This book provides the most exhaustive and conclusive research on the relationship of Dionysos and Apollo that I have come across. Many of the sources I examined on the subject are referenced here in Castriota's book, distilling their best elements and elaborating on them to bring out whole new dimensions. His examination of the friezes depicting Apollonian laurel and Dionysian ivy lends excellent evidence to the argument for the gods' complimentary relationship, rather than the foolish Nietzschian ideals of an antagonistic relationship between the two which had tainted so much modern scholarship. For those still stuck on Nietzsche's argument: read this book. I recommend it to anyone… Read more
I can not give out 5 stars without good reason. For me, the driving force behind this book was the language. I read about as much poetry as I do fiction, and this surpasses many books of poetry that I have read in terms of lyrical beauty and vivid imagery. This was my first encounter with Delillo, and I have rapidly purchased Underworld, arguably the more popular of the two. This works well as a period peice also. It captures 1985 very well. There are a number of casual details that completly took me back to that time period, without really trying. They are not nostalgic details, but refferences that makes the time and place very clear. Delillo has truly crafted something unique… Read more
This is, almost without a doubt, the finest book I have ever read. I am an avid reader, and am studying to become an English professor. There is something to be said for the brevity of this book. There are thousands of other books that punch around in the dark for hundreds of pages, never equaling the sheer mass and grandure of this bold-fonted, well-illustrated novella. It clocks in at just over 90 pages, and manages to sum of some of the most important life wisdom that has ever been put into print. Exupery's other efforts fall dramatically short of this work, but one can hardly let that disassemble his status as a man of not only literary, but of honest human brilliance. For me, this book… Read more
