical footnote: Vonnegut quotes from the book The Destruction of Dresden by disgraced British Germanophile and Nazi sympathizer David Irving. Actually, he quotes not from Irving's text (even though Irving was at that time a respected historian) but from the forewords by two soldiers who attempt -unsuccessfully- to justify what happened.) Once you've read this, try Breakfast of Champions (but don't bother with the dismal film), Cat's Cradleand others. (F/NF)

Valis by Philip K. Dick

Semi-autobiographical novel recounting Dick's experiences after being blasted by pink light of unknown origin, of liquid information, possibly from an alien satellite, possibly from damned Russian scientists experimenting with psychotronic mind control devices, possibly from the Godhead, or Zebra, the One True God engaging in 'higher mimicry' and camouflaging itself as an entire Universe, that's you, me, flowers, moutains, and the dog shit in the street, wanting to make itself known to us for our own enlightenment and joy, or perhaps some devilish, cunning plot, a put-on by the author in which he tries to force the reader down dangerous areas of subversive thought, or perhaps, after all, some kind of psychotic breakdown (breakthrough?) by a man suffering from some kind of temporal lobe epilepsy, and in truth the tip of a very large ice berg (Dick's million word Exegesis in which he attempted to theorize about the origins of his experience, its meaning, and in doing so bravely left no philosophical nor ontological, nor indeed epistemological stone unturned). Shows Dick's immense imagination, knowledge, humanity, paranoia, insight, humour, warmth and strangeness. 'The Matrix' trilogy owes an enormous debt to Dick, as do many contemporary films. Both demented and dementing, if you really engage with this book it will change you and set you off on a journey of self-discovery. It's an enlightenment virus. If you don't like it, you are probably an idiot anyway, so just go away and stop wasting everybody's time. (F/NF)

The Bald Trilogy by Ken Campbell

Contains texts of three of the legendary Ken Campbell's award-winning, one-man, semi-autobiographical comedy/philosophy shows. Recollections of a Furtive Nudist, (which draws inspiration from Philip K. Dick and Charles Fort), Pigspurt! (Jungian enantiodromia, more Dick, The Exorcist and Ken Dodd routines in Bislama pidgin English), and Jamais Vu (in which Ken encounters in the Republic of Vanuatu, the Iunahanan tribe who worship Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh). Simply amazing and mind-warping. If you can't get to see him doing them, reading them is the next best thing. Illustrations by Eve Stewart. (F/NF)

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Text copyright © 2004 Rabbi Burns (except for quotations)

Since 23rd May, 2004