"He was about as sensitive as a goddamned toilet seat." (Holden Caulfield)
Helpful votes received on reviews, lists & guides:
95% (286 of 304)
Birthday: May 4(Saved Remind mePlease RetryPlease Retry)
Biography:
Born and raised in Norwich, Connecticut, I grew up hearing first-hand stories of WWII partisan fighters from friends of my parents. These stories, absorbed during childhood, probably inspired my interest in the politics of resistance later captured in my novel, The Master Planets. The question “Why didn’t more victims fight back?” or, more pointedly, “What happened to the people who did fight back… Read moreBorn and raised in Norwich, Connecticut, I grew up hearing first-hand stories of WWII partisan fighters from friends of my parents. These stories, absorbed during childhood, probably inspired my interest in the politics of resistance later captured in my novel, The Master Planets. The question “Why didn’t more victims fight back?” or, more pointedly, “What happened to the people who did fight back?” became one of the thematic building blocks of the book.
I received my BA (English) from Connecticut College, my MA (English) from Rowan University, and my Doctorate (Education) from Rutgers University. For 23 years I've taught high school English, where I've proudly distributed thousands of bathroom passes and arbitrated numerous battles over vocabulary, grammar, and rhetoric, all in the noble cause of imparting “Confrontational Language Arts” to New Jersey adolescents.
My first completed novel, Ain’t No Sin to Rock and Roll, was optioned for film. My second, Tina’s ’68 Mustang, is under revision. The Master Planets my third completed novel. Currently I'm working on my next book, Stupid School, and a collection of short stories.
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Reviews
Classic Reviewer Rank: 42,133
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
As a child I revered the Beatles and their music. As an adult I revere the Beatles and their music while also being astonished by their ability to mine childhood's fantasies, quirks, and intuitive genius. In Philip Norman's biography of John Lennon, a rather messy genius of a child is depicted in all his rages, heartaches, and glooms. John Lennon comes across less as a man conflicted by adulthood than as an angry but gifted adolescent who is conflicted by a dreamy sense of childhood that haunts him, amuses him, but ultimately won't leave him alone.
This is an important work. It reveals much about the post-modern view of adolescence while simultaneously exploring the appeal of… Read more
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My favorite episode in the Legion Archives (volume 5) involves the Legion captured and imprisoned in a space stalag. This story combines all the classic World War II POW elements (sadistic commandant, grueling work, spy in their midst) but puts all these archetypes in a futuristic setting. Of course, the "future," as delineated in D.C.'s silver age comics, is really something along the lines of the Jetsons as earnest crime fighters. Maybe that's why the Legion of Super Heroes is so much fun. It's not about the future--it's about an eight year old boy living in the early to mid '60's who likes to make believe with ray guns and anti-gravity belts. That would describe many of us as we once… Read more
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Harlan Coben's great talent is presenting an unusual premise to the reader and then hurtling him into a maze of fast paced plot twists. However, unlike many other mystery writers, Coben shows us the human side of the plot devices. His characters suffer and we empathize with their misery. In Tell No One, a young doctor loses his beautiful wife to a crazed killer. Or does he? Eight years after that fateful night, he receives a cryptic message that could only have come from his wife. Determined to know the truth, he soon realizes that other forces want to stop him, at any cost. A great beach read, Tell No One has enough energy to keep you reading long after the lifeguards have gone home… Read more
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