[Paul Lake]

Quadrant, I'm told, has just published a glowing review of my new book *Cry Wolf: A Political Fable* in Australia. My American publisher also recently found an Australian distributor for the book, so you can now not only buy it online at places like Booktopia, you can get it in bookstores in Oz. Take a look at the book that Les Murray has called a "superb limpid allegory."

[Catherine Chandler]

Way to go, Paul!

[Michael Cantor]

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/000693.html

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/000696.html

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/001236.html

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/001255.html

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/001262.html

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/002868.html

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtm...ML/002872.html


Got it! Congrats. We're still waiting for the Lou Dobbs endorsement. Meanwhile, be careful you don't turn into the boy who cried Cry Wolf.

[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited June 25, 2008).]

[Paul Lake]

The Australia thing is new so I couldn't resist. But if you remember Aesop, there really was a wolf at the end of the tale. The mistake of the boy in the story was that most of the time there wasn't. If a damn wolf keeps showing up, ya gotta shout until people notice


(Wolf! Wolf!)

(In Australia!)

(Wolf!)

[Golias]

I have just this morning finished Cry Wolf, which I received from my bookseller late yesterday and which I sat up nearly all night reading---unable to put it down and go to bed.

Neither the early reviewers nor the editorial blurb writers have in the least overstated Paul's literary accomplishment in this socio-political fable. It's fair enough to compare it to Orwell's The Animal Farm, but the result of the comparison will most likely favor Cry Wolf. Paul's book, in my judgement, is better plotted and better written than Orwell's. One cannot be sure how the story is going to turn out (at least I couldn't) until one reaches the bottom of the next-to-last of the book's 215 pages. The ending, wonderfully conceived and written, is, like the rest of the story, satisfying as literary entertainment, whether or not one agrees with it as political and social prophesy.

I had doubted whether the premises of the fable, domestic animals forming a cooperative society, speaking all the same language, and learning to do basic farmwork formerly done by the farm's deceased owners, would be immediately acceptable to my mind. But now, I am happy to say, due to Paul's excellent characterizations of the animals the first of those premises took hold by the end of the first page and that within the first chapter every premise was accepted, all disbelief suspended, and I was thoroughly enjoying the theater of the story.

Paul's book, in my opinion, is a genuine tour de force. I hope and expect it will eventually be recognized in every civilized country as the masterpiece I perceive it to be. Whether its lessons will be widely heeded and applied, we cannot know. I'm afraid my doubts, based on experience, outweigh any optimism I might feel based on the book---and on hope.

But those important concerns aside, "Cry Wolf" makes great reading, and that's well worth the price of admission.

Wiley Clements/Golias



[This message has been edited by Golias (edited June 26, 2008).]

[Tim Murphy]

There's your reader review, Paul. Wiley, thank you. And of course I thank you for your "In the Footprints of Frost," posted at Distinguished Guest. Michael, cannot you subdue your penis envy for a moment and join us in celebration? Read the goddam book! We are due for a difficult day at Plum Island three weeks hence.

[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

Originally posted by Tim Murphy:
Michael, cannot you subdue your penis envy for a moment and join us in celebration?

OMG OMYG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

Can that even be said on a PG rated board?????

Honestly, I haven't laughed this hard since forever.

My eyes are watering.

Seriously watering.

Just as seriously, Tim's right - subdue it, Cantor. We all know you're motivated by nothing but pure jealousy. It's getting embarassing for those of us who used to look up to you.

Read the go*da** book, ok? Get back to us on it.





[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited June 25, 2008).]

[Michael Cantor]

Oh, c'mon guys, the celebration has been going on for over a month and over multiple Boards and posts - and I was by no means the first to find it funny.

[Janet Kenny]

Paul,
I think an Australian version should be called "Cry Dingo" but congratulations nonetheless.

My sort of person only reads the poetry in Quadrant and cringes from most of the rest of the content. I am a warm admirer of the resigned editor, Robert Manne whom I read with great pleasure at every opportunity. You see in the homeland everything takes on another colour.

To be blessed by Les Murray is no small thing and something I respect and envy.
Les is one of my heroes. He doesn't praise lightly. Congratulations.
Janet

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited June 25, 2008).]

[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

It has come to my attention that people have actually taken me seriously here.

ARGHHHHHHHH

Just for the record, I was being sarcastic. Or at least I was trying to be sarcastic.

Cantor is about the last person I'd ever accuse of penis envy. He's one of the most comfortable-in-his-own-skin people I've ever met. I found the idea that he was jealous of anyone to be so farfetched that I assumed everyone else would too - and they'd know immediately that I was speaking tongue-in-cheek.

Gawd - I'm so losin' my once finely-honed sarcasm skill here, peoples. This is just sad. Maybe I'm getting senile?

All that aside, the tip off should have been apparent. I mean, when was the last time anyone ever saw me agree with Tim on anything?????

So, just for the record - I do NOT think Michael Cantor is jealous of Paul Lake.

I think Paul Lake needs to keep his announcements to one or two threads like everyone else does when they're rightfully proud of an accomplishment - which he has every right to be....a book is a big deal - even if I can't quite figure out why an injured doe would be considered a predatory forest animal which would eventually lead to the downfall of civilization.

I think I'll have to read the goddam book.



Lo

edited to add I guess what really cracked me up was that Tim was, essentially but unintentionally, implying that Michael was jealous because Paul was a bigger pr*ck than he was.

ADDENDUM: Just so ya all know - I've gotten my fitting reward over this whole thing. While I was typing this earlier, I was also involved in an online poker game. The screens kept flipping back and forth...when it was my turn to bet or fold or check, the poker game would pop up and I'd make my play and flip the erato screen back on top....unbeknowingly to me, if I was in the middle of a word here when the poker screen popped up, my typing would continue in the "chat" box on the poker game. Of course, the only word that got caught was "pr*ck" and it got caught with the "i" in place. I lost the hand, went to congratulate the dude that won, and, without looking, sent the message, "nice hand, pr*ck" and now I'm banned from the poker room until futher notice for "improper attitude and language."

Ha.

I'm goin to bed.



[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited June 25, 2008).]