Merchants sternberg family

Buy We Were Merchants - The Sternberg Family and the Story of Goudchauxs and Maison Blanche Department for R568.00

Paperback. English. Flamingo. 2001. In good condition. Douglas Coupland first gained international attention with the groundbreaking Generation X back in 1991, and in this latest novel he follows the trials and tribulations of the acutely dysfunctional Drummond clan, when they assemble in Florida to watch Sarah Drummond make her debut launch from Cape Canaveral. Imagine an unholy alliance of The Simpsons, Jerry Springer's most outlandish guests and the kids from South Park, and you begin to get a glimmer of life chez Drummond. Janet Drummond, the 65-year-old matriarch of this mad bunch of misfits, contracted HIV in a freak accident when her ex-husband shot her oldest son, Wade; the bullet passed through his liver and lodged in her sternum. Astronaut Sarah is the sanest of the Drummond children but she has her own problems: she was born without a hand because Janet took thalidomide during her pregnancy, and she has just discovered that her husband, Howie, is having a fling with a fellow-astronaut's wife. The youngest Drummond, Bryan, suffers from suicidal tendencies and has shacked up with the rebellious Shaw, who seems hell-bent on peddling her unborn child to a couple of unscrupulous baby merchants. The plot tears along at a frantic pace, throwing in a stolen letter from Princess Diana's coffin and a pharmaceutical billionaire with an interesting in human cloning. Yet amongst so many crazy characters and a plot which becomes increasingly convoluted the presence of Janet remains a central stabilising force; she is the eye of the hurricane which is the Drummond family. Just as we all laugh at The Simpsons while owning up to the programme's essential truth about American family life, so the Drummonds are essentially a close, loyal family unit, despite all the hyperbole and their almost farcical adventures. The family is psychotic, but Janet's selflessness binds up the wounds of these crazy people and her unconditional love is their salvation. (Kirkus UK)

Hardback. English. Publisher: Bloomsbury. 2001. In good condition. Douglas Coupland first gained international attention with the groundbreaking Generation X back in 1991, and in this latest novel he follows the trials and tribulations of the acutely dysfunctional Drummond clan, when they assemble in Florida to watch Sarah Drummond make her debut launch from Cape Canaveral. Imagine an unholy alliance of The Simpsons, Jerry Springer's most outlandish guests and the kids from South Park, and you begin to get a glimmer of life chez Drummond. Janet Drummond, the 65-year-old matriarch of this mad bunch of misfits, contracted HIV in a freak accident when her ex-husband shot her oldest son, Wade; the bullet passed through his liver and lodged in her sternum. Astronaut Sarah is the sanest of the Drummond children but she has her own problems: she was born without a hand because Janet took thalidomide during her pregnancy, and she has just discovered that her husband, Howie, is having a fling with a fellow-astronaut's wife. The youngest Drummond, Bryan, suffers from suicidal tendencies and has shacked up with the rebellious Shaw, who seems hell-bent on peddling her unborn child to a couple of unscrupulous baby merchants. The plot tears along at a frantic pace, throwing in a stolen letter from Princess Diana's coffin and a pharmaceutical billionaire with an interesting in human cloning. Yet amongst so many crazy characters and a plot which becomes increasingly convoluted the presence of Janet remains a central stabilising force; she is the eye of the hurricane which is the Drummond family. Just as we all laugh at The Simpsons while owning up to the programme's essential truth about American family life, so the Drummonds are essentially a close, loyal family unit, despite all the hyperbole and their almost farcical adventures. The family is psychotic, but Janet's selflessness binds up the wounds of these crazy people and her unconditional love is their salvation. (Kirkus UK)

Paperback. English. Vintage. 1995. 434pp. In fair/good condition. Moraes ¿Moor¿ Zogoiby is the last in line of a crooked and fantastical dynasty of spice merchants and crime lords from Cochin. He is also a compulsive storyteller and an exile. As we travel with him on a route that takes him from India to Spain, he spins his labyrinthine family tale of mad passions and volcanic family hatreds, of titanic matriarchs and their mesmerised offspring, of premature deaths and curses that strike beyond the grave.

  Third edition published by Methuen in 1901. Contents clean, binding tight. With twenty-three illustrations and a plan. 318pp + 37pp (adverts).   'The author states in the Preface that he has written truthful and without bias; but it would seem that he was seriously misinformed as to the strength of the Republics, which he puts down at from 25,000 to 30,000 men, a number at variance, apparently, with established facts, seeing that, reckoning prisoners of war, surrendered Boers in prison camps, surrenders after the declaration of peace, and a moderate estimate of deaths during hostilities, there could not have been far short of between three of four times that number in the field. He appears to have been somewhat influenced by the irreconcilables of the Republican and Afrikander parties, and is perhaps the only writer who takes note of "the courteous Boer official" at the border at Koomatiport, and "the hearty welcome afforded to the volunteers from foreign countries, who proffered their assistance to the Republics." Villebois, Sternberg, Alice Bron and others do not seem so positive on this point. Much stress is laid on the lack of discipline among the Boers: and it is stated that, owing to the fact that "family influences, party affiliations, and religion had a strong bearing on the election of the commandants, the best men were not always chosen as leaders." Many examples are given of occasions when the Krijgsraad overruled the advice of the Generals, whilst at other times the commandants refused to obey the instructions of the Krijgsraad, often to the great detriment of military operations. Reference is made to the systematic manner in which the Republicans were prepared for the struggle, and it is said that they possessed plans on which "was a representation of every foot of ground in the Transvaal, Free State, Natal, and Cape Colony," but the author asserts that although Steyn, Reitz, and the Dutch of the Cape Colony may have had visions of Dutch supremacy in South Africa, Kruger did not make war to gain it.' - Mendelssohn Vol.1.