The Thousand Year Journey of Tobias Parker


Book Description

Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. California Interest. When screenwriter Tobias Parker discovers that every family on Earth is here to accomplish a particular task, he becomes determined to fulfill his family's destiny. He learns that a unique battle is passed through the generations from father to son and mother to daughter, and that once the mission is fulfilled the family takes its place in a kind of celestial jigsaw puzzle. As Tobias embarks on his quest, his life becomes a breathless whirlwind which throws Hollywood, a misbegotten romance, and an arcane religious artifact into a roiling stew. His topsy-turvy, existential journey takes him to some hilarious highs, devastating lows, and leads him to ponder a whole bagful of thought- provoking ideas. In the end, Tobias discovers his family's profound destiny and learns not only the meaning of his own life but provides a big clue for the rest of us as well. "THE THOUSAND YEAR JOURNEY OF TOBIAS PARKER is a tour de force. Hilariously funny, thoughtful and multi-dimensional, it's a roller coaster ride up and down San Francisco's Telegraph Hill and around Washington Square, fueled by a Hollywood action-adventure retelling of Wagner's biblical opera, Parsifal. Evoking the likes of Confederacy of Dunces sprinkled with Ask The Dust, our raving hero in this case, Tobias Parker, the prolific screenwriter, also brings to mind the movie hero Barton Fink as Tarnoff deeply mines what he knows, for laughs, romance and a little enlightenment on the side."—Jody Weiner "After reading THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, many of us hoped to hear more tales of adventure from Terry Tarnoff. He has done it again with his customary gusto and we don't need to worry about waiting for THE THOUSAND YEAR JOURNEY OF TOBIAS PARKER to be made into a film because when reading this delightful new book, you have a front row seat and are already in the movie itself. Terry Tarnoff has the gift of making the reader feel that he or she is part of the story. This is the gift of great story tellers."—David Amram




Bone Man of Benares


Book Description

If you were free, completely free with no ties or commitments: you could go anywhere, do anything - what would you choose? wanting no part of a war he didn't believe in, packed a bag, picked up his guitar and sixteen harmonicas and headed out into the world. What followed was the ultimate drop-out adventure. Amsterdam and the jungles of Africa, he smoked chillums with the lepers of India, trance-danced at a death ceremony in Tibet, developed a heroin habit in Bangkok, nearly died driving through the poppy fields of Thailand with a kamikaze cab driver and found the girl of his dreams in wintry Stockholm. about turning on, tuning in and dropping out. In a world full of larger than life characters, and where the only limitation is your own imagination, Terry Tarnoff went in search of answers - and, amazingly, found some. Along the way he had the craziest road trip you'll ever encounter.




The Reflectionist


Book Description

Literary Nonfiction. Travel. It was a different time in a different world. Terry Tarnoff spent eight years during the 1970s traveling throughout Europe, Africa and Asia. It was the early days of exploring what were to become legendary spots on the traveler's trail. Whether playing the clubs of Amsterdam, skirting the Yakuza in Japan, surviving the winters of Kathmandu, or forming a band in Goa, India, Terry's adventures are alternately engrossing, hilarious and deeply moving. THE REFLECTIONIST is Tarnoff's long-awaited follow-up to THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, a highly acclaimed book and play that told the first half of the story. THE REFLECTIONIST continues the tale, adding new meaning as it looks back from the perspective of modern times upon a period that continues to fascinate people of all generations across the globe. "In the long-awaited sequel to his brilliant THE BONE MAN OF BENARES, Terry Tarnoff's memoir, THE REFLECTIONIST reminds me of Daguerre's description of photography as a mirror with a memory, with the significant twist that Tarnoff's is a circus mirror, revealing psychedelic images and picaresque stories from the fabled traveler's trail of the now mythic Sixties. Moreover, Tarnoff employs a dazzling writing technique, which is the equivalent of scrying, gazing into a reflective surface to review the past and foretell the future, that allows the reader to watch him watching himself on his pilgrim's progress through life. A tour-de-force of memoir and travel writing." --Phil Cousineau, author of The Book of Roads & The Art of Pilgrimage




Journeys Erased by Time: The Rediscovered Footprints of Travellers in Egypt and the Near East


Book Description

Early travellers in Egypt and the Near East made great contributions to our historical and geographical knowledge and gave us a better understanding of the different peoples, languages and religions of the region. Travellers in this volume are a mixture of rich and poor, bravely adventuring into the unknown, not knowing if would ever return home.







The Examiner


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Access


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Who Saved the Parthenon?


Book Description

In this magisterial book, William St Clair unfolds the history of the Parthenon throughout the modern era to the present day, with special emphasis on the period before, during, and after the Greek War of Independence of 1821–32. Focusing particularly on the question of who saved the Parthenon from destruction during this conflict, with the help of documents that shed a new light on this enduring question, he explores the contributions made by the Philhellenes, Ancient Athenians, Ottomans and the Great Powers. Marshalling a vast amount of primary evidence, much of it previously unexamined and published here for the first time, St Clair rigorously explores the multiple ways in which the Parthenon has served both as a cultural icon onto which meanings are projected and as a symbol of particular national, religious and racial identities, as well as how it illuminates larger questions about the uses of built heritage. This book has a companion volume with the classical Parthenon as its main focus, which offers new ways of recovering the monument and its meanings in ancient times. St Clair builds on the success of his classic text, The Reading Nation in the Romantic Period, to present this rich and authoritative account of the Parthenon’s presentation and reception throughout history. With weighty implications for the present life of the Parthenon, it is itself a monumental contribution to accounts of the Greek Revolution, to classical studies, and to intellectual history.