Cry of the Leopard

By Alan Steinberg

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312155077
• ISBN13: 9780312155070
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Wyatt Book
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Perceptive and Intriguing

The review by Kirkus Associates, LP left me questioning if the reviewer read the very first page of the novel entitled To The Reader. I found the review in conflict with my impressions of the novel. This reviewer seemed to believe that the time in the psychiatric ward was what represented truth. I understood this time to be the least representative of truth: the doctors symbolized, to me, the desire that many have to explain everything away so that they can live comfortably in their own leisured zones of understanding. This book explored relationships and emphasized society's attraction toward the eccentric while insisting on a prescribed sense of what is normal.

Awesome, amazing read

I love this book. I love it. I bought it on a fluke many years ago (and I admit I picked it up because of the cool cover) but it has become one of my favorite novels. The prose is like poetry. It's beautiful. There are so many quotes from it that I've had to copy out and read over time and again. It's a gorgeous novel. The characters and descriptions are tragic and human. I was going to add a few of the quotes in my review but it's all so dream-like that I'm afraid they might lose something out of context, or they're from the end of the novel and I don't want to say anything that might ruin someone else's read. I highly recommend this book. I'd probably put it in my top 10 favorite books, ever.

Unspeakable details

The characters are quite vivid. The "main attraction" Leopard Man is brought through various environments to show the appropriate reactions from school children, strangers on the street, circus crowds, psychiatrists, and other people with similar physical super-traits. I cannot fathom how the author knows such characters so well. The final chapters are especially actively intense, vivid, and...well, anatomic. I am very curious to read Steinberg's poems and short stories.

Surprisingly Good

I wasn't expecting much from this book. The author's picture on the back seems to be that of an accountant, not of a poet and writer of sensual prose. The book crosscuts back and forth in time and has an eerie, dreamlike texture throughout. If you are a fan of "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn, this book will cover familiar territory, but it covers it well.