Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success

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A philosophical approach to power in organizations

THE BOOK on organizational politics

excellent on the craft of intervention

A brilliant confrontation with the realities of power.

weLEAD Book Review from leadingtoday.org

Who Really Matters: The Core Group Theory of Power, Privilege, and Success
Art Kleiner
Manufacturer: Currency
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0385484488
Release Date: 2003-10-14

Book Description

In a breakthrough Organization Man for the twenty-first century, bestselling author Art Kleiner reveals that every organization is driven by a desire to satisfy a Core Group of influential individuals and explains why understanding this group’s expectations is the key to success.

When corporate leaders announce, with seeming sincerity, “We make our decisions on behalf of our shareholders,” their words are taken at face value. But as recent news stories prove, this imperative is routinely violated. In Who Really Matters, Art Kleiner argues that the dissonance between a declared mission and actual operation can be seen at organizations large and small. All organizations have one motive in common. Every decision—which projects to back, who to promote, or how to spend money—is affected by the perceived wants and needs of a core group of people “who really matter.”

The composition of the group can differ from organization to organization. Often, the most senior people in the hierarchy are members—but not always. Sometimes, the people who “matter” can extend far down the corporate ladder, or even reach outside the company to include key customers, labor union leaders, and stockholders. Kleiner gives readers clues about how to identify a core group’s real mission by observing its day-to-day actions, listening to the fundamental message it sends employees, examining its management of new members; understanding the ideas that shape its policies about management, money, and the way the world works; and avoiding the taboos governing the way it operates.

Whether you’re a member of the Core Group—or want to be—this deft, engaging blend of argument and observation, anecdotes and advice, is the one guide you’ll need to achieve your career goals and aspirations by navigating the hidden pathways in any organization, large or small.

Customer Reviews:

A philosophical approach to power in organizations.......2007-04-25

I have always enjoyed Kleiner's writing and this book is no exception. Whether his "theory" is thoroughly researched or tightly validated is not the point. The "core group" or "who really matters" in an organization is a reality we all live with at some level. His book is more a commentary about what we may already know but have not been able to verbalize -- Kleiner puts those words out there for us.

This is not a book of instruction with "how-to" steps but more of a book that will spark your thinking and provide you an opportunity to analyze your situation and how it might/could be better. His "diagnostic exercises" are a series of question to help you guide you through a process of uncovering and improveing your core group.

Especially helpful is the admonition not to be a core group enabler, a person who keeps dysfunctional core groups going even though they know it is wrong. A powerful admonition to embrace your freedom to choose in the midst of pressures to conform.

THE BOOK on organizational politics.......2005-08-14

Who really matters is the first practical guide to corporate politics I have read. Sure there are lots of books about corporate politics, complete with Cosmo Magazine style self assessments. But these pale in comparison to Kleiner's systematic review and dissection of the issue.

Many people wonder what is really going on in corporate politics and how some good people can never seem to break into the leadership team. Call it a clique, or a core group, this book shows how and why these groups form and why some success is based on "who you know" rather than "what you know".

I found Kliener's observation that many entreprenuers start their own companies in part to start their own core groups particularly interesting.

What puts this book over the top for me is the diagnostic questions and points it raises on who is in the core group, what it is about, and how you can work with it

This is a must read for anyone starting a new job, transferring, or wanting to break through that glass ceiling.

excellent on the craft of intervention.......2005-03-30

This book offers a great bunch of descriptions of organizational predicaments, and keeps a steady focus on the individual with great expectations - what can that person really accomplish in a large organization without actually getting to run it? By the time I got to chapter 23 I saw that I'd committed almost every one of the mistakes Kleiner lists - bullying the core group, badmouthing them, fleeing into a slapdash Skunk Works, fomenting revolution . . . There's quite a bit to say about what's so valuable about the book, but I especially admire its insight into the ethics and the craft of intervention. Once you read the precise anatomies of organizational situations you've been suffering, I think you'll be especially convinced by Kleiner's explanations of why carefully constructed intervention is the only path that leads anywhere in the world of organizations. The book is full of good ideas about what effective intervention looks like and how it becomes possible. It took me a long time to be in a position to be able to appreciate the depth of what this book is saying, and I am convinced that it will offer readers a short-cut that I wish I'd had.

A brilliant confrontation with the realities of power........2005-02-24

The book is written around a simple but powerful idea. Whatever their public stance, organisations are in fact run by and for the benefit of a core group. At best, this is the source of a dynamic that produces great benefits for all players. At worst, it leads to a primary purpose of extracting wealth from all other constituents for the benefit of members of the core group.

As developed in the author's highly readable style, this deceptively simple idea produces extremely valuable insights into the dynamics that actually drive organisations and the great issues involved in ensuring that these organisations, the society in which they are embedded and the physical environment on which both depend live in reasonable harmony. (It is interesting that, almost in passing, the author deals a deathblow to the outdated notion of Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' on which the neo-conservatives still rest their political and economic philosophy.)

Interestingly, the fact that the idea appears 'new' and yields a genuinely useful and sometimes surprising perspective on these great issues is itself a product of the evolution of organizations. If the same theory had been put forward when family businesses were dominant, it would have been too obvious to merit comment, (and each small enterprise would also have been governed, however imperfectly, by the 'invisible hand'). Kleiner has chosen to study organisations which:
* have become so large that they are political entities rivalling many governments, and in which the study of power and its exercise has all the complexities of wider political theory
* operate within a wider system of societal governance, but are able to treat with the wider government almost as independent sovereign powers - and are often large enough to challenge, change or ignore it to their own benefit
* overtly reject (with a very few, very interesting exceptions) the notion of democracy within the organisation. Real power (as distinct from the often purely formal power of a Board member) is obtained and exercised through processes that are seldom transparent, not always legitimate, and therefore only very imperfectly accountable. (The parallels to a medieval court are startling, and it is a bit surprising that Machiavelli is not cited in the bibliography.)

These are the organizations that dominate our global economy. Most of them are American, so it is valuable that that the study is by an author with an intimate knowledge of American business culture.

The book explores three broad themes:
* the nature, structure and dynamics of core groups
* at the micro level, relations within the organisation - the 'ins', the 'outs' and the 'wannabes' and how they interact
* at the macro level, the relationship between the organisation and wider society

Most of book is an exploration of the structure and dynamics of core groups, their virtues and defects and the consequences for success and even survival of the various strengths and pathologies encountered among them. There is an interesting 'bestiary' of core group types, such as the distinction between an 'extended core group' (attempts at moderate or radical inclusiveness) and 'Welchism' (overt pursuit of a tight-knit inner circle, hopefully a meritocracy, but often degenerating into cronyism or worse.) There is also, towards the end (Chapter 23), what could be called a guide to revolutionaries - some advice on how an outer group might work to transform - or infiltrate - a core group.

At the micro level it goes into detail on who makes up the core, how does a core group emerge, how does one get in, and the appropriate behaviour (in their own self-interest) of 'ins', 'outs' and 'wannabes'.

A sub-theme of the book, based on recognition that the vast majority of employees are and will remain 'outs', is the notion of the 'employee of mutual consent' with sage advice on what such employees can do either to remain happily with the organization or to ensure that, on parting, they take with them suitably marketable or protective wealth, skills and reputation. The central message is to reinforce the need to take an independent view of your own career. (Kleiner, whether consciously or not, focuses on what can best be called the 'managerial class'. It is interesting to compare his advice with the harsher view of the reality of present-day employment in Beynon: Managing Employment Change: The New Realities of Work, which has a somewhat stronger focus on 'blue collar' and supervisory staff).

At the macro level, the book touches on the the great issues of how one ensures that the interests of the core group are and remain consonant with those of society at large. Essentially this has two elements: corporate governance and the formal relationship between private organizations and government (as manifest in regulatory bodies and regulation). This is covered mainly in two short chapters, 24 on corporate governance and 26 on the body politic, but is also mentioned in chapter 19 on government agencies.

These are subjects of great importance - perhaps of the greatest importance, and hopefully the author will return to them. One of the really interesting questions is what it is that causes one core group to ignore or ride roughshod over these wider issues, while another embraces the issue of sustainability thoroughly, effectively - and profitably. Kleiner discusses this briefly in his chapter 25 The Cycle of Noble Purpose, and the business case for sustainability is developed in some detail in Holliday et al: Walking the Talk: The Business Case for Sustainable Development.

Those who want to pursue the issue of corporate governance further would do well to look at Cadbury, Adrian: Corporate Governance and Chairmanship, A Personal View. Sir Adrian Cadbury chaired the UK government review of corporate governance and his book compares European, UK and American governance requirements and traditions. One of the problems that he and Kleiner both highlight is the fact that, in the USA, the CEO is often also Chairman and Board members may be little more than a cheer squad for the Chairman/CEO. Cadbury's views on sound governance and the distinctive role of independent board members are very relevant to Kleiner's concerns on governance.

Similarly, any view of the relationship between organizations and government needs to reach beyond the USA, to compare the very different 'flavours' of capitalism in, say, Germany, France, Singapore, Sweden and the UK. Of them all, American capitalism is the most hostile to the role of government, a fact that is probably not unrelated to the spate of high profile scandals that have beset it. Having said that, the ideas of American authors such as Hawken: (The Ecology of Commerce. and Natural Capitalism.), Harman: (The New Business of Business.), and, more radically, Korten: (When Corporations Rule the World. and The Post-Corporate World: Life after Capitalism.) provide pointers toward a more constructive relationship.

weLEAD Book Review from leadingtoday.org.......2004-12-22

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and co-author of Built To Last, says, "Art Kleiner has uncovered a central truth about the way organizations work." Every decision, such as who gets the promotion or how to spend money, is affected by the perceived wants and needs of a group of people who are the genuine heart of an organization. This group, called the Core Group, is usually made up of most, but not all, of the people at the top of the organization chart. It may also include others. A Core Group might be huge, or it might be small. But be sure, if you have an organization, you will have a Core Group.

A Core Group guides and controls the organization. Core Groups are informal networks of key people who set the direction of the organization. Only rarely will a secretary or aide rise to the level of Core Group member. Usually they stand as gatekeepers to the real Core Group members.

The vast majority of employees are outside the Core Group. They make up "employees of mutual consent." These are people who feel their jobs require them to protect the position and status of the Core Group. The Core Group may consist of tenured faculty, established executives, or whoever the bureaucracy might be. The needs and wants of the Core Group actually come first, despite lip service that "the student comes first" or "the customer comes first."

In fluid organizations membership in the Core Group shifts from year to year, while in other types of organizations, such as family firms, membership of the Core Group is fixed enough to last for generations. When times get tough, sometimes a Core Group is streamlined, as in the case of "Welchism." Jack Welch was brought in as CEO of GE in 1981 to turn the organization around. He redefined the Core Group at GE-from a large body of employees with lifelong membership to a very small group of people whose membership is permanently insecure. Those in the new Core Group were expected to have the same brash, hard-driving, energetic personality that Welch himself has.

Occasionally one finds an organization where the chief executive is barely a member of the Core Group. For instance, Art Kleiner points out that in some universities nothing happens without the approval of long-standing tenured faculty members in critical departments. The president or dean has a limited term or limited power, and if he or she tries to change the organization, people simply say yes but ignore the changes. A dean may ask, "What is the difference between a tenured faculty member and a terrorist? You can negotiate with a terrorist."

In rare cases, such as Southwest Airlines, Scientific Applications (SAIG), Toyota, or St. Lukes Advertising Agency in London, an organization may have an expanded Core Group, where everyone's welfare and development is one of the entire organization's priorities. However, an "Expanded-Core Group" organization is difficult to create and maintain. This is because it must continually refine and expand the financial and learning-and-development structures, trying to make them more transparent and inclusive.

The author explains why more organizations don't follow the model of Toyota or Southwest Airlines. It is "because it would require most Core Group members to fundamentally change-not just what they say, but how they think, how they are paid, how they carry themselves, and how they build relationships." He then points out that most Core Group members have an unconscious vested interest in keeping themselves and their organization going in the same pattern of basic management. They have invested their careers, their habits, their thinking, and their feeling in an organization that maintains its current Core Group form.

Art Kleiner is a talented and seasoned writer. He worked as a collaborator with MIT lecturer Peter Senge, helping him conceive and edit his best seller, The Fifth Discipline. He later collaborated with Senge to produce the follow-up Fifth Discipline Fieldbook series which included The Dance of Change and Schools That Learn. He is a contributing editor at strategy+business magazine and the author of The Age of Heretics, which was a runner-up for the Edgar G. Booz Award for the most innovative business book of 1996. Who Really Matters is destined to be another significant contribution to this body of knowledge!

Review By Dr. J. Howard Baker

Book Description

An accessible introduction to GENERATING RENTAL INCOME FROM REAL ESTATE

GETTING STARTED IN RENTAL INCOME

Just as location is a critical component to the value of real estate, knowledge is a critical component to investing success. As with any type of new endeavor, gaining knowledge and experience is essential as you move forward toward success.

If you're interested in generating rental income through an investment in real estate, but unsure of how to go about doing this, Getting Started in Rental Income will show you the way. Written in a straightforward and accessible manner, this book discusses the two major ways of entering the rental income market—the traditional purchase of rental properties or buying and selling fixer-upper properties—and reveals what you need to do once you're in. This easy-to-read guide clearly explains how to:

Invest in the right properties
Generate cash flow adequate to make insurance, tax, utility, and monthly mortgage payments as well as to allow for periodic vacancies
Make a profit from flipping properties
Take advantage of the tax benefits of real estate
Implement specific strategies—beyond diversification—to mitigate real estate risk
And much more

Furthermore, Getting Started in Rental Income also identifies the pitfalls and market risks of this field, as well as the personal aspects of becoming involved in rental income. If you're interested in generating income through real estate and want to learn how, this book has all the answers.

Download Description

A comprehensive primer on generating income by renting real estate Getting Started in Rental Income examines the two major ways of entering the rental income market: the traditional purchase of rental properties and buying and selling fixer-upper properties in need of cosmetic repairs. Written in a straightforward and accessible manner, and filled with visually appealing graphs, charts, and informative sidebars- this book clearly explains how to find properties and match properties to tenants; generate cash flow adequate to make insurance, tax, utility, and monthly mortgage payments as well as to allow for periodic vacancies. Furthermore, Getting Started in Rental Income also identifies the pitfalls and market risks of this field as well as the personal aspects of becoming involved in rental income. For those looking to generate income through real estate, this book has all the answers.

Book Description

As atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases continue to increase, so does the potential for atmospheric warming and associated climate change. In an effort to address the threat of global climate change, 155 countries signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. As of the first session of the Conference of the Parties, 128 nations had ratified the Convention. Among their other commitments, Parties to the Convention must develop and periodically update national inventories of net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions using comparable methodologies, and must develop and implement national programs to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
To further the development of emission inventories and mitigation options within the African context, 64 governmental and non-governmental scientists and policy analysts from 23 nations gathered at a workshop near Johannesburg, South Africa from 29 May to 2 June 1995. The workshop focused on forestry, land-use change, and agriculture, because these sectors not only are responsible for the majority of emissions from the continent and provide promising opportunities for emissions mitigation, but also are a vital component of African economic growth and development.
This book presents the workshop's major conclusions and findings, as well as individual papers that were prepared for the workshop, each of which was peer-reviewed and accepted for publication as part of the workshop process. The papers cover four areas: (1) issues are associated with data collection and emission factor determination; (2) problems associated with applying the IPCC inventory methodologies in Africa; (3) results of national inventory assessments in Africa; and (4) possible emissions mitigation options and methods for evaluating their potential viability.
As the first book dedicated solely to greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options in Africa, this will be an invaluable resource to scientists, policymakers, and development specialists interested in global climate change and Africa.

Book Description

This revised workbook/lab text consists of 21 projects that can be executed with readily available materials, a minimum of elaborate equipment and a reasonable amount of preparation time. Early projects deal with biochemistry and cytochemistry; the middle ones focus on organelles and their physiology; and later activities explore more advanced molecular topics such as restriction mapping strategies. New to this edition: a concise section on statistics covering the mean, standard deviation and standard error; and a chapter designed to enable students to write up their work as a lab report.

Investigation of Cells and Organisms: A Laboratory Study in Biology

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Investigation of Cells and Organisms: A Laboratory Study in Biology
Peter Abramoff , and Robert G. Thomson
Manufacturer: Prentice-Hall, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Investigations of Cells and Organisms: a Laboratory Study in Biology

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Investigations of Cells and Organisms: a Laboratory Study in Biology
Robert Thomson Peter Abramoff
Manufacturer: Prentice- Hall, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0135022371

Laboratory Investigations in Cell Biology

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Laboratory Investigations in Cell Biology
Allyn A. Bregman
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century? Here, too, is a rare, private glimpse of Sagan's thoughts about love, death, and God as he struggled with fatal disease. Ever forward-looking and vibrant with the sparkle of his unquenchable curiosity, Billions & Billions is a testament to one of the great scientific minds of our day.

Customer Reviews:

forceful and persuasive .......2007-09-12

Sagan covers much more than environmental issues in this book. However, his writing is so forceful and persuasive on environmental issues that this theme overshadows all others in my mind. Before reading this work, I was under the impression that global warming was still a theory and that things were happening so slowly that there was little need for action. Now I'm convinced that we are in the midst of a global crisis, a crisis with the potential for the most catastrophic and irreparable of consequences. The issues covered here are of extreme importance. We all have a responsibility to be informed. Please read at least part 2 of this book, which runs from pages 75 to 178.

At the end of a remarkable life.......2007-05-16

As he knowingly faced the end, Sagan bravely shared his views on a number of subjects: science, politics, philosophy, and the environment. Here are the departing words from a man who spent his life in search of knowledge about nature, not in pursuit of wealth. His admonitions come across as genuine, and his motivations are altruistic. He suggests that some of mankind's present course is noble, while some of it may be terminally perilous. He wisely advises us to choose the path of progress, not the path of confrontation and destruction.

This is an atypical Sagan work. Those wanting him to stick strictly to science will have to modify their expectations somewhat. There's a good amount of science here, but this is his final public farewell to everyone he loved, knew, or influenced. To me, it's a profoundly moving work.

A brilliant mind but dangerous.......2006-12-05

I remember watching Cosmos on television when I was a kid. I didn't question him then or for some time after. The book is entertaining, with good story telling. Sagan makes many excellent points and he is easily understood. These are his final words before his death. If you are looking for hard science, this isn't the book. Politics and propaganda enter a few chapters. Carl was a brilliant mind but dangerous.

Carl discusses society, ethics, morality, rules to live by, and gives us a feel for large numbers. Life maybe not that scarce? His philosophy on a better world is all well and good, but he forgets or ignores there is true evil in the world. He concludes that God and the supernatural as myth, but falls in the same trap by treating theory as fact. What is the amazing brain of evolution, where does it come from? He gives us no real answers. He does not realize or purposely ignores problems with his theories. The new fear is the environmental and climatic warnings. According to Sagan, at the time this book was written, we should be in dire straights in the near future--are we? Is life as fragile as he says? His thoughts come from a secular humanist mind. I still recommend the book.

How does he propose such world wide changes, except by government intervention?

"Our ancestors came from the trees"------------what???????

Wish you well
Scott

Feel Smarter, BE smarter !.......2006-10-17

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Sagan never claims to have ALL the answers, but encourages the reader to think in a non-conventional fashion. As a community college instructor of the Natural Sciences, I appreciate Sagan's ability to describe and relate the micro- and macroscopic nature of the universe. Each chapter reads well on its own. Especially enjoyed the chapter on the myths of Croseus and Cassandra and their applicability to today's political approach towards current environmental and social issues.

A very important book.......2006-09-15

I have read this book a couple of times and I think it's value lies in making you want to go out and protect the enviroment, work for peace, increase science education, etc..... I liked it because he was a wonderfully eloquent person and really made you want to understand more about the enviroment. I also enjoyed demon haunted world and would recommend either book.

Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

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Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

Manufacturer: Random House Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HJO8CU

Book Description

The 20th Century has been called the Century of Physics. It could be even more appropriate to call it the Century of Solid State Physics. All the technological developments which had changed the world by the end of the century had been based upon previous scientific developments in Solid State Physics.

The Braggs, Debye, Bardeen, Landau were certainly at the forefront of all those revolutionary changes.

Book Description

In this chilling futuristic novel, four men and women attempt an escape to legendary Avalon after "the Movement" threatens the liberty and comforts they have taken for granted. Visa for Avalon takes place in an unnamed country and an unnamed time. In it, Bryher uses her knowledge of history and psychology to examine the eruption of a political crisis in a surprisingly familiar setting. First published in 1965, it resonates profoundly in the U.S. in 2004. The style is understated and tense as Bryher subtly suggests that closing our eyes to growing restrictions and loss of liberties does not protect us. And she offers a provocative commentary about the "paradise" of King Arthur's legendary Avalon, as well. This is a wake-up book that will encourage readers of all ages and backgrounds to defend democracy and get out and vote.

". . . An enchantment-a journey and warning into the future . . . There is no one writing English fiction today who can say so much within a few magnificently chosen words."-Horace Gregory

Bryher (1894-1983) was born in England and spent most of her adult life in Switzerland and in London. Her numerous novels and memoirs received high critical praise during her lifetime. However, nearly all of her work has been neglected during the past thirty years. Bryher was the partner of H.D., and she was the benefactor of many writers and thinkers, from Marianne Moore to Walter Benjamin. She was deeply involved in politics, film, and psychology, as well as literature. In addition to writing prolifically, she was the publisher of Contact Publishing, Life and Letters Today, and Close Up, and she helped to support the intellectual sanctum, Shakespeare and Company.

Customer Reviews:

Prophecy of Tomorrow.......2005-03-07

I stumbled across VISA FOR AVALON almost by accident. Like many I have read very little by Bryher and know almost nothing about her, but I remember my grandmother delighting in her historical novels of British and Celtic bygone ages. This book on the other hand is a modern day thriller, seemingly very much influenced by the spy thrillers of Nicholas Blake, the poet C Day Lewis, particularly his famous anti-Fascist tale THE SMILER WITH THE KNIFE. Orson Welles planned to make TSWTF as a vehicle for Lucille Ball when he still had an office at RKO; it would have turned Lucille Ball into an anti-Fascist sculptress caught up in a very Graham Greene predicament.

As a bonus we get a fine introduction by the poet (SWIRL) and scholar (CINEMATIC MODERNISM: MODERNIST POETRY AND FILM) Susan McCabe, who teaches at USC and who plans to write a full biography of the novelist Bryher. Not only that, but we get an afterword also by McCabe which puts this novel into context in any number of senses, linking this book to Bryher's other fiction, and seeing the parallels between the age in which it was written (the 1960s) and the Hitler era in which Bryher used her money the right way. And today when so many of our civil liberties are being torn away from us one by one.

VISA FOR AVALON grabs you from the very first word and won't let you go until the twisty end.

Slim, subtle, and sly -- and well worth the buy.......2005-01-17

VISA FOR AVALON is a slim book - Audrey Hepburn slim, with all that implies. The plot is seemingly simple (and filmic). Basically, within the space of a week and for different reasons, seven people decide to try to leave their country (a close copy of England), the only home most of them have ever known, before it is too late to do so, and go to a place that's little more than a rumor. ("'Avalon? ... It's very unfashionable these days.'") The sweet, confused, comic, desperate, disparate world that Bryher conjures in her novella is a pre-dystopia. Her story depicts what things might have been like - might be like - at the edge, just before.... Before the books start getting burned, before soma is ingested, before history gets revisioned, before reading becomes a criminal act.... Just before escape is impossible, just before Mordred claims victory. Faintly futuristic with Arthurian teases and political squints, VISA FOR AVALON is also subliminally Delphic, recalling that oracle's confounding challenge: know thyself.

Suspenseful but not thought provoking.......2005-01-04

A woman is informed by the government that her property will
be expropriated in order to build a factory, presumably a
privately owned facility. This causes her and her friends to
decide to leave the country.

It reminded me of how in the United States today, there are
plenty of examples of the government forcing land owners to
sell to build state sanctioned shopping malls and the like.

While, I find such use of government power dismaying, using
such an event to paint the society as totalitarian seems over
the top. The author could have found better clues (introduced
later in the story) for her characters that the society they
live in had become totalitarian.

Worth reading.......2004-10-31

I was interested in this book in part because I'd heard of Bryher in connection with the poet H.D., and in part because it was recommended by the author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi, who, I figured, gets a lot out of her reading. She's definitely right about Visa for Avalon. It's half suspense/half political allegory, about several friends who belatedly realize that their (unnamed) country has been taken over by a totalitarian movement while they were involved in their own lives. They decide to leave for another country called Avalon, which they don't know much about, and set about to get visas and to get out before the borders shut down. It is beautifully written -- lyrical, observant, and concise. It reminds me a bit of Coetzee.
The novel apparently draws on Bryher's experience in helping Jews escape the Nazis -- she lived in Switzerland in the early part of the war and helped many people escape Germany. And the book clearly resonates in the politics of the world today.

Bryher's novel reissued.(Visa for Avalon: A Novel by Bryher)(Book review): An article from: English Literature in Transition 1880-1920

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Bryher's novel reissued.(Visa for Avalon: A Novel by Bryher)(Book review): An article from: English Literature in Transition 1880-1920
Charlotte Mandel
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from English Literature in Transition 1880-1920, published by Thomson Gale on January 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1485 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Bryher's novel reissued.(Visa for Avalon: A Novel by Bryher)(Book review)
Author: Charlotte Mandel
Publication: English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 49 Issue: 1 Page: 114(4)

Article Type: Book review

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